Audovère

Audovère , Audevère or Audovera (533 - 580), was the first wife of Chilpéric Ier (539-584) and queen of Neustrie, before being betrayed by Frédégonde.

Girl of an intendant of the palate, it marries prince Chilpéric who becomes King of Neustrie in 561 with died of his father Clotaire I {{er}}, king of the Francs, who burst his kingdom between his four sons. She gave to the king six children, of which Mérovée, Théodebert, Clovis, and Chilsinde.

She engages shortly after her weddings with her service as chambrière, Frédégonde, girl of the count d' Ardennes. Ambitious young woman, this one allured the new king, becomes her concubine and obtains from him a secret promise of marriage. Profiting that the king left to fight in Saxony against his brother Sigebert, Frédégonde misuses the naivety of the Audevère queen, in him makes hold itself its sixth child Chilsinde on the baptismal funds. The queen is unaware of that while acting of the kind, it makes a heavy fault with the eyes of the Church. Become godmother of its own child and thus the Gossip of her husband, it cannot divide any more its layer with the king under penalty of being marked of Inceste.

At its return of war, Chilpéric Ier, put at the current by Frédégonde is obliged to repudiate Audevère not to be excommunicated and sends it at once with his/her daughter Chilsinde in a convent of the city of the Mans.

In 575, his/her son Théodebert is killed in a combat.

In 580, Frédégonde which meanwhile became queen after having made strangle in its bed in 567, the second queen Galswinthe and which is pushed by a true frenzy of assassinations, sends her killers in the convent. They rape the young person Chilsinde and strangle Audevère before precipitating it in a torrent. Morally destroyed, the Chilsinde young person will become nun.

Frédégonde will also make cut the throat of Clovis the last child living of Audovère.

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