Godinus

Godinus (* around 602; † 627 near Chartres ) was a Frankish nobleman and under the rule of the Merovingian house keeper of Burgundy .

family

Godinus was born around 602, presumably in Chalon-sur-Saône , as the son of the Burgundian housekeeper Warnachar II and his wife, who is not known by name. Its existence is particularly evidenced by mentions in the Fredegar chronicle .

Life

After the death of his father around the year 627, Godinus endeavored to succeed him in office. Despite the abundance of power that Warnachar II had possessed due to the frequent absence of King Chlothar II in the partial kingdom, the son did not succeed in uniting the Burgundian magnates behind him. In particular, a group around the influential Duces Amalgar and Chramnelenus from the Waltriche family tried to prevent the influence of the Warnachar clan on Frankish imperial politics by all means. Chlothar II. Let this group go tacitly in the struggle for power. When Arnebert , his sister's husband, also joined the opponents, Godinus lost the last of his support among the nobles of Burgundy. In a sensational coup d'état , he married his stepmother Bertha, his father's widow, and succeeded Warnachar as majordomo, but without obtaining the king's consent.

This marriage with his stepmother, which was owed to secure his claim to power, was considered a scandal and mortal sin by the contemporary chronicler. Although such a marriage was not uncommon in Franconian legal practice in the past, it was outlawed under canon law and threatened with the death penalty. Since the Warnachar clan in Burgundy still had strong domestic power, the king did not dare to initiate a high treason trial against the usurper . Instead, Chlothar II accused the caretaker of having broken the royal law, the Decretio Childeberti , with the marriage . He sent Godinus' brother-in-law Arnebert with an army to get hold of the Burgundian majordomo and to murder him. However, Godinus managed to escape to Austrasia together with Bertha . In the Abbey Saint-Èvre to Toul both sanctuary, which they coveted of Dagobert I. was granted. Through the mediation of the Austrasian sub-king, a son of Chlothar, a reconciliation between the parties to the dispute was achieved at short notice - on the condition that Godinus had to release his stepmother from the marriage. In addition, he was ordered by the King of the Franks to repent for his sins at the holiest places of the Frankish Empire in Soissons , Paris , Orléans and Tours . While Godinus started his penitential journey with some followers, Bertha returned to Burgundy. There, before Chlothar II, she accused her stepson of seeking renewed high treason and the murder of the king. Chlothar II then sent Waldebert and Chramnulf, two of his loyal followers from the Waltrich clan, together with a group of armed men to Neustria to lure Godinus into an ambush and kill him. Chramnulf succeeded in gaining the trust of the housekeeper and led him at night to a homestead at the gates of Chartres, where Godinus and his companions took a rest. Waldebert and his warriors then stormed the farm and together the whale tricks killed Godinus and most of his followers.

Shortly after the murder of Godinus, Chlothar II called a meeting of the Burgundian nobility in Troyes to discuss the succession of the deceased. The great Burgundians, however, refused to elect a successor to the office of housekeeper - as a result, Burgundy was ruled immediately by the king in the following decades, up to 641.

source

• Fredegar Chronicle . in: Bruno Krusch (ed.): Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 2: Fredegarii et aliorum Chronica. Vitae sanctorum. Hanover 1888 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )

literature

• Eugen Ewig : The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire. 4th supplemented edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-017044-9 , p. 120.
• Patrick J. Geary: The Merovingians. Europe before Charlemagne. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49426-9 , p. 158.
• Karl Ubl: Incest prohibition and legislation: The construction of a crime (300–1100). De Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-110-21068-1 , pp. 100, 185.
• Yaniv Fox: Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul: Columbanian Monasticism and the Formation of the Frankish Aristocracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-58764-9 , pp. 103, 104, 106.
• Martina Harmann: The Merovingians. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 3-406-63308-0 , p. 43.
• Gerhard Krutzler: Cult and Taboo: Perceptions of Germania in Bonifatius. LIT Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 3-643-50251-6 , p. 389.