Fredegund

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Fredegund

Fredegund or Fredegunda (also Latin

Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century....
Fredegundis or French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
Frédégonde; died 597) was the Queen consort

Queen consort

A queen consort is the title given to the wife of a reigning Monarch. Queens consort usually share their husbands' Royal and noble ranks and hold the feminine equivalent of their husbands' monarchical titles....
of Chilperic I

Chilperic I

File:Chilperic I & Fredegunde00.jpgChilperic I was the king of Neustria from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of Clotaire I, sole king of the Franks, and Aregund....
, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons

Soissons

Soissons is a Communes of the Aisne department in the Aisne Departments of France in Picardie in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about 100 kilometres northeast of Paris....
.

Originally a servant, Fredegund became Chilperic's mistress after he had murdered his wife and queen, Galswintha

Galswintha

File:Philastre Fils - Meurtre de la reine Galswinthe.jpgFile:Galswinthe & Chilperic00.jpgFile:Chilperic I & Fredegunde00.jpgGalswintha was the daughter of Athanagild, Visigoths king of Hispania , and Goiswintha....
(c. 568). But Galswintha's sister, Brunhilda

Brunhilda of Austrasia

Brunhilda was a Frankish queen who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Kingdom of Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons. Initially known as a liberal ruler of great political acumen, she became notorious for her cruelty and avarice....
, in revenge against Chilperic, began a feud which lasted more than 40 years.

Fredegund is said to be responsible for the assassination of Sigebert I

Sigebert I

Sigebert I was the king of Austrasia from the death of his father in 561 to his own death. He was the third surviving son out of four of Clotaire I and Ingund....
in 575 and made attempts on the lives of Guntram

Guntram

Burgundians

File:Roman Empire 125.svgThe Burgundians were an East Germanic language Germanic tribes which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe....
), Childebert II

Childebert II

Childebert II was the Merovingian king of Austrasia, which included Provence at the time, from 575 until his death in 595, the eldest and succeeding son of Sigebert I, and the king of Burgundy from 592 to his death, as the adopted and succeeding son of his uncle Guntram....
(Sigebert's son), and Brunhilda.

After the mysterious assassination of Chilperic (584), Fredegund seized his riches and took refuge in the cathedral at Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
.

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Encyclopedia

Fredegund or Fredegunda (also Latin

Vulgar Latin

French language

Queen consort

Chilperic I

Soissons

Galswintha

Brunhilda of Austrasia

Sigebert I

Guntram

Burgundians

Childebert II

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. Both she and her surviving son, Clothar II, were protected by Guntram

Guntram

Saint Guntram was the king of Kingdom of Burgundy from 561 to 592. He was a son of Chlothar I and Ingunda. On his father's death , he became king of a fourth of the kingdom of the Franks, and made his capital at Orl?ans....
until he died in 592.

Gregory of Tours depicts her as ruthlessly murderous and sadistically cruel; in his account, Fredegund perhaps has few rivals in monstrousness. Although she did not live to see it, her son's execution of Brunhilda bore the mark of Fredegund's hatred: Clothar II had the old queen, now in her sixties, stretched in agony upon the rack for three entire days, then watched her meet her death chained between four horses that were goaded to the four points of the compass, tearing her body asunder.

Fredegund died c. 8 December 597 in Paris, France. The tomb of Frédégonde (d. 597) is a mosaic figure of marble and copper, situated in Saint Denis Basilica

Saint Denis Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Denis is the List of cemeteries of almost all the List of French monarchs since Clovis I . Saved and restored by the architect Viollet le Duc, the basilica is located in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris....
, having come from St. Germain-des-Prés.

Fredegund in Folklore

Fredegund has been proposed as one of many sources for the folk tale alternatively known as Cinderella

Cinderella

Cinderella , is a well-known classic folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world....
, Aschenputtel, Cenerentola or Cendrillion. In his book Cinderella: A Casebook folklorist Alan Dundes

Alan Dundes

Alan Dundes, was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline....
cites the following excerpt from History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours

Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman History and Bishops of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather....
:

She was jealous of her own daughter, Rigunth, who continually declared that she should be mistress (probably, as Dalton Says, because Fredegund began life as a palace maid, while she was of royal blood, being a king's daughter) in her place. Fredegund waited her opportunity and under the pretense of magnanimity took her to the treasure-room and showed her the King's jewels in a large chest. Feigning fatigue, she exclaimed "I am weary; put thou in thy hand, and take out what thou mayest find." The mother thereupon forced down the lid on her neck and would have killed her had not the servants finally rushed to her aid.