Rigunth

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Rigunth , (also Rigundis ; * around 570, † after 585) was a daughter of the Merovingian king Chilperich I of Neustria and Fredegunde .

Life

She supported Gregory of Tours with a hunger strike when he had to answer before the synod in Berny-Rivière in the summer of 580 .

The kings Guntram I ( Burgundy ) and Childebert II ( Austrasia ) formed an alliance against Chilperich and Leovigild ( Toledan Empire ), who in turn sought to strengthen an alliance and decided to marry their children Rekkared I and Rigunth.

At the beginning of September 584, a Visigoth embassy came to Paris to bring Riguntha to Spain as Rekkared's bride. Chilperich gave her numerous slaves and Fredegunde with large amounts of gold and silver as trousseau. Others gave her horses and robes. 50 carts are said to have been needed for the transport. Already in the first night 50 men of their retinue fled with 100 horses to King Childebert II. Although dux Bobo and the caretaker Waddo protected the train with 4,000 men, many robbed the trousseau and fled. The food issue was resolved on this trip by looting.

In Tolosa ( Toulouse ) Rigunth learned of her father's death. The dux (Duke) Desiderius took them prisoner, seized their treasures and called the pretender Gundowald to Aquitaine.

Fredegunde and Rigunth, historicizing steel engraving, 1887

When her mother Fredegunde found out about Rigunth's situation, she initially did nothing. It was only after Gundowald's death in 585 that Fredegunde sent Chuppan to Toulouse to fetch Rigunth.

The king's daughter Rigunth often got into quarrels with her mother Fredegunde, who was born unfree, because she wanted to be served by her. Often there was verbal abuse of the mother and even fights. In the late 580 he years Fredegunde led her daughter to a chest in the treasury and asked them to pick what she liked. When Rigunth leaned over the chest, Fredegunde slammed the lid shut so that her throat was closed and her eyes popped out of their sockets. She was saved from suffocation by the hurried servants. The quarrel between mother and daughter continued to intensify, above all because of Rigunthe's indecent lifestyle.

Nothing is known about her further life.

See also

literature

  • Eugen Ewig : The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire . 4th supplemented edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2001, ISBN 3-17-017044-9 ( Kohlhammer-Urban-Taschenbücher 392).
  • Martina Hartmann : Departure into the Middle Ages. The time of the Merovingians . Primus Verlag, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-89678-484-6 .

Web links

Wikisource: Gregorius Turonensis  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historiae 5.49
  2. ↑ Eugen Ewig, The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire , W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart Berlin Cologne 1988, p. 46.
  3. ↑ Historiae 6.45
  4. ↑ Historiae 7.9
  5. ↑ Historiae 7.15
  6. ↑ Historiae 7.39
  7. ↑ Historiae 9.34
personal data
SURNAME Rigunth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riguntha; Rigunda; Rigundis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merovingian princess
DATE OF BIRTH around 570
DATE OF DEATH after 585