Aregund

As with her sister Ingund, not much is known about Aregund's life. She was born one of the daughters of King Baderic of Thuringia and married to Clotaire I some time after his marriage to her sister. Legend states that Ingund was upset about her sister not being married yet and sought help from her own husband to find someone for Aregund to marry. Clotaire took up the mission but in an unexpected move ended up marrying her himself. It is possible that it was because he wanted her, but it was also possible that he did this out of pity. It is not certain why she would have been a pitiful figure who had trouble securing a marriage, but the remains of a Merovingian queen believed to be Aregund shows signs of an injury or illness that may have caused a limp, which could explain her predicament. It is important to note, however, that this identification is disputed. It is also possible that Chlothar I just had a thing for Thuringian princesses since three out of his four wives came from the same family.

Sources seem to suggest that Clotaire was not as fond of Aregund as her sister, further cementing her reputation as a charity case. Ingund managed to give birth to three sons by Clotaire while Aregund just had one. This could be because of differences in each sisters fertility, time spent with their husband, or both. It is also possible that Ingund's success in securing him heirs might have had something to do with his preference. Sources also state that she fell out of favor with the king shortly after the death of Ingund, lending credence to the charity hypothesis. Some historians have also postulated that Clotaire married Aregund as a replacement mother for his three sons with Ingund after her death. It is possible, but as Ingund's year of death is uncertain, the timeline is muddy.

It is hard to miss the similarities between the story of Ingund and Aregund and the biblical story of Rachel and Leah. Each set of sisters was married to the same man, each husband had a clear favorite, and in both cases the second marriage can be seen as a consequence of the first. Given that the Merovingians were converting to Christianity during this time it is possible that this was a deliberate move, especially on the part of Gregory of Tours since he was preoccupied with tying his current events into the timeline of the Bible.

A sarcophagus found in the Saint Denis Basilica has been identified as Aregund, which would make her the oldest Merovingian queen for which we have hard evidence. Tests done on the remains revealed that the woman had given birth to one child in her teenage years and that she suffered from a condition that led her to walk with a limp. This would match what we know about Aregund's life, but the identification is disputed. The remains, working on the assumption that they are indeed hers, were DNA tested in 2006 as part of a show. The idea was to disprove the theory that the Merovingians have Middle Eastern ancestry. The test came back negative, but since Aregund was Thuringian rather than Merovingian the test is largely pointless.

Although it seems likely that Aregund was not Clotaire's favored wife, it is through her line that the Merovingians got their last king, Dagobert I.