I am glad that C. B. has questioned the propriety of the epithet "female
monster," which some of your correspondents have applied to Queen
Brunehilda. Knowing how the passion and prejudice that characterise
party spirit have under our own observation been able to distort facts
and blacken characters, we should receive with the greater caution the
statements of those who, if they were free, which is hardly possible,
from a strong bias, lived in an age when exact information was hardly
possible to obtain, and when the most odious calumnies could defy
refutation. From the success with which Brunehilda maintained the
sovereignty of her husband's kingdom through a long life, I should
conclude that she was a woman of great abilities as well as energy; and
the terms in which Gregory the Great addresses her, tend to confirm this
opinion. And in reference to this it seems somewhat surprising that it
should not have struck those who first raised this question, that the
evidence of the "wise and virtuous pontiff" was at least as good as that
of the historian who might be neither wise nor virtuous. Gregory is
surely as powerful to raise Brunehilda, as Brunehilda to pull down
Gregory. But the plain fact is, that there is a tendency to be
hyperbolical in our estimation of crowned heads; in all probability, if
one was no monster the other was no saint.
The circumstances in favour of the more favourable view of Brunehilda's
character, are sufficiently well attested. That she was the superior in
every respect to Fredegunda probably she felt herself, and as probably
the latter was made to feel. Gregory of Tours was not merely struck by
the beauty of her person and her engaging manner, but he has also
remarked upon her good sense and her agreeable conversation. Sisterly
affection appears in the first instance to have precipitated her into a
conflict that ended but with her life. Her sister's murder was followed
by those of Sigebert and Merowig; and it is not a little remarkable that
though it is not doubted who was the instigator of these crimes, the
name of "monster" is never applied to Fredegunda, but reserved for the
familiar appellation of her victim. When we consider how generally vague
are the charges against Brunehilda, and, regarding what is otherwise
known of her, how improbable, I think some suspicion of an undue leaning
on the part of the Frankish historians will not be altogether misplaced.
My own opinion is that she was one of those remarkable women who from
time to time astonish the world; one, whom for her superior knowledge
and acquirements, the rumour of a rude age gifted with supernatural
powers. And I am farther inclined to think that in the course of time
the characters reported of her from opposite sources became finally so
antagonistic, that they came to be considered as those of two distinct
persons; and with a reference to the eternal enmity between Fredegunda
and herself, she became more world-wide famous than has been hitherto
supposed, as both the Criemhilda and Brunehilda of the _Nibelungen
Noth_. Many circumstances may be brought forward to support this latter
view.
[Footnote 8: Why do your correspondents adopt the barbarous French
corrupted form of this name, "Brunéhaut?"]