De–gendering female violence: Merovingian female honour as an ‘exchange of violence’[Note 1. This article is the final version of three lectures ...]

The phenomenon of female violence in the Early Middle Ages has notbeen properly explored, largely because of a feminist ethic which correctlyfocuses on women as the victims, rather than as the perpetrators, ofviolence. The traditional gendered dividing line is transcended whenfemale violence, like male violence, is regarded as a class characteristic orstrategy, and when female practice can be explained by a code of behav–iour shared by both sexes. Several case studies from the early Merovingianperiod, drawn from the work of Gregory of Tours, are here analysed inorder to demonstrate how royal Merovingian women could preservehonour through the pursuit of violence. How far Gregory of Tours’saccount may be taken to depict social reality is a further issue discussedin relation to the case studies. These involve Clothild and Fredegund,and show female violence as a normal feature of Merovingian society,especially where single women had no immediate male protectors, but didhave a great deal of personal honour to defend. In the case of Fredegund,violence was the result of premeditated revenge which publicly restoredher honour and maintained her precedence in the social hierarchy. Itseems clear that Merovingian women, unlike women of later times, couldparticipate in the cycle of violence.