Editing Chlothar II (section)

==Background==

===Frankish territories in the sixth century===
[[File:Division of Gaul - 587.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The kingdom of Chlothar at the start of his reign (yellow). By 613 he had inherited or conquered all of the coloured portions of the map.]]
The domain of Clothar II was located in the territorial and political framework derived from the Frankish kingdom present at 561 at the death of [[Chlotar I|Clothar]], son of [[Clovis I|Clovis]] and grandfather of Clothar II.

On the death of Clovis in 511, four kingdoms were established with capitals at [[Reims]], [[Soissons]], [[Paris]], and [[Orléans]], [[Aquitaine]] being distributed separately. In the year 550, Clothar I, the last survivor of four brothers reunited the Frankish kingdom, and added Burgundian territory (Burgundia) by conquest.

In 561, the four sons of Clothar I followed the events of 511 similarly and split the kingdom again: [[Sigebert I]] in Reims, [[Chilperic I]] in Soissons, [[Charibert I]] in Paris, and [[Guntram]] in Orleans, which then included the Burgundian kingdom territory (Burgundia). They divided Aquitaine separately again.  Very quickly, Sigebert moved his capital from Reims to [[Metz]], while Guntram moved his from Orléans to [[Chalon-sur-Saône|Chalon]].  On the death of Charibert in 567, the land was again split between the three survivors, of greatest importance Sigebert (Metz) received Paris and Chilperic (Soissons) received Rouen.  The names Austrasia and Neustria seem to have appeared as the names of these kingdoms for the first time at this point.

===Ambitions of Fredegund===
In 560, Sigebert and Chilperic married two sisters, daughters of the Visigoth king of Spain [[Athanagild]]; princesses [[Brunhilda of Austrasia|Brunhilda]], and [[Galswintha]] respectively. However Chilperic was still very much attached to his lover and consort, [[Fredegund]], causing Galswintha to wish to return to her homeland in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]. In 568 she was murdered and within days, after a brief period of grieving, Chilperic officially married Fredegund and elevated her to a queen of a Frankish kingdom. "After this action his brothers thought that the queen mentioned above had been killed at his command..."<ref>[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/gregory-hist.asp#book4 Gregory of Tours, ''History of the Franks'', book IV, 28]</ref>

Chilperic agreed, at first, to pay a sum of money to end the feud, but not soon after decided to embark on a series of military operations against Sigebert. This was the beginning of what is called the "royal feud " which did not end until Brunhilda died in 613.  The main episodes until the assassination of Chilperic in 584 were as follows: the assassination of Sigebert (575), the imprisonment of Brunhilde and her marriage to a son of Chilperic, and the return of Brunhilda to her son Childebert II, successor of Sigebert.

Moreover, Fredegund strove to ensure her position, since she was from lower origins, by eliminating the sons that Chilperic had with his previous wife Audovera: Merovech and Clovis. Her own children, however, died at a very young age and appeared to be by foul play. When Fredegund had a son in the spring of 584, he would have been the future successor of [[Chilperic I]], if he had lived long enough.