Aldofled of the Franks Queen of Italy

Aldofled of the Franks Queen of Italy
Aldofled of the Franks Queen of Italy

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Aldofled is to all intents and purposes a true mystery. We ignore practically everything about her, apart from the identity of her parents and the indisputable facts of who her brother and husband were: the dates of birth and death are at least doubtful (we are not even sure whether she was Clovis's older or younger sister), same as that of her marriage. Even her name is uncertain: the most accredited version of it is Audofled, but Autofled and Albofred are also used. Personally, I chose to use the Aldofled version solely because I find it more attuned to the character.

Considering her relationships, it is truly surprising how the character of Clovis's sister, due to become the first Queen of Italy, is so obscure. Also, that to this day no one has really been interested in studying her figure under the historical point of view. The only possible explanation for this, is that Aldofled was intentionally "removed" from the chronicles according to the trusted and tested Roman practice of Damnatio Memoriae, which consisted in the systematic removal of the character from the chronicles and iconography as it was unwelcome to the hierarchies in control of what at the time were the only "media" available, nominally literature, painting and sculpture. In the imperial age these hierarchies were represented by the Augustus of the moment and his chancellery, while starting from the beginning of the Dark Ages only the Church remains... With the difference that while the successive Augusti and their contemporaries’ chroniclers often rehabilitated the "removed” character, the Church by its nature maintained its position through sufficient generations of writers and artists that the memory of the person in question was completely or almost completely lost.

 

What could have been the reason why the sister of a king acclaimed by the Church as Clovis and wife of a sovereign highly regarded by contemporary and later chroniclers, and who we know to have lived relatively long, met such hostility on the part of the hierarchies’ clergymen of her time, to require her crude cancellation from history?

We do not know.

We can only speculate, and the most obvious possibility concerns the heresies of the time: Aldofled, like her parents and brothers, was born a pagan. Given her marriage history, it is plausible to believe she converted to Aryan Christianity upon marriage, and this in itself is a cause of ostracism by the Catholic Church (which at the time was defined as "Chalcedonian" in the East and "Nicene” in the West), but we know many Aryan rulers of the time - queens included - much better than we know of Aldofled, even when it refers to characters with a very limited historical impact. This suggests that, apart from the heresy of her supposed religious beliefs, there was something else that attracted the Church's blame: aspects that could represent a bad example for the devout Christians of the time. Here, of course, we enter the field of imagination, and therefore no historian has ever dared of speculating. The writer certainly does not have the ambition to define himself as a historian, and therefore in the context of our narration we have made hypotheses that appear congruous with the situation of the time, and therefore relatively plausible.

 

The first observation that comes to bear is that if the Church has bothered to apply the Damnatio Memoriae to a prominent person of this time, she must have committed something relevant, much more than simply having existed and been a heretic: she must have been successful in her actions even despite her heathen beliefs, and therefore represented a dangerous example.

The observation that follows suit is that while it is complicate but still possible for the Church of the time to erase the memory of an important person, it was less easy to erase her actions, and if these were relevant enough to require the Damnatio procedure, probably rather than erasing them it was more convenient to belittle them or possibly attribute them to others who in some way represented a less dangerous bad example.

Chilperico e Basina, parent of Aldofled e Clovis.

Considering that Aldofled leaves Clovis's court relatively early - that is, before Clovis embarks on his impressive series of territorial conquests - it is reasonable to think that Aldofled’s offending acts may have been attributed to her husband.

Without entering into too much detail of Aldofled's royal consort exploits, it is interesting to observe how many of his numerous biographers note that, although he was a very valuable military leader all his life and has always enjoyed undisputed loyalty on the part of his people, his diplomatic and administrative skills were revealed almost suddenly at the time of the conquest of his kingdom, and abruptly dissolved in old age. Considering that the period of the conquest of Italy corresponds to that of the supposed marriage with Clovis's sister and that the date of Aldofled's death is unknown, it is plausible to think that the most profitable political phase of her husband's reign corresponds precisely to that of their marriage.

It is also interesting to note how the diplomatic and administrative qualities we are talking about, largely correspond to those shown by Clovis in his own kingdom: the ability to win the sympathy and loyalty of Latin subjects, to cooperate with the Church, to forge lasting alliances through an ambitious and dynamic marriage policy, and to feed a balanced economy between large estates and small landholdings. Once again, it is not demonstrable but it is plausible to suppose that such political considerations originated from similar personalities such as those of the two Merovingian offsprings.

 

 

 

If these considerations are valid, it is even more interesting to note how these political qualities are absolutely commendable even from the ecclesiastical point of view of the time, provided they are implemented by male sovereigns; on the contrary, if pursued by women they become dangerous examples of successful authority exercised by women in a period in which the Church, permeated by the misogynistic teachings of St. Paul and St. Augustine, was endeavouring to compress and limit the female function to an merely supporting role in the political, social, and even economic environment.

Basically, if Aldofled in addition to being a heretic also proved to be a skilled sovereign, it is plausible that she attracted not only the hostility of the Church, but also activated the need to cancel her acts from history to avoid presenting a dangerously negative example for subsequent generations of rulers. It is a fact that the next few examples of charismatic Dark Ages queens are still held up as extremely negative: good queens were inevitably just fine wool spinners and charitable mothers.

In the narrative cycle of the After Rome, Aldofled possesses skills, characteristics and peculiarities similar to those of her more celebrated brother, but also specific ambitions and frustrations of her female condition: in many ways she is a feminist of her time, where inevitably personal determination goes hand in hand to the selfishness and lack of scruples typical of the period.

Aldofled is neither good nor bad, just as the Church which opposes her and for which she herself nurtures an understandable and decidedly reciprocated hostility: both simply play their role in a historical period that sees the individual rights drastically compressed for the benefit of barbarian rulers alone... Provided they are male.

The Merovingians have a consolidated fame, and Clovis will make it imperishable in spite of his idle descendants: their leadership capability would have almost mystical characteristics; given his successes, we must believe that these were indeed remarkable and could have been inherited, or even shared with a sibling.

Aldofled therefore in our story moves on the scenario of the end of the V Century with a naive curiosity dictated by ignorance and a ruthless determination induced by ambition and supported by her remarkable family characteristics.

There are no elements on her youth spent with the Franks, and we do not even know the exact date of her wedding as the few sources on the matter are contradictory. However, it seems likely that the marriage between the two most prominent Teutonic dynasties of the time was celebrated before the invasion of Italy, and this hypothesis would be consistent with the idea that Aldofled is at the origin of her husband's dynastic politics, which in fact began immediately after. Had the marriage been subsequent to the invasion, then it would have taken place when the war was raging in order for their eldest daughter to be born on the date set by the chronicles, and this appears unlikely given the known war events. On the other hand, if the marriage preceded the invasion, it would have taken place at a time when the husband and the kingdom of the Franks had no relations for obvious geographical reasons, unless the bride may have briefly been a hostage or an ambassador to Constantinople, as was actually the custom at the time. In fact, Aldofled appears unusually adult on the date of the marriage, at a time when marriage around the age of fifteen was the norm, and therefore her sending to the imperial court by her brother appears consistent not only with customs but also with the Clovis's diplomatic skills and habits. Finally, a marriage date prior to the Italian campaign would confirm how the dynastic politics developed simultaneously with the campaign itself would have been inspired by Aldofled on the basis of the experience gained in Constantinople through her own marriage.

 

The above outlined scenario appears even more plausible when we take in consideration the education received by Aldofled's daughter, who all chroniclers describe as very "Roman" and not very "barbaric" at all, with all the consequences that will come. If Aldofled, strong of the same pro-imperial opinions of her brother (who was the most solid ally of the empire in the West) and a supporter of integration with the Latin population by the Teutonic nobility, managed in first person the formation of the young princess, it appears clear that the latter did not grow up according to the ideas of the king and his court (which, actually, were clearly hostile to both the empire and the integration policy).

The presence in Ravenna of a character like Aldofled is outlined here also explains at least in part the sudden deterioration of the relations between Teutons and Latins towards the end of her husband's reign. The fact that at his death the regency went to their daughter indicates how Aldofled pre-died him, and at this point it becomes reasonable to believe how the real policy of coexistence with the Latin element was due precisely to the influence of Aldofled, tending to pursue the same social lines as her brother, and that at her death this policy would come to an end causing the decline of the kingdom.

From this point of view, Aldofled's contribution to her husband's successful government appears fundamental, and her influence extremely strong; a similar level of authority on the part of a queen, moreover officially an Aryan one, could only be disliked by the Church, and this validates the Damnatio Memoriae that followed.

Of course, in the absence of documented historical evidence, all this remains only a theoretical scenario and absolutely a not demonstrable one. However, it appears consistent with the available data and with the general context of the period, and therefore provides a suitable basis for the plot of our history. It also provides yet another basis in support of the concept that behind every great man in history there is always at least one great woman.

 

We therefore honour Aldofled, the first Queen of Italy.