Following the death of the legendary Frankish King Clovis, his son Clothar I divided the mighty realm his father had hacked out from the warring warlords of Europe between his four sons. But peace was not to reign…the most ambitious of his brood - Chilperic - seized Paris, his brother’s domain, following his death. Drawn to his swelling power, a seemingly humble yet beautiful slave girl, Fredegund, rose up from obscurity to become Chilperic’s mistress. Little did he know what a ruthless force of nature he had invited into his bed. Before long, she had persuaded him to cast aside his first wife, Audovera. His second, Galswintha, was not so lucky. Soon after their marriage she was found strangled to death, and Fredegund - her probable murderer - was crowned queen in her place. Meanwhile, Galswintha’s equally merciless sister, the intelligent Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia was plotting the gruesome downfall of her sister’s killer, hungry for revenge. The terrible and enduring feud between these two remarkable women had begun… Join Tom and Dominic for this most unbelievable of stories in the second instalment of their series on the rise of the Franks, as they unveil the clash of two indomitable warrior queens, drenched in blood, violence, vengeance, scheming, and witchcraft. The outcome of their civil war would reshape the face of the West. _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Queen Fredegund was very depressed, for she had been stripped of much of her power by her great rival, Queen Brunhild, and yet she considered herself a much better woman than Brunhild. In secret then, she sent a cleric of her household, who was to gain Brunhild's confidence by trickery and then assassinate her.
If only he could, on some pretense or other, be accepted as one of her retainers, and so gain her confidence, she could then be dispatched when no one was about. The cleric went off to Brunhild, and by the lies which he told, made his way into her good graces. "'I am a fugitive from Greenfredagund,' he said, "'and I seek your protection.' He began by behaving in a most humble manner to everyone—
and so gave himself out as the obedient and trusty servant of the Queen. But not long afterwards, they realised on what a treacherous errand he had been sent. He was bound and flogged until he confessed his secret plan. Then he was permitted to return to the Queen who had sent him.
When he told Fredegund what had happened, and confessed that he had failed in his mission, she punished him by having his hands and feet cut off. So that was Gregory of Tours in his History of the Franks, which is a great chronicle, often an eyewitness account, in fact, of what happened in Merovingian Gaul in the late 6th century. So Gregory of Tours, Tom, I studied him at university.
He was a great Gallo-Roman writer, descended from the kind of senatorial classes. It's a wonderful book. I know you're a big fan of the first line of that book, the greatest first line in all history. Yeah. I think it's my favourite ever written.
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