Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

426 15. family and friendship in the west
and her partner burnt. 94 In both the Frankish and the Burgundian kingdoms
intercourse between a male slave and a free woman was also regarded
as heinous: among the Burgundians, if the woman had not consented to
having sex, the slave was to be killed; if she did consent, both were to die. 95
In most instances, but not in all, the woman was less free in sexual
matters than the male. This does not mean, however, that women were less
important to the family line than were males. Indeed, one might argue that
the need for them to confine their sexual activity only emphasizes their centrality
to the family and the descent group, which depended upon their
sexual purity. This is clear from the importance accorded to virginity at the
time of marriage, and from the morgengab owed by the husband to his wife
on taking that virginity. 96 It is also clear from the value placed on nubile and
pregnant women in the law codes. 97 It is clearest of all in the alarm caused
by the circulation of slurs directed against the virtue of Chilperic I’s queen,
Fredegund, slurs which necessarily called into question the legitimacy of
the king’s heirs. 98 From a legal point of view, women were thought of primarily
as wives and mothers. 99 Among the Burgundians, a woman who left
her husband, apparently as an act of divorce, was smothered in mire. 100 In
the seventh century, however, women of the Merovingian kingdom had a
little more say than is apparent in the early law codes. Legal formulae, many
of which were based on Roman law but which seem to have served generally
as models for regional communities within the Romanized areas of the
Frankish kingdom, recognized the possibility of divorce by mutual
consent. 101 Also in the early seventh century, Chlothar II explicitly
acknowledged that a woman might refuse to marry if she desired to follow
the religious life. 102 In certain limited respects Germanic women had
gained some of the rights of their male counterparts.
At the highest level of Germanic society the queen was always a figure
of considerable importance, and not simply as the recipient of the sperm
of the royal male. On a number of occasions in the late sixth and seventh
century the person of the queen seems to have been crucial to the succession:
this can be argued for Goiswinth among the Visigoths, 103 Gundiperga
among the Lombards 104 and Bilichildis among the Franks. 105 Nor was it
94 C.Th. ix.9.1; see also iv.12.1, 3–7 where the woman is enslaved.
95 PLS 13, 7–8; Liber Constitutionum xxxv, 1–2, ed. L. R. de Salis, Leges Burgundionum, MGH, Leges 2
(1) (Hanover 1892). It seems that this legislation was expected to apply to the whole population of the
kingdom, both Germanic and Roman: Wood (1986) 11.
96 PLS 13, 14; Liber Constitutionum xxiv, 1. 97 PLS 67 e. 98 Wood (1993b) 257–9.
99 For a general exploration of these issues see Stafford (1983); Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 120–39.
100 Liber Constitutionum xxxiv, 1.
101 Marculf, Formulae ii.30, ed. K. Zeumer, MGH, Formulae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi (Hanover 1886);
Formulae Turonenses 19, ed. Zeumer.
102 Chlothar II, Edictum 18, ed. A. Boretius, MGH, Capitularia Regum Francorum 1 (Hanover 1883).
103 Nelson (1991) 469. 104 Fredegar, iv.50, 51, 70, ed. B. Krusch, MGH, SRM 2 (Hanover 1888).
105 Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms 223.
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