father predecessor death_date mother death_place title spouse article_title name reign
bisinus bertachar 532 basina zülpich king of the thuringia 50px amalaberga hermanafrid
 hermanfrid 507 -- 531
hermanafrid

hermanfrid -lrb- also hermanifrid or hermanafrid ; -rrb- was the last independent king of the thuringii in present day germany .
he was one of three sons of king bessinus -lrb- or bisinus -rrb- and the lombard menia -lrb- or basina -rrb- .
his siblings were baderic ; radegund -lrb- the elder -rrb- , married to the lombard king wacho ; and bertachar .
hermanfrid married amalaberga , daughter of amalafrida who was the daughter of theodemir , between 507 and 511 .
amalberga was also the niece of theodoric the great .
it is unclear when hermanfrid became king , but he is called king -lrb- `` rex thoringorum '' -rrb- in a letter by theodoric dated to 507 .
he first shared the rule with his brothers baderic and bertachar , but later killed bertachar in a battle in 529 , leaving the young radegund an orphan .
according to gregory of tours , amalaberga now stirred up hermanfrid against his remaining brother .
once she laid out only half the table for a meal , and when questioned about the reason , she told him `` a king who owns only of half of his kingdom deserved to have half of his table bare . ''
thus roused , hermanfrid made a pact with the king of metz , theuderic i , to march against baderic .
baderic was overcome by the franks and beheaded , but hermanfrid refused to fulfill his obligations to theuderic , which led to enmity between the two kings .
in 531 or 532 , theuderic , his son theudebert i , and his brother king clotaire i of soissons attacked the thuringii .
the franks won a battle near the river unstrut and took the royal seat at scithingi -lrb- modern burgscheidungen -rrb- .
hermanfrid managed to flee , but the franks captured his niece radegund -lrb- see venantius fortunatus , `` de excidio thoringae '' -rrb- and his nephews .
theuderic gave hermanfrid safe conduct , ordered him to come to zülpich , and gave him many gifts .
while hermanfrid talked with theuderic , somebody pushed him from the town walls of zülpich and he died .
gregory mentions that certain people had ventured to suggest that theuderic `` might '' have had something to do with it .
radegund was then forced to marry king clotaire , while hermanfrid 's wife amalaberga fled to the ostrogoths with her children amalafrid and rodelinda .
she was later captured by the byzantine general belisarius and sent to constantinople , where amalafrid later became an imperial general and rodelinda was married to the lombard king auduin .
the thuringian kingdom ended with hermanfrid .
the area east of the saale river was taken over by slavic tribes , north thuringia by the saxons .
the fall of the thuringian dynasty became the subject of numerous epic treatments , the best known of which is in the `` rerum gestarum saxonicarum libri tres '' by widukind of corvey , a saxon foundation myth written in 967 .
rudolph of fulda tells a related story .
