General Notes

Brunhilda's sister, Galswintha, married Siegebert's half brother, Chilperic I. In 568 Chipleric had Galswintha murderred, at the instigation of his concubine, which resulted in war (573) between Sigebert and Chilperic over Galswintha's marriage settlement, the lands of Bordeaus, Limoges, Quercy, Bearn and Bigorre. Following her husbands assassination, Brunhild was imprisoned 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 in 596, Brunhilda 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 Burgundy. Theodoric overthrew his brother in 612, but died in 613. Brunhilda then tried to make Theodoric's son, Sigebert II, king of Austrasia. The Austrasian magnates, tired of her tyrannous regency, appealed 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.