Mad Mothers: Frankish Queen Gerberga

By Kim Rendfeld

Empress costume from
The Costumes of All Nations (1882)

When brother-in-law King Charles (Charlemagne) seized her late husband’s lands, Gerberga decided to fight for her two sons’ inheritance and her own power as queen mother and regent.

After Frankish King Carloman died at age 20 in December 771, Charles moved swiftly to seize the kingdom. Was it determination or desperation that made Gerberga flee with two little boys and an entourage to Lombardy?

We don’t know how she reached the realm of Charles’s ex-father-in-law. She would have either had to cross the Alps or go by sea. The slow travel, in general, posed the danger of brigands, but add winter weather and at least one child too young to ride, and this journey becomes especially risky.

We don’t know much about Gerberga, except that she was a Frankish noblewoman selected by father-in-law Pepin to marry Carloman, but we can make a few guesses. Women typically were teenagers when they married, often at age 13. Men could marry at age 16. The most Gerberga and Carloman could have been married was four years, and their elder son was no more than 3 years old, barely old enough to start riding.

That this queen mother, perhaps as young as 17, made a dangerous journey to Lombardy with these two small children tells us something about her character. 

Seeking aid from Desiderius, king of the Lombards, was not the safest thing to do, either, but she had no other choice. Desiderius had seized power in a coup in the 750s and clashed violently with Rome before. His retaliation, blinding an enemy, was brutal and typically medieval. However, he was the powerful ally she needed—and he had his own grudge against Charles. The Frankish monarch had repudiated Desiderius’s daughter to free himself to marry into the powerful Agilolfing clan, an alliance to help him claim his late brother’s lands.

Desiderius' court, from
the tragedy Adelchi (published 1845)

Desiderius saw Gerberga’s sons as a way to get back at Charles for the insult to his daughter and restore his alliance with Francia. He tried to get the pope to anoint the little boys as kings, even seizing papal lands to pressure him. The pope refused and eventually asked Charles to fulfill his vow as protector of Rome and come to his aid.

When Charles invaded in 773, Desiderius retreated to Pavia, and Gerberga and her sons lit out for Verona, along with Lombard Prince Adalgis and a Frankish nobleman named Autchar. Adalgis escaped Verona and headed toward the Byzantine empire.

Charles, learning of Adalgis’s flight, went to Verona with a contingent of Franks, while most of the army held siege in Pavia. Gerberga surrendered voluntarily when Charles arrived.

The sources don’t say why she surrendered. Perhaps she realized she was deserted, knew there was no way she could win, and wished to avoid further bloodshed or the starvation and disease that accompanies a siege. Perhaps, she thought if she surrendered now, she and her sons would be sent to the cloister rather than be executed.

The sources are silent about her fate, but having Gerberga and her sons in the cloister is plausible. They would have been among other troublesome relatives Charles sent to the monastery such as Desiderius and later on Charles’s first cousin Bavarian Duke Tassilo and even his own eldest son, Pepin (often called Pepin the Hunchback—medieval folk were a tad insensitive).

Gerberga did not win her battle against her brother-in-law, but her story illustrates that medieval women were not damsels in distress waiting for a hero to rescue them.

My characters see Gerberga as the strong-willed young woman she is. My aristocratic Franks don’t have much sympathy for her, though, as you will see in this excerpt 

**From The Cross and the Dragon**

“It’s God’s will.” Theodelinda laid her hand over Alda’s. “I will have our priest dedicate tomorrow’s prime Mass to the princess. The rest of the royal family, are they well?”

“Yes, Countess. Did you know Gerberga and her sons surrendered in Verona?” he asked excitedly.

With wide eyes, Alda and Theodelinda shook their heads. “I thought our army was holding siege at Pavia, where Desiderius is hiding like the rat he is,” Alda said.

“This is the first we’ve heard about the king’s sister-by-marriage,” Theodelinda added, leaning forward. “Please, have some more wine.”

“Lady Alda, you are correct.” The merchant took a drink. “Our army has had an enormous camp outside Pavia’s walls since autumn, but Gerberga and her sons fled to Verona with Desiderius’s son. Our king and some of his men gave chase. The Lombard prince escaped, but Gerberga did not resist.”

“Where are they now?” Alda asked.

“I know not.”

“And Desiderius is still in Pavia?” Theodelinda asked.

“Yes. Our king even spent the Feast of the Resurrection in Rome and prayed for the Lord’s aid. Yet the siege continues, and the Lombard king refuses to surrender.”

“Damned Lombards!” Alda said. “The queen mother was right. They are strong, stubborn sons of whores.”

Sources

Charlemagne: Translated Sources, P.D. King

Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Bernhard Walters Scholz with Barbara Rogers

“Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century,” Jan T. Hallenbeck, published in 1982 by Transactions of the American Philosophical Society

The Life of Charlemagne, Einhard, translated by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow and Edwin H. Zeydel

Kim Rendfeld is the author of two novels set in 8th century Francia: The Cross and the Dragon, about a young noblewoman contending with a vengeful jilted suitor and the anxiety of losing her husband in battle, and The Ashes of Heaven’s Pillar, about a peasant going to great lengths to protect her children. Her work in progress, Queen of the Darkest Hour, features Fastrada, Charlemagne’s influential fourth wife. Connect with Kim on her website (kimrendfeld.com), her blog (kimrendfeld.wordpress.com), Facebook (facebook.com/authorkimrendfeld), and Twitter (@kimrendfeld).

Mad Mothers: Sultana Aisha of Moorish Granada

By Lisa J. Yarde

On January 2, 1492, when the Moors of Granada under Sultan Muhammad XI (commonly known as Boabdil) left their home of two centuries past at Alhambra Palace, legend has it that the monarch's mother Aisha upbraided him. "Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man." The place where this chastisement supposedly occurred in the Sierra Nevada mountains is called Puerto del Suspiro del Moro, the Pass of the Moor's Sigh.

El ultimo suspiro del Moro by Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz (1892) - Public domain

Over twenty years of research into Granada's last Muslim dynasty has revealed how much unreliable myth and anecdote tainted the available history. As with many personal interactions of the past, it's difficult to prove the event did nor did not occur. Of those who traveled with Muhammad and his mother into eventual exile in Fez, none included any chroniclers from the court of the Catholic monarchs, King Fernando and Queen Isabella. No Moors in the company who left Granada could have relayed the occurrence. Also, given Aisha's actions during her husband and son's reigns, it's hard to believe she considered women weak -- after all, she knew exactly what a woman with purpose could do. Through her influence, she had secured the throne for her son in a rebellion against his father. Perhaps disappointment over the loss of her heritage left her furious with her child, a mad mother.

Aisha's life began in turmoil as the daughter of Sultan Muhammad IX and an unnamed paternal cousin, one of three known children of the sovereign, who had no sons. He had lost and regained the kingdom of Granada no less than four times in clashes with his cousins over their legacy. Without a natural heir, he wed Aisha's elder half-sister to his paternal second cousin and successor Muhammad X, whose father had once been among the rivals for the throne. The marriage cannot have lasted because later Aisha found herself betrothed to Muhammad X. Fate denied them a future together when yet another cousin, Abu Nasr Saad invaded Granada. His son the future Sultan Abu'l-Hasan Ali (commonly known as Muley Hacen) killed Muhammad X along with his two young heirs and took Aisha for a wife. Abu'l-Hasan Ali likely regretted the choice for the rest of his life. Vengeance motivated Aisha's subsequent behavior.

Before she gained retribution, Aisha performed her duty and bore two sons for Abu'l-Hasan Ali, the eventual Muhammad XI, and Yusuf, as well as a daughter who shared Aisha's name. The Moorish queen bided her time while her husband refused to submit to demands for tribute from Fernando and Isabella. Aisha even endured the presence of her husband's beloved second wife, a former Christian slaved named Isabella de Solis, who converted to Islam and took the name Soraya. 

In the summer of 1482, Aisha's eldest son rebelled against Abu'l-Hasan Ali, who went into exile in Malaga and formed an alliance with the Catholic monarchs against Aisha and their child. The family Abencerrage supported the coup and Aisha. The clan had long reviled Abu'l-Hasan Ali after he and his father murdered many of their chieftains within Alhambra Palace. When young Muhammad became a prisoner of Fernando and Isabella after an ill-advised attack on the frontier during April 1483, Aisha helped negotiate the eventual release of Muhammad. As the enemy took city after city in a bid to destroy Moorish Spain forever, Aisha wanted even the women and children to fight in the defense of their homeland. But could she have also been desperate, maddened by the failures that bedeviled the kingdom? No one can know. 

History has relegated her to the role of a vengeful wife, a scheming mother, and a cunning rival for her husband's second wife. But for me, Aisha remains a true patriot of Moorish Granada. 

** An Excerpt from Sultana: The White Mountains**

Chapter 2

Uprising

Prince Muhammad

Gharnatah, Al-Andalus or Granada, Andalusia

8 Rajab 887 AH / Friday, August 23, AD 1482

An unbearable, dry heat hung over the vega of Gharnatah in the late afternoon. Despite the warmth, several dozen courtiers and a handful of advisors from the Diwan al-Insha gathered outside the courtyard of the council chamber. Ibn Kumasha stood among them, but not Abu’l-Hasan Ali’s secretary, Ibn Bannigash. With Abdul Wahid at his side, Muhammad stood apart from the ministers, wearied of the silent questions emanating from their intent gazes. They desired the answer to one inquiry. How could he respond?

Yusuf and his men mounted their horses and departed through the Bab al-Sharia. The gate remained open afterward. The Sarraj chieftains and their men waited along the wooded slopes of the Sabika hill.

The lone woman amid the crowd lowered her small hand and rested it on Muhammad’s forearm. Her fingernails, sharp and curved like the talons of a hunting hawk, pressed against the silk. She had remained at his side with her faithful eunuch Al-Siddiq since Yusuf gave his formal farewell, knelt at Muhammad’s feet, and kissed their mother’s hands. A fine display for the courtiers, some semblance of unity within their fractured family, and a son’s reverence for his honored mother. Lies but Muhammad would have none of them. His stare traveled up the length of her limb until at last, he saw the mirror of himself in her eyes. He blinked twice and turned away.

Her nails dug deeper. “You cannot relent now.”

“Unlike you, I don’t withdraw my pledges once given.”

She reached for his cheek and turned his face to hers. “You despise me now, so you speak petty cruelties. You will perceive the truth when your anger has faded. This is the correct choice for our futures and for Gharnatah.”

“Eight years ago, you would have plunged the khanjar of our illustrious ancestor, my namesake, into Father’s heart. For your folly with the dagger, he imprisoned you.”

When she would have withdrawn her touch, his hand covered hers. Although she gasped and pulled away, his hold tightened on her thin wrist. Bones so fragile he might have snapped them if he wished.

“After your release six months later, you made a promise. Do you remember, Ummi?”

“Muhammad, this time is different. Back then, your father had wronged me and taken the lives of two trusted companions. I struck out at him for vengeance’s sake, but today, I look to the future. Your destiny.”

“Lie to yourself if you wish. But your falsehoods will not sway me. I know you, likely better than my father did. Eight years past, I warned you not to make us, your children by Abu’l-Hasan Ali, choose between our parents. Now you have forced the decision on me. I will never forgive you. Keep far from me and my family. I forbid your presence wherever I am or may reside. Furthermore—”

Her fingers shook. “Muhammad, don’t….”

“You will not see my wife for any reason. You shall never hold my son again. You’ve deceived more than my father. You’ve betrayed every principle of family and love, which you taught my brother, sister and me in our childhood.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “My son, don’t hate me. Please.”

He pressed his lips to her lined brow, just below her veil. He whispered against her flesh, “I could never. But I won’t rely on you again. You’re a viper, vicious and ruthless. I’ve learned the lesson of your true nature, which my father would not accept. Stay away from me and those whom I love. I won’t let you destroy them, as you’ve ruined my father and our fates.”

As they drew apart, he caught the intent scrutiny of several courtiers and the ministers. He smiled and caressed Aisha's damp cheeks. “These tears. Beautiful. Purposeful. Those who observe would think you a loving mother, comforted by one dutiful son in the absence of another. The deception is complete. Well done, Ummi.”  

 

---

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon's Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings. Lisa has also completed a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price, Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, and Sultana: The White Mountains, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. Her short story, The Legend Rises, which chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd’s valiant fight against English invaders, is also available.