Hermanfrid (also Hermanifrid or Hermanafrid; , died 532) was the last independent king of the
Thuringii in present-day Germany. He was one of three sons of King
Bisinus and his
Lombard queen
Menia. His siblings were
Baderic;
Raicunda, married to the Lombard king
Wacho
Wacho (also Waccho; probably from ''Waldchis'') was king of the Lombards before they entered Italy from an unknown date (perhaps c. 510) until his death in 539. His father was Unichis. Wacho usurped the throne by assassinating (or having assassina ...
; and
Bertachar.
Biography
Between 507 and 511 Hermanfrid married
Amalaberga, daughter of
Amalafrida who was the daughter of
Theodemir
Theodemir, Theodemar, Theudemer or Theudimer was a Germanic name common among the various Germanic peoples of early medieval Europe. According to Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel (9th century), the form ''Theudemar'' is Frankish and ''Theudemir'' is ...
. Amalberga was the niece of
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal, was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths (511–526 ...
, who received a number of "silver-white" horses from Hermanfrid.
It is unclear when Hermanfrid became king, but he is called king (''rex thoringorum'') in a letter by Theodoric dated to 507. He first shared the rule with his brothers Baderic and Bertachar, but later killed Bertachar in a battle in 529, leaving the young
Radegund
Radegund (; also spelled ''Rhadegund, Radegonde, or Radigund''; 520 – 13 August 587) was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. She is the patroness saint of several churches in Franc ...
an orphan.
According to
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...
, Amalaberga now stirred up Hermanfrid against his remaining brother. Once she laid out only half the table for a meal, and when questioned about the reason, she told him "A king who owns only of half of his kingdom deserved to have half of his table bare." Thus roused, Hermanfrid made a pact with the king of
Metz
Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...
,
Theuderic I, to march against Baderic. Baderic was overcome by the
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
and beheaded, but Hermanfrid refused to fulfill his obligations to Theuderic, which led to enmity between the two kings.
In 531 or 532, Theuderic, his son
Theudebert I, and his brother King
Clotaire I
Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old" (French: le Vieux), (died December 561) also anglicised as Clotaire from the original French version, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I.
With his eldes ...
of
Soissons
Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital ...
attacked the Thuringii. The Franks won a
battle near the river Unstrut and took the royal seat at Scithingi (modern
Burgscheidungen
Burgscheidungen is a village and a former municipality in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Laucha an der Unstrut.
Burgscheidungen was the site of the Saxon Hadugato's defeat of th ...
). Hermanfrid managed to flee, but the Franks captured his niece Radegund (see
Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus ( 530 600/609 AD; ), known as Saint Venantius Fortunatus (, ), was a Latin poet and hymnographer in the Merovingian Court, and a bishop of the Early Church who has been venerated since the Middle Ages. ...
, ''De excidio Thoringae'') and his nephews.
[
Theuderic gave Hermanfrid safe conduct, ordered him to come to Zülpich, and gave him many gifts. While Hermanfrid talked with Theuderic, somebody pushed him from the town walls of Zülpich and he died.]Ostrogoth
The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...
s with her children Amalafrid and Rodelinda. She was later captured by the Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
general Belisarius
BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...
and sent to Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, where Amalafrid later became an imperial general and Rodelinda was married to the Lombard king Auduin.
The Thuringian kingdom ended with Hermanfrid. The area east of the Saale
The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...
River was taken over by Slavic tribes, north Thuringia by the Saxons.
The fall of the Thuringian dynasty became the subject of numerous epic treatments, the best known of which is in the '' Rerum gestarum saxonicarum libri tres'' by Widukind of Corvey, a Saxon foundation myth
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
written in 967. Rudolph of Fulda tells a related story. In this version, it is the Saxons
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
under Duke Hadugato, as allies of the Franks, who win the great battle on the Unstrut.
About the sources
The main source for this period is Gregory of Tours, who represents the Frankish viewpoint.
Widukind is much later and has clearly incorporated mythical elements into his account. Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
only mentions the events in passing as far as they affect Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Kings of the Thuringians
6th-century monarchs in Europe