Execution of Queen Brunhilda (613): End of a Merovingian Feud

The execution of Queen Brunhilda in 613 brought a brutal end to one of the longest and bloodiest family feuds of the early Middle Ages. Captured by King Chlothar II, her late husband’s nephew, the queen, then probably in her sixties or about seventy, was tortured and put to death near Renève in Burgundy. Her death left Chlothar as sole ruler of the Frankish kingdoms and closed a struggle that had begun with the murder of her sister more than forty years earlier.

Brunhilda and the divided Frankish kingdoms

After the death of Clovis I in 511, the Frankish realm was regularly divided among royal sons. By the 560s, the grandsons of Clovis ruled separate kingdoms, chiefly Austrasia in the east, Neustria in the west and Burgundy in the south-east.

In 567 Sigebert I of Austrasia married Brunhilda, daughter of the Visigothic king Athanagild of Spain. She was educated, Catholic after her marriage and politically skilled. Sigebert’s half-brother Chilperic I of Neustria soon married her sister Galswintha.

The feud with Fredegund

Within about a year Galswintha was found strangled, and Chilperic married his former mistress Fredegund. Contemporary writers, notably Gregory of Tours, held Chilperic responsible. Sigebert went to war with his brother, and the conflict between the two royal households lasted for decades.

In 575 Sigebert was murdered at Vitry by assassins widely believed to have been sent by Fredegund. Brunhilda was captured at Paris and briefly exiled to Rouen, where she married Chilperic’s son Merovech in 576, a match that ended with Merovech’s death in 577. Chilperic himself was assassinated in 584, and Fredegund died in 597.

Decades as regent

Brunhilda returned to Austrasia and became the dominant figure at the court of her son Childebert II. After his death in 595 or 596, she governed for her grandsons, Theudebert II in Austrasia and Theuderic II in Burgundy. She corresponded with Pope Gregory the Great, founded churches and maintained Roman-style taxation and administration.

Her firm rule made enemies among the great landowners. Driven out of Austrasia around 599, she settled at Theuderic’s court in Burgundy. In 612 Theuderic defeated and killed Theudebert, but he himself died suddenly at Metz in 613.

Capture and execution

Brunhilda tried to secure the throne for Theuderic’s young son Sigebert II. Leading Austrasian nobles, including Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen, ancestors of the later Carolingians, instead invited Chlothar II of Neustria, Fredegund’s son, to take over.

Her army melted away, and Brunhilda was seized at Orbe, near Lake Neuchâtel, and brought to Chlothar’s camp at Renève on the river Vingeanne. The Chronicle of Fredegar, written a few decades later, records that Chlothar accused her of causing the deaths of ten Frankish kings.

According to the same source, she was tortured for three days, led through the army on a camel and then tied by her hair, an arm and a leg to an unbroken horse, which dragged her to death. Sigebert II and one of his brothers were also killed.

Consequences

Chlothar II became the first king since 558 to rule all the Frankish lands. In 614 he issued the Edict of Paris, which confirmed privileges of bishops and nobles, and he left much local power in their hands. The nobles who had betrayed Brunhilda, especially the family of Arnulf and Pippin, rose to great influence.

Historians often see 613 as a moment when aristocratic power within the Frankish kingdoms grew at the expense of the crown. That trend later allowed the mayors of the palace to dominate the Merovingian kings.

Legacy and reputation

Gregory of Tours, who knew Brunhilda, wrote of her with respect, but later writers, including Fredegar and Columbanus’ biographer Jonas of Bobbio, portrayed her as cruel and ambitious. Modern historians tend to see her as a capable ruler judged harshly partly because she was a woman wielding power.

The main narrative of her death comes from the Chronicle of Fredegar, compiled around 660, nearly fifty years after the event and from a viewpoint friendly to Chlothar’s line. Its details of torture and the camel parade cannot be checked against independent sources. Historians accept the basic facts of her capture and violent death, while treating some of the colourful details with caution.

In northern France and Belgium, many old Roman roads came to be called chaussées Brunehaut, “Brunhilda’s roads”, a sign of her lasting fame, although she did not build them.

Timeline

• 567: Brunhilda marries Sigebert I of Austrasia.
• c. 568: Murder of her sister Galswintha; Chilperic I marries Fredegund.
• 575: Sigebert I is assassinated at Vitry.
• 584: Chilperic I is assassinated.
• 597: Death of Fredegund.
• 612: Theuderic II defeats Theudebert II.
• 613: Theuderic dies; Brunhilda is betrayed, captured and executed by Chlothar II.
• 614: Chlothar II issues the Edict of Paris.

Why it matters

Brunhilda’s death ended a generation of civil war among the Merovingians and reunited the Frankish kingdoms under one king. It also marked the growing power of the aristocracy, setting the stage for the rise of the Carolingian family.