Fredegund or Fredegunda (Latin: Fredegundis; French: Frédégonde; died 8 December 597) was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Neustria.

Fredegund has traditionally been given a rather poor reputation, foremost by the accounts of Gregory of Tours, who depicts her as ruthlessly murderous and sadistically cruel, and she is known for the many stories of her cruelty, particularly for her long feud with her sister-in-law queen Brunhilda of Austrasia.

[5] In 580 AD, an epidemic of dysentery broke out in Gaul, afflicting Fredegund's husband King Chilperic and their two sons, Chlodobert and Dagobert.

Believing the plague to be a result of her sins, Fredegund burned a number of tax records she feared were unjust and encouraged Chilperic to do the same.

When Rigunth was sent off to her Visigothic fiancé in Spain Reccared, son of Liuvigild, her entourage was so laden with rich gifts that the Frankish nobles objected that the royal fisc had been depleted.

According to Gregory Halfond, it was found that a core group of a dozen bishoprics in Northern Gaul remained loyal to Fredegund and Chlothar.

After the mysterious assassination of Chilperic in 584 AD, Fredegund seized the Kings riches and took refuge in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral.

[5] The Queen later visited Praetextatus on his deathbed and offered the assistance of her physicians, which Gregory of Tours interprets as an excuse to witness the bishop's death.

[15] The tomb of Frédégonde is a mosaic figure of marble and copper, situated in the Saint Denis Basilica, having come from the abbey church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Clothar II, then the king, ordered that she be tied by the arms and hair to the tail of a young, untamed horse, and dragged through the entire army.

According to Gregory of Tours, it is understood that as queen, Fredegund involved herself in court intrigue and was responsible for numerous assassination plots on political figures and clergy alike, such as the Bishop of Rouen, Praetextatus, and King Guntram of Burgundy.

[17] The plot ultimately failed and supposedly their relationship became racked with tension, however, regardless of fact that an attempt on his life was made he still saw fit to offer Fredegund a favor in 587 which entailed freeing one of her legates who was imprisoned on charges of carrying out an assassination in her name.

[18] Furthermore, even during the reign of Fredegund’s son, King Chlothar II, Leudovald continued to receive favor from the Neustrian monarchy and was invited to attend the Council of Paris in 614.

[19] The connections he also gained from his senatorial heritage also intertwined him with the likes of King Sigebert, his wife Brunhild, and the Austrasian court which served as a rival kingdom to Neustria.

[16] As a result, Gregory of Tours portrays them as political enemies and moral opposites to the point where Brunhild receives almost no criticism within his record while Fredegund is accused of performing witchcraft, sacrilege, and even treason along with her various assassination plots.

[16] These accusations, whether real or fabricated due to court intrigue, show that Brunhild, a contemporary counterpart to Fredegund and equal status to her in queenship, also had internal enemies to contend with.

Ernest Guiraud began composing the opera Frédégonde with a libretto by Louis Gallet but did not finish before his death in 1892; it was then completed by Camille Saint-Saëns and Paul Dukas and premiered in 1895.

[citation needed] Fredegundis, an opera in three acts by Franz Schmidt, text after Felix Dahn by Bruno Hardt-Warden and Ignaz Michael Welleminsky, was composed 1916–21, and premiered in Berlin in 1922.