Guntheuc

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Guntheuc
Queen of the Franks
Reign27 November 511 - 23 December 558
Born495
Diedc. 532
SpouseChlodomer (517-524)
Chlothar I (524-532)
IssueTheodebald
Gunthar
Clodoald
ReligionCatholic Christianity

Guntheuc (also spelled Gondioc) (495 – c. 532) was a Frankish queen consort. She was first married to King Chlodomer and later to his younger brother, King Chlothar I.

Life[edit]

Guntheuc may have been of Burgundian origin and the granddaughter of Godegisel a King of Burgundy.[citation needed]

In 517, she married Chlodomer, King of the Franks residing at Orléans. Together they had three sons: Gunthar, Theudebald, and Clodoald.[1][2]

King Chlodomer led an expedition against the Burgundians in 524. He was killed on this expedition, in the spring or summer of the same year, at the Battle of Vézeronce. Soon after Chlodomer's death, his younger brother Clothar I, king at Soissons, married Guntheuc.[2]

Chlodomer's and Guntheuc's three sons were entrusted to their grandmother, Queen Clotilde.[2] However, Clothar and his remaining brothers, Childebert I, procured the sons, ostensibly to raise them to their father's throne but actually to either kill them or cut their hair, removing the symbol of their royal status. Gunthar and Theudebald were killed, while the third son, Clodoald, managed to escape, shaved his head and became a monk. He later became abbot of Nogent and is known as Saint Cloud.[1][3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Christian Bouyer, Dictionnaire des Reines de France, Librairie Académique Perrin, 1992 ISBN 2-262-00789-6, p. 32-33
  2. ^ a b c Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book III, 6.
  3. ^ Rabenstein, Katherine (November 1998). "Cloud (Clodoald, Clodulphus) of Nogent". Saint of the Day, September 7. Archived from the original on 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2015-06-05.