Gailswintha

Fredegunde, or Chilperich I, has Galswintha strangled, miniature in a manuscript from the 14th century, Paris, BnF , Fr. 2813, fol. 31 ^r

Galswintha , including: Galsuintha, Galswintha, Galsuenda, Gaileswintha, Galswint (* around 550 , † 567 / 568 ) was a Franken Queen Visigoth origin. She was a daughter of the Visigoth king Athanagild and Queen Goswintha and the older sister of Brunichild .

Her sister Brunichild married the Frankish king Sigibert I of Austrasia in 566 . Then Sigibert's brother and rival, King Chilperic I of Neustria , turned to Athanagild and wooed Gailswintha. Athanagild agreed and sent his daughter to Neustria. The marriage was concluded in 567. As a morning gift she received the cities of Bordeaux , Cahors , Limoges , Bearn and Bigorre from her husband . However, Gailswintha felt that her husband was treating her unworthily and complained that he was not doing her the honor it deserved. In particular, Chilperich was not ready to part with his concubine Fredegunde . Soon after the wedding, Fredegunde had Gailswintha murdered. Chilperich's role in this act is unclear; afterwards he definitely raised Fredegunde to the rank of his wife. Through these events a lifelong enmity arose between Fredegunde and Brunichild, which heightened the political antagonism between Chilperich and Sigibert and contributed significantly to the outbreak of the Merovingian fratricidal war . The queen died without offspring.

reception

On the occasion of Gailswintha's death, the poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote a funeral poem of 370 distiches , the Gelesvintha elegy .

swell

• Kurt Steinmann (ed.): The Gelesuintha Elegy of Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. VI 5) . Text, translation, interpretations. Juris-Verlag, Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-260-04015-3 (also: Zurich, Univ., Diss., 1976).

literature

• Edith Ennen : Women in the Middle Ages . 5th revised and expanded edition. CH Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37799-8 ( Beck's historical library ).
• Eugen Ewig : The Franconian divisions and partial realms. (511-613). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1953 ( Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz - Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class 1952, 9, ISSN  0002-2977 ).