Wisigard (c. 510 - c. 540) or ''Wisigardis'' was a
Frankish Queen by marriage to Theudebert.
Life
The life of Wisigard is slightly known by
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 ...
's ''Historia Francorum''.
[Gregor of Tours, Historiae III,20, III,27.] She was daughter of
Wacho, king of the
Lombards and grew up in the middle
Danube region. After an abnormally long term of engagement of seven years, Wisigard married
Theudebert I,
Merovingian king 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 ...
. Around 531
Theuderich I, father of Theudebert I, had arranged the engagement for political reasons. But because of a liaison Theudebert had with a Roman woman named
Deuteria, the union with Wisigard fell through. Anew for political reasons Theudebert abandoned Deoteria and finally married Wisigard in 537 or 538. Shortly after their wedding, she died.
Burial site
In 1959 a very rich decorated grave of a Frankish woman was found by
Otto Doppelfeld
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded fr ...
in the
Cologne Cathedral. The woman had been buried with her precious jewelry and in a traditional costume that indicated her as a Lombardish princess. Based on the dating and the grave furniture, Doppelfeld, at that time director of the
Romano-Germanic Museum, interpreted the dead woman as Wisigard. However, this interpretation is not proved by an inscription or other sources.
Sources
*Gregory of Tours, Historiarum III, 20, 27.
References
*Christian Bouyer: ''Dictionnaire des Reines de France. '' Librairie Académique Perrin, 1992 , p. 59.
*Otto Doppelfeld: ''Das fränkische Frauengrab unter dem Chor des Kölner Domes.'' Germania 38. Frankfurt 1960. pp. 89–113.
*
Eugen Ewig: ''Die Merowinger und das Frankenreich.'' Stuttgart 2001. , p. 34.
Notes
External links
The Frankish royal family in Cologne Cathedral
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wisigard
6th-century Frankish nobility
Merovingian dynasty
Lombard women
Frankish queens consort
510s births
540s deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death unknown
6th-century Frankish women
6th-century Lombard people