Ingund
She was a Frankish princess of Austrasia, the daughter of Sigebert I and Brunhilda, and, as part of a policy of political alliances agreed upon between her mother Brunhilda and her grandmother, the Visigothic queen Goswintha, she married Hermenegild, the son of the Visigothic king Leovigild. Young in years but firm in conviction, Ingund carried with her a resolute Catholic faith into the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania, ruled by an Arian monarchy—a confessional divide that would decisively shape her fate.
Upon her arrival at the court of Toledo, Ingund was initially well received by her future husband and by her parents-in-law, Leovigild and Goswintha. This favourable reception, however, quickly deteriorated as a result of Ingund’s steadfast refusal to submit to Arian baptism. Her resistance provoked a violent response from her grandmother Goswintha, who sought to compel her conversion by force. According to Gregory of Tours, “the queen completely lost her temper,” seized the young princess by the hair, threw her to the ground, and kicked her until she was covered in blood, before ordering that she be stripped naked and cast into the baptismal pool.
This situation seemed to improve when Leovigild associated Hermenegild with the throne and sent him to Baetica. There, Ingund met Saint Leander of Seville, who became her supporter, and she succeeded in converting her husband to Catholicism. In this context, Hermenegild rebelled against his father in the year 580.
Leovigild advanced south with the clear intention of crushing the rebellion. Meanwhile, Ingund appealed urgently to her mother and her brother for assistance, but no Frankish aid materialized. The Byzantines initially provided troops and supplies in support of the newly married rebels. After Seville fell, Hermenegild and Ingund escaped the besieged city and made their way toward Córdoba, which lay within the Byzantine sphere of influence. Before early March of 584, however, Leovigild succeeded in neutralizing this support by offering the Byzantine commanders at Córdoba a bribe of thirty thousand solidi. They accepted the payment and remained inactive in their camp while the king assaulted the city, disregarding Hermenegild’s desperate appeals for help.
Leovigild ultimately suppressed the rebellion of his son Hermenegild and ordered his execution in 585. After Hermenegild’s defeat, Ingund was separated from her husband and came under Byzantine control. Owing to her Frankish origin and dynastic significance, Ingund and her infant son were transferred through Byzantine territories in North Africa, where they became objects of diplomatic interest in the broader context of relations between the Visigothic kingdom, the Frankish realms, and the Byzantine Empire.
On the way to Constantinople, Ingund’s imperial captors had stopped in the port of Carthage, where she took sick and died rather suddenly. The most likely cause was the bubonic plague, which was resurging in the area at the time. Ingund was buried there, and her escort continued on with its single hostage, her baby boy Athanagild. His maternal grandmother, Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia, made persistent diplomatic efforts to reclaim her grandson from the Byzantines, yet his precise final destiny remains uncertain in the historical record.