Brunichild

Brunhild (c. 543–613) was queen of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia and one of the most powerful women in early medieval Europe. A Visigothic princess who married the Frankish king Sigebert I, she survived her husband's assassination and spent decades as regent and power behind the throne, waging a legendary feud with her sister-in-law Fredegund that became one of the defining dramas of Merovingian history. She was eventually executed in 613 at the age of about 70, tortured and dragged to death by a horse on the orders of her great-nephew Chlothar II. Her 10 appearances in this collection are as a recipient of Pope Gregory the Great's letters, and they reveal a diplomatic relationship of considerable importance. Gregory wrote to Brunhild about church reform in Gaul, the mission to England (which required Frankish cooperation), and various ecclesiastical appointments. His tone is respectful and politically astute — this was a woman whose support he needed. Brunhild's letters matter because they show us the intersection of papal diplomacy and Merovingian politics, and because they remind us that women wielded real power in the early medieval world — power that even popes had to acknowledge and cultivate.
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Letters sent
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Correspondents

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All letters (10)

From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 595

Gregory to Brunichild, Queen of the Franks. The laudable and God-pleasing goodness of your Excellence is manifested both by your government of your kingdom and by your education of your son. To him you have not only with provident solicitude conserved intact the glory of temporal things, but have also seen to the rewards of eternal life, having ...

gregory great #6005
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 595

Gregory to Brunichild, Queen of the Franks. The tenor of your letters, which evinces a religious spirit and the earnestness of a pious mind, causes us not only to commend the purpose of your request, but also to grant willingly what you demand. For indeed it would ill become us to refuse what Christian devotion and the desire of an upright heart...

gregory great #6050
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 595

The Christianity of your Excellence has been so truly known to us of old that we do not in the least doubt of your goodness, but rather hold it to be in all ways certain that you will devoutly and zealously concur with us in the cause of faith, and supply most abundantly the succour of your religious sincerity. Being for this reason well assured...

gregory great #6059
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 599

Gregory to Brunichild, Queen of the Franks . With what firmness the mind of your Excellency is settled in the fear of Almighty God you show in a praiseworthy manner, among the other good things that you do, by your love also of His priests; and great joy for your Christianity is caused us, since you study to advance with honours those whom you l...

gregory great #9011
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 599

Now that your Excellency's royal solicitude is in all matters of government praiseworthy, you ought, for the increase of your glory, to show yourself more watchful, and careful not to allow those whom you rule with counsel outwardly to perish inwardly among themselves. So may you, through the fruit of your pious solicitude, after occupying this ...

gregory great #9109
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 599

Whereas for the government of a kingdom valour stands in need of justice, and power of equity, nor for this purpose can one suffice without the other, with what great love your care for these things is resplendent is shown plainly enough by the fact of your governing crowds of nations so laudably. Who then, considering this, can distrust the goo...

gregory great #9117
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 601

We render thanks to Almighty God, Who, among all the other gifts of His loving-kindness that He has bestowed upon your Excellency, has so filled you with a love of the Christian religion that whatever you know to pertain to the gain of souls, whatever to the propagation of the faith, you cease not to carry into effect with devout mind and pious ...

gregory great #11062
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 601

What good gifts have been conferred on you from above, and with what piety heavenly grace has filled you, this, among all the other proofs of your merits, intimates evidently to all that you both govern the savage hearts of barbarians with the skill of prudent counsel, and (what is still more to your praise), adorn your royal power with wisdom. ...

gregory great #11063
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 601

Since it is written, Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin makes peoples miserable Proverbs 14:34, a kingdom is then believed to be stable when a fault that is known of is quickly amended. Now it has come to our ears by the report of many, what we cannot mention without exceeding affliction of heart, that certain priests in those parts live so ...

gregory great #11069
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 603

Among other excellencies in you this holds the chief place beyond the rest, that in the midst of the waves of this world, which are wont with turbulent vexation to confound the minds of rulers, you so bring back your heart to the love of divine worship and to providing for the quiet of venerable places as if no other care troubled you. Whence, s...

gregory great #13006