https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Early Germanic Queenship Fiona Margaret Macfarlane M.A. M. Litt Thesis Department of Medieval History September 1982. ProQuest Number: 10644236 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10644236 Published by ProQuest LLO (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 CONTENTS Summary 0 (i-ii) Page 1. Introduction» 1 2o The Making of a Queen, 7 3. The Choosing of a Queen, 34 4. The Queen as Consort, 56 5. The Queen as Ruler, 81 6. Unhappy Endings, 108 7. Conclusion, 125 Bibliography, 134 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank ; Mr, C.P. Wormald, M.A., Department of Medieval History, University of Glasgow, for his help and encouragement as Supervisor of this Thesis ; Professor A,L, Brown, M.A,, D. Phil, of the same Department, for his assistance with grant problems in the first year of this research ; Miss P,A. Odber M.A,, Department of Spanish, University of Birmingham, for her help with works in Spanish ; The Staff of Glasgow University Library, particularly those in the Reference Hall, who dealt with many appeals for help. And Finally, my Mother, who typed the first draft, and my Uncle, who checked it, for their not always followed advice on grammar and punctuation. (i) SUMMARY During the period from the rise of the Merovingian dynasty in Frankia to the death of Charles the Fat and the effective end of the Carolingien Empire, each of the principal Germanic peoples, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Lombards, Ostrogoths and perhaps also Visigoths, saw, on at least one occasion, the exercise of political power by a queen. It is hoped to show that not only did all these women have in common, to a greater or lesser degree, the means they used to achieve power and the ends they pursued while in possession of it, but also that their eminence was only a development of the possibilities which were available to even these women whose place in history is quite obscure. The marks of queenly status in terms of title, ceremony and regalia were not fixed throughout the period, though a certain grandeur does seem to be held in common, as does the title 'regina'. Female coronation as such, however, was a Carolingian development, and the first Anglo-Saxon queen known to have been crowned was a Carolingian princess, participant in a diplomatic marriage. Marriages for diplomatic or other political reasons, whether overt or concealed, are another feature common to all the peoples, though a personal element in the choice of bride cannot always be ruled out. Once married, queens seem always to have played a very similar role in the management of the court and the economic side of the royal household, apparently even acting as, in some measure, the keeper of their husband’s treasury. Many, if not definitely all queens, also interested themselves in the cultural and religious life of the court, a few even going so far as to achieve sanctity. It is possible to assume furthermore, that a great majority of queens enjoyed, for a time at least, some measure of influence over the conduct of their husbands. In the cases of those queens who achieved real political power, generally as a kind of regent rather than in their own right, much of their power seems to come from the same roots, to be a more complete utilisation of the possibilities available to any royal wife, rather than something completely new. Ruling queens dispensed/ (ii) patronage, gathered and dispensed riches, and even on occasion led military expeditions. There was, however, nothing "feminine” about the policies they pursued, as their interest in, for example, the preservation of their own power and the power of their descendants, can be paralleled in most, if not all, of the male rulers of the period. If there were likenesses between the reasons for marriage, the status of queens, their duties and their chances for power in the various Germanic kingdoms, there were also similarities in the unfortunate ends which could befall these women. In an era when life frequently appears to have been held comparatively cheap, divorce or simple abandonment by their husbands could be the least of their problems. Despite the overall similarities between the queens of the different peoples, within the Franks themselves, the kingdom most intensively studied, there appear to be some rather marked differences between the Merovingian dynasty and the Carolingiens who succeeded them, particularly concerning the kind of women they married and the kind of power their queens controlled. On closer examination, however, these differences appear largely circumstantial, based, among other things, on change in the international situation and on a fortuitous series of adult successions. Over the whole period and the whole area, however, a pattern of queenship seems to be established, with particular regard to the duties expected of a queen and the opportunities presented to her. 1. Introduction The replacement of the Roman emperors of the West by the Germanic kings of the early middle ages brought many new elements into government. One of these was the existence alongside the kings, of queens, whose role was better established than that of any empress, Reydellet, after admitting the existence of such formidable Roman matrons as Livia, both Agrippinas and Galla Placidia, goes on "Pourtant, dans son essence, le regime imperial est masculin, Meme si quelques femiTies reçurent le titre d 'Augusta, ce fut par un acte délibéré et non par la nature des choses. Le princeps n'a pas de correspondant féminin: la grammaire s'accorde w I III ■ ■ !■ .■■■Pinfc.ciI ■■■■■■II ■■■<»■ ■ I ir»iII, 11!■ ■ I I.m■!! i ■ i i , m » i « f i i, |T n i * i iiiiiiti» «i * , i», ii g##, u«im u , i» en cela avec le droit constitutionnel. En revanche, a royauté appelé le couple rex-regina (1). He attributes the rise of female status to a link with the rise of hereditary monarchy, though remaining undecided about which came first, but it is a fact that some queens rose to power in elective monarchies, even playing a decisive part in elections. It may be possible to suggest that queens gained importance because the slow failure of Roman bureaucracy left a vacuum in court life which anyone close to the king could reasonably attempt to fill. Again, however, there would have to be exceptions --- Amalasuntha, for example, flourished at the Ostrogothic court at the same time, and indeed, with the help of Cassiodorus, who did much to bring Roman order to this particular barbarian kingdom. Perhaps it may even be possible to trace the respect in which queens could be held back to the Germans described by Tacitus, who were urged to war by the cries of their women, and who believed in a particularly female prophetic holiness "so they do not scorn to ask their advice, or lightly disregard their replies" (2). The reasons for the sudden rise to prominence of the distaff side of the monarchy, therefore, were probably complex in the extreme and will not be dealt with here. This discussion will rather attempt to show what marked their high status, how they were chosen for it, and how and with what results, political and personal, they could manipulate events once established. The most outstandingly documented women are those of the Merovingian Franks. Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum would be a poor thing indeed if Brunhild and Fredegund, Chrotechildis and all the lesser female lights were removed from it' But in sources from other races and other periods --- Carolingian Franks; Visigothic; Ostrogothic; Lombard; Anglo-Saxon — - queens have, a role to play, open or concealed, in the events of their day. By 856, the position of queen is so firmly established that a Frankish chronicler finds it necessary to record, with an air of some surprise, that the West Saxons did not customarily bestow the title of Queen upon their king's wife. This aberration is confirmed by West Saxon sources, both implici^y their version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle completely ignores the very real achievements of Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians and a West Saxon by birth --- and quite openly, when Asser confirms that the king's wife is not called queen, or allowed to share his throne (3), justifying this by an extremely highly coloured account of how an earlier queen of Wessex had, by poisoning her husband, discouraged his successors from allowing any other woman the same status.