Beyond Baby Making - Kim Rendfield on Frankish Queendom

Though our periods are separated by centuries (The Ax and the Vase is set at the birth of the Merovingian dynasty; The Cross and the Dragon during the Carolingian), the legend of Frankish queens is common to both our research.  She writes that the role of women, particularly queens, went far beyond the imperative to provide heirs.

Queen Saint Clotilde, certainly, didn't earn that "Saint" honor by way of her passivity; she was an active participant in her husband's court; as was his rather less honorably famous mother, Basina.  Clotilde is known to have baptized one son without permission, to have worked with Bishop (also Saint) Remigius of Rheims in Clovis' conversion and eventual baptism.  She even gained some negative fame for her love of spending money on the Church - a tale remains that she defended her endowments, as not having come out of the royal treasury.  I even lifted a certain legend of a Frankish queen, who threatens an enemy with tonsure by sword through the neck, and attributed it to her in a scene involving one of the many conquests by Clovis of his own kinsmen.

In the excerpt in the sidebar at the right, "Queen", Clotilde's character is frankly little in evidence.  We've barely met her, at this point in Ax, and she is still very young, not yet sure of her position.  As she grows and thrives, we watch her shift from timidity to passion, and even occasional ferocity.  In the legend I mention above, it is a demonstration of power which leaves her shaken, but cements her esteem with her king and husband.

A great deal of time in my research was spent in the analysis, inventory, and understanding of grave goods.  Grave goods, far beyond simply examples of wealth, were also votive offerings.  At the very beginning of the novel, the famed bees of Childeric are a stark example of this, and later we see a dead infant buried with many snails, a mysterious and mystical evocation of protection, it seems.  The graves of women were fascinating, and one in particular is highly documented, including everything from the fine textiles the Frankish woman was dressed in, to the extremely rich and man-sized jewels with which she was bedecked.  The richness of this woman's grave is an illustration of the highly developed arts of the period - from clothing to carved gems to cloisonne' to fine personal tools and adornments.  More than anything, it testifies to the height of esteem this noble lady held - and hers is not a unique entombment.  Frankish women - queens and wealthy or noble ladies - had both wealth and power (as Clotilde testifies in her defense, as to not using the treasury, she used her *own* funds toward the gifts she gave to her religion).