Goiswintha or Goisuintha was
Visigothic Queen consort of
Hispania and
Septimania
Septimania (french: Septimanie ; oc, Septimània ) is a historical region in modern-day Southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septima ...
. She was the wife of two Kings,
Athanagild and
Liuvigild. From her first marriage, she was the mother of two daughters —
Brunhilda Brunhilda may refer to:
* Brunhild, a figure in Germanic heroic legend
* Brunhilda of Austrasia (c. 543–613), Frankish queen
* ''Brunhilda'' (bird), a genus of birds
See also
*
*
* Broom-Hilda, an American newspaper comic strip
* Broomhild ...
and
Galswintha — who were married to two
Merovingian brother-kings:
Sigebert I of
Austrasia
Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the F ...
and
Chilperic, king of the
Neustrian Franks.
Following the death of her first husband Athanagild in 567, she became the second wife of
Liuvigild, the brother of Athangild's successor
Liuva I. Shortly thereafter Liuvigild became king of the Visigoths, and Goiswintha became Queen consort once more, and stepmother to her husband's sons
Hermenegild and
Reccared I
Reccared I (or Recared; la, Flavius Reccaredus; es, Flavio Recaredo; 559 – December 601; reigned 586–601) was Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania. His reign marked a climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of Arianis ...
.
Goiswintha was an influential personality in the royal court. In 579, her stepson Hermenegild married her granddaughter
Ingund, daughter of Goiswintha's daughter Brunhilda by the Frankish king Sigebert I. As Queen, it fell to Goiswintha to welcome the young bride to court, and reportedly Goiswintha was at first very kind to the young princess. However, she was determined that Ingund should be re-baptized in the Arian faith. Ingund, still only twelve, firmly refused. According to
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...
: "the Queen lost her temper completely" and "seized the girl by her hair and threw her to the ground: then she kicked her until she was covered with blood, had her stripped naked and ordered her to be thrown into the baptismal pool". Whether because of this fracas, or, more likely, because of Leovigild's desire to assure the succession of his sons (consistent with his previous actions to associate his sons with himself as rulers of the kingdom), he sent Hermenegild and Ingund to Seville to rule a portion of his kingdom - presumably the province of
Baetica and southern
Lusitania
Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and
a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...
. There, Hermenegild was influenced by his wife and
Leander of Seville to convert to
Chalcedonian Christianity, and to rebel against the king. He would eventually be defeated, and executed by the King in 585.
Following Liuvigild's death in 586, his younger son Reccared became king. He promptly converted to Catholicism. In the later part of 588 a conspiracy against him was headed by queen dowager Goiswintha together with the Arian bishop Uldila, but they were detected, and the bishop was banished.
[ John of Biclaro, ''Chronicle'', 90; translated by Wolf, pp. 73f]
References
Visigothic queens consort
Year of birth unknown
6th-century people of the Visigothic Kingdom
6th-century women
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