William Frankle: On Manuscripts, Executions, and Scholarly Epiphanies

There is perhaps nothing more exciting for a medieval history nerd than getting their hands on a real medieval manuscript. Prior to my Parisian research trip, I had only managed to get my grubby little hands on two other manuscripts, but what I was able to see at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Richelieu (BnF) was by far the most special. 

The manuscript I saw was a version of Les Grandes Chroniques de France, which is a type of document produced in late medieval France, which, as the name suggests, chronicle the major historical events of the French kingdom. Often used as a tool of legitimation by French kings, the events chosen to be illustrated can say quite a bit about contemporary attitudes and the political goals of the ruling dynasty. 

My project deals specifically with illustrations of Queen Brunhild’s (d. 613) execution. She was an early medieval queen, ruling as regent (meaning, in the name of someone else) for her son, grandson, and (with less success) her great-grandsons, putting her in a position of power for nearly five decades. However, this would all come crashing down in the most dramatic of fashions, when her nephew, the future king Clothar II (d. 625), gathered Brunhild together with all her descendants, and after executing her grandchildren, publicly drew and quartered the queen at age seventy. 

This scene has been documented in many Grandes Chroniques with varying levels of brutality; my theory being that the pictures tend towards brutality following a succession crisis that forbid royal female inheritance—the undignified manner in which Brunhild was shown, could be a warning for other noblewomen. However, the manuscript I studied while in France, did not contain the illustration of Brunhild (it was undigitized, every page was a surprise!). At first I was disappointed, but my dismay was quickly quelled by means of the elaborate illuminations that were present. I began to wonder about the significance not just of the shift in formal qualities amongst the illustrations of Brunhild–but the importance of the illustration’s absence in certain copies. 

The manuscript I examined was an earlier example of a Grandes Chroniques, and the absence of Brunhild’s execution is telling about what was considered important to the people making and commissioning the work. This line of thought opened up new queries for me: How did Brunhild go from being excluded to taking up full page illustrations? Is her inclusion in Les Grandes Chroniques a statement in itself (regardless of the formal qualities of the picture)? When did Brunhild start being included regularly, and to serve what goal? 

Although only one manuscript, it was impactful for a variety of reasons. Not seeing what I expected shifted my thinking and presented new ways of exploring this topic. I hope to include a thorough examination and timeline of when Brunhild’s execution starts being depicted in my final essay. And of course, nothing is more wonderful than getting the honor of flipping 800 year old pages.