Fastrada, Wife of Charlemagne

Fastrada was the third wife of Charles the Great. She married Charles in 783, was queen for eleven years, had two daughters, and died at 794, when she was in her mid-twenties. Besides that briefest of bios, things get hazy. But let’s see what we can do.

Charles lived in an age when a king could be expected to have several intimate relationships with women, some of whom were wives, and others concubines. The children of wives could inherit titles and lands, while the children of concubines faced more challenges.^1.See, for example, Grifo, son of Charles Martel’s last concubine. That did not end well. Wives were taken for political reasons, while concubines (perhaps) had a more personal connection.

Fastrada was a wife taken to cement a political relationship. Pierre Riche notes that of Charles’ four wives, “Desiderata was to have sealed an alliance with the Lombard kingdom; Hildegard, the mother of eight royal children, came from Swabia; Fastrada was the daughter of a count in eastern Francia; and Liutgard, the fourth and last wife, stemmed from a Alemannian family.”^2.Riche, The Carolingians, p. 135. The Revised Royal Annals mention that Fastrada was “the daughter of count Radolf.”^3.Revised Royal Annals, in King, year 783, p. 118.

Charles was in the middle of the Saxon Wars at the time, but there’s nothing in the sources that indicate why it was count Radolf’s daughter that was particularly marriageable. Charles apparently felt it was important to be married however. His second wife Hildegard died on April 30 of 783 (after eight pregnancies in twelve years of marriage), and then his mother Bertrada died on July 12. Charles returned from the front, to Worms, and married Fastrada on October 6. While Charles no doubt approved the choice, there’s no way to know how involved he was in the selection of a bride (Berbero makes an odd statement, “Charles, however, did not like to be on his own.”).^4.Berbero, Father of a Continent, p. 137.

Once married Fastrada set out to do a queen’s duties, and she produced two children. Both were daughters, which under other circumstances might have been an issue, but Charles already had four sons and three other daughters. Fastrada was not a stay-at-home queen. In 785, during Charles’ triumphal tour of Saxony, “he bade his wife, the lady Fastrada, together with his sons and daughters, join him.”^5.Royal Annals, King, year 785, p. 83. Obviously Fastrada was expected to be mother to all of the king’s children, not just her own. Two years later he was again in the east, where “the most gentle king joined his wife, the lady queen Fastrada, in the city of Worms where they rejoiced and were happy in each other’s company.”^6.Royal Annals, King, year 787, p. 83. There’s not enough data to determine if being “happy each in other’s company” led to another child.

Another of a queen’s duties was the raising of royal children. “The acculturation of noble boys was an important responsibility of noble women.”^7.Noble, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, p. 232, n. 29. In 791 Charles was fighting the Avars (a tribe east of Bavaria). His oldest child Louis, by his second wife Hildegard, was then ten years old, and Charles wanted to expose the boy to campaign life as early as possible. The boy met his father at Regensburg, the capital of Bavaria, on the Danube. There he was “girded with a sword,” and accompanied Charles on campaign. Then “he was ordered to return to Regensburg and to stay there with Queen Fastrada until his father’s return.”^8.The Astronomer, Life of Louis, ch. 6, in Noble, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, p. 232.

Fairly normal events in the life of a queen, but after that things get weird.

Einhard relates that there were two separate palace conspiracies against Charles during this time. In 785-6 a Count Hardrad of Thuringia led some kind of revolt. Almost nothing else is known, other than the mention in Einhard. Then in 792 Charles’ own son Pepin the Hunchback led some kind of rebellion. Again, almost nothing is known, but at least Pepin’s revolt, unlike that of Hardrad, was mentioned in the Annals. Now the interesting thing about these revolts is that the sources blame Fastrada!

The Revised Annals say that Pepin and several others revolted “because they could not endure, so they declared, the cruelty of queen Fastrada.”^9.Revised Royal Annals, King, year 792, p. 194. Einhard goes on to say, “But it is [widely] believed that the cruelty of Queen Fastrada was the cause and source of these conspiracies, since in both cases these men conspired against the king because it looked as if [Charles] had savagely departed from his usual kind and gentle ways by consenting to the cruel ways of his wife.”^10.Einhard, Life, in Dutton, Charlemagne’s Courtier, ch. 20, pp. 29-30.

These accusations are not buttressed by any other sources or details, which is enormously frustrating. Usually the most extreme thing Charles is accused of is the massacre of the Saxons at Verden, but that was in 782, a year before his marriage to Fastrada.

Charles’ relations with her seem to have been cordial, as noted above. There is also a letter from him to her, dated 791. He addresses her as “our dear and well beloved wife, Queen.”^11.For some reason, all proper names are omitted from the manuscript, per Loyn and Percival. Charles conveys an “affectionate greeting… to our sweet daughters.” He then relates a successful victory over the Avars, and the three days of litanies, “to grant us peace, health and victory and a successful journey.”^12.While this could be the same Avar campaign as mentioned above, Charles does not mention Louis. The litanies included abstaining from meat and wine, and he asks her “to consider… how these same litanies may be performed there also. As for yourself, we leave it for you to decide how much your health will permit.”^13.Letter 40, Loyn and Percival, Reign of Charlemagne, p. 134-5.

Clearly Charles had some kind of feelings for Fastrada. Indeed, like any soldier on campaign, he wants more mail from home. In the letter he goes on to say, “It was a surprise to us that no messenger or letter of yours reached us after Regensburg; we would ask you therefore to inform us more frequently of your health and of anything else that you please.”

Others in the court apparently did not share his affection. While there are no letters between Fastrada and Alcuin, who joined the court in 782, there are several between he and Charles’ next wife, Liutgard.^14.As observed in Allott, Alcuin of York. After Liutgard’s death, “[t]he poets of the palace bestowed much praise on her and mourned her when she died.”^15.Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire, p. 40.

Obviously no such honors were bestowed upon Fastrada when she passed. She was attending the synod of Frankfurt with Charles in 794 when she died. No cause or preamble is given. One scholar thinks she was between 23 and 29 when she died, but that is based on nothing more than an expectation that noblewomen were between 12 and 18 years old when they married.^16.Wemple, Women in Frankish Society, p. 199.

So what can we take from the life Fastrada, queen of the Franks? Her story is probably typical of other wives of high-ranking men. Born into the nobility, used as a political pawn, and measured by her ability to breed and rear children. Some women were beloved, while others were vilified. Personally I don’t think there’s any way Fastrada somehow led Charles into a life of cruelty. Charles must have been one of the strongest personalities to ever walk life’s stage, and I doubt that his third wife managed to twist him to her evil ways.^17.Fichtenau thought that Einhard was actually trying to obliquely warn his patron Louis of the perils of an over-bearing wife.

Was Fastrada simply a noble provincial girl who didn’t play the game of thrones quite as well as others, and ended up tarnished? Or did she truly wield a malevolent influence at court, and deserve her reputation? As usual, we’ll never know.