Aregund

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aregund, Aregunda, Arnegund, Aregonda, or Arnegonda was the wife of Clotaire I, king of the Franks, and the mother of Chilperic I of Neustria. She was the sister of Ingund, one of Clotaire's other wives. She lived during the sixth century.

Her sepulchre, among dozens of others, was discovered in 1959 in the Saint Denis Basilica by archaeologist Michel Fleury. It contained remarkably well-preserved clothing items and jewellery, which were used to identify her.

In an episode of the television series, Digging for the Truth, aired in May 2006, host Josh Bernstein arranged a DNA test of a sample of her remains to see if it showed any Middle Eastern characteristics. It did not. This was meant to disprove the notion put forwards by the Da Vinci Code that the Merovingians were descended from Jesus, though it should be noted Aregund was merely married into the dynasty, not a blood descendant- so presumably the results of this test are irrelevant. Some also claim that based on studies the burial could not have been done around the time of Aregund's death but likely dates from decades later and the remains were of a woman (?)than Aregund was supposed to have been.

[edit] References

Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain, "Saint-Denis Cathedral", Editions Quest-France, Rennes, n.d.