Editing Fastrada

{{Short description|Queen of the Franks from 784 to 794}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2007}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name              = Fastrada
| title             =
| image             = 
| caption           = 
| alt               = 
| succession        = [[List of Frankish queens|Queen consort of the Franks]]
| reign             = 784–794
|consort=yes
| reign-type        = 

| suc-type          = 
| spouse            = [[Charlemagne]] (m. {{circa|783}})
| issue             = {{startplainlist}}
* [[Theodrada]]
* Hiltrude
{{endplainlist}}
| issue-link        = 
| issue-pipe        = 
| full name         = 
| house-type        = 
| father            = East Frankish Count Rudolph
| mother            = Aeda
| birth_date        = {{circa|765}}
| birth_place       = [[Ingelheim]]
| death_date        = 10 August {{death year and age|794|765}} 
| death_place       = [[Frankfurt]]
| burial_date       = 
| burial_place      = [[St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz]]
| religion          = [[Catholic Church|Catholic]]
}}
'''Fastrada''' ({{circa|765}} – 10 August 794) was [[queen consort]] of [[East Francia]] by marriage to [[Charlemagne]], as his third (or, in some sources, fourth) wife.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butz |first=Eva-Maria |date=2022-03-19 |title=The Political Dimension of Liturgical Prayers of Remembrance: Lists of Rulers in the Confraternity Books of the Carolingian Period |journal=Religions |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=263 |doi=10.3390/rel13030263 |doi-access=free |issn=2077-1444}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Bullough |first=Donald A. |title=Unsettled at Aachen |date=2003-01-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789047401803_011 |work=Alcuin |pages=432–470 |access-date=2024-01-10 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789047401803_011 |isbn=978-90-474-0180-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Life==
Fastrada was born ''circa'' 765 at [[Ingelheim]], the daughter of the powerful East Frankish Count Rudolph (also called Eadolf), and his wife, Aeda.

Fastrada became the third wife of [[Charlemagne]],<ref>As described by historians such as Pierre Riché (''The Carolingians'', p.86.), Lewis Thorpe (''Two Lives of Charlemagne'', p.216) and others. Other historians list Himiltrude, described by Einhard as a [[concubine]], as Charlemagne's first wife, and reorder his subsequent wives; accordingly Fastrada is sometimes numbered as his fourth wife. See Dieter Hägemann (''Karl der Große. Herrscher des Abendlands'', Ullstein 2003, p. 82f.), Collins (''Charlemagne'', p. 40.).</ref> marrying him in October 783 at [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], Germany, a few months after Queen Hildegard's death.<ref>{{Citation |last=Goffart |first=Walter |title=Paul the Deacon's ' Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium And the Early Design of Charlemagne's Succession |date=2023-05-11 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003417644-10 |work=Barbarians, Maps, and Historiography |pages=169–203 |access-date=2024-01-10 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781003417644-10 |isbn=978-1-003-41764-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A probable reason behind the marriage was to solidify a Frankish alliance east of the Rhine when Charles was still fighting the Saxons.

Due to her influence  [[Pepin the Hunchback]], son of Charlemagne and  [[Himiltrude]], was publicly [[tonsure]]d after an attempted rebellion against his father. Fastrada soon won a reputation for cruelty, although this is reported by chronicler [[Einhard]] in his [[Vita Karoli Magni]],<ref>
{{cite book | last = Grant | first = A.J. | title = Early lives of Charlemagne / by Eginhard and the Monk of St Gall | publisher = Moring | year = 1905 | location = London |url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Vita_Karoli_Magni }}</ref> who had not arrived at Charlemagne's court while she was still alive. Contemporary sources suggest that she played an active role alongside her husband.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/writing-the-early-medieval-west/queenship-in-dispute-fastrada-history-and-law/56CEBD9BAD26195FE7B15D51373D89CA|chapter=Queenship in Dispute: Fastrada, History and Law|last=Innes|first=Matthew|title=Writing the Early Medieval West |date=May 2018|website=Writing the Early Medieval West|pages=230–247 |doi=10.1017/9781108182386.016|isbn=9781108182386 |access-date=2019-04-09}}</ref>
A letter from 785 has survived in which Charlemagne asked Fastrada to come to the [[Eresburg]] with the children,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://regesta-imperii.digitale-sammlungen.de/regest/ri01_ri_0785-00-00_000002_000001_001_001_001_000727_000000267f |title=''Regesta Imperii'' 267f |access-date=2022-08-23 |archive-date=2016-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305001731/http://regesta-imperii.digitale-sammlungen.de/regest/ri01_ri_0785-00-00_000002_000001_001_001_001_000727_000000267f |url-status=dead }}</ref> although a letter only six years later he inquires about her health because he had not heard from her for a long time and  tells her of a victory against the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://regesta-imperii.digitale-sammlungen.de/regest/ri01_ri_0791-00-00_000001_000001_001_001_001_000844_0000000315 |title=''Regesta Imperii'' 315 |access-date=2022-08-23 |archive-date=2016-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305012813/http://regesta-imperii.digitale-sammlungen.de/regest/ri01_ri_0791-00-00_000001_000001_001_001_001_000844_0000000315 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 793, Charlemagne introduced a coin type with Fastrada on it. It is the first known Carolingian coin with a queen named on it. Scholars suggest that Charlemagne was inspired to mint this coin after [[Offa of Mercia]] had earlier done so for his wife [[Cynethryth|Cynetryth]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coupland |first=Simon |date=2023 |title=A coin of Queen Fastrada and Charlemagne |journal=Early Medieval Europe|volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1111/emed.12640 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

After Christmas 793, Charlemagne and Fastrada went from [[Wurzburg]] to [[Frankfurt]] (in present-day Germany), where she died on 10 August 794  during the Synod of Frankfurt.  Charlemagne is said to have never returned to the place of her death out of mourning for her. He had her buried at [[St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz]], before the abbey was finished, and had her silver spindle hung over the altar. Due to Archbishop [[Richulf]]'s influence, she was not buried in the [[Basilique Saint-Denis]], the burial site of almost all the Frankish and French monarchs, nor [[St. Arnulf's Abbey]] near [[Metz]].

Her tomb was of white marble, adorned with gold and statues.  After the destruction of St. Alban's Abbey in 1552, her tombstone was transferred to [[Mainz Cathedral]], where it can be seen today in the wall of the southern nave.<ref>[[Franz Dumont]], [[Ferdinand Scherf]], [[Friedrich Schütz (historian)|Friedrich Schütz]]:  Mainz - Die Geschichte der Stadt, Verlag [[Philipp von Zabern]], 1998</ref> The inscription reads as follows:

{{Verse translation
|head1=Latin|lang1=la
|
:''Fastradana  pia  Caroli  conjunx  vocitata,''
:''Cristo dilecta, jacet hoc sub marmore tecta.'' 
:''Anno Septingesimo nonagesimo quarto, ''
:''Quem númerum metro claudere musa negat.'' 
:''Rex pie quem gessit virgo licet hic cinerescit, '' 
:''Spiritus heres sit patrie que tristia nescit.''<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Gentleman's Magazine | volume=167-168 | date=1840 | author=F. Jefferies | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bafTMlsMNoC&q=editions:OCLC946744145}}</ref>
|head2=English|lang2=en
|
:The pious wife of Charles, called Fastrada,
:loved by Christ lies here covered with marble.
:In the year seven hundred and ninety-four.
:Which number to add to the meter resists.
:Pious king, whom the maiden wore, grant, if she crumbles to ashes here too,
:that their spirit be the heir of the fatherland that knows no tribulation.}}

==Children==
*[[Theodrada]] (b. 784, d. unknown), [[abbess]] of [[Argenteuil]]<ref name=Frassetto>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yW-GfElbafQC&dq=Fastrada&pg=PA163 Frassetto, Michael. ''Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation'', ABC-CLIO, 2003, p. 163] {{ISBN|9781576072639}}</ref>
*Hiltrude (b. 787, d. unknown)<ref name=Frassetto/>

==Legend and popular culture==
The Fastrada legend tells of a magic ring that Fastrada is said to have received from Charlemagne.<ref>{{cite book |author=anonymous |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27499/27499-h/27499-h.htm#Page_100 |title=Folk-lore and Legends: Germany |date=1892 |publisher=W.W. Gibbings, London}}</ref> This ring, the stone of which was a gift from a snake, bound Charlemagne to Fastrada in such a way that he did not want to release her corpse for burial even when it was already beginning to decompose. Eventually Archbishop [[Tilpin|Turpin of Reims]] took the ring and threw it in a lake near [[Aachen]].<ref>{{citation|surname1=[[Wilhelm Ruland]]|periodical=Rheinisches Sagenbuch|title=Der Ring der Fastrada|publication-place=Köln|date=1896|language=German|url=https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/ruland/rheinsag/chap025.html
}}</ref>

The [[Stephen Schwartz (composer)|Stephen Schwartz]] musical ''[[Pippin (musical)|Pippin]]'' features a stylized Fastrada, portrayed by [[Leland Palmer (actress)|Leland Palmer]] in the original 1972 Broadway cast, by [[Chita Rivera]] in the 1981 television film, and by [[Charlotte d'Amboise]] in the 2013 Broadway revival.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pippin 2013|url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/13994/Pippin|accessdate=30 June 2015|publisher=[[Playbill]]}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-roy}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne|Hildegard]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Frankish queens|Queen of the Franks]]|years=784&ndash;794}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Luitgard (Frankish queen)|Luitgard]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{French consorts}}
{{Italian consorts}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:760s births]]
[[Category:794 deaths]]
[[Category:Wives of Charlemagne]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Alban's Abbey, Mainz]]
[[Category:8th-century Frankish nobility]]