Audovera Explained
Audovera (died 580) was the first wife or mistress of Chilperic I, king of Neustria.[1] [2]
They had five children.
- Theudebert, killed in battle in 575 by Guntram Boso during the interminable conflict between Chilperic and his brothers.
- Merovech, married the widow Brunhilda, becoming his father's enemy. Killed by his servants on his own orders in 578.
- Clovis, assassinated by Fredegund in 580.[3]
- Childesinda, mentioned but once in the Liber Historiae Francorum as the infant whose botched baptism led to Audovera's dismissal. Committed to the same nunnery as her mother.
- Basina, nun, banished to a convent in 580.[4] She later led a revolt in the abbey of Poitiers in 589.[5]
Some time before 567, Audovera and Fredegund - then a servant of Audovera, but later to become another wife of Chilperic[6] [4] - prepared for the baptism of Childesinda while Chilperic was away. Fredegund learnt that it was forbidden for a mother to receive her own child in her arms following a baptism, due to a canon law forbidding marriage between parents and godparents.[7] Fredegund arranged the events of the baptism such that Audovera unknowingly broke this taboo.[8] [9] On Chilperic's return, Fredegund informed him of what Audovera had done. Chilperic committed Audovera to a convent in a rage. Fredegund later had her murdered in 580 to coincide with the assassination of Clovis and the exile of Basina.
References
Notes and References
- Léglu . Catherine . March 2017 . The Vida of Queen Fredegund in Tote listoire de France : Vernacular Translation and Genre in Thirteenth-Century French and Occitan Literature . Nottingham French Studies . en . 56 . 1 . 98–112 . 10.3366/nfs.2017.0170 . 0029-4586.
- Stafford . Pauline . January 1978 . Sons and Mothers: Family Politics in the Early Middle Ages . Studies in Church History Subsidia . en . 1 . 79–100 . 10.1017/S014304590000034X . 0143-0459.
- Singer . Rachel . May 2022 . Gregory's forgotten rebel: the portrayal of Basina by Gregory of Tours and its implications . Early Medieval Europe . en . 30 . 2 . 185–208 . 10.1111/emed.12534 . 0963-9462.
- Book: Effros . Bonnie . The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World . Moreira . Isabel . 2020-05-01 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-023419-5 . en.
- Book: Effros . Bonnie . The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World . Moreira . Isabel . 2020-05-01 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-023419-5 . en.
- Book: Wemple, Suzanne Fonay . Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 5 to 9 . 2015-12-16 . University of Pennsylvania Press . 978-1-5128-2133-8 . en.
- Book: Jussen, Bernhard . Spiritual Kinship as Social Practice: Godparenthood and Adoption in the Early Middle Ages . 2000 . University of Delaware Press . 978-0-87413-632-6 . en.
- Book: Wood, Ian N. . Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective . 1998 . Boydell & Brewer . 978-0-85115-723-8 . en.
- Legislating Against Reality : The Political Conflicts and Context of the Seventh-Century Merovingian Church Councils . Portland State University Library . Gregory . Burgas. 2000 . 10.15760/etd.3596 .
