From Servant to Queen: Lady Fredegund

Born: 6th Century

Died: 597

Country: France

Culture: Merovingian 

Fredegund, HistoryWitch.com

Fredegund wasn’t born into royalty, but she sure knew how to play the game. As a teenager she lived in the royal palace as a servant to King Chilperic I and his wife, Queen Audovera. At first, she was just another face among hundreds of royal servants. But Fredegund had no intention of blending in. She had bigger plans.

As a servant to the monarchs, Fredegund had access to the royal chambers and she started putting her plan in motion. She kept her eyes open for just the right moment until she found herself in the royal chambers alone with the king. She was bold, entreating the king to ditch his wife Audovera, send her off to a convent, and marry Fredegund instead. Perhaps the king was beguiled by Fredegund, or maybe he just really hated the queen. Whatever the reason, he was partially persuaded. He did divorce the queen, but instead of marrying Fredegund, he picked a Visigoth princess named Galswintha, who was related to his brother’s wife, Brunhild. 

Imagined murder of Rigunth by Fredegund, steel engraving from Mme de Witt, Vieilles histoires de la patrie, 1887

Fredegund was not happy about this. Her plot had backfired and now she had a new rival in Galswintha. But she wasn’t about to give up that easily. Less than a year after Chilperic and Galswintha’s marriage, the new queen was found in bed, strangled to death in her sleep. Rumors flew that Fredegund, jealous of the queen, had ordered the assassination, though there was no proof. Whether she did or didn’t, Fredegund finally got what she wanted. She and King Chilperic I were married, and Fredegund finally became queen. 

However, her reign would prove to be tumultuous from the beginning. Brunhild, Queen of Austrasia and sister of the murdered Galswintha, promised to avenge her sister’s wrongful death. Brunhild and her husband declared war against Fredegund and Chilperic, starting a feud that would last forty years and outlive both queens’ husbands. Throughout it all, Fredegund did indeed put in motion multiple assassinations plots, including at least one against Brunhild herself.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Fredegund at the deathbed of Pretextatus, Public domain / Wikimedia Commons