Chilperic II ( la, Chilperikus; 450–493 AD) was the
King of Burgundy from 473 until his death. Before that he co-ruled with his father
Gondioc beginning in 463. He began his reign in 473 after the partition of Burgundy with his younger brothers
Godegisel,
Gundobad
Gundobad ( la, Flavius Gundobadus; french: Gondebaud, Gondovald; 452 – 516 AD) was King of Burgundy, King of the Burgundians (473 – 516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a Patrician (ancient Rome), ...
, and
Godomar; he ruled from ''Valentia Julia'' (
Valence
Valence or valency may refer to:
Science
* Valence (chemistry), a measure of an element's combining power with other atoms
* Degree (graph theory), also called the valency of a vertex in graph theory
* Valency (linguistics), aspect of verbs rel ...
) and his brothers ruled respectively from
Geneva,
Vienne, and
Lyon.
Sometime in the early 470s Chilperic was forced to submit to the authority of the
Roman Empire by the ''
magister militum''
Ecdicius Avitus. In 475 he probably sheltered an exiled Ecdicius after the
Visigoths had obtained possession of the
Auvergne.
After his brother Gundobad had removed his other brother Godomar (Gundomar) in 486, he turned on Chilperic. In 493 Gundobad assassinated Chilperic and drowned his wife, then exiled their two daughters,
Chroma, who became a nun, and
Clotilde, who fled to her uncle, Godegisel. When the
Frankish king,
Clovis I
Clovis ( la, Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single kin ...
, requested the latter's hand in marriage, Gundobad was unable to decline. Clovis and Godegisel allied against Gundobad in a long, drawn-out civil war.
Sources
* The abridged translation of Gregory of Tour'
''History of the Franks''made by Earnest Brehaut in 1916.
Kings of the Burgundians
450 births
493 deaths
5th-century monarchs in Europe
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