Wonder Woman of the Week: Brunhilda of Austrasia

Brunhilda of Austrasia was a rare example of a ruling woman during the times of the Dark Ages which saw the massive ruralization in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire. Leadership in Western Europe at this time saw the rise of power in landowners and the loss of power among mega-monarchies (think imperial power). Vassals- in charge of the smallest unit of land management- rose to the rank of warlords requiring the kings of Europe to either surrender to the strength of their underlings or to fight back and cement their power with strict rule. Brunhilda chose the second.

Brunhilda married into the royal family of Austrasia- a region of modern-day France which was part of the confederation of Frankish kingdoms known as Francia. The region at the time was still considered Germanic due to the earlier rise of the Frankish Germanic Tribe at and around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. Brunhilda's personality (comparable more to that of the Vikings to the northeast than to her own contemporary Frankish women) often got her in trouble, but when her husband died in 575, Brunhilda- and her aggressive personality- took to the throne as regent of the kingdom.

Regency in the Middle Ages could be complicated, but in Brunhilda's case; so long as she maintained the power of the monarchy and suppressed the power of the vassal landowners, she remained head-of-state. Brunhilda used the new military reforms spreading across Western Europe (the new knights bound by law of chivalry) to her advantage in keeping her landowners both submissive and happy, but also to keep the other kingdoms around her from invading.

Brunhilda's proverbial iron fist could only keep her subjects and her enemies in fear for so long however. A princess eager to steal the throne of Brunhilda's sister murdered the rival and royally pissed off Brunhilda who later hired an assassin to kill her sister's murderer. In retaliation, Brunhilda's husband was killed and Brunhilda was thrown in jail. Brunhilda later escaped and assembled her army on the fields of Francia where she fought the combined armies of her enemies. In the ensuing carnage of the battle; Brunhilda was captured while fighting beside her soldiers, lashed to a team of horses, and had her limbs torn from her body in a brutal display of power against the warrior queen. Brunhilda's biography would later go on to inspire the story of Brunhilda and Siegfried as told in Die Walkurie.