Sigismund ( la, Sigismundus; died 524 AD) was King of the Burgundians from 516 until his death. He was the son of king Gundobad and Caretene. He succeeded his father in 516. Sigismund and his brother

Godomar Godomar II (or Gundomar), son of king Gundobad, was king of Burgundy. He ruled Burgundy after his elder brother's death in 524 until 534. Both he and his brother Sigismund of Burgundy were defeated in battle by Clovis' sons. Godomar fled and Si ...

were defeated in battle by Clovis's sons, and Godomar fled. Sigismund was captured by

Chlodomer Chlodomer, also spelled Clodomir or Clodomer (c. 495 - 524) was the second of the four sons of Clovis I, King of the Franks. On the death of his father, in 511, he divided the kingdom of the Franks with his three brothers: Theuderic I, Childeber ...

, King of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Avitus of Vienne Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (c. 450 – February 5, 517/518 or 519) was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings. Avitus was born of a promi ...

, the Chalcedonian

bishop of Vienne The Archbishopric of Vienne, named after its episcopal seat in Vienne in the Isère département of southern France, was a metropolitan Roman Catholic archdiocese. It is now part of the Archdiocese of Lyon. History The legend according to whi ...

who converted Sigismund from the Arian faith of his Burgundian forebears. Sigismund was inspired to found a monastery dedicated to

Saint Maurice Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius; ) was an Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Rome in the 3rd century, and is one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that martyred group. He is the ...

at Agaune in

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...

in 515. The following year he became king of the Burgundians.

Sigismund's conflict with Bishop Apollinaris

Sigismund came into conflict with Apollinaris of Valence over the rules regarding marriage. The king's treasurer, Stephen, was living in flagrant incest. The four bishops of the province ordered him to separate from his companion, but he appealed to Sigismund, who supported his official and exiled the four bishops to

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. They refused to yield, and after some time the King relented, and permitted three of them to return to their Sees, with the exception of Apollinaris, whose defiance had made him particularly obnoxious to the King. He was kept a close prisoner for a year. At last the King, stricken with a severe illness, sent the Queen to request Apollinaris go to the court to restore the monarch to health. On his refusal, the Queen asked for his cloak to place on the sufferer. The request was granted, the King recovered, and Apollinaris was allowed to return to his see.Monks of Ramsgate. “Apollinaris”. ''Book of Saints'', 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 25 July 2012.
/ref>

Murder of his son

According to Gregory of Tours, Sigismund married the daughter of the Ostrogoth King Theodoric. They had a son, Sigeric. The widowed Sigismund later remarried, and his second wife "maltreated and insulted her stepson".Kasten, Brigitte. "Stepmothers in Frankish legal life", ''Law, Laity and Solidarities''
(Susan Reynolds, ed.), Manchester University Press, 2001, When, on a feast day in 517, Sigeric saw his stepmother dressed in his late mother's ceremonial clothes, he called out that she was unworthy to wear them. (Under Burgundian law, his mother's clothes should have gone to his sister,

Suavegotha Suavegotha (died after 549), also known as Suavegotta or Suavegotho, was probably the wife of the Frankish king Theuderic I. Suavegotha was the daughter of the Burgundian king Sigismund and his Ostrogothic wife Ostrogotho. According to the histor ...

.) The Queen persuaded Sigismund to deal with his son, alleging that Sigeric planned not only to kill his father and seize the throne, but that he also had designs on his grandfather's kingdom in Italy. Sigismund ordered the young man to be taken while drunk and drowned in a well. Then, overcome with remorse, Sigismund retreated to the monastery that he had founded.

Burgundian War, defeat and death of Sigismund

In 523,

Clotilde Clotilde ( 474–545), also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc. (Latin: Chrodechildis, Chlodechildis from Frankish ''*Hrōþihildi'' or perhaps ''*Hlōdihildi'', both "famous in battle"), was a Queen of All the Franks. She was s ...

, daughter of

Chilperic II of Burgundy 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 brot ...

who had been slain by Sigismund's father Gundobad in 493, took revenge for the murder of her father, when she incited her sons against Sigismund, and provoked the Burgundian War, which led to Sigismund's deposition and imprisonment, and his assassination the following year. In 523, the

Kingdom of the Burgundians The Kingdom of the Burgundians or First Kingdom of Burgundy was established by Germanic Burgundians in the Rhineland and then in eastern Gaul in the 5th century. History Background The Burgundians, a Germanic tribe, may have migrated from the ...

was invaded by the four

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

kings,

Childebert I Childebert I (c. 496 – 13 December 558) was a Frankish King of the Merovingian dynasty, as third of the four sons of Clovis I who shared the kingdom of the Franks upon their father's death in 511. He was one of the sons of Saint Cl ...

Clotaire I Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old" ( French: le Vieux), (died December 561) also anglicised as Clotaire, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I. Chlothar's father, Clovis I, divided the kingd ...

and

Theuderic I __NOTOC__ Theuderic I (c. 485 – 533/34) was the Merovingian king of Metz, Rheims, or Austrasia—as it is variously called—from 511 to 533 or 534. He was the son of Clovis I and one of his earlier wives or concubines (possibly a Franc ...

, children of Frankish king Clovis I and Sigismund's first cousins once removed by Clotilde. Sigismund and his brother

led the Burgundian defence but lost the battle. Godomar fled while Sigismund put on a monk's habit and hid in a cell near his abbey. He was captured by Chlodomer, king of Aurelianum (modern

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Gábor Klaniczay, ''Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses: Dynastic Cults in Medieval Central Europe'', (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 67–68. Sigismund's wife and remaining children were also put to death.

Aftermath

Sigismund was succeeded on the throne by his brother Godomar. Godomar then rallied the Burgundian army and called for aid from his ally, the Ostrogothic king

Theodoric the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy ...

. Godomar regained his territory; the garrisons that the Franks had left behind were massacred. Chlodomer marched with his brother

, King of Metz, on Burgundy in 524. Chlodomer was killed at the Battle of Vézeronce, which took place on 25 June 524, reportedly at the hands of Godomar.

Veneration

In 535, Sigismund's remains were recovered from the well at

Coulmiers Coulmiers () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. History This was the site of the defeat of the Prussian Army in the Battle of Coulmiers, November 9, 1870. See also *Communes of the Loiret department The following ...

and buried in the monastery at Agaune. Eventually Sigismund was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

. Correspondence has survived between Sigismund and

Avitus of Vienne Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (c. 450 – February 5, 517/518 or 519) was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings. Avitus was born of a promi ...

, who was a poet and one of the last masters of the classical literary arts. In 1366, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, transferred Sigismund's relics to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, hence he has become a

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...

, now

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The emperor gave the saint's name to one of his sons, the later King

Sigismund of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was a monarch as King of Hungary and Croatia (''jure uxoris'') from 1387, King of Germany from 1410, King of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1 ...

(who also became decades later King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor). In 1424, Sigismund of Hungary constructed a church in the honor of Saint Sigismund in the City of Buda. The same year, King Sigismund took the relics of Saint Sigismund from Prague and sent them to the Hungarian city of Varad to protect them from the

Hussites The Hussites ( cs, Husité or ''Kališníci''; "Chalice People") were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, who became the best known representative of the Bohemian Reformation. The Huss ...

Family and issue

In 494, he married Ostrogotha, the illegitimate daughter of

Theoderic the Great Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy ...

and a concubine, as a part of Theoderic's negotiation for an alliance with Sigismund and the Burgundians. They had the following issue: * Sigeric (494/95 – 517), murdered by his own father.E. T Dailey, ''Queens, Consorts, Concubines: Gregory of Tours and Women of the Merovingian Elite'', 87-88. * Suavegotha (495/96 – ?), married to

, son of Clovis I. * Daughter, name unknown

References

External links

* *
Saints and Blessed Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigismund Of Burgundy Kings of the Burgundians 5th-century births 523 deaths 6th-century Christian martyrs 6th-century monarchs in Europe People executed by decapitation Christian royal saints Roman Catholic royal saints