Order of Medieval Women
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PictureBook of Hours, Paris, ca. 1405 CE, Miniature of Bathilda founding Corbie and Chelles © British Library Royal 16 G VI folio 113v.
St. Bathilde, 626-680/685
Ancestral Roots Line 240A:8


Bathilde, Anglo-Saxon born but captured by Danish raiders and taken as a slave-girl to Gaul where she was placed to serve in the in the household of the mayor of the palace.   While at the palace Clovis II, son of the former king Dagobert, noticed her and proposed marriage.  Not the first Merovingian queen to begin her career in servitude Bathilde’s marriage to king Clovis II gave her considerable power and influence at Clovis’ court, managing the royal court and distributing charitable funds.  She founded monasteries and convents and enlarged the shrines of several saints.  She was loved by the people, praised for her wisdom, known for her charitable service and generous donations to the needy.

Bathilde bore three sons: Clotaire III, Childeric II, and Thierry III.   In 657, after 6 years of marriage, Clovis died and their eldest son, five year old  Clotaire, became King with Bathilde appointed regent.  She continued to minister to the people, feed the hungry, cloth the poor, bury the dead and promote Christianity.  She was a capable stateswoman and as a widow of royalty she acquired legal independence, founding the abbeys of Corbie, Chellesat Chelles and  Jumièges.  In a society where land was communally owned but controlled by nobility and church she introduced the concept of private property proving a boon for the economy by providing a fixed place for a business, encouraging farmers to improve their land which could also be used as collateral to obtain loans. 
Picture
Statue of Saint Bathild, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris (6th arr.) © Victor Thérasse CC BY-SA 3.0.
During this period the poorer inhabitants of France were often obliged to sell their children as slaves to meet the crushing taxes imposed upon them. Bathilde reduced their taxes and made it illegal to buy or sell a slave in France, passing a law that any slave who was brought into the country immediately became free by paying the ransom, which she often did herself.  She founded abbeys and hospitals to care for the freed slaves, gave jobs to men cultivating wild land, helped the needy by selling her jewelry and valuables, contributed to the basilica of Saint Peter and fought corruption amongst the bishops in the Church.

​In 664, when her son Clotaire came of age and had ascended the throne as King of France, her two other sons were well established in their respective territories, Childeric IV in Austrasia and Thierry in Burgundy, Bathilde retired to her own royal abbey of Chelles, near Paris where she lived out her final twenty years serving in the lowliest of tasks at the abbey. It was her pleasure to take her position after the novices, serving the poor and infirm with her own hands.  The Reliquary believed to have held her bones was found to contain a red cloak with yellow fringe, ordinarily forbidden by monastic rules yet someone evidentially decided that she deserved a burial appropriate to her worldly status rather than reflective of her vows taken as part of her religious profession.  Her Vita Baldechildis/Vita Bathildis reginae Francorum in Monumenta Germania Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovincarum  was  written soon after her death and gives great detail of her life. 
​
Map of Merovingian Kingdoms
​References and Further Reading
  • “Bathildis.”   Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Franks, Merovingian Kings, Chapter 2 Kings of the Franks [451/157]-751, (Merovingians), Chlothachar, Dagobert , Childebert.  Web. 30 May 2014. //fmg.ac/Projects/ MedLands/MEROVINGIANS.htm.
  • Fell, Christine.  Women in Anglo Saxon England and the Impact of 1066.  British Museum Publications, 1984.
  • Geary, Patrick  J.  Readings in Medieval History: The Early Middle Ages.  Toronto Press. 2010.
  • Jackson-Laufer, Guida M.  Women Who Ruled: A Biographical Encyclopedia.  Barnes & Noble Books, 1998.
  • Koman, Alan J.  A Who’s Who of Your Ancestral Saints.  Genealogical Publishing Co., 2010.
  • “Regent Dowager Queen Bathildis of Neustrie, Bourgogne and Austrasie (France).”  Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership, Women in Power 500-750, Female leaders and Women in other positions of political authority of  independent states and self-governing understate  entities.  Web.  06 December 2014.   //www.guide2womenleaders.com/womeninpower/Womeninpower02.htm.
  • “Saint Bathildis”    Our Orthodox Life.    //ourorthodoxlife.blogspot.com/2010/12/saint-bathildis.html​
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  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Membership >
      • Genealogical Sources
  • Women of Consequence
    • Early Middle Ages (500-1000) >
      • St. Adelaide of Burgundy
      • St. Bathilde
      • St. Bertha of Kent
      • St. Clothilde
      • St. Olga of Kiev
      • St. Theophana
    • High Middle Ages (1000-1300) >
      • Adelaide of Turin and Susa
      • St. Adela of Normandy & England
      • Anne of Kiev
      • Berengaria of Castile
      • Blanche of Castile
      • Ela, Countess of Salisbury
      • Eleanor of Aquitaine
      • Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
      • Margaret de Quincy
      • Matilda, the Empress
      • Matilda (Eadgyth) of Scotland
      • Nicholaa de la Haye
      • Sikelgaita, heiress of Salerno
    • Late Middle Ages (1300-1500) >
      • Caterina Sforza
      • Dorothea of Brandenburg
      • Elizabeth de Clare, 11th Lady of Clare
      • Isabella d’Este
      • Isabella I of Castile
      • Isabella of France
      • Jeanne de Belleville
      • Joanna of Flanders
      • Lucrezia Tornabuoni
      • Margaret Beaufort
      • Philippa of Hainault
  • Roll of Honor
    • Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians
    • Anna Comnena, Princess of Byzantium
    • Beatriz Gallindo, La Latina
    • Christine de Pizan
    • Emma of Normandy
    • St. Hildegard von Bingen
    • Hrotsvit von Gandersheim
    • Jacqueline Felice de Almania
    • St. Joan of Arc
    • Matilda of Tuscany
    • St. Rodegunda (Radegund)
    • St. Theodora, Byzantine Empress
    • Trota of Salerno
  • Connections
  • Genealogical Charts
    • House of Sforza
    • Welsh Ancestry of English Royalty
    • Descendants of Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
    • Houses of della Rovere and Gonzaga
    • House of Este
    • House of Trastamara
    • Lords of Clisson
    • Descendants of Jeanne la Flamme
    • House of Medici
    • Genealogy of Nicholaa de la Haye
    • Welsh Kings
  • Maps
    • Early Middle Ages >
      • Kingdom of Burgundy
      • Merovingian Kingdoms
      • Kent England
      • Principality of Kiev, Drevlyans
      • Thuringi & Franci, 6th century Europe
      • Quedlinburg, Germany, circa 962 AD
    • High Middle Ages >
      • Turin & Susa, Italy circa 1050 AD
      • Europe circa 1000 AD
      • Spanish Kingdoms 1210 AD
      • France & Burgundy circa 1032 AD
      • England & France 1152-1327 AD
      • Salisbury, England
      • England & France in the Reign of Henry I
      • Wales
      • Lincoln, England
      • Norman Lands in Italy & Sicily
    • Late Middle Ages >
      • Forli, Italy
      • Sweden circa 1658
      • Usk, Wales and Cambridge, England
      • Ferrera & Mantuga, Italy
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • England & France 1152-1327
      • Clisson, Anjou, France
      • Brittany, France
      • Florence, Italy
      • England & Wales circa 1399
      • Hainault
    • Roll of Honor >
      • Kingdom of Mercia and Surrounding Kingdoms
      • Byzantine Empire 1000-1100
      • Iberian Peninsula 1257-1492
      • Paris, France
      • Dominions of Cnut
      • Bingen, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Gandersheim, Germany circa 962 AD
      • Military Campaign of Joan of Arc
      • Canossa & Tuscany, Italy
      • Eastern Roman Empire circa 565 AD
      • Duchy of Salerno
  • Members Only
    • The Board
    • Bylaws
    • Meetings
    • Newsletter
    • Pictures
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