Fredegund

Timeline

1. c. 548–567Neustria · NeustriaFredegund was of humble birth, possibly the daughter of a Frankish freeman, and entered the court of Chilperic I as a serving maid. Through beauty and cunning she became the king's favorite concubine and persuaded Chilperic to repudiate his first wife, Audevera. Audevera was then forced to take the veil, and her son Clovis thereby lost his status as legitimate heir. Fredegund's rise rested entirely on her personal influence over Chilperic.
2. c. 567–575Soissons · NeustriaAround 567–568 Chilperic married the Visigothic princess Galswintha (sister of Brunhilda), and Fredegund was briefly set aside. She then arranged for Galswintha to be strangled in her bedroom, after which Chilperic formally married Fredegund as queen. This enraged Brunhilda and Sigebert I, directly triggering war between Austrasia and Neustria. As queen Fredegund dominated the court and organized numerous assassinations against Brunhilda's family and the Austrasian nobility.
3. 575–584Soissons · NeustriaIn 575 Sigebert I all but defeated Chilperic on the battlefield; in the crisis Fredegund sent two young assassins with poisoned blades who struck at Vitry, killing Sigebert on the spot. Thereafter she repeatedly took the initiative in her decades-long struggle with Brunhilda, including several failed attempts to assassinate Brunhilda's son Childebert II. Many of her children died in infancy, which she blamed on Clovis, son of Audevera, and promptly had him executed.
4. 584–597Paris · NeustriaAfter Chilperic I was assassinated in 584, Fredegund fled to Paris with the infant Clotaire II and stabilized the situation under the protection of Guntram, king of Burgundy. As regent she continued to direct the war against Austrasia and defeated Brunhilda at the Battle of Blois in 590. Until her death in Paris in 597 she held real power in Neustria, laying the foundation for Clotaire II's eventual unification of the Franks.