Aregund

Who was Aregund?

Aregund, Aregunda, Arnegund, Aregonda, or Arnegonda was a Frankish queen, the wife of Clotaire I, king of the Franks, and the mother of Chilperic I of Neustria. She was the sister of Ingund, one of Clotaire's other wives. Ingund and Aregund were the daughters of Baderic, King of Thuringia.

It is said that Ingund was quite alarmed at her sister staying single and asked her husband Clotaire to find Aregund a husband. After meeting his sister-in-law, Clotaire is rumoured to have announced to his wife he had found her indeed a new husband who deserved her: himself!

This needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Whilst Merovingian kings were not polygamist but certainly serial husbands, one needs to have a look at the number of children Ingund and Aregund had. 5 sons and one daughter we know of against only one son.

The study of Aregund's skeleton suggests she had a child when she was aged about 18 which was late for the time as girls generally married at the age of 15. We also know she must have been limping again osteo-archaeology found out she has suffered poliomyelitis at a young age. Clotaire may have married his sister-in-law out of pity of a girl who was not deemed marriable due to her lameness or possibly as the death rate in childbirth was high, Aregund succeeded her sister to foster her orphaned nephews and nieces. Ingund died between 538 and 546 AD.