- Bodegisel II, Duke of Aquitaine
- Royal Ambassador to Spain
- Royal Ambassador to Constantinople
- Servant to King Chilperic I
- Servant to King Childebert II
- AKA: "Bodogisel d'Aquitaine"
Bodegisel II der Franken was born before 565 in France to Mummolin der Franken (c515-c580) . He married Chrodoare d'Amay (bef565-c634) 580 JL in France.
Bodegisel was dux of Provence. He was celebrated in song by the contemporary poet Venantius Fortunatus,[1] who praised the education and eloquence he displayed as rector of Marseilles under Sigebert I, a position Bodegisel held until about 565.[2]
Royal Service
In 584, Bodegisel accompanied Rigunth, the daughter of Chilperic I, to Spain for her marriage to Reccared, the son of the Visigothic king Liuvigild, although the marriage never took place.[3] After his return, he was sent on an embassy to Constantinople (capital of the Byzantine Empire) on behalf of Childebert II. Bodegisel stopped at Carthage on the return trip, and he was murdered there, being torn to pieces by a mob.[3]
Murder
A.C. Murray, paraphrasing Gregory, says he was struck with a sword as he stepped outside their lodging when a crowd gathered in response to the murder of a merchant committed by one of their retainers.[4]
Probable Children
- Arnulf of Metz (582-640) - Saint Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, Royal Advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia. (See notes below).
Children
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Arnulf of Metz (582-640) | 13 August 582 Liege, Belgium | 16 August 640 Lorraine, France | Doda von Sachsen (c586-aft612) |
Siblings
Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
Bodegisel II der Franken (bef565-) | 565 France | Chrodoare d'Amay (bef565-c634) | |
Babon der Franken (bef565-) | 565 France |
Research Notes
Bodegisel: Carolingian Genealogy (Probable)
- Father of Arnulf of Metz (582-640)
The Vita Gundolphi reports that Arnulf's father was Bodegisel, a Frankish noble. David H. Kelley proposed instead that Arnoald was likely an ancestor of the Carolingians through a daughter Itta, wife of Pepin of Landen (c580-640). Christian Settipani revisited and expanded upon the work of Depoin and Kelley, and concurred in Arnulf's descent from Bodegisel instead of Arnoald, but noted that there was a connection between the Ripuarian Frankish royal house and the Carolingians. He argued (without dismissing the possibility of Itta's being Arnoald's daughter) that there was a connection through Arnulf's wife Doda,[5] whom he posited as a daughter of Arnoald.[6] Kelly considered Settipani's proposed connection between the Carolingians and Arnoald to be probable.
Notes from Gregory of Tours
The bishop and contemporary historian Gregory of Tours records that Bodegisel was able to accomplish the unusual feat of passing on his estate to his heirs undiminished.[7] However, this history does not explicitly identify Bodegisel's heirs—notably, it does not prove that he was the father of Arnulf of Metz (582-640).
The Will of Adalgisel Grimo
The Will of Adalgisel Grimo provides information regarding his family relationships. He mentions that his aunt, whose name is not given, is buried in the church of Saint-George in Amay. In 1977 the gravestone of Saint Chrodoara was found in this church. Chrodoara was married to a duke named Bodegisel II der Franken (bef565-), a member of a north Aquitanian aristocratic family. This helped confirm previous assumptions about the membership of Adalgisel in this family whose members are identifiable by names ending in "-gisil".[8]
Other Notes
According to the thirteenth-century Vita sanctae Odae viduae, Saint Chrodoara was married to a certain duke Boggis and became a nun after his death. According to Herrmann and Nonn, Chrodoara may have been the wife of Bodegisel.[3] Writing in the eleventh century, Sigebert of Gembloux named Boggis a duke of Aquitaine and misplaces his life towards 711.[9]
The Vita Landberti episcopi Traiectensis, a life of Bishop Lambert of Maastricht, refers to "Chrodoara ... widow of the recently deceased Boggis, duke of Aquitaine" as a "paternal aunt" of Lambert's.[10]
A spurious charter of king Charles the Bald dated 30 January 845 and the Charte d'Alaon, a modern fabrication, give Bodegisel/Boggis an erroneous genealogy that claims he was a son of king Charibert II and gives him a brother named Bertrand who succeeded him.
See Also
- Charlemagne Family Ancestry
- wikipedia:en:Bodegisel
- Bodegisel II Duke of Aquitaine - Geni.com
- Contemporary Source: The Will of Adalgisel Grimo
- Lewis, A. R. (1976). "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550–751". Speculum. 51 (3): 381–410. doi:10.2307/2851704. JSTOR 2851704. S2CID 162248053.
- Reimitz, Helmut (2015). History, Frankish Identity and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550–850. Cambridge University Press.
- Stiennon, Jacques (1979). "Le sarcopharge de Sancta Chrodoara à Saint-Georges d'Amay: Essai d'interprétation d'une découverte exceptionnelle". Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 123 (1): 10–31.
- Wickham, Chris (2005). Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800. Oxford University Press.
References
- ^ Lewis 1976, p. 386 n. 21.
- ^ Reimitz 2015, p. 92.
- ^ a b c Stiennon 1979, p. 24.
- ^ Murray, Alexander Callander. Gregory of Tours: The Merovingians, University of Toronto Press, 2005, ISBN 9781442604148
- ^ Histoire des evesques de l'eglise de Metz, Martin Meurisse Anthoine, 1634 [1]
- ^ Discours historique, concernant le mariage d'Ansbert et de Blithilde, prétendue fille du Roy Clotaire I. ou II. Divisé en deux parties,...,Louis Chantereau Le Febvre, 1647 [2]
- ^ Lewis 1976, p. 393.
- ^ Herrmann, 1975, page 78
- ^ Stiennon 1979, p. 25.
- ^ (Oda ... Bohggis Aquitanorum ducis recens defuncti vidua) and (amita) in Vita Landberti episcopi Traiectensis auctore Nicolao, MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, VI, p. 415 .