Willibad

Willibad , also Willebad or Willihad , († 642 in Autun ) was a Gallo-Roman nobleman and in the Merovingian era Patricius and chief military leader of the Franconian part of Burgundy .

Life

Willibad came from a Gallo-Roman family who were wealthy in Burgundy, particularly in the area around Lyon , Vienne and Valence , and whose members, as representatives of the original Burgundian nobility , submitted to the Franks after the Battle of Autun in 532. Since Willibads Herzog area encompassed large parts of altburgundischen heartland, he was one of the most powerful nobles of the old-established population, and stood by the Frankish king I. Dagobert in high esteem.

After Dagobert's death, his widow Nantechild took over the reign in Neustria and Burgundy for the only four-year-old son and successor Clovis II . During this time aggravated the power struggle between Willibald and a group of Dukes, the Nanthild were close to the leadership of the Frankish Empire and culminated in a personal feud with the Burgundian house Meier Flaochad . An assassination attempt by Flaochad on Willibad in May 642 at the imperial assembly in Chalon-sur-Saône failed and a bloody argument between the two Burgundian greats could only be prevented with difficulty by Flaochad's brother Amalbert.

With Nantechild's death in the same year, the balance of power threatened to change again in Willibad's favor, which is why Flaochad allied himself with the Neustrian caretaker Erchinoald ; Both men finally succeeded in persuading Clovis II to summon Willibad to an imperial assembly in Autun in September 642.

Willibad appeared with a large army, as well as bishops and other nobles, and made camp in front of the city. The following day there was a fight with the troops of Flaochad, which was supported by his allies, the Count Palatine Berthar and the dukes Wandalbert , Amalgar and his brother-in-law Chramnelenus . Since Echinoald did not intervene with his Neustrian army, the dispute took on the character of a battle between Burgundians and Franks, with the Gallo-Roman Chramnelenus fighting on the side of the Franks who were linked with him. The Frankish party finally won and Willibad was slain in the battle. Since Flaochad also died only a few days later, contemporaries saw the outcome of the inner-Burgundian disputes as a divine judgment , as the Fredegar Chronicle reports.

literature

• Eugen Ewig : The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire. 4th supplemented edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-017044-9 , pp. 146-149.
• Patrick J. Geary: The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire. Europe before Charlemagne. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-49426-9 , pp. 186-187.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bruno Krusch (Ed.): Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV. Cum Continuationibus. In: Bruno Krusch (ed.): Fredegarii et aliorum chronica. Vitae sanctorum (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 2: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum. Vol. 2, ISSN  0343-7574 ). Hahn, Hannover 1888, p. 167 ( digitized version ).