queenfredegund: MEROVINGIAN REGINAE | Austregildis Regina (c. 548-580)Second chief wife of Gunt
queenfredegund: MEROVINGIAN REGINAE | Austregildis Regina (c. 548-580)Second chief wife of Guntchramn Rex, to whom she bore two sons, Chlothacar Rex and Chlodomer Rex, and two daughters, Chlodoberga II Regina and Chlodechildis IV Regina.According to Gregorius of Tours, she was from Dux Magnacharius’s familia, meaning she may have been either one of his clients’ daugther, or one of his slaves. At an unknown date, but probably after 561, when Guntchramn had become rex over Burgundia, he married Marcatrudis, the daughter of Magnacharius, and apparently raised her as his chief wife. Therefore, Austregildis may have come to the court as Marcatrudis’ servant or dowary maid. However, Marcatrudis finally fell into disgrace c. 565-566, after having been accused of having poisoned Gundobald Rex, son of another concubine. She was then stripped from her position, and died no longer after. “Postea vero Marcatrudem, filiam Magnarii, in matrimonium accepit. […] et odium regis incurrit, demissaque ab eodem, ne multo post tempore mortua est.Later on Guntram married Marcatrude, the daughter of Magnachar. […] As a result the King was estranged from her and he dismissed her. She died not long afterwards. ”DLH, IV, 25. De uxoribus GuntchramniAlthought it is difficult to say since when, Austregildis was probably by that time one of the regular concubines of Guntchramn, perhaps even his favourite, and thus did not suffer from the downfall of her previous mistress. Indeed, quickly after Marcatrudis’ death, she rose into position, and was regarded as Guntchramn’s new and only chief wife, probably after giving birth to her first son, Chlothacar. “ Post quam Austerchilde cognomento Bobillam accepit, de qua iterum duos filios habuit, duorum senior Chlotharius, minor Chlodomeris dicebatur. Then Guntram married Austrechild, also called Bobilla. He had two sons by her, the elder called Lothar and the younger Chlodomer.”DLH, IV, 25. De uxoribus GuntchramniFrom c. 565 to at least 577, she then successfully gave birth to three other children, meaning that she was probably the exclusive sexual partner of the rex. However, she had to face some difficulties at court, as she became the target of critics, firstly from Bishop Sagittarius, who implied that because she was from a low-ranking birth, her sons may have not been suitable for succeeding to their father, and also from Marcatrudis’ brothers, who accused her of having taken the position of their late sister. Furious about them and because he could not support letting his chief spouse being humiliated, Guntchramn subsequently took action against them by depriving them from their ranks and possessions, and even beheading Marcatrudis’s brothers.“Gunthchramnus vero rex duos Magnacharii quondam filios gladio interemit, pro eo quod in Austregildem reginam eiusque subolis multa detestabilia atque exsecranda proferrent, facultatesque eorum fisco suo redegit. King Guntram killed the two sons of Magnachar, who himself had died some time before. His excuse was that they had made hateful and abominable remarks about Queen Austrechild and her children. He seized their possessions and added them to the royal treasury.”DLH, V, 17. De dubietate Paschae“Sed Sagittarius felle commotus, hanc rationem dure suscipiens, ut erat levis ac vanus et in sermonibus inrationabilibus profluus, declamare plurima de rege coepit ac dicere, quod filii eius regnum capere non possint, eo quod mater eorum ex familia Magnacharii quondam adscita regis torum adisset, ignorans, quod, praetermissis nunc generibus feminarum, regis vocitantur liberi, qui de regibus fuerant procreati. His auditis, rex commotus valde, tam equos quam pueros vel quaecumque habere poterant abstulit; ipsosque in monasteriis a se longiori accensu dimotos, in quibus paenitentiam agerent […]. This annoyed Sagittarius very much. He was a fatuous and empty-headed fellow, much given to garrulous talk, and he bore this decision ill. He began to spread silly tales about the King, saying, for example, that Guntram’s sons could never succeed to the throne because when their mother married him she had been one of Magnachar’s servants. Sagittarius was overlooking the fact that, irrespective of their mother’s birth, all children born to a king count as that king’s sons. When Guntram heard this he was greatly incensed. He deprived them of their horses, their servants and all their possessions. He shut them up in two monasteries far removed from each other and there they were left to repent of their sins.”DLH, V, 20. De Salunio et Sagittario episcopisUnfortunately, in 577, her two sons Chlothacar and Chlodomer died during an epidemy. She also never seemed to become pregnant again, and then did not give birth to an other son. However, she stayed the indisputable chief wife of Guntchramn, and he apparently never threaten to demote her from her position.“Ipse quoque duos filios suos subito morbo oppressus perdedit; de quorum funere valde contristatus est, eo quod orbatus absque liberis remansisset. Later on Guntram lost his own two sons, who died of some sudden disease. He was greatly distressed at their death, for it left him bereaved and childless.” DLH, V, 17. De dubietate Paschae Moreover, in order to compensate for the loss of his only heirs, he turned himself towards his nephew, Childebert II Rex, son of Brunehilde, and send envoys to him proposing to make him his legal heir. Austregildis finally died in september 580, during the so-called “Plague of the Gauls”. According to Gregorius of Tours, she asked on her deathbed to Guntchramn to severly punish the medicii who have been unable to save her, what he granted her on.“Fertur enim Herodiano more regem petisse, dicens: ‘Adhuc spes vivendi fuerat, si non inter iniquorum medicorum manus interissem; nam potionis ab illis acceptae mihi vi abstulerunt vitam et fecerunt me hanc lucem velociter perdere. Et ideo, ne inulta mors mea praetereat, quaeso et cum sacramenti interpositione coniuro, ut cum ab hac luce discessero, statim ipse gladio trucidentur; ut, sicut ego amplius vivere non queo, ita nec ille post meum obitum glorientur, sed sit unus dolus nostris pariter ac eorum amicis’. Haec effata, infilicem animam tradidit. As Herod had done before her, she is said to have made this last request to the King: ‘I should still have some hope of recovery if my death had not been made inevitable by the treatment prescribed for me by these wicked doctors, It is the medicines which they have given me which have robbed me of my life and forced me thus to lose the light of day. I beseech you, do not let me die unavenged. Give me your solemn word, I beg you, that you will cut their throats the moment that my eyes have closed in death. If I have really come to the end of my life, they must not be permitted to glory in my dying. When my friends grieve for me, let their friends grieve for them, too.’ As she said this, she died.”DLH, V, 35. De Austregilde reginaShe was publicly mourned in the regnum, and furthermore, was not succeeded by any eminent woman, as Guntchramn never took any other significant concubine and never fathered other known children. According to her epitaph compiled in the Titulorum Gallicanorum Liber, she was 32 years old. -- source link