born 0441; 534
died 613, Renève, Burgundy
Queen of the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia .
Daughter of a king of the Visigoth s, she married the Austrasian king Sigebert I in 567. One of the most forceful monarchs of the Merovingian s, she urged Sigebert to reclaim her murdered sister's lands from Chilperic I . When her husband was assassinated in 575, Brunhild was imprisoned at Rouen. She later took refuge at Metz, where her son Childebert II had been proclaimed king, and she struggled to establish her authority over her son and the reluctant Austrasian magnates. After Childebert's death she continued to influence affairs and impose her will on her grandsons. After a long career she fell into the hands of her enemies, including the founders of the Carolingian family; she was tortured and then dragged to death by a horse.