Guntram I.

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Guntram I. , also Guntchramn or Gunthramn (* around 532 , at the latest 534; † March 28, 592 in Chalon-sur-Saône ) was a Frankish king from the Merovingian family . He ruled from 561 until his death.

Life

Guntram was the fourth of five sons from the marriage of King Chlothar I and Queen Ingund (e). Chlothar, one of the sons of the founder of the empire, Clovis I , had finally reunited the Frankish empire, which he had shared with three brothers in 511, after the death of his brothers under his rule. When Chlothar died in 561, the two eldest sons from his marriage to Ingund had already died; In addition to Guntram, there were two other sons of Ingund, Charibert I and Sigibert I , and their half-brother Chilperich I from the later marriage of Chlothar to Ingund's sister Arnegunde .

These four heirs divided the empire among themselves, with each receiving part of the imperial core between the Rhine and Loire and part of the conquests south of the Loire that had been added since Clovis's wars of expansion. Guntram got the part of the empire with the residence Orléans , which later, after his death, was called the part of Burgundy.

After the death of Charibert I, who left no son, in 567, the three surviving brothers divided his territory among themselves. But soon a civil war broke out between Chilperich and Sigibert because Chilperich was not satisfied with his share. Chilperic began the war against Sigibert with the occupation of Tours and Poitiers; he wanted to create a connection between his northern core areas and his property in the south. Sigibert asked Guntram for help, whereupon an army of Guntram under the capable general Mummolus Chilperich forced the troops to retreat.

Guntram tried in vain to mediate. After Sigibert's assassination in 575, instigated by Chilperich's wife Fredegunde , a fight between Chilperich and Guntram broke out after Chilperich had greatly expanded his sphere of influence through the incorporation of previously disputed territories from Sigibert's possession.

Since Guntram no longer had an heir - his four sons had died - he adopted Childebert II , the only seven-year-old son and successor of the murdered Sigibert, in 577 at a meeting in Pompierre on the border between the kingdom of Orléans and Childebert's kingdom of Austrasia . With this Guntram wanted to prevent that his kingdom fell to Chilperich after his death. Guntram and Childebert allied against Chilperich.

After Chilperich's murder in 584, his widow Fredegunde had to put herself under Guntram's protection in order to secure the inheritance of her son, Chlothar II , who was only a few months old . Guntram then went to Paris and nominally assumed the reign of Chlothar II, while in fact a group of greats ruled around Fredegunde. He rejected the request from an embassy of his adoptive son Childebert to extradite Fredegundes for the murder of Sigibert. However, his personal relationship with Childebert remained good. In 585 the two kings met again, and Guntram confirmed the inheritance agreement to the nephew, who had now come of age. The harmony between Childebert, his mother Brunichild and Guntram was confirmed in the Treaty of Andelot (November 28, 587). This contract also served in particular to secure the continued existence of the Merovingian rule against the greats, which was then endangered. In 585 the Mâcon synod was opened under Guntram's chairmanship .

In terms of foreign policy, there was a conflict with the Visigoths in Spain. Guntram wanted to appropriate their remaining property north of the Pyrenees , the area of Septimania , and undertook repeated campaigns for this purpose, but ultimately remained unsuccessful. Brunichild, who was a Gotin herself, and Childebert, on the other hand, pursued policies that were friendly to Visigoths. Against the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards , Guntram pursued a different course than the Austrasians; he was anti-Byzantine and pro-Langobard, the Austrasians, however, allied themselves with the Byzantines against the Longobards.

Since Guntram died without an heir, his kingdom fell to Childebert II. He was buried in the church of Saint-Marcel near Chalon-sur-Saône .

Guntram and the Gundowald uprising

One episode in Guntram's conflict with Byzantium was the Gundowald revolt . Gundowald was a pretender who rightly or wrongly pretended to be the (illegitimate) son of King Chlothar I and demanded a share in the Merovingian Empire. Chlothar denied his paternity, which was however asserted by Gundowald's mother and other witnesses. Gundowald fled to Italy to the Byzantines and then lived for some time in Constantinople. He returned at the invitation of Frankish greats who were Guntram's opponents; the Byzantines supported this enterprise financially. In 584 Gundowald arrived in Marseille and was proclaimed king. In the following year, however, Guntram managed to put down the dangerous uprising.

family

Guntram married three women in turn. The first was called Veneranda; it was not a marriage, but a concubinage (probably around 548). From her he had a son named Gundobad. Between 556 and 561 he married Marcatrud, a daughter of Duke Magnachar . After the marriage, Guntram removed his son Gundobad from the court and sent him to Orléans. There Gundobad was poisoned around 565 on the instructions of Marcatrud, because Marcatrud had also given birth to a son, to whom she wanted to secure the successor as the sole heir. Marcatrud's son soon died (around 565/566), and she fell out of favor, was cast out, and died soon after. Guntram then married 566 or 567 Austregild (Austerchild or Austrechilde, also called Bobilla), a maid from the servants of Marcatruds (* 548, † September 580). From her he had two sons, Chlothar (* 567) and Chlodomer, who both died in 577, and two daughters, Chlodeberga († probably 585/587) and Chlodichild. Chlodichild is mentioned in the Treaty of Andelot and was therefore still alive on November 28, 587.

reception

Guntram is described by the bishop and historian Gregor von Tours in comparison with other Merovingians, especially in the chronicle of the so-called Fredegar, in a strikingly positive way and referred to as "the good King Guntram". This is likely to be related to his particularly church-friendly policy; Guntram founded monasteries and promoted monasticism. Because of this attitude Guntram was even venerated as a saint after his death, not only locally in his former sphere of influence, but later also in Utrecht , Cologne and Reims, among others .

See also

swell

  • Otto Abel (ed.): The chronicle of Fredegars and the Frankish kings, the life descriptions of Abbot Columban, the bishops Arnulf and Leodegar, the Queen Balthilde (= the historians of the German prehistory. VII. Century. Vol. 2). Wilhelm Besser, Berlin 1849, pp. 11–15 .

literature

predecessor Office successor
Chlothar I. King of the Franks / partial kingdom of Orléans (Burgundy)
(from 567)
561–592 		Childebert II.
personal data
SURNAME Guntram I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guntchramn; Gunthramn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Burgundy and Orléans
DATE OF BIRTH at 532
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 592
Place of death Chalon-sur-Saône