Did a Medieval Mom Cause a Civil War?

Today, I have an interesting and intriguing guest post by author Kim Rendfeld. Kim has just released her latest historical novel, Duchess of the New Dawn. I highly recommend this new book by Kim as well as her previous novels. With meticulous research, Kim weaves stories about people from long ago and their struggles in both peace and war, showing us that across the ages, we all experience similar issues and emotions.

When Swanahild’s husband, the de facto ruler of Francia, died in October 741, she was going to do everything she could to ensure her son, Grifo, got his share of the inheritance. Trouble is, the sons of his first wife also wanted that land.

Such are the family dynamics in my new novel, Duchess of the New Dawn, which stars Chiltrude, the daughter of Charles Martel and his first wife, Chrodtrude. Interestingly, Chiltrude was an ally of Swanahild. In fact, as the tension built up after Charles’s death, Chiltrude followed her stepmother’s advice and fled to Bavaria to marry Swanahild’s kinsman, Odilo, the Duke of Bavaria.

Swanahild, a scion of the Agilolfing clan that ruled Bavaria and maybe the sister of a past duke, married Charles in 725, the same year Chrodtrude died. This meant Grifo had blood ties to the ruling families of Francia and Bavaria. Nevertheless, Charles likely wanted to continue to have good relations with Chrodtrude’s family.

We don’t know how Swanahild felt about the marriage, but she was influential. She governed with and sometimes on behalf of her husband, especially as his health was failing. Like most aristocratic medieval women, she was ambitious for her son, who was about ten to fifteen younger than Chrodtrude’s sons, Karlomann and Pippin.

A month before Charles died, she and Grifo served as witnesses to his gift of an estate to Saint-Denis, an abbey near Paris. She, and probably Charles too, commended Grifo to Archbishop Boniface’s prayers.

It didn’t happen this way. A 14th century illumination shows Charles Martel dividing the realm between Karlomann and Pippin (Bibliothèque nationale de France, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

After Charles died at Quierzy, his body was taken by boat to Saint-Denis, where he became the first in his family to be buried with Merovingian kings and highborn ladies. Aristocrats in the laity and the Church might have been confused about who exactly was in charge. Boniface wrote to Grifo, asking for him to protect missionaries in Thuringia. It is possible he wrote similar letters to Karlomann and Pippin.

The real trouble came about a month after Charles’s death. This excerpt from Duchess of the New Dawn illustrates how Chiltrude, in my version of events, reacts to news from her maid, Saula, while they are hiding in Strasbourg, trying to evade her relatives on the journey to Bavaria:

“I was in the great hall talking to Father Urs—Uncle Johann. The news is not good. Lord Karlomann and Lord Pippin fear a war with Lord Grifo. Lord Karlomann is ordering Lord Munderic to return to Meaux and raise a fighting force.”

Had I not already been sitting, my knees would have given way. Struggling against nausea, I tried to think. We had arrived three days before the mass to commemorate the one-month anniversary of my father’s death. His will would have been read the day after the mass.

“Did the messenger say anything about my father’s will?”

“Lord Karlomann got Alamannia, Thuringia, and part of Austrasia. Lord Pippin received parts of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy, and all of Provence. Lord Grifo has the lands joining Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy. All have the title of mayor of the palace.”

“Nothing changed.”

“Lord Karlomann says Lady Swanahild wants Lord Grifo to have the entire realm! He and Lord Pippin are going to fight him for it.”

I muttered a profanity. My brothers were about to tear Francia apart, just as my father and his father’s wife had almost thirty years before. How many people were going to die for their greed? At the same time, relief flooded through me.

“We’re free!” I whispered. “Karlomann and Pippin will be too busy to bother with us. Still, I hate the reason.”

*

Who started the war depends on whom you believe. The Revised Royal Frankish Annals, written decades after the events, portrays Swanahild as the instigator, goading her son to take the entire realm, and it says that Grifo was the one to declare war.

Before we continue, a word of caution about primary sources. Think propaganda, not objective accounts. It is quite common for early medieval sources to blame women for causing strife, conveniently when no one is around to defend them. With that in mind, it is possible that Karlomann and Pippin attacked their younger brother.

Regardless of who started the war, in late November Grifo and Swanahild went to Laon, which was in his territory. It was a strategic place. The city founded and fortified by the Romans stood on a narrow, hilly ridge surrounded by wide plains. The count, Heribert, was a cousin of Charles Martel.

But the odds were against Grifo. His older brothers already had lands of their own and had been battle tested, earning allies among the counts and high-ranking clergy. Another three brothers born out of wedlock, and their mother, also apparently sided with Karlomann and Pippin.

On the left, a 15th century illustration by Jean Fouquet in Grandes Chroniques de France shows the 741 Battle of Laon. On the right is Pippin’s coronation in the 750s (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

We know almost nothing about the battles, other than Karlomann and Pippin besieged the city, the fighting did not last long, and Chrodtrude’s brother died. Heribert might have decided to lend his support to Karlomann and Pippin—a few years later, he became Pippin’s father-in-law.

Grifo was imprisoned at Neufchâteau, a plateau with three sides too steep to climb in the Ardennes Mountains, in Karlomann territory, and Swanahild was taken to Chelles, a combined monastery and convent, in Pippin’s territory.

This is the last we hear of Swanahild, but not Grifo. He was released in 747, after Karlomann retired to a monastery. Even without Swanahild’s counsel, he caused trouble for several years, including for his sister in Bavaria.

To find out what happened from Chiltrude’s perspective, as I imagine it, read Duchess of the New Dawn. You can buy the novel now from Amazon, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Kobo, and many other booksellers. For more about the book and more buy links, visit kimrendfeld.com.