Fastrada

Who was Fastrada?

Fastrada was an East Frankish noblewoman.*

Fastrada was born circa 765 at Ingelheim, Rheinhessen, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, the daughter of the powerful Count Rudolph, an Austrasian count, and his wife Aeda of Bavaria.

Fastrada became the third wife of Charlemagne, marrying him in October 783 at Worms, Germany, a few months after Queen Hildegard’s death. A probable reason behind the marriage was to solidify a Frankish alliance east of the Rhine when Charles was still fighting the Saxons. As wife of Charles I, she became Queen of the Franks.

She bore him two children:

Theodrada Quentin, abbess of Argenteuil

Hiltrude Quentin.

Fastrada died on 10 August 794 in Frankfurt, Germany, during the synod of Frankfurt and was buried in St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz, long before the abbey was finalized. Due to Archbishop Richulf's influence, she was not buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis, the burial site of almost all the Frankish and French monarchs, nor St. Arnulf's Abbey near Metz. After the destruction of St. Alban's Abbey in 1552, her tombstone was transferred to Mainz Cathedral, where it can be seen today in the wall of the southern nave.