When the Thuringian kingdom fell to the Frankish kings Theuderic and Chlothar in 531, the princess Radegund became a captive to the victors. This event was described a little more than a half-century later by Venantius Fortunatus, who had known Radegund personally up to her death in 587, since she had acted as his patron throughout his career as a poet and cleric in Merovingian Gaul. Radegund’s period of captivity is difficult to interpret, not only because of her birth, but also because she eventually married Chlothar and became his queen, but there are enough indications within Fortunatus’s account to suggest that she had experienced a similar vulnerability, and perhaps even servility, as other captives and those taken into slavery. This impression is, in fact, enhanced by what can be presumed to have been a forced marriage, likely during her teenage years, to a man in his late 30s who had killed most members of her family and who also kept various concubines at his side. Fortunatus described Radegund as part of the spoils of war, who had been assigned to Chlothar through the drawing of lots. In another work, a poem sent to the imperial court in Constantinople in the late 560s, Fortunatus placed into Radegund’s mouth a description of herself as a femina rapta, an ‘abducted woman’, in the context of her capture during the campaign of 531. The word rapta carried with it a deep sense of sexual vulnerability. Fortunatus described her time growing up in a royal villa as a generally unpleasant experience, and he mentioned various servile duties that she performed. The sort of education that Radegund received during this period depends on the interpretation of the word litterae, which might be read as letters of the alphabet, general literacy, or exposure to literature. Radegund’s circumstances only changed once Chlothar decided to make use of her as his queen.

Translation and commentary by E. T. Dailey, undertaken as part of the research conducted for DoSSE Project, which received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 101001429). Translated from the Latin. De vitae sanctae Radegundis: Liber i., ed. by Bruno Krusch, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, vol. 2 (Hanover: Hahn, 1888), pp. 364–377. This contribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Venantius Fortunatus, Life of Radegund, section 2

The most blessed Radegund arose from royal stock—from the barbarian nation of the Thuringian region. […] When she had lived with her most eminent family for only a short time, the victory of the Franks devastated the region with a barbarian storm. She departed and, like the Israelites, left her homeland. The royal girl belonged to the spoils of the victors, and there was a dispute between them over the captive girl. Unless they had struck upon a resolution to the disagreement, the kings might have clashed swords between themselves. In the casting of lots, she fell to the lofty king Chlothar, and she was taken to Athies in Vermandois, a royal villa.

For her upbringing she was placed with custodes (‘guardians’ or ‘guards’). Among other tasks that were suitable to her sex, the girl was taught letters. She often told the children that, if the fate of the times brought it about, then she wished to be a martyr. The adolescent was displaying the merits of old age. She obtained part of what she requested: although the church flourished in peace, she endured persecution by the domestics. A little girl at the time, she brought whatever remained at the table to the assembled children. After arranging their little chairs, she washed the heads of each of them and poured water over their hands. […]

When the aforementioned king, after preparations had been made, wished to receive her at Vitry, she slipped away with a few people in the night, through Beralcha to Athies. Afterward, when Chlothar had arranged with her that she should be elevated to a queen in Soissons, she avoided regal extravagance, so that she might increase, not in the world, but in the eyes of the one to whom she was devoted [i.e. Christ], and she remained unchanged by worldly glory.

Discussion Questions

  • How might Radegund’s prior status as a princess of the Thuringian dynasty have affected the nature of her captivity?
  • What particular challenges face the historian attempting to use source material of this genre: a hagiographic work designed to present Radegund as a holy woman?
  • What sort of conflicted feelings might Radegund have experienced when face with the prospect of marriage to Chlothar?

Related Primary Sources

Related Secondary Sources

  • Bailey, Lisa, ‘Handmaidens of God: Images of Service in the Lives of Merovingian Female Saints’, Journal of Religious History, 43.3 (2019): 359– 379.
  • Brennan, Brian, ‘St Radegund and the Early Development of her Cult of Poitiers’, Journal of Religious History, 13 (1985): 340–354.
  • Dailey, E. T., Radegund: The Trials and Triumphs of a Merovingian Queen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023).
  • Smith, Julia M. H., ‘Radegundis peccatrix: Authorizations of Virginity in Late Antique Gaul’, in Transformations of Late Antiquity: Essays for Peter Brown, ed. by Philip Rousseau and Manolis Papoutsakis (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 303–326.

Themes

Captives, Life after Manumission, Sexual Slavery, Women