Fredegund or Fredegunda (Latin: Fredegundis; French: Frédégonde; – 8 December 597) was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Neustria. Fredegund served as regent during the minority of her son Chlothar II from 584 until 597.
Fredegund has traditionally been given a rather poor reputation, foremost by the accounts of Gregory of Tours, who depicts her as ruthlessly murderous and sadistically cruel, and she is known for the many stories of her cruelty, particularly for her long feud with her sister-in-law queen Brunhilda of Austrasia.
Queen
Fredegund was born into a low-ranking family but gained power through her association with King Chilperic. The marriage soon deteriorated, and Galswintha died the same year, probably strangled on the orders of Chilperic or Fredegund (c. 568), who succeeded Galswintha as queen. Galswintha's sister, Brunhilda, however, began a feud which lasted more than 40 years.
Gregory of Tours suggests that the Queen had committed adultery. During a dinner with King Guntram, the recently widowed Fredegund rose to leave the table with the excuse that she was pregnant. The announcement surprised the King, as her son Clothar II was born only four months earlier. Gregory of Tours interprets this exchange as a result of Fredegund's unfaithfulness to her husband. Another of Fredegund's sons, Samson, was stricken with a serious illness while the family was under siege in Tournai. According to Gregory, Fredegund feared that she would catch the disease from Samson and cast him away from her, allowing him to die. The King was offended by her actions as the child had not yet been baptized. When Samson survived longer than expected, Fredegund relented and had him baptized according to the King's wishes.
Conflict with Rigunth
thumb|left|Fredegund and [[Rigunth, steel engraving from Mme de Witt, Vieilles histoires de la patrie, 1887]]
Gregory of Tours records the bad relationship between Fredegund and her daughter Rigunth:
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She was jealous of her own daughter, Rigunth, who continually declared that she should be mistress in her place. Fredegund waited her opportunity and under the pretense of magnanimity took her to the treasure-room and showed her the King's jewels in a large chest. Feigning fatigue, she exclaimed "I am weary; put thou in thy hand, and take out what thou mayest find." The mother thereupon forced down the lid on her neck and would have killed her had not the servants finally rushed to her aid.
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When Rigunth was sent off to her Visigothic fiancé in Spain Reccared, son of Liuvigild, her entourage was so laden with rich gifts that the Frankish nobles objected that the royal fisc had been depleted. Fredegund asserted that all the gifts had come out of property amassed by her husband's generosity. On the long journey, Rigunth's retainers repeatedly robbed and abandoned her, and by the time she reached Toulouse there was little left. When Chilperic died in 584 AD, Desiderius of Aquitaine went to Toulouse to secure the remaining treasure.
The Neustrian ex-domesticus Leunardus travelled to the Cathedral of Paris, where the Queen was staying, to relay the news of Rigunth's capture. By Gregory's account, Fredegund was so enraged at Leunardus's message that she ordered his public humiliation in the center of the church. She had him beaten, chained, and jailed along with the cooks and bakers who accompanied him on the journey. She stopped short of killing him, however, due to his political status in the region. After obtaining the protection of King Guntram, she ensured that her son Chlothar's claim to the throne of Neustria was recognized by his subjects. In these wars, she took on the role of commander and led the Neustrian armies to victory on multiple occasions.
Religion
During Fredegund's regency, she maintained the support of the clergy. According to Gregory Halfond, it was found that a core group of a dozen bishoprics in Northern Gaul remained loyal to Fredegund and Chlothar. Halfond also notes that Fredegund was shown to have granted financial patronage to the Bishop of Le Mans, “...In his testament of 616, Bishop Bertram of Le Mans acknowledges that he originally received the villa of Bonnelles in Étampes as a gift from Fredegund and her young son Chlothar II, for whom she served as regent, sometime between 596 and 597.” Fredegund's donation to Bishop Bertram was not the only isolated case of generosity as the Neustrian monarchy also maintained friendly relations and patronized St. Radegund’s monastery of the Holy Cross in Poitiers. Following Praetextatus's return from exile, the Queen met him in church and threatened to have him exiled a second time. However, the Bishop was not concerned because he believed he would receive his reward in heaven, whereas Fredegund would be punished in hell. The tomb of Frédégonde is a mosaic figure of marble and copper, situated in the Saint Denis Basilica, having come from the abbey church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Fredegund did not live to see it, but her son's execution of Brunhilda bore the mark of her conflict with Fredegund. Clothar II, then the king, ordered that she be tied by the arms and hair to the tail of a young, untamed horse, and dragged through the entire army. As soon as the king gave this order, it was carried out. The first time the man who was on the horse dug his spurs in, the horse kicked up his heels with such force that Brunhilda's head flew off. Her body was dragged through the bushes and brambles, over hills and dales, so that it was torn to pieces, limb from limb.
Issue
With Chilperic I, she had five sons and one daughter, Rigunth (* around 570; † after 585). The four oldest sons were Chlodobert (* 565, † 580), Samson (* 575, † 577), Dagobert († 580) and Theuderic (* 582, † 584), who all died at a young age.
Legacy
Reputation
Fredegund traditionally has had a negative reputation. According to Gregory of Tours, it is understood that as queen, Fredegund involved herself in court intrigue and was responsible for numerous assassination plots on political figures and clergy alike, such as the Bishop of Rouen, Praetextatus, and King Guntram of Burgundy. However, Gregory of Tours' account must be taken with suspicion as it is heavily biased against Fredegund. Halfond mentions the existence of inconsistencies regarding the relationships within the Neustrian court. For example, Bishop Leudovald whom Fredegund is mentioned to have targeted for assassination after the plot against Praetextatus succeeded for fear that Leudovald would find out and expose her. The plot ultimately failed and supposedly their relationship became racked with tension, however, regardless of fact that an attempt on his life was made he still saw fit to offer Fredegund a favor in 587 which entailed freeing one of her legates who was imprisoned on charges of carrying out an assassination in her name. Furthermore, even during the reign of Fredegund’s son, King Chlothar II, Leudovald continued to receive favor from the Neustrian monarchy and was invited to attend the Council of Paris in 614. The connections he also gained from his senatorial heritage also intertwined him with the likes of King Sigebert, his wife Brunhild, and the Austrasian court which served as a rival kingdom to Neustria. In fact, it was King Sigebert I and Brunhilda that were responsible for his appointment to the bishopric of Tours.