General Notes

Daughter of Athanagild, King of the Visigoths, Brunhild married Sigebert
in 567. Her sister, Galswintha, married Sigebert's half brother, Chilperic
I. In 568 Chilperic had Galswintha murdered, at the instigation of his
concubine, which resulted in war (573) between Sigebert and Chilperic over
Galwintha's marriage settlement, the lands of Bordeaux, Limoges, Quercy,
Bearn and Bigorre. Following her husbands assassination, Brunhild was
imprissoned at Rouen, but after a very short marriage to Merovech, son of
Chilperic, she was allowed to go to Metz, the Austrasian capital, where
her son Childebert II had been proclaimed king. There she was to assert
herself against the Austrasian magnates for the next thirty years. After
Childebert's death (596), Brunhild tried but failed to set herself up as a
guardian over Childebert's son, Theodebert II, and then stirred up against
him his brother Theodoric II, who was king of Burgandy. Theodoric
overthrew his brother in 612 but soon died (613). Brunhild then tried to
make Theodric's son, Sigebert II, king of Austrasia. The Austrasian
magnates, tired of her tyrannous regency, appealed to Chlotar II of
Neustria. Brunhild fled to Burgandy but was handed over to Chlotar, who
had her tortured for three days, bound on a camel and exposed to the
mockery of the army, and finally tied to the tail of a horse and dragged
to death.