Balthild of Chelles
Wife of Clovis II
Balthild (c. 626 – 30 January 680) (; Old English: Bealdhild, 'bold sword' or 'bold spear), also spelled Bathilda, Bauthieult or Baudour, was queen consort of Neustria and Burgundy by marriage to Clovis II, the King of Neustria and Burgundy (639–658), and regent during the minority of her son, Chlothar III. Her hagiography was intended to further her successful candidature for sainthood.
Tradition represents her as an Anglo-Saxon who was originally of noble birth, perhaps a relative of Ricberht of East Anglia, the last pagan king of East Anglia, although Pierre Fournet regards this as doubtful. Ricberht was ousted by Sigeberht, who had spent time as an exile in the Frankish court, during which he had converted to Christianity. Sigeberht was established as the rightful heir to the throne with Frankish help.
Hagiographic tradition
According to Vita S. Bathildis, Balthild was born circa 626–627. She was beautiful, intelligent, modest and attentive to the needs of others. Balthild was sold into slavery as a young girl and served in the household of Erchinoald, the mayor of the palace of Neustria to Clovis. Erchinoald, whose wife had died, was attracted to Balthild and wanted to marry her, but she did not want to marry him. She hid herself away and waited until Erchinoald had remarried.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Balthild of Chelles” is wife of Clovis II. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Balthild, Chelles and Wife, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q237750. VIAF identifies the subject as 197754496. The Library of Congress control number is nr94003466. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Balthild of Chelles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.