Audovera

The outcast Audovera , oil painting by Albert Maignan

Audovera (* probably 535 ; † October / November 580 ) was a Franconian queen who came from the Franconian aristocracy . From around 549/550 she was the first wife of the Merovingian king of Neustria , Chilperich I.

The children from Audovera's marriage were:

• Merowech , the eldest son. He stood in opposition to his father, married Brunichild , the widow of King Sigibert I of Austrasia († 575) and sister of his stepmother Gailswintha ; In 577 he was slain. He was buried in St. Vincent in Paris.
• Theudebert, who was an important military leader in the war between his father and Sigibert I.
• Chlodwig (Chlodowech), who (probably after Merowech's death) unsuccessfully planned a rebellion against his father; † 580/585 in Noisy-le-Grand , murdered (by Fredegunde), buried in St. Vincent in Paris
• Basina, † after 590, from 580 a nun in the Abbey of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers
• ? Childesinth (see also: False Merovingians )

The later lover and wife of Chilperich Fredegunde belonged to her servants .

literature

• Edith Ennen : Women in the Middle Ages (Beck's historical library). 6th edition Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37799-8 (EA Munich 1984)
• Eugen Ewig : The Franconian divisions and partial realms (511–613) . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1952 ( Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz : Treatises of the humanities and social science class; 1952/9).
• Eugen Ewig: The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire (Urban pocket books; Bd. 392). 6th edition Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-17-022160-4 (EA Stuttgart 1988)