A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Fredegonde
FREDEGONDE,
A woman of low birth, but of great beauty, in the service of the Queen Andowere, wife of Chilperic, King of Normandy, resolved to make herself a favourite of the king. To effect this, she induced Andowere, who had just given birth, in the absence of Chilperic, to her fourth child, a daughter, to have it baptized before its father's return, and to officiate herself as godmother. The queen did so, not aware that by placing herself in that relation to her child, she, by the laws of the Roman Catholic church, contracted a spiritual relationship with the child's father that was incompatible with marriage; and the bishop, probably bribed by Fredegonde, did not make the least objection. On Chilperic's return, Fredegonde apprised him of this inconsiderate act of his wife, and the king, struck by her beauty, willingly consented to place Andowere in a convent, giving her an estate near Mans, and took Fredegonde for a mistress. Chilperic, not long after, married Galswintha, eldest sister of Brunehaut, Queen of Austrasia, and Fredegonde was dismissed. But the gentle Galswintha soon died, strangled, it is said, in her bed, by order of the king, who was instigated by Fredegonde. Fredegonde then persuaded Chilperic to marry her, and from that time her ascendency over him ceased only with his life.
Fredegonde had five children herself, all of whom, except the youngest, Clotaire, died before her. The only womanly affection she exhibited was love for their children, but this, corrupted by her wicked heart, was the cause of many of her crimes.
She appears to have been a bold, bad woman, and her claim to a place in this record rests upon her ability solely. Her life was a series of crimes and cruelties, with an account of which we need not defile our pages; suffice it to state, that after causing the death of Siegbert, brother of her husband Chilperic, of the three sons of the last-named monarch, and of their mother Andowere, and lastly of Chilperic himself, and being engaged in a succession of bloody wars, brought about chiefly by her instrumentality, she died suddenly in 597, just as she had gained a victory over Brunehaut, who was left queen-regent of Paris on the death of Childebert