Rival Queens (Part 1)

Queen Brunhild married Sigeburt I of Austrasia. Her sister married Sigebert's brother. At least, they were married, until Brunhild's sister died under mysterious circumstances and he re-married three days later. His new queen, Fredegund, would have a bitter rivalry with Brunhild that would change the fate of both of their nations. A source that was particularly helpful in making this episode was The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World” by Shelley Puhak (Bloomsbury, 2022). Support Noble Blood: —Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/noblebloodtales — Noble Blood merch https://store.dftba.com/collections/noble-blood — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250840578/anatomyalovestory/and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story' https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250861016/immortalityalovestory/ See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dana Schwartz?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:05Speaker 01

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• 0:34Dana Schwartz?

  Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Listener discretion advised.

• 0:45Dana Schwartz?

  A lone messenger galloped through the gates of Paris urging his horse forward at a swift pace. From a tower in the city's main palace, the queen eagerly watched the messenger's arrival. She took the messenger's urgency as a positive sign. After all, Queen Brunhilde and her husband, King Siegbert I of Austria, were on the verge of a decisive victory that would unite two neighboring Frankish realms under their rule. So this sudden incoming news must mean that the opposition had surrendered. Maybe the enemy king had even been killed.

• 1:25Dana Schwartz?

  575 would certainly be a year to remember for Brunhilde, but not for the reasons she had hoped. The messenger confirmed that a king had been slain, but the victim was Brunhilde's own husband. Despite having a vastly superior army and a robust Kingsguard, Siegbert had apparently been assassinated. Brunhilde must have been stunned, but she knew she couldn't afford to panic or fully mourn what had been, by royal standards, a respectful and productive marriage.

• 2:04Dana Schwartz?

  Being all too familiar with Francia's fickle politics and the Merovingian dynasty's history of violent betrayal, she was well aware that she could easily meet a similarly dire fate, as could her three young children, if she didn't play her hand exactly right.

• 2:25Dana Schwartz?

  In the following hours, as many of Brunhilde's nobles defected and as she frantically strategized, she likely had little doubt about who would have had the cunning to have engineered such a shocking murder. This was not the first time Brunhilde had felt the bitter sting of losing a family member to the machinations of her main rival. And between the swirling rumors and peculiar piecemeal details of King Siegbert's death, this crime had all the hallmarks of Queen Fredegund. Sure enough, 40 miles away, Fredericund was triumphantly emerging from her hideout after pulling off the Hail Mary of all Hail Marys.

• 3:11Dana Schwartz?

  Like Brunhilde, Fredericund was well-versed in the bloody, rapidly shifting tides of her opposing kingdom's ongoing civil war. It must have been gratifying to accept her husband's awed gratitude for saving them from the jaws of defeat, but she knew time was of the essence. They had to press their advantage quickly because her rival was far too intelligent and resourceful to be underestimated. Calling on allies, making desperate deals, and hoarding treasure were all frequent components of Queen Brunhilde's calculated tactics. Brunhilde holed up in her Parisian palace as her enemies closed in,

• 3:56Dana Schwartz?

  suddenly every bit as vulnerable as Fredericund had been mere days before. Looking down from her tower once again as a much larger force galloped through the city gates, Brunhilde was surely alarmed. But she was staunch in her belief that she still had enough tricks up her silken sleeves to impact the future of Francia. Little did she know that her subsequent moves would further cement one of the greatest royal rivalries of all time. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood.

• 4:38Dana Schwartz?

  It's tricky to pinpoint the precise birth of Queen Brunhild's and Queen Fredericun's rivalry. Part of their immense animosity was personally fostered, and part was inherited. So it's helpful to first understand, in broad terms, the geopolitical landscape in the lead-up to their unprecedented ascensions. The old King of the Franks, Clotar I, ruled an empire that encompassed present-day France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of Germany, and a good portion of Switzerland. When he died in 561, his four sons divided those lands into four kingdoms.

• 5:21Dana Schwartz?

  After one brother died, that left three to share custody of Paris, while each also ruled their respective realms. Siegbert ruled Austria, Chilperic ruled Nustria, and Guntram ruled Burgundy. What a fair and harmonious decision, right? Naturally, this setup ushered in an era of extremely violent unrest due to the king's competitiveness, but arguably even more so because of their marital choices. It's important to note that unlike queens of various other empires, queens of the Marvingian dynasty were not crowned on their own.

• 6:03Dana Schwartz?

  Their power almost entirely depended on marriage. Brunhild was a well-educated daughter of a Visigoth king, and according to many contemporary descriptions of her at the time, she was quite beautiful and charming. The news that her father had strategically betrothed her to King Siegbert would have been daunting. It meant traveling over a thousand miles with a massive dowry from Spain to the foreign land of Austria, all at the age of around 18. But despite being far from fluent in the native language and customs, Brunhild received quite the welcome there in the spring of 500

• 6:46Dana Schwartz?

  Especially because she came with a prestigious pedigree. This put her in stark contrast to the numerous women of lower socioeconomic status with whom Siegbert's brothers had had various trysts and eyebrow-raising relationships. This wedding was extremely lavish, and Brunhilde was reportedly embraced by the Austrian court and public. Fredagund, on the other hand, had a highly contrasting trajectory. She came to Chilbric's palace in Neustria as an enslaved girl.

• 7:25Dana Schwartz?

  She was likely captured as a young child, but little is known about her origin, particularly since she seemingly wanted to keep her humble roots hidden as she began to climb the ranks of power. The more favorable accounts of Fredagund describe her at the time as a savvy, young, strawberry blonde girl of pleasing generosity. She initially became a favorite mistress of the king, but becoming a queen would be a tall order. Fredagund purportedly first had to convince Chilbric to divorce his first wife and send her to a convent. Then Fredagund had to deal with Chilbric getting married again.

• 8:09Dana Schwartz?

  Not wanting to be upstaged by his brother Siegbert and his, big-name, big-title bride, Chilbric married Brunhilde's sister in another exceedingly opulent wedding in 568. Two brothers marrying two sisters. To some of the citizens and nobles of Austria and Neustria, the notion of such closely knit royal families likely seemed like it would bring increased peace and prosperity.

• 8:40Dana Schwartz?

  As legend has it, Fredegund had other ideas. She continued her close relationship with Chilbric, striving to finally sit on a throne herself. After Chilbric's second wife grew unhappy about his ongoing affair, he supposedly had her strangled in her bed. Many claimed that Fredegund had put him up to it, although, again, this could have been gossip and slanderous rumor. Whatever the case, Chilbric's first two wives were out of the picture. Apparently, he didn't even bother to appear upset about it,

• 9:20Dana Schwartz?

  as evidenced by the conspicuous absence of a duly sincere acknowledgement of the loss, let alone any sort of basic investigation into Brunhilde's sister's death. Only three days later, he married Fredegund. The celebration was far more rushed, as would be expected, given the lack of planning time and gigantic dead elephant in the room. Nevertheless, this meant that two incredibly formidable women, Fredegund and Brunhilde, were sisters-in-law, as well as respective queens of Nustria and Austria.

• 10:01Dana Schwartz?

  And although one had allegedly had a hand in killing the other's sister, in the grand scheme of things, their rivalry was only just beginning.

• 10:15Dana Schwartz?

  Brunhilde was reportedly devastated by her sister's death. She had no other siblings and only months before she had learned about her father's passing. While grieving her family's plight in her distant foreign palace, it's easy to imagine Brunhilde also fearing a similar fate for herself. Frankish laws and customs were such that there seemed to be little hope of holding her ex-brother-in-law, or Fredegund, specifically accountable for their murder. For all Brunhilde knew, one day she too could be killed in her bed and no one from Austria or back home would be willing or able to pursue significant retribution.

• 11:00Dana Schwartz?

  But giving up was not in Brunhilde's nature. She knew that even if her husband Siegbert was sympathetic to her sadness and outrage, and according to some accounts he was, he could not take decisive action without the support of a sizable portion of his court. Brunhilde was also painfully aware that for all those ambitious, self-interested nobles, the idea of avenging a short-lived foreign queen of a neighboring kingdom was simply not sufficient motivation. In steadily making alliances and learning the desires of various factions, however, Brunhilde discovered a broadly enticing carrot

• 11:45Dana Schwartz?

  that she could dangle at the end of her justice-seeking stick. Traditionally, Frankish brides at that time were given a "mourning gift" after consummating their marriage. To win the hand of such a high-profile bride as Brunhilde, Siegbert had promised her an extravagant villa. To secure a marriage with Brunhilde's sister, Cholprak had upped the ante and offered her essentially the southern third of his lands. Here, Brunhilde saw a legal opportunity. Technically, valuable holdings in Francia were supposed to pass to the deceased's family, and since her sister had no children,

• 12:29Dana Schwartz?

  and Brunhilde herself had just given birth to a succession-securing son, Brunhilde could make a pretty solid case that those gifted lands should pass to her. Many Austrian nobles loved the prospect of increasing their kingdom's boundaries and overall wealth, and after a fair amount of official wrangling, Siegbert used that claim as grounds to invade.

• 12:57Dana Schwartz?

  The larger Austrian army soon overwhelmed their opposition and surged towards the Neustrian capital of Saissan. This forced Fredegund and her husband to flee, bringing as much of their treasury with them as they could mobilize. With victory imminent, Brunhilde and Siegbert moved to Paris, their prospective new capital for their soon-to-be larger country. Meanwhile, Fredegund hid in a bunker about forty miles away. Defeat seemed inevitable as the Austrian forces approached. She was probably still bleeding from what had been a traumatic birth of her second

• 13:39Dana Schwartz?

  son, and her husband was off preparing for the likely end of his kingdom and his life. But just like Brunhilde, Fredegund was not one to simply surrender. As a last-gasp plan, she summoned two enslaved boys whose loyalty she trusted, possibly having first connected with them while serving the royal family herself. She then gave them a nearly impossible suicide mission: kill King Siegbert. According to a detailed account of the time, Fredegund knew there was no way to confront Siegbert outright, considering he was surrounded by thousands of soldiers, had numerous formidable

• 14:24Dana Schwartz?

  guards, and was even an experienced fighter himself. The only real chance her young agents had was to exploit Siegbert's seeming hubris by launching a sneak attack while he was celebrating his military victories. Infiltrating these celebrations was actually not overly difficult, according to some sources. The Austrian invasion was so fast and convincing that many Neustrians were practically tripping over themselves to switch to their aggressors' side. The two boys were apparently able to pose as "two such defectors."

• 15:05Dana Schwartz?

  The trickiest part then was striking the final blow. Fratigund counted on the fact that most Frankish men carried utility knives known as scramsaxes. The blades were so omnipresent that her chosen assassins would be able to openly carry them. Even if they were able to reach the king, though, they might only be able to get one or two jabs in, so those had to count. This is where Fratigund's grim innovation shows, because she supposedly gave them an added secret weapon: fast-acting poison. By that time, poison made from herbs or berries had been used in countless murders,

• 15:50Dana Schwartz?

  but it typically had to be directly ingested. Fratigund was clever enough to know that, similar to many paranoid Roman emperors, Siegbert was presumably careful to avoid such devious methods and likely even employed official tasters to check his food and drink. What she needed was a poison that could kill upon direct contact with a wound. The only two such substances known to have existed during this Frankish era were snake venom and wolf's bane. Both required careful preparation, and their potency rapidly decreased when exposed to the air, meaning that in order to be effective,

• 16:33Dana Schwartz?

  they had to be applied to a knife a relatively short time before use. If the tales are to be believed, Fratigund was knowledgeable enough in medicine, or, per some claims, in witchcraft and the dark arts, to make or procure one of the two deadly toxins. She then gave it to the boys in a small vial and directed them to apply it to their knives only once they were within close enough range of Siegbert. Against all odds, Fratigund's loyal assassins followed her orders. They stalked their target, and they stabbed him with their poisoned daggers.

• 17:16Dana Schwartz?

  The two boys were immediately caught and killed by guards, but soon the king was also dead. Fratigund's diabolical plan had tilted the entire fate of Francia.

• 17:31Dana Schwartz?

  As soon as the news of Siegbert's death reached Brunhilde in Paris, she would have known that she and her children were in grave danger. She had a few options, though. Given the Frank's line of succession and generally minimal respect for widowed queens, it would be foolhardy to try to claim the Austrian throne outright. Her five-year-old son was the "official heir", which normally would ensure her position to a degree, except they were isolated fairly far from home soil. Brunhilde could attempt to flee with her son and two daughters, but travelling as a family for several days,

• 18:14Dana Schwartz?

  through what could become increasingly hostile territory, would leave them extremely open to attack. Brunhilde's court was also rapidly shrinking as most of her nobles and guards began escaping or defecting. If she were closer to her royal treasury, she would have been able to bribe many of them to stay, since Marabingian queens may have lacked power in other areas but were often able to exercise control over their realm's tangible riches. Alas, handing out IOUs to flighty aristocrats and nervous soldiers was not going to fly during such a chaotic span.

• 18:56Dana Schwartz?

  However, Brunhilde was savvy enough to have brought along her own stash of gold. It was not a large enough fortune to pay a whole army and would probably be stolen if transported, so rather than futilely trying to retain all of her allies, Brunhilde set her sights on her key enemies. Between her personal wealth and remaining reputation, she figured she might have just enough leverage to draw Fredegund and Chilprick's full attention. She was essentially opting for a last-ditch move, utilized by many a brave matriarch within the animal world:

• 19:40Dana Schwartz?

  stay and distract her attackers for long enough that her children might reach safety.

• 19:48Dana Schwartz?

  Brunhilde's gambit paid off, to an extent. She ensured that her son and daughters were safely snuck away by those few individuals still loyal to her. Then she waited several days for the Neustrian army to reach her. This gave Brunhilde's son enough time to make it back to Metz, the Austrian capital, where he was crowned king at the tender age of five. Her daughters briefly made it back over the border too, but they were eventually captured by Neustrian scouts and would later be leveraged by Chilbric as hostages.

• 20:27Dana Schwartz?

  As for Brunhilde, she had to anxiously anticipate her enemies' arrival, defenseless yet defiant. Who would find her? Her impulsive brother-in-law? More agents of her vindictive sister-in-law? And what would they want to do with her? Ultimately, it was Chilbric who purportedly found Brunhilde waiting in her chambers. He could not have been thrilled that she had managed to sneak her children away, but seizing her hoarded treasure likely perked up his spirits somewhat. And rather than immediately sentencing her to death, likely thanks at least in part

• 21:07Dana Schwartz?

  to Brunhilde's careful persuasion, he ordered that Brunhilde live out the rest of her days in a convent. To many, this must have seemed like a natural and all-too-common end to a promising young queen's rule. But as history would soon show, neither convent nor conventional wisdom could permanently snuff out a royal rivalry as incandescent as Brunhilde and Fredegans.

• 21:41Dana Schwartz?

  It's difficult to definitively say whether Fredegund and Brunhilde ever met face-to-face in the direct aftermath of Siegbert's death, but there is a reasonable argument to be made that Fredegund meaningfully impacted her husband's pivotal decision to force her opposite number to become a nun. Even in a time when female agency was drastically limited, it's hard to think of many more effective cards to play in a power struggle than "If it weren't for me, you'd be dead." Factoring in that Fredegund's poison-tipped plan had also helped her and her husband upgrade from cowering in a bunker to once again luxuriating in palaces,

• 22:26Dana Schwartz?

  her new clout as queen was off the charts. On top of that, Fredegund had already had a demonstrable degree of influence over her husband's actions prior to rejuvenating their country's war efforts. So it was said that he became exceedingly deferential to her afterward, particularly when it came to handing out punishments. On a personal level, it's possible that Fredegund could have empathized with Brunhilde's plight as a desperate mother of young children. But given the cruel nature with which Fredegund judged many other victims, though, the idea of executing Brunhilde was presumably even more tempting because of that.

• 23:11Dana Schwartz?

  However, by that point, Fredegund would have been well aware of other pressing economic factors, and in potentially hashing those out with her husband, they ostensibly reached the conclusion that Brunhilde was simply worth more alive. After all, the war had taken its toll on Fredegund and her husband's personal wealth as well as their country's treasury, which, again, per precedent, was often overseen by the queen. Brunhilde, on the other hand, had coughed up a small fortune when captured, and it was possible that the Nustrian rulers saw her as a cash cow whom they could somehow

• 23:55Dana Schwartz?

  extort for more riches. Perhaps even more importantly, Fredegund would have known that despite their latest upswing, her side was still in a delicate position in the larger war. They didn't have the resources or manpower to launch a full-scale counter-invasion of Austria, and also had other foes to consider. Brunhilde had worked to form ties with the ambitious Byzantine court, and the Visigoths might soon pose a threat as well. The Nústrian monarchs had gotten off easy after the strangling of Brunhilde's sister,

• 24:38Dana Schwartz?

  partially because her Visigothic family had been struggling to sort out their own succession crisis after Brunhilde's father's death. But the Spanish realm seemed to be gradually solidifying. So if Fredegund and Chilprick killed their last remaining princess, that might have meant eventually fighting on multiple fronts. The discovery that Brunhilde had already managed to sneak her son off to Austria would have only increased the queen's value as an insurance play, and make killing her even more risky. Fredegund, being both a mother and a budding military strategist by this point, could have

• 25:23Dana Schwartz?

  easily envisioned how effective it would be to tell a resentful little king, "Tread lightly if you ever want to see your mother again." So all in all, Brunhilde's nunnery banishment was logical enough, and there was plenty of precedent for dispatching widowed and/or deposed queens in that way. That said, in handing out such a relatively common sentence, Fredegund and Chilprick should probably have been more careful when specifically choosing and monitoring Brunhilde's new holy home.

• 26:01Dana Schwartz?

  Brunhilde was sent to a small convent in Rouen, a Neustrian stronghold, where life was, by all accounts, strict. None recruits had to live by a harsh code, and they were almost entirely shut off from the outside world. But it was actually the world inside this particular convent that would be critically useful for the socially skilled Brunhilde. Because according to some sources, one of the other top inmates there was none other than Chilbric's first wife. And in her, Brunhilde found a similarly infuriated ally.

• 26:46Dana Schwartz?

  None life could not nullify these cloistered women's ambitions. If anything, it amplified them. Sure, Brunhilde and her new guide were basically captives in this austere house of God. Yes, their odds of mounting a successful revenge mission against Fredegund must have seemed low. But ask any betting enthusiast, when does a single queen ever beat a pair?

• 27:20Dana Schwartz?

  That's the first part of the unparalleled story of Brunhilde and Fredegund's rivalry. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to get a fuller sense of what it was like to attend a Frankish wedding.

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• 28:40Dana Schwartz?

  Boone Hilds and Fredagoons marriages are intriguing for many reasons. They obviously afforded them both queen status and laid the foundation for two contrasting, yet unusually devoted royal relationships. Because the queens' respective nuptials also involved kings wanting to "outdo" or undermine their sibling rivals, these events also provide stellar windows into another component that practically everyone who's been to a wedding is curious about: the food. According to biographer Shelley Puhak in her book "The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry

• 29:21Dana Schwartz?

  That Forged the Medieval World," quote, "The tables were loaded down with food we would have no trouble recognizing today. Loaves of white bread, beef slathered in brown gravy, carrots and turnips sprinkled with salt and pepper. The Franks' love of bacon was renowned too, as were their sweet toothes. So much so that the kings themselves owned many of the sugar refineries of the era. The beehives. The honey was used to sweeten the cakes baked for special occasions. As rushed as Fredagoons and Chilprick's wedding was, cake was supposedly still served there."

• 30:03Dana Schwartz?

  And in some ways, grounded details like that can add just as much insight into the lived experience of the day as devious betrayals and momentous battles. It's humanizing to imagine all those wedding guests clustering around the dessert. Table as they struggled to cope with the awkwardness stemming from the fact that the previous queen had been murdered seventy-two hours prior. What better way to avoid saying the wrong thing than by nervously gobbling honey cake? All in all, these folks might as well have tried to enjoy every sweet respite they could get.

• 30:45Dana Schwartz?

  Because in Francia, the land of dueling queens, there were plenty more murders, backstabings, and even hasty awkward weddings on the horizon. See you again, part two, next week. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sander, Amy Height, and Julia Milani.

• 31:23Dana Schwartz?

  The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer Reema Ilkayali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 31:49Speaker 02

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• 32:02Speaker 03

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• 32:45Speaker 03

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• 32:48Dana Schwartz?

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.