Bilichild (wife of Childerich II.)

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Bilichild (in France also Bilichilde , as well as Bilithilde , Bilichildis and Bilihildis ) (* around 654; † (murdered) 675) was a Frankish queen and wife of Childerich II , the king of Austrasia .

Bilichild's father was Sigibert III. from Austrasia and her mother Chimnechild , whose origin is unknown. At the end of the year 662, Bilichild married her half-cousin Childerich II, who thus had double legitimacy for his elevation to king. He was one of the three sons of adulthood of Clovis II , King of Neustria . At the end of 662 he was also, presumably after a short period in which his older brother Chlothar III. was also King of Neustria and Austrasia, raised to King of Austrasia.

In the autumn of 675, Bilichild and her husband were murdered in the forest of Livry near Lognes as a result of a noble conspiracy initiated by the Neustrian nobleman Bodilo . Childerich had sentenced him to a dishonorable punishment. Bodilo's co-conspirators included Amalbert, who was presumably Count von Noyon , and Ingobert. When the royal couple was murdered, Bilichild's son, Dagobert, who was around five years old, was also killed. It is also reported that Bilichild was pregnant with another child at the time. Only her son Chilperich , who was probably not with the hunting party, survived and was initially brought to a monastery under the name Daniel.

Bishop Ouen (Audoin) of Rouen had the corpses of the royal family brought to Paris and buried in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés . There their coffins were rediscovered in 1656.

literature

• Martina Hartmann : The queen in the early Middle Ages. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2009, p. 83ff.