Bilichild | |
---|---|
Queen of Neustria and Burgundy | |
Reign | 673 - 675 |
Died | 675 Chelles |
Burial | Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés |
Spouse | Childeric II |
Issue | Prince Dagobert King Chilperic II |
Father | King Sigebert III |
Mother | Queen Chimnechild |
Bilichild (also Bilichildis, Bilichilde, or Blithilde) was the wife of the Frankish king of Neustria and Burgundy Childeric II. The two were married in 668 despite the opposition of the Bishop Leodegar.
Bilichild was a daughter of King Sigebert III and Queen Chimnechild of Burgundy and granddaughter of King Dagobert I and his concubine Ragnétrude. [1]
Her siblings were Dagobert II and Childebert the Adopted.
Children of Bilichild and her husband were Prince Dagobert and King Chilperic II.
Childeric became sole king of the Franks in 673. While on a hunting trip in the Forest of Lognes, near Livry, in Picardy, Bilichild, along with her husband and her eldest son, the five-year-old Dagobert, were assassinated by a band of dissatisfied Neustrians —Bodilo, Amalbert and Ingobert. The royal trio was buried in Saint-Germain-des-Prés at Paris, [2] where her tomb and that of Dagobert were discovered in 1645 and pilfered.
Her younger son Daniel was whisked off to a monastery and from there returned forty years thence to lead the Franks as king under the name Chilperic II. [3]
The Merovingian dynasty was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gallo-Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule into Raetia (537). In Germania, the Alemanni, Bavarii and Saxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the breaking up of the empire of Theodoric the Great.
Year 715 (DCCXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 715 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Clotilde, also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc., was a Queen of the Franks. She was supposedly descended from the Gothic king Athanaric and became the second wife of the Frankish king Clovis I in 493. The Merovingian dynasty to which her husband belonged ruled Frankish kingdoms for over 200 years (450–758).
Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Kingdom of the Franks from the 6th to 8th centuries, ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine, and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the Franks, including both the so-called Salian Franks and Ripuarian Franks, which Clovis I, King of the Franks (481–511) conquered after first taking control of the bordering part of Roman Gaul, which is sometimes described in this period as Neustria.
Chlothar II, sometimes called "the Young", was king of the Franks, ruling Neustria (584–629), Burgundy (613–629) and Austrasia (613–623).
Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, Austrasia. It initially included land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, in the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. The population was therefore originally largely Romanised.
Chilperic I was the king of Neustria from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of the Frankish king Clotaire I and Queen Aregund.
Childeric II was a King of the Franks. He ruled Austrasia from 662 and Neustria and Burgundy from 673 until his death, making him sole king for the final two years of his life.
Childeric III was King of the Franks from 743 until he was deposed in 751 by Pepin the Short. He was the last Frankish king from the Merovingian dynasty. Once Childeric was deposed, Pepin became king, initiating the Carolingian dynasty.
Chilperic II was king of the Franks from 715 until his death.
Clovis II was King of the Franks in Neustria and Burgundy, having succeeded his father Dagobert I in 639. His brother Sigebert III had been King of Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother Nanthild until her death in her early thirties in 642. Nanthild's death allowed Clovis to fall under the influence of the secular magnates, who reduced the royal power in their own favour; first Aega and then Erchinoald. The Burgundian mayor of the palace Flaochad used him to lure his rival, Willebad, to a battle in Autun, in which Willebad was killed.
The Kingdom of the Franks, also known as the Frankish Kingdom, the Frankish Empire or Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era.
Dagobert II was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death. He is one of the more obscure Merovingians. He has been considered a martyr since at least the ninth century.
Fredegund or Fredegunda was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons. Fredegund served as regent during the minority of her son Chlothar II from 584 until 597.
Theuderic III was King of the Franks. He ruled Neustria and Burgundy on two occasions, as well as Austrasia from 679 to his death in 691.
Sigebert III was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian roi fainéant —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom throughout his reign. However he lived a pious Christian life and was later sanctified, being remembered as Saint Sigebert of Austrasia in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.
Chilperic was the infant son of Charibert II, and briefly king of Aquitaine in 632. He was killed shortly after his father in 632, under orders by Dagobert I, Charibert's half-brother.
The Battle of Lucofao was the decisive engagement of the civil war that afflicted the Frankish kingdoms during and after the reign of Dagobert II (676–79). In the battle, the Neustrian forces of Theuderic III and his majordomo Ebroin defeated the forces of Austrasia under the dukes Pippin and Martin.
Chimnechild of Burgundy was a Frankish queen consort by marriage to king Sigebert III the King of Asturias.