Galswintha

     Galswintha was born in 540.² She was the daughter of Atanagildo ~ King of the Visigoths and Gosvinta.¹ She was the daughter of Athanagild, Visigothic king of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal), and Goiswintha. Galswintha was the sister of Brunhilda, Queen of Austrasia; and the wife of Chilperic I, the Merovingian king of Neustria.^1,2

Galswintha married Chilperic I ~ King of the Franks, son of Clothaire I ~ King of the Franks and Aregunde, in 564.¹ Galswintha was murdered in 567. Galswintha was likely murdered at the urging of Chilperic's former wife, Fredegund. Even though Chilperic retained Galswintha's dowry, her untimely death aroused the enmity of her sister Brunhilda against him and Fredegund; it also incurred the wrath of his brother Sigebert, bringing about 40 years of conflict between the Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria—a veritable Merovingian civil war. When Chilperic was murdered in 584, Brunhilda's anger remained unassuaged, and the conflict following Galswintha's murder continued until Fredegund's death in 597. Beyond this, the result of such antipathy was a three-generation-long feud that essentially "wrecked the Merovingian family" and contributed to the death of ten of its kings.^2,1

See also.