"The Royal Murderess."

[Translated from the French.]

The Queen who stands in history accused of murdering ten kings, or the sons of kings, is Fredegonde, " The Royal Murderess." She was born at Montdidier, in the country we now call France, about the year 545 A. D.

She was descended from an obscure Picardy family, and was possessed of great beauty, coupled with insatiable ambition. She became enamored of Chilperic, King of Neustria, and resolving to make herself powerful through him, sought employment as a servant in the household of his Queen, Andovere, whom she deliberately set about to undermine. By her connivance, during the absence of Chilperic on an expedition against the Saxons, he was induced, on his return, to divorce Andovere, shut her in a convent, and raise Fredegonde to her place in his household, though without conferring on her the title of Queen. The King then sought a consort of his own rank, and married Galswinthe, a daughter of the Visigoth King of Spain. This unfortunate princess was not destined to enjoy the glories of the court very long; for Fredegonde once more laid siege to the heart of the King as soon as the honeymoon was over, and Galswinthe was soon there-after found strangled in her bed. Fredegonde then induced the King to set her on the throne, which he did, in 568, while she was still in the bloom of her beauty. Her treatment of Galswinthe, however, had aroused the hatred of the latter's sister, who was the wife of Sigebert, King of Austrasia. Sigebert was therefore induced to lead an expedition into France, which was so successful that the Austrasian Court was set up for a time in the city of Paris. he was about to carry his victory further, when Fredegonde sent for two of her trusty retainers, and promised them abundant honor and reward if they would take Sigebert's life. Gaining an audience with that monarch, under pretence of a desire to take an oath of fidelity to him, they struck him down in the midst of his attendants. The two men were immediately killed; but the Queen had attained her purpose, for when Sigebert died, the strength of the invading army was gone, and the widowed Queen of Sigebert was easily captured and sent a prisoner to Rome. For some reason, doubtless through fear of vengeance from the King of Spain, Fredegonde made no attempt upon this woman's life, but turned her attention to the sons of Andovere, the oldest of whom, through loyalty to his ill-treated mother, had taken up arms against Chilperic. This young man, named Merovee, was assassinated near Rheims by her order. Theodobert, the second son, met with a like fate. The third she tried to entangle in a traitorous conspiracy, punishable with death, but he was able to prove his innocence; she then had him sent into a region where a terrible epidemic was raging, but he was not attacked by the disease. Finally, in despair of getting rid of the youth by any other means, she accused him of having poisoned two of her own children (whom some narrators accuse her of having made way with herself), and Chilperic, always credulous, had him thrown into prison, where he was soon afterward murdered in his cell. The only remaining child of Chilperic and Andovere was a daughter, Basile, whose beauty made Fredegonde furious. The poor girl was therefore seized at her command and sent to a convent.

Even Fredegonde's own children were not exempt from the manifestations of her thirst for blood. She took her daughter Regunthe into the room where the King's jewels were kept, and opening the treasure chest, invited her to feast her senses on the beautiful objects inside. The girl responded gladly. First she looked at the gems, then thrust her hands in and felt them, and finally, in a burst of enthusiasm, put her head down to kiss them. This was the opportunity Fredegonde had sought, and she let fall the cover of the chest, which would have beheaded her daughter but for the presence of a group of courtiers near by, who hastened to her rescue. Even Chilperic himself is said to have lost his life through her perfidy. His blood-thirsty spouse had grown weary of him, and one day, when the King, returning from the chase, was about to alight from his horse, he was stabbed by an unknown hand, believed to be that of the Queen or her young page. After Chilperic's death Fredegonde's star declined. For awhile she threw herself and her son Clotaire upon the good will of Goutran, King of Burgundy. He gave his royal recognition to the little boy, whom he proclaimed King of the Franks, under the title of Clotaire II. Fredegonde, however, he distrusted, and she retired to Rueil, in the neighborhood of Rouen, where she set up a petty court, and attempted to satisfy her long-standing grudges against the widow of Sigebert, the latter's son Childebert, and several others who had crossed her path at various times. For some reason, real or fancied, she procured the assassination of Pretextat, Bishop of Rouen, who was stricken down at his altar; and the Bishop of Bayeux narrowly escaped a like fate. King Goutran, who was also among those whom she had marked for death, was spared by happening to discover the plot for his assassination. War broke out between the young King Childebert of Austrasia and the Mayor of the Palace of Clotaire II. As her son was not yet ten years old, Fredegonde herself took the head of the army.

To her shrewd counsel is ascribed the success of this campaign, which was decisive, and which placed her son's future fortunes on a firmer basis. Fredegonde died in 597, in the high tide of her own and the young King's prosperity. It is said that she had only one regret on her deathbed, and that was that some of her attempts at assassination had failed, and had prevented her from carrying out her general scheme for the overthrow of her enemies and the aggrandizement of her son.

This son seems to have been the one human being to whom she was sincerely and unselfishly attached, and for whose sake she had pursued a long career of crime. She was buried beside her husband in the basilica of St. Vincent or St. Germain des Pres, where visitors were shown, down to the eighteenth century, the stone that covered her tomb. This stone, one of the oldest funeral monuments of the French kings, is now, or was within a short time, in the museum of Chiny. It is a mosaic, representing Fredegonde in her royal costume, her face covered with the veil which was in her day the symbol of widowhood.

[Authorities: Annals of Gregoire de Tours; Chronicle of Fredegonde; Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIX. Siecle.]