14. Fredegunda of Soissons Cast Out Her Infant Son to Avoid Catching an Illness From Him
Fredegunda (circa 545 – 597) might have been history’s most cartoonishly evil mother. She started off as a servant of Audovera, wife of Frankish king Chilperic I of Soissons, and eventually caught the king’s eye. She convinced him to divorce Audovera and dump her into a convent, then became Chilperic’s mistress. Chilperic eventually set Fredegunda aside to marry a noblewoman, Galswintha. That turned out to be bad news for the new queen: Fredegunda personally strangled Galswintha to death.
Fredegunda then resumed her place as Chilperic’s side, as his official mistress and queen consort. In 580, a dysentery epidemic afflicted King Chilperic, as well as two of his sons with Ferdegunda. She took that as a sign of divine displeasure for her sins, and made some efforts to mend her ways, but she reverted to cartoonish evil. While besieged in a city, another of her sons, a babe in arms, became seriously ill. Worried that she might catch whatever her kid had, Fredegunda ordered him cast away, and let him die.
