Many years ago, when I travelled regularly to Paris for meetings, I went to the church of Saint Denis. This was the French royal church for centuries, and was the burial site for the royal family starting during the Merovingian period. One of the great finds was the tomb of Arnegunde, a queen who had been buried there in about 480 AD. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the treasures from this rich tomb were actually held at the National Archaeological Museum in Saint Germain-en-Laye.
In those pre-internet days, I simply couldn’t figure out where the museum was located. Then my job changed and I had no occasion to visit the country for almost 20 years. Last year, I finally got to see the items buried with Arnegunde, and I discovered that there was a whole new interpretation of how her clothing looked. These pictures aren’t great, but there are lots of pictures of these items around. Some excellent photos can be found in “Die Franken: Wegbereiter Europas, Mainz: 1996, p 937, 938 and 939.
In this picture, you see the huge belt buckle, her earrings, a pair of veil pins, the long stick brooch/pin used to attach her veil to her coat, two round brooches to close the top of her coat, and the ring in the centre which has the name Arnegunde engraved into it.
This picture shows Arnegunde’s garter buckles. The top set is comprised of buckle, two side plates and a strap end, with a larger strap end for a decorative thong. The bottom set is buckle, side plates and strap end for the part of the garter that was wrapped around the instep of the shoe. Instructions on how that worked (along with Suvia’s photos of the artefacts) can be found at her website: http://www.alfalfapress.com/suvia/?p=161. More details, especially on the shoes, can be found here: http://www.shoemuseum.ch/2011/08/royal-footwear/.
Finally, here are the cuffs from Arnegunde’s coat again:
So, who was Arnegunde? Arnegunde was one of the woves of Clotaire I (511-560), who was a son of Clovis. Her grave was discovered in 1959, and she was identified by her gold ring, which had the name ARNEGUNDIS engraved around a central monogram read as REGINE. She was mentioned briefly by Gregory of Tours in his History of the Francs (end of VI C). According to Gregory, the queen Ingonde, one of the wives of Clotaire I asked her husband to find a suitable husband for her sister Arnegunde. Clotaire married her himself. Their union produced Chilperic I, who inherited the kingdom of Soissons. Arnegunde died at the age of about 61, which puts her death at around 580 (if we assume she had reached the age of 20 at the time her sone was born). She showed signs in her right leg and foot of having contracted polio in childhood. She was short (1m 50 – 1m 60) and slender, and suffered from arthritis in her upper and lower spine, and Forestier’s disease (an abnormal thickening of sertain bones, often linked to diabetes).
Here is a recent interpretation of her burial clothing, showing the reddish silk coat over the violet silk tunic, and red kid shoes and red and yellow silk veil. She was wrapped in a hemp shroud, or covered with a hemp cloth.
[…] Arnegunde was King Clotaire I’s third wife. Stories tell that she married the king after her sister, Ingund (another of the king’s wives), had asked him […]
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[…] Arnegunde was King Clotaire I’s third wife. Stories tell that she married the king after her sister, Ingund (another of the king’s wives), had asked him […]
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[…] reina Arnegunda fue la tercera esposa del rey Clotario I. Las historias cuentan que se casó con el rey después de que su hermana, Ingund (otra de las esposas del rey), le […]
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