Balthild, a future wife and mother of kings, emerged from obscure origins in the early 7th century. Also called Balthilde, Bathild and Baldhild, she was born around the year 630, and there is a consensus that she was of the Anglo-Saxon ethnicity. Yet, her status and the circumstances of her arrival in Frankish lands remain debated. At the time of her childhood, her homeland was in a state of change and chaos. Anglo-Saxon realms in Britain had only recently begun to Christianize; after all, Augustine of Canterbury and his missionary expedition dispatched by Pope Gregory the Great just arrived in the region in 597 to begin their proselytizing. Religious fervor was matched by waves of perpetual war in England. Notably, Balthild’s early years coincided with the brutal reign of the pagan King Penda of Mercia (r. 620s/630s-655), who waged persistent war against the rival kingdoms of Northumbria, Wessex, and East Anglia, and killed around five kings during his decades-long rampage. Due to all the upheaval and turmoil, it was a time when captivity, imprisonment, and changes of fortune were prevalent in England, and there were ample reasons for threatened Anglo-Saxon families of means to seek safe havens and opportunities across the English Channel. It was from that complicated geopolitical situation that the Anglo-Saxon Balthild found herself living in the French and German lands of the Franks.
Hostile and unflattering accounts alleged that Balthild was sold to the Franks as a slave. More respectful renditions of her origin story painted her as coming from an Anglo-Saxon noble family, and that her introduction to the Frankish kingdoms was through the usual travels and interactions of the nobility. Whatever the case, young Balthild somehow entered the orbit of the Frankish nobleman, Erchinoald, who was appointed in 641 as the Mayor of the Palace for the child-king, Clovis II (who was born in 633 or 634, and began his reign in 639). While Erchinoald and Clovis’ mother, Nantechild, ruled as the child-king’s regents, Balthild began to make a name for herself in Erchinoald’s entourage. Again, her status is vague. Relative? Ward? Employee? Slave? Refugee or guest? There is no explicit explanation, but regardless of her circumstances, she was under the responsibility and jurisdiction of Erchinoald. Mystery of her status aside, Balthild was impressive to her peers and superiors. Erchinoald, for his part, believed in her and wanted to set her up with a prestigious marital match. One imagines that his co-regent, Nantechild—mother of King Clovis II—also likely discovered Balthild and found her to be an impressive young lady. Consequently, a betrothal may have been arranged for the two children by Erchinoald and the queen-mother before Nantechild’s death in 641 or 642. Whatever the origin of their union, Balthild and Clovis were married around the year 648, when both were teenagers.
Balthild’s personality before marriage is obscure, but when she assumed power as the queen of King Clovis II, she quickly began to gain a reputation as a bold and strong-willed woman who sought personal involvement in matters of government and religion. She was a dominant force—too dominant for many of her contemporary peers—and she was characterized as being a woman who lorded over her kingly husband. Whatever the case, Balthild and Clovis seemed to have had chemistry, for they soon had several children together, namely their future heirs Chlotar III (born 649), Childeric II (b. 649/650), and Theodoric III (b. 651).
Although the future was looking bright for the young royal couple and their household of small children, fate can be cruel and unpredictable. Tragically, King Clovis II unexpectedly sickened and died by 657, when he was still in his mid-twenties, leaving behind Balthild and their young children to face the perils of Frankish politics without his support. Yet, Balthild had allies, and they helped her step in as regent ruler while the children grew into adulthood. These events were recorded by the authors of the Chronicle of Fredegar and its continuations, which were written in the 7th and 8th centuries. The Chronicle, which calls Balthild by the name “Baldechildis,” stated:
“Now Clovis, son of Dagobert, chose for his queen a foreigner named Baldechildis, a sensible and attractive woman. By her he had three sons—namely Chlotar, Childeric and Theuderic. And the mayor of his palace, by name Erchinoald, was forceful and intelligent. So peace reigned in the kingdom of Clovis, and there were no wars. In his latter years, it is true, his mind became affected, and he died after reigning for eighteen years. The Franks thereupon made his eldest boy, Chlotar, king, with the queen-mother by his side” (Chronicle of Fredegar, Continuations, chapter 1).
Queen Balthild’s principal ally during the transition to her regency as the queen-mother was her old guardian and acquaintance, Erchinoald, but he soon died in 657 or 658. Following Erchinoald’s death, the queen’s inner circle included figures such as the new Mayor of the Palace, Ebroin, and the bishops Chrodobert of Paris and Audoenus of Rouen. Balthild also gained the friendship of the craftsman-bishop, Eligius of Noyon, who became a confidant and advisor of the widowed queen.
Balthild, as the regent ruler for her children, continued to operate exactly how she had behaved when she had been queen. In short, she maintained her strong and domineering style of leadership. She insisted on her own heavy personal involvement in matters of state, law, and church, which, again, caused both praise and rebuke. Her supervision of government actions and legal decisions, including executions, garnered her criticism from peers, but her lavish support and investments in church architecture and infrastructure garnered her great acclaim. She became a patron of monastic communities at Corbie and Chelles, and she was involved in supporting, developing, empowering, and legitimizing important abbeys, basilicas, and saintly church facilities, including the historic church sites of St. Denis, St. Germanus (in Paris), St. Medard (in Soissons), and St. Martin (in Tours).
Interestingly, Queen Balthild also became an activist and advocate for limiting the slave trade and improving the conditions of slaves in Frankish lands. In particular, since she was unable to ban the practice completely, she wanted to grant slaves more rights and protections from harm and abuse. On this topic, the queen and her friend, Bishop Eligius of Noyon, were likely involved in steering the Council of Chalon (c. mid 7th century) to insist that there should be restrictions on the slave trade and that slaves should be treated more humanely. Balthild’s impressive fervor in her anti-slavery activism is likely one of the primary reasons why stories about her possibly being a former slave became popularized in legend.
In the end, despite Queen-Mother Balthild’s strong personality and competence, she and her peers knew she was reigning on borrowed time. Her power began to wane as soon as her eldest child-king son, King Chlotar III of Neustria and Burgundy, started to advance through puberty. And once her second son, Childeric II, became old enough to ascend to the Frankish throne of Austrasia in 662, the noblemen of the realm were emboldened to increasingly challenge the Queen-Mother’s presence and authority. With unrest against her rule mounting, Balthild was eventually pressured into accepting an early retirement by the year 665, when she was still a young woman in her mid-thirties. Forced out of government, Balthild devoted herself to her religious interests, and she ultimately lived the rest of her life as a nun in the monastic community she built at Chelles, beginning the site’s long association with Anglo-Saxon and English monastic residents.
Unfortunately for the Frankish realm and the Merovingian Dynasty Balthild married into, the relative peace and stability that had been maintained during the reign of King Clovis II (r. 639-657) and Balthild’s subsequent regency period (r. 657-665?) started to unravel after the queen-mother’s departure to the convent. A breaking point was reached when her eldest son, King Chlotar III, died unexpectedly in 673, while he was still in his early twenties. This sparked a succession crisis over which of the two remaining sons of Clovis and Balthild would inherit the throne.
Different factions of powerful figures formed around the surviving sons of Balthild. The influential Mayor of the Neustrian and Burgundian Palace, Ebroin, took the opportunity to elevate Balthild’s third son, Theodoric III, to become the new king of the Neustrian-Burgundian realm in 673. Yet, the fledgling King Theodoric was at a disadvantage against his elder brother, Childeric II, who had been ruling the kingdom of Austrasia since 662. In short, Childeric II had might and connections and a willingness to use both, whereas his brother was being freshly introduced to power for the first time. Before Theodoric III could fully grasp the reins of government, his older brother swooped in with political pressure and intrigue, deposing Theodoric from power. From then on, King Childeric II ruled a united empire of the Franks, but the glory was short-lived, for he was assassinated in 675. Theodoric III, the last surviving brother, promptly re-emerged to press his claim to the Merovingian kingdoms of the Franks, but he had to battle resistance and rival claimants for years. It was 679 when the faction of King Theodoric III finally won control of the complete set of the kingdoms of Neustria, Burgundy and Austrasia. One year later, in 680, the retired Queen-Mother Balthild died at her Chelles convent, and in the absence of her strong-willed example and advice, Theodoric (and the Merovingian Dynasty kings after him) became thoroughly reduced to puppets of the increasingly powerful Mayors of the Palace. Although the Merovingian Dynasty was in decline, Balthild’s own name and legacy endured. Due to her great contributions to the church, her humanitarian activism, and her long phase as a nun, she was quickly recognized as a saint by the Christian community.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Left: Statue of Balthilde, photographed by the Séeberger brothers, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the the Paris Musees Collections. Right: map of Gaul (c. 628) from the 1894 Atlas général Vidal Lablache – Histoire et Géographie, [Public Domain] via Wikimedia and Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Classics, 1971.
- The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar, with its continuations, translated by J. M. Wallace-Hadrill. Oxford University Press, 1960.
- Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Fifth Edition) by David Farmer. Oxford University Press, 2011.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Penda
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Augustine-of-Canterbury
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clovis-II
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Childeric-II
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chelles-convent
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodoric-III
