Merovingian Queen: St. Radegund

Scott: 00:00:00

Everything you know is a lie.

Scott: 00:00:03

We have a new Merovingian to review and some previous revisions and corrections to be made.

Scott: 00:00:10

All this and more, and this is the quest for power.

Scott: 00:00:29

Welcome back to the quest for power, where we are ranking and reviewing all of the european monarchs from the early Middle Ages to World War one.

Scott: 00:00:36

We are your history d and d nerds and general lovers of metal and heavy and heavy music, Scott and Michael.

Scott: 00:00:43

And today we are going to be reviewing Saint Radegund of House Merovingian, the Holy Queen, princess of Thuringia, ascetic escape artist, relic hunter and deaconess of Holy Cross.

Scott: 00:00:58

Now we are going to be revamping on how the quest for power is done on Patreon, unless a patron at the king, queen or monarch tier has a suggestion.

Scott: 00:01:08

We are going to rate and review fictional, mythological, and semi historical rulers there.

Michael: 00:01:15

So I'm pretty excited because we get to take off the little bit of rules that we have for ourselves and throw those out the window.

Michael: 00:01:23

Our first series we're going to do the will be interacting with the greek gods themselves as we delve through the mythical house of Troy.

Michael: 00:01:33

I think this is going to be really fun because in my initial research already you get to interact with Zeus, killing some of the characters that we have, and you get to deal with all the hijinks, but not deal with the same old myths over and over again.

Michael: 00:01:50

You just deal with the characters, which is a little more fun.

Michael: 00:01:53

Well, Scott, it hasn't been too long since we recorded, but we had a d and D session since then.

Michael: 00:01:59

What?

Michael: 00:01:59

How'd that go?

Scott: 00:02:02

Yeah, well, obviously we're there, so, you know, but for those of you who weren't there, we've had a pretty fun time.

Scott: 00:02:09

It felt like it been, you know, at least a month since we had last played just because of, like, holidays and being busy.

Scott: 00:02:17

So now that I'm kind of.

Scott: 00:02:20

Things are kind of toning down as far as real life goes, to a certain degree, getting.

Scott: 00:02:26

Getting my shit together that we've finally gotten to play.

Scott: 00:02:30

And we really didn't do that much, to be honest.

Scott: 00:02:35

But a lot of it was kind of continuing this dungeon, and I feel like that a lot of it was just kind of a little like a little taste test for the new players or new characters and new player.

Michael: 00:02:51

I see our podcast, cat, has decided to grace you with her presence.

Scott: 00:02:55

Yes, my cat, Haru, has decided that now is the perfect time to sit in my lap and rub against the microphone.

Scott: 00:03:05

But, yeah, so this is really largely a setup for the next session where the group, we'll be going to invade a castle in the sky.

Scott: 00:03:16

Sorry, studio Ghibli.

Scott: 00:03:18

And we'll be fighting off some.

Scott: 00:03:22

Some cloud giants.

Michael: 00:03:24

Yeah, it'll be a good time.

Michael: 00:03:26

I'm looking forward to it, so.

Scott: 00:03:30

Yeah.

Scott: 00:03:30

And that is.

Scott: 00:03:31

That is the world of D and D.

Scott: 00:03:33

And I'm greatly looking forward to my kind of, like, the creative juices, reflowing and getting.

Scott: 00:03:41

Jamming, some games.

Michael: 00:03:43

Yeah.

Michael: 00:03:44

Yeah.

Michael: 00:03:44

It'll be exciting.

Michael: 00:03:45

Hopefully, we can do it more than every month.

Scott: 00:03:48

That is the intent.

Scott: 00:03:49

And.

Scott: 00:03:50

Yeah, I'd say so.

Scott: 00:03:51

A lot of it was also just like my.

Scott: 00:03:54

I personally was just, like, exhausted all the time, not taking the world's best care of myself.

Scott: 00:04:00

So it's kind of like just getting my life a little more on track, I guess so, you know?

Scott: 00:04:09

Yeah, as it turns out, you kind of start with the basics and work your way back up a lot.

Scott: 00:04:14

A lot of other smaller stuff just kind of kind of falls back into place.

Michael: 00:04:19

Yeah.

Michael: 00:04:20

Yeah.

Michael: 00:04:20

I'd agree with that.

Michael: 00:04:21

Yeah.

Michael: 00:04:22

I do notice that I get yelled at all the time for that, that I need to take care.

Michael: 00:04:26

Better care of myself and I should honestly listen to her.

Scott: 00:04:30

Yeah, yeah, I.

Michael: 00:04:34

It is good advice.

Michael: 00:04:36

Well, let's get on into the story here.

Michael: 00:04:41

So, for our primary sources, despite my extremely wrong claims in Clotaire's episode, Radagund is one of the better documented people, not just women, like, during this time.

Michael: 00:04:53

Like, people.

Michael: 00:04:54

Like, she's more documented than some kings we've gone through.

Michael: 00:04:59

We have Gregory of tours, who is alive during her time.

Michael: 00:05:03

He treated her with respect, like, due to all royal women, but he was, as we all know, he is a chauvinist, and he disagreed with her beliefs regarding women and in the church, and he didn't like the fact that she made decisions and that she had agency.

Michael: 00:05:21

Not a fan about that.

Michael: 00:05:23

Shocking, I know.

Scott: 00:05:25

Yeah.

Michael: 00:05:27

We then also have our poet fortunatus.

Michael: 00:05:32

He spent 20 years of his life receiving patronage from Radagon.

Michael: 00:05:36

So heavily heavy bias there.

Michael: 00:05:39

He also wrote a hagiography after her death.

Michael: 00:05:44

And I have to say, like, just this really show the time period wherein he apologizes immediately for her sex right off the bat, basically.

Michael: 00:05:54

Like, if she was a guy, she would have been amazing, but she was a woman, so she did the best she could.

Scott: 00:06:01

Yeah.

Scott: 00:06:02

Bad luck.

Michael: 00:06:03

Yeah.

Michael: 00:06:06

And then we have Donovia, and she wrote a biography of her.

Michael: 00:06:11

She portrays Radagon as, like, a more complete individual, not just the saint character, even though she did look up highly to her.

Michael: 00:06:20

She writes more of how, like, Radagon likes recreational activities.

Michael: 00:06:24

In addition to being a pious woman, she's a pretty fierce political player.

Michael: 00:06:28

Gives us a lot more color to her.

Michael: 00:06:30

So with that, let's get into her life.

Michael: 00:06:36

What was not wrong is she was a royal princess for the kingdom of Thuringia.

Michael: 00:06:41

And this is located in modern day central Germany.

Michael: 00:06:45

We do not know the exact year she was born, but it was either the late 510s or early 500 twenties.

Michael: 00:06:52

She ended up living with her uncle Ermanafrid after her kingdom.

Michael: 00:06:57

Berthachar, died when she was only a few years old.

Michael: 00:07:03

And she died only.

Michael: 00:07:05

And King Bertha Carr died when she was only a few years old.

Michael: 00:07:10

We know nothing about her mother, not even her name.

Michael: 00:07:14

We don't have anything that she was throwing out in a well or something like that.

Michael: 00:07:18

Just.

Michael: 00:07:18

Just nothing.

Michael: 00:07:22

We have conflicting reports of why her father died.

Michael: 00:07:25

Do you remember at first what we said in Clotaire's episode or previous episodes?

Michael: 00:07:35

Not just clotaire's.

Scott: 00:07:38

I do not.

Scott: 00:07:39

No recollection.

Michael: 00:07:41

Okay, so we said that clotaire.

Michael: 00:07:44

That Gregory claimed that birth a care Bertha car, was killed by Radagon's uncle Urman afried, and that conflicts directly with fortunatus description of Radagund as a devoted niece to her uncle.

Michael: 00:08:02

So even, like, with the bias there, why would she compose like he had?

Michael: 00:08:07

She had him create a poem for her uncle.

Michael: 00:08:11

Why would she do this if she thought that he was responsible for the death of her father and hated him?

Michael: 00:08:17

Yeah, so that's two conflicting reports.

Michael: 00:08:23

I'm gonna go with fortunatus on this one.

Michael: 00:08:29

The only thing I could think of how Gregory could be right, is that Radagon never found out somehow, but Gregory did.

Michael: 00:08:38

The hole in that theory is Radagund was well read and well connected.

Michael: 00:08:42

She was pretty literate.

Michael: 00:08:44

So I'm doubting that Gregory was more curious about her family than she was.

Michael: 00:08:50

And, you know, the fall of her family.

Michael: 00:08:53

Yeah, very, very highly.

Michael: 00:08:56

Doubtfully, the merovingian kings Clotaire and Teutoric invaded Thuringia around 531, despite previous episodes with Clovis sons, which is a little bit further back.

Michael: 00:09:11

We don't even know why they invaded.

Michael: 00:09:14

Gregory gave us a tale, and I'm going to tell you it, and then we can tear it to shreds.

Michael: 00:09:19

So, some background information, in case you forgot, since we covered this a long time ago.

Michael: 00:09:27

The Thuringians, like the Franks tended, divided the kingdom between their heirs.

Michael: 00:09:31

After Radicon father passed away, the kingdom was split between Hermann fried and her and his brother, Bederik.

Michael: 00:09:40

According to Gregory, before one random meal, Ermanafrid's wife, Amala Berga, only set up half the table.

Michael: 00:09:48

It's a little passive aggressive, wouldn't you think?

Scott: 00:09:51

Yeah.

Michael: 00:09:54

And Hermann afrid went, um, honey, what's going on?

Michael: 00:09:57

Why is only half the table set up?

Michael: 00:09:59

And his dutiful wife delivers a gut punch and says, a man who allows himself to be robbed of half his kingdom deserves to find half his table bare.

Michael: 00:10:13

Sure, Gregory, that's exactly what she said.

Scott: 00:10:16

Boom.

Michael: 00:10:18

You know, Amala Berga, a royal ostrogothic princess, niece of Theodoric, the greatest, and the queen of thuringian.

Michael: 00:10:29

She had just as much wealth as, like, the Franks queens did.

Michael: 00:10:33

She's not setting up the table.

Scott: 00:10:37

Well, you know.

Scott: 00:10:38

Well, that was my thought, is when he says, like, oh, she only set up half the table.

Scott: 00:10:41

I thought it was more like she had her servants only set up half the table.

Scott: 00:10:45

That was my interpretation.

Michael: 00:10:48

So even if that is the interpretation, she would have a hell of a lot better way of motivating her husband than, like, this half baked negative.

Michael: 00:11:03

I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do that.

Scott: 00:11:05

But, yeah, I don't know.

Scott: 00:11:07

It seems like a bold.

Scott: 00:11:10

A bold thing to do.

Michael: 00:11:12

Yeah.

Michael: 00:11:12

Yeah.

Scott: 00:11:12

Considering who's got the power here.

Michael: 00:11:14

Exactly.

Michael: 00:11:15

And it's a story that a very out of touch, holier than thou bishop, you know, would make up about a meddling woman.

Michael: 00:11:24

That's kind of pretty uninspired, empathetic.

Michael: 00:11:27

So I think it was just Gregory reusing old material, which I like.

Scott: 00:11:34

I like the pettiness, though.

Michael: 00:11:36

Yeah.

Michael: 00:11:36

Yeah, I do too.

Scott: 00:11:37

Yeah, that's like.

Scott: 00:11:38

That's really good.

Scott: 00:11:39

Just like, what's going on here?

Scott: 00:11:41

I don't know.

Scott: 00:11:42

You tell me.

Scott: 00:11:43

Where's half the kingdom?

Michael: 00:11:44

Yeah.

Michael: 00:11:46

I do wish it was true, but I just don't think that's gonna happen.

Michael: 00:11:50

And apparently this little nag was enough to make her manafried act.

Michael: 00:11:57

He worked out a deal with the frankish king, Teutoric, with the terms of being, it's Teoderick Theuderic, and he will help Ramanafrid attack his brother, Baederic.

Michael: 00:12:12

In return, the euderic will get some land with him.

Michael: 00:12:19

But that I don't understand.

Michael: 00:12:21

You see, a plot hole here.

Michael: 00:12:23

Doesn't take a genius to figure out that he was shamed about sharing his kingdom.

Michael: 00:12:28

So he makes an agreement to share his kingdom.

Scott: 00:12:35

Yeah, that'll show her.

Scott: 00:12:38

Yeah, that'll tell me to not share my kingdom.

Scott: 00:12:41

Will you?

Scott: 00:12:42

Yeah, I'm going to share it some more.

Michael: 00:12:45

Yeah, Gregory continues to say he conveniently betrayed Theoderic and kept the kingdom for himself.

Michael: 00:12:52

So I guess that's one way to show your wife that you're going to keep the kingdom.

Michael: 00:12:57

And this is the reason that clotaire invaded him, invaded irman, Afrid and Thuringia.

Michael: 00:13:07

Basically, the entire story just demonstrates that Greg hates it when women involve themselves in politics, which.

Scott: 00:13:16

Per the track record.

Michael: 00:13:17

Yeah.

Michael: 00:13:19

So although we have no sources talking about how Radagund viewed this amalaberga, it's possible that actually Amaliburga helped raise her.

Michael: 00:13:30

We do know that Radicund was fond with al Malaberga's children, who maybe she treated as her own brother and sisters.

Michael: 00:13:40

And we know this because fortunatus wrote under the command of Radagund, the poem on the destruction of Thuringia.

Michael: 00:13:48

And she addressed it to Malafred, who escaped with his mother, amala burka.

Michael: 00:13:54

So I'm assuming that it was also intended to go to her, but they just addressed it to the male of the household when they were escaped to the ostrogothic court in Italy.

Michael: 00:14:09

So if Gregory's story isn't, like, really adding up, why do you think the Franks would invade?

Michael: 00:14:15

Besides Amaliburga trying to get her husband to get the whole kingdom instead of half the kingdom?

Scott: 00:14:27

Because they like land, basically, yeah.

Michael: 00:14:30

Basically, yeah.

Scott: 00:14:32

It's there for the taken.

Michael: 00:14:34

Exactly.

Michael: 00:14:35

So Theoderic, the great of the Ostrogoths, as we've gone through, had quite a bit of power, and he kept the Franks in check against the Thuringians, as we discussed.

Michael: 00:14:44

Actually, in Theoderic's episode in 526, he passed away.

Michael: 00:14:51

So that was like the first domino leading into the collapse of the ostrogothic kingdom, which took less pressure off the Franks.

Michael: 00:14:59

So now they were kind of more free to invade.

Michael: 00:15:03

And it's also probable that the two kingdoms are actually closer than we kind of get that they are, and that there were tensions already for decades as neighbors go for kingdoms, and they finally broke out.

Michael: 00:15:19

So, before the age of ten, Princess Radagund was captured by King Clotaire's men and became part of the spoils of war.

Michael: 00:15:27

Later, her uncle was conveniently pushed off some battlements to his death by an unknown assailant while he was discussing peace terms with King Theuderic.

Michael: 00:15:40

So if Gregory was wrong about Armana, Frieda and her father, you can imagine this would probably devastate her about hearing the death of the man she grew up with.

Michael: 00:15:50

That was probably, like a stepfather to her.

Michael: 00:15:57

But Clotaire didn't really care.

Michael: 00:16:00

Instead, he sent the young princess to his royal villa of Athes, where she was in, like, some kind of state of purgatory.

Michael: 00:16:09

What I mean, that is that it was highly likely Clotaire was going to marry her, but he can change his mind at any time, and he also wouldn't, like, give.

Michael: 00:16:20

She wouldn't know when she would be married, because clotaire would wait, you know, till the iron's hot, and it's best to strike for him politically.

Scott: 00:16:29

Mm hmm.

Scott: 00:16:30

Yeah.

Michael: 00:16:31

As a political hostage, Radagon received some sort of education that fortunatus describes as suitable to her sex.

Michael: 00:16:39

So I'm guessing weaving.

Scott: 00:16:41

Yeah, not much.

Michael: 00:16:45

He also adds that she learned letters, which is very descriptive.

Michael: 00:16:49

I'm guessing this is some sort of literacy because she was literate later on in her life, and not normally women wouldn't be taught to be literate.

Michael: 00:16:58

So little something extra.

Scott: 00:17:02

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:03

She's gotten the privilege.

Michael: 00:17:04

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:17:06

Their wedding was to take place sometime between 535 and 540, which puts her in her teenage years.

Michael: 00:17:13

I'm gonna guess around 14.

Michael: 00:17:16

And 16 is like, the age that most of these girls were married at this time, and clotaire at this time would have been in his late thirties.

Michael: 00:17:25

It's not great in today's standards, but not horrible by back then.

Michael: 00:17:29

Standards.

Scott: 00:17:30

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:31

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:31

For being, you know, forced into any marriage.

Scott: 00:17:35

She made out okay.

Michael: 00:17:37

Yeah.

Michael: 00:17:39

She probably, though, wasn't still looking forward to the marriage, considering, I don't know, clothes, hair.

Michael: 00:17:45

Wiped out her family, despite, like, the governor's brainwashing her that, you know, she would have had.

Michael: 00:17:53

What I mean by governors is people dedicated to teaching her how to.

Michael: 00:17:59

That they want her to think, basically, to be the best thing for clotaire.

Scott: 00:18:05

Yeah.

Scott: 00:18:06

It does put a damper on their relationship.

Michael: 00:18:08

It does a little bit when your husband to be, tries to or doesn't try, absolutely murders your entire family.

Michael: 00:18:19

She, though, hears that she is about to be married, and she escapes her marriage in the royal villa.

Michael: 00:18:28

So Vitri, to set the matter straight is what we are told.

Michael: 00:18:33

So she must have been put to victory from Athys, and then she ran away.

Michael: 00:18:40

And she wasn't trying to escape from the marriage, though.

Michael: 00:18:44

She was trying to escape from the nature of the marriage.

Michael: 00:18:48

So what I mean by that is that Vitri, the relationship with clotaire would not be widely known, and she would just probably be another one of his second rate wives.

Scott: 00:19:00

Yeah.

Scott: 00:19:01

So she wants.

Scott: 00:19:01

She wants to be top dog, pretty much.

Scott: 00:19:04

And also known.

Michael: 00:19:06

Yeah.

Michael: 00:19:06

And known.

Michael: 00:19:07

Not put away and used as, like, his plaything.

Michael: 00:19:11

So what I'm gathering from this little detail is that the early frankish kings, they had wives in many different royal villas.

Michael: 00:19:19

And I'm guessing they never interacted with one another like I always had.

Michael: 00:19:22

That the.

Michael: 00:19:23

I think we talked about it.

Michael: 00:19:24

We always thought of, like, a harem, is the way we always thought it.

Michael: 00:19:28

But I think it's actually, they're in different royal villas, and.

Michael: 00:19:32

And basically, when he visits those royal villas, that's when he's with that wife.

Scott: 00:19:37

Okay, so like a long distance harem.

Michael: 00:19:41

Yeah, basically.

Michael: 00:19:43

Exactly.

Michael: 00:19:45

Um, and I'm guessing if he had a favorite wife, that he'd just spend.

Scott: 00:19:50

More time at that villa or she.

Michael: 00:19:53

Would go with him.

Michael: 00:19:54

We have things that, like Frata gun to Kilperick, our last episode, that she would travel with him a little bit more, and that makes their story a lot more sense now.

Michael: 00:20:07

Why, you know, the Visigoths were so worried about her.

Scott: 00:20:12

Okay.

Scott: 00:20:13

No, that checks out, because it's nice to add a little bit of color to the.

Scott: 00:20:19

I don't know, the.

Scott: 00:20:20

The relationships that we have here, because the stuff is, especially if you don't talk about it, is really hard to wrap your head around if you're not familiar with, you know, good old monogamous marriage.

Michael: 00:20:36

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:20:37

And it's.

Michael: 00:20:37

The sources don't really help either.

Michael: 00:20:39

I had to dig and really piece this one together.

Michael: 00:20:42

So it's kind of nice, though.

Michael: 00:20:44

It finally.

Michael: 00:20:45

It only took us till several frankish kings in, but I think I finally got my head wrapped around how that whole marriage dynamic works.

Michael: 00:20:53

So now you can retcon all the previous episodes and have that in your head.

Scott: 00:20:58

Lovely.

Michael: 00:21:01

So back to the teenage Radagon.

Michael: 00:21:03

Despite whatever holy platitudes fortunatus will say later, this girl, she wanted power and she wanted prestige.

Michael: 00:21:11

Even though she didn't have the power to avoid the marriage, she had enough power to dictate the marriage.

Michael: 00:21:18

So, as we said, she wanted to be fully fledged queen consort.

Michael: 00:21:23

And the wedding turned from a private affair to with only, like, a couple of the king's court, to extremely public wedding in soy son, where she was recognized as bride to the king.

Michael: 00:21:35

And for some reason, since they don't have, like, crowning ceremonies, this is what would elevate her to full fledged queen consort of Neustria and not just another second rate wife.

Michael: 00:21:52

Unfortunately, we have no account of how of this wedding survived.

Michael: 00:21:56

I'm guessing it's going to be pretty damn close to the wake Sig Sigibert's wedding was.

Michael: 00:22:04

But I'm guessing we don't have what happened at the wedding, because that would show Radagon's worldliness, which the sources don't want us to know about.

Scott: 00:22:16

Yeah.

Michael: 00:22:19

So her first act of grabbing power also probably earned her her first rivals.

Michael: 00:22:25

A lot of those women that were sleeping with clotaire, even though they don't get to know each other, their sons all kind of interact on one level of another, and now she just gained a whole bunch of enemies because she's now the top dog.

Michael: 00:22:43

Makes sense.

Scott: 00:22:44

Yeah.

Scott: 00:22:45

Yeah.

Michael: 00:22:48

So.

Michael: 00:22:49

And so some more inner workings of this whole messy air business of the mirror of engines is kind of coming clear, too.

Michael: 00:22:55

Now.

Michael: 00:22:55

It seems like it's not just that a king, if one of his second rate wives has a son, that, um, they're automatically heir.

Michael: 00:23:05

It seems like the king chooses who is heir if they like the son or not, or he likes the wife enough that they become heir, which is why later, when they have, um.

Michael: 00:23:17

I think it was in Gontran's episode we had the brother who tried to claim you, his brother.

Michael: 00:23:22

But, um, Gontran kept saying, no, you're not, you know, you're not recognized as his son.

Michael: 00:23:28

I think that's the way that works, which is a weird system.

Michael: 00:23:34

You're his son, but not his son.

Scott: 00:23:36

Yeah, well, politically, you're not his son.

Michael: 00:23:38

Yeah, politically.

Michael: 00:23:40

And therefore, you're not his son.

Scott: 00:23:42

Yeah.

Scott: 00:23:43

You know, family is, uh.

Scott: 00:23:45

Is chosen, really.

Michael: 00:23:47

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:23:49

And what I mean by all of this is that, like having a public wife, like queen, Radagon forces him to recognize any heirs she produces as legitimate, which is another reason she would want this title.

Michael: 00:24:04

She can't just be cast aside or her children just be cast aside.

Michael: 00:24:09

And the reason I bring this up is because fortunatus will later claim, very dubiously, that she wanted to always be a nun and she never wanted to be a wife.

Scott: 00:24:20

But, yeah, that's what everyone aspires to be, right?

Michael: 00:24:23

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:24:25

First of all, I don't know if you remember in all of our episodes, every time we have a nun, a wife that becomes nun, it's always against her will, and she immediately loses all power.

Scott: 00:24:38

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:24:39

And you cannot tell me that there's any way in hell that Clotaire's handpicked governors for her upbringing would even allow her the thought of lifelong chastity.

Scott: 00:24:51

Yeah.

Michael: 00:24:52

If anything, they would drill into her head that producing an air was her single most important job.

Michael: 00:25:00

So what this really shows is Radagon demonstrates she is a player in the game, and if she hates the king.

Michael: 00:25:12

Even if she hates the king, as a woman, in the merovingian world, the only way to gain power is through an heir, and this, which will secure your place in the court.

Michael: 00:25:30

Third, fortunatus accidentally describes how influential and opulent she is when he tells us, oh, these are all the things that she rejects.

Michael: 00:25:42

It just kind of gives us an even more clear picture of how intensely wealthy the Merovingians are.

Michael: 00:25:48

I mean, they might put Rome to shame, especially during the later ends, stages of Rome.

Michael: 00:25:54

She traveled in a golden glittered coach.

Michael: 00:25:58

She slept on a bed with gilded posts, and clotaire spared no expense of her.

Michael: 00:26:04

She must have been pretty good looking because he paraded her like his own.

Michael: 00:26:09

Helen of Troy, essentially.

Scott: 00:26:12

Yeah.

Scott: 00:26:13

It's kind of hard to believe that someone can be so wealthy in what's kind of, could be regarded as kind of just a shitty time to be alive.

Michael: 00:26:24

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:26:28

Her luxuriest royal trappings were out of this world.

Michael: 00:26:32

Extravagant.

Michael: 00:26:33

I think it, like, puts baroque to shame.

Michael: 00:26:35

She had a shawl made of the finest of linen, covered in gold and precious gemstones.

Michael: 00:26:44

She had other raiments dyed in the extremely rare, inexpensive purple, which, I don't know if you remember, is, like, only allowed for royalty.

Michael: 00:26:53

And that also was covered with gems and jewels.

Michael: 00:26:56

And she had a nice, heavy golden belt, complete with golden brooches, necklaces, and bracelets.

Michael: 00:27:04

So this gives you a true picture of just how opulent this time was.

Michael: 00:27:09

This is like storybook opulence.

Scott: 00:27:12

You got a willing to give it all up, just, you can be a nun.

Michael: 00:27:18

Yeah.

Scott: 00:27:20

Worth it.

Scott: 00:27:21

I don't know.

Scott: 00:27:22

I mean, not to say that it's for everybody, but I bet 99% of people would like a life like that during those times.

Michael: 00:27:31

Exactly.

Michael: 00:27:32

Yeah, I just.

Michael: 00:27:33

I.

Michael: 00:27:33

I don't foresee her with her upbringing, wanting to be a nun from that.

Michael: 00:27:39

That just not at all doesn't make sense.

Michael: 00:27:44

We are told, uh, that she traveled with a massive entourage, and she will continue traveling with a massive entourage, basically her entire life.

Michael: 00:27:54

But at this time, she collected her own tribute.

Michael: 00:27:57

That was her own property, and I'm guessing that was, like, her Moringabe, her morning gift after their marriage.

Michael: 00:28:05

And even fortunatus admits that she ruled at the heights of power in a royal court.

Michael: 00:28:11

Like, she held as much power as a queen could.

Michael: 00:28:15

As you can imagine, this would cause quite a bit of grumbling.

Michael: 00:28:20

Men at court didn't like a woman telling them what to do and having power and status over them.

Michael: 00:28:29

And what added to it is Radagon.

Michael: 00:28:32

Came into this marriage with absolutely nothing.

Michael: 00:28:34

She knew she needed to find allies, especially since the only thing giving her all of these things was her tie to Kotare.

Michael: 00:28:42

That was it.

Michael: 00:28:45

And all of this can go away in a snap if Clotaire is frustrated that she is not producing an heir and he no longer finds her useful as a pretty ornament in her court, essentially.

Michael: 00:28:57

So she's got time also against her side.

Michael: 00:29:01

So she's got a lot of things stacking up against her, a lot of enemies starting to build up.

Michael: 00:29:06

Where do you think she goes to find allies?

Scott: 00:29:09

The bedroom.

Michael: 00:29:14

You would think that, but turns out you can also buy allies.

Michael: 00:29:19

She lavished many gifts on the church, and suddenly she started having a very solid alliance with the clerical elite.

Michael: 00:29:29

It consisted many of the old aristocratic families of Gaul as well.

Michael: 00:29:33

So, like, this is the elite of the elite that she is now getting on her side.

Michael: 00:29:39

This is getting to produce a lot more power.

Michael: 00:29:42

So that way, even if she can't produce an heir, which it seems like she was starting to get worried about, that she still could, you know, maintain her position.

Michael: 00:29:54

And now her strategy flipped.

Michael: 00:29:56

It went from opulence and queen and, you know, trying to get an heir to becoming a major benefactor, that church, and, like, demonstrate visible piety.

Michael: 00:30:07

It's a pretty solid pivot, if you ask me, if you're having trouble in the bedroom and you can't quite get an error.

Michael: 00:30:17

So she went all in on this strategy.

Michael: 00:30:20

We are told that after she collected money, she took a portion of it and handed out gifts to all the ecclesiastical institutions, along with the poor and needy, on an unprecedented scale.

Michael: 00:30:32

Fortunatus has the quote, even a hermit cannot hide himself from her munificence.

Michael: 00:30:39

So this was more than strategy, though.

Michael: 00:30:41

Radagon fell hard into these beliefs.

Michael: 00:30:44

I think it's one of those things where you, like, start, like, dipping your toe into something, and then all of a sudden you go all in, like, I'm sure when you first started magic, you just tipped your toe a little bit, and then before you know it, you're buying a ton of cards.

Scott: 00:30:58

Yeah, that's about.

Scott: 00:30:59

That's about right.

Michael: 00:31:00

Yeah.

Scott: 00:31:01

Win that first game and you're hooked for life for at least a decade.

Michael: 00:31:05

Yeah.

Michael: 00:31:05

Or for me, it was board games when you showed me.

Scott: 00:31:09

Yep.

Scott: 00:31:09

All takes is one game of Catan.

Michael: 00:31:12

That was it.

Michael: 00:31:13

Now.

Michael: 00:31:14

Now I have a big problem on my hands.

Michael: 00:31:21

This.

Michael: 00:31:22

She fell into this so hard that she started to, like, beating herself up physically and causing, like, self mortifications, like, she would take bars of hot irons that you would do to thieves and burn herself with it, and she would cause herself significant injury and trauma, which probably wasn't good for her.

Michael: 00:31:46

Fertility.

Michael: 00:31:47

Body can't take that kind of stress in living in these times and produce a child.

Michael: 00:31:52

So she went on associating herself with holy places.

Michael: 00:31:58

She created candles herself.

Michael: 00:32:00

She put them in many chapels.

Michael: 00:32:02

She also took her own clothing that she wore, and she stitched it into cloth covering the altars.

Michael: 00:32:11

So doing this was a huge symbolic win.

Michael: 00:32:15

Clothing that, like, once covered her body is now at the very place where the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is reproduced every Sunday on the church.

Michael: 00:32:27

And she made herself known as, like, a holy queen to the wider population.

Michael: 00:32:32

She built an institution to provide shelter, bedding, and medical treatment for needy women, and she would actually work in the very institutions she created.

Michael: 00:32:40

She wasn't just delegating it to her underlings.

Michael: 00:32:46

She would actually put her.

Michael: 00:32:49

Well, I guess, her effort towards where her money was.

Scott: 00:32:53

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:32:55

And then her and clotaire, while probably didn't have the greatest of relationship, they had this good cop, bad cop routine.

Michael: 00:33:04

He would sentence someone to death and appear to be, you know, powerful to his warrior elite and his nobility, strike fear into them, and then his saintly life would come by and talk him into giving mercy, and this would earn the love of the clergy and more of the common people for her, while at the same time helping clotaire save face.

Scott: 00:33:28

Yeah, it's kind of interesting, because depending on who you're with, that's.

Scott: 00:33:33

Or who's judging, you could also be like that.

Scott: 00:33:36

The.

Scott: 00:33:37

You know, the woman is undermining your.

Scott: 00:33:39

Your power as a king.

Michael: 00:33:41

You could.

Michael: 00:33:41

You could.

Michael: 00:33:42

But Clotaire, as we've gone in his episode, I don't think he had a problem with that.

Scott: 00:33:46

That's true.

Scott: 00:33:47

Yeah.

Scott: 00:33:47

He did not have a.

Scott: 00:33:49

He did not have any problems flexing his muscles.

Michael: 00:33:55

It is at this point that fortunatus attempts to display Radagon sex with clotaire, another source of suffering, because, you know, God forbid, you actually get enjoyment out of spending quality time with another person.

Michael: 00:34:14

In Radagon's case, probably spending time with this man is the least thing she wanted to do, and I doubt she got a choice in the matter, so I can kind of see that.

Michael: 00:34:27

But the thing I'm bringing this up is he's not saying it's suffering because of how horrible clotaire was.

Michael: 00:34:33

He's saying because it's.

Michael: 00:34:36

She has to bear the indignity of it, and it's just so filthy.

Scott: 00:34:44

Wow.

Scott: 00:34:45

It's like it's her.

Scott: 00:34:46

It's like it's her job.

Scott: 00:34:52

People view.

Scott: 00:34:53

Yes.

Scott: 00:34:53

That's just.

Michael: 00:34:54

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:34:57

That is probably how people viewed it.

Michael: 00:34:58

And I highly doubt that Radagon spoke at all to fortunatus about her sex life, even though they were great friends.

Michael: 00:35:07

I.

Michael: 00:35:07

Yeah, I.

Michael: 00:35:09

I don't see that happening.

Scott: 00:35:13

Yeah.

Scott: 00:35:15

The whole affair is kind of weird.

Michael: 00:35:17

It is.

Michael: 00:35:18

It definitely is.

Michael: 00:35:19

The.

Michael: 00:35:20

The nun source that wrote a biography on her bottom, Nivea, she completely just glosses over this part of her life.

Michael: 00:35:28

And she can tell, like, in some of the translations, she is very uncomfortable with the subject, which is.

Michael: 00:35:36

Which brought me joyous research.

Michael: 00:35:43

And the reason I just want to bring this all up is the sources vehemently just beat you over the head, telling you that she did not want a child.

Michael: 00:35:51

They just kept over and over, like, to the point that it's quite suspicious.

Michael: 00:35:57

And the reason is also because an event later on her in her life that happens, that it's also a little more suspicious.

Scott: 00:36:04

Yeah.

Michael: 00:36:06

Oh.

Michael: 00:36:07

What was true in Clotaire's episode is we are told she did avoid royal banquets to spend more time with God.

Michael: 00:36:14

And when Clotaire would take his meals in private, as kings generally do, she would completely avoid him, saying, honey, I would love to come join you, but my hands are full of the affairs of God.

Scott: 00:36:28

He can't be.

Scott: 00:36:29

Can't.

Scott: 00:36:29

Piss off goddess.

Michael: 00:36:30

No, you can't.

Michael: 00:36:31

Well, it pissed off Clotaire.

Michael: 00:36:33

Apparently, this would just set the king off, and he would ream her out and just go off again.

Michael: 00:36:41

To be clear, he did not hit her or anything like that.

Michael: 00:36:44

The sources are pretty.

Michael: 00:36:45

They.

Michael: 00:36:46

I'm pretty sure they would have said that.

Michael: 00:36:48

They would have loved to have portrayed him as that.

Michael: 00:36:51

But it seems like he just yelled at her pretty fiercely.

Michael: 00:36:56

And after he would calm down, Clotaire would send gifts to Radagon as, like a, sorry.

Michael: 00:37:01

I'm sorry that I yelled at you, flowers.

Michael: 00:37:05

But the flowers are gold encrusted objects layered with precious, precious gems, which last longer than flowers.

Scott: 00:37:14

That they do leave more impact.

Michael: 00:37:20

Both fortunatus and Baroniva mentioned that Radagon practically lives in a hair shirt under her royal clothing during lent.

Michael: 00:37:31

Do you remember what a hair shirt is?

Michael: 00:37:33

I think we mentioned it in Clotaire's episode.

Scott: 00:37:36

Oh, God, no.

Scott: 00:37:37

I do not recall this at all.

Michael: 00:37:39

Okay.

Michael: 00:37:39

So, to my knowledge, it's like this uncomfortable piece of clothing that probably seems really scratchy and itchy on your skin, used by aesthetics to deny themselves of ever being comfortable it's, like, constantly a thing that's.

Michael: 00:37:57

I don't know what it is.

Michael: 00:37:58

I've never worn one, obviously, but I imagine it's just this constantly thing that just bothers you, which would not be great for your mental faculties, I would imagine.

Scott: 00:38:10

No.

Scott: 00:38:11

Yeah, yeah.

Scott: 00:38:14

But it's.

Scott: 00:38:15

It at least make you just kind of grumpy.

Michael: 00:38:17

Yeah, yeah, definitely would.

Michael: 00:38:20

You know, I think history would have gone a lot differently if people just used, like, I don't know, therapy and not the reconciliation of telling the church all the bad things you did.

Michael: 00:38:31

Because she had the lavish, lavish luxury life of gold and everything, best of clothes.

Michael: 00:38:38

And then she is, on top of it, beating herself up, like, actually causing significant wounds to create scars for having these nice things.

Michael: 00:38:48

It's just this weird punishment for yourself for having things which I'm sure some peasants would be like, what are you doing?

Scott: 00:38:57

Yeah.

Scott: 00:38:58

Yeah.

Scott: 00:38:59

Like, yeah, I mean, different.

Scott: 00:39:02

Different place and time.

Michael: 00:39:04

It definitely is.

Michael: 00:39:06

Definitely is.

Scott: 00:39:07

I mean, especially because, like, the disparity between you and peasants is going to be astronomical.

Michael: 00:39:13

Mm hmm.

Michael: 00:39:14

Yeah.

Michael: 00:39:15

Yeah.

Michael: 00:39:15

The wealth gap is ridiculous.

Michael: 00:39:18

I don't think we could put it into terms that would make sense today, even.

Scott: 00:39:23

I feel like a lot of people.

Scott: 00:39:25

I mean.

Scott: 00:39:26

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people.

Scott: 00:39:28

You know, maybe even today, people with a conscience would probably also feel a lot of guilt.

Michael: 00:39:35

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Scott: 00:39:38

Yeah.

Scott: 00:39:38

There is no, like.

Scott: 00:39:39

Yeah, especially.

Scott: 00:39:40

Cause, like, you know, you're having all this great stuff, and then literally there are people out there who are just, like, struggling to survive, which I know is a thing today, but, like, you.

Michael: 00:39:49

Know, but on top of it, you have an entire religion dedicated towards, you know, the evils of money and wealth.

Scott: 00:39:58

Yeah, that too.

Michael: 00:39:59

The entire religion is based off of that.

Michael: 00:40:02

It's off of other things, but a lot of things is that, too.

Michael: 00:40:05

So that's also got to be compounding the.

Michael: 00:40:08

That feeling.

Scott: 00:40:10

Yeah.

Scott: 00:40:10

Money is only evil when it's convenient for me, though.

Michael: 00:40:15

Yes, definitely.

Michael: 00:40:18

Anyway, one of her hair shirts would actually become a holy relic after her death and would have miraculous power, which is interesting.

Michael: 00:40:32

She would continue to become more and more pious, falling more and more deeply into this christian zealous role as she continued to endure her marriage to glottaire.

Michael: 00:40:43

And then finally, something made her snap.

Michael: 00:40:46

On a cold, rainy day after a session of prayer, she finds out that her husband, her loving husband, murdered her last remaining brotherhood.

Michael: 00:40:55

He exasperates the issue by barring her from attending his funeral.

Scott: 00:41:02

Mmm.

Scott: 00:41:05

Not good way to win Brownie points.

Michael: 00:41:09

Yeah.

Michael: 00:41:10

In fortunatus poem, destruction of Thuringia.

Scott: 00:41:14

She says, quote, brother, believe me, I stand before you accused and accursed as I bid you farewell of your death.

Scott: 00:41:24

I alone had responsibility, yet I gave you no tomb.

Michael: 00:41:30

So, like, this passage tragically displays Radagon's, like, knife cutting guilt that she felt for this, and it really shook her to her core.

Michael: 00:41:41

The reason that Radagon blames herself for this is extremely unfair, but unfortunately, possibly true.

Michael: 00:41:49

Like, if you look at the facts, her brother was most likely kept as a hostage at Clotaire's court to encourage Radagund to prove useful to him as a wife and a queen and basically keep her on her best behavior.

Michael: 00:42:05

I'm guessing what happened is Clotaira kind of grew tired of this childless marriage to the annoying, you know, like, knowing, pious wife Radagon, who's, like, almost a nun now.

Michael: 00:42:17

That joke was starting to trickle around court, and he no longer really valued her as a wife.

Michael: 00:42:23

And so therefore, it was a really easy decision to execute the last heir to the thuringian throne, removing any possible threat of resurgence from that family.

Scott: 00:42:35

Yeah.

Michael: 00:42:38

We went over this next part in Clotaire's episode number 33, so I'm just going to kind of go high level if you want to go into detail for that.

Michael: 00:42:46

Radagon escapes from Clotaire.

Michael: 00:42:48

She runs to Medard, the bishop of Noyon.

Michael: 00:42:51

She demands that he consecrate her to the lord to essentially use the church to separate herself from Clotaire.

Michael: 00:42:59

Medard tried to stall because he likes having his head on his shoulders, and Clotaire doesn't really care that you're a bishop, as he has demonstrated before.

Michael: 00:43:11

Radagund was quick on her feet, though.

Michael: 00:43:13

She forced his hand by stripping herself from royal attire, put on nuns robes, and rolled a Nat 20 on persuasion check by playing the God card.

Michael: 00:43:27

Probably had it with advantage.

Scott: 00:43:30

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:43:31

With an hold nun, they had to close out.

Michael: 00:43:34

Yeah.

Michael: 00:43:34

She said, if you don't consecrate me, this is proof that you fear a man more than God.

Michael: 00:43:41

Against his better judgment, Medard made her a deaconess.

Michael: 00:43:45

Now, this next part, we didn't go into Clotair's episode.

Michael: 00:43:50

Notice he made her a deaconess and not a nun.

Michael: 00:43:53

Married women were not allowed to take religious vows, especially without the consent of their husband.

Michael: 00:44:01

You can imagine that Kultair is not going to agree to that.

Scott: 00:44:05

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:44:07

So by making her a deaconess, technically, she still was married and therefore a queen in the eyes of the state and church.

Michael: 00:44:16

But she also wasn't allowed by rule of the church that she can no longer have sex with Clotaire anymore, which she probably went, darn it.

Michael: 00:44:35

Pretty clever on Medard's end to kind of get away with this, the fact that she was married, and there's no way that Clotaire was going to consent to this, and it might have saved his head.

Michael: 00:44:47

I know he said in Clotaire's episode that it killed him, but this little maneuver may have made it so that way, he actually did die of natural causes.

Michael: 00:44:59

I don't know.

Michael: 00:45:03

And since she was not a nun, but a deaconess, Radagon didn't live in a monastery, but a royal villa, and she had female attendants who faced, let's face it, were essentially still her ladies in waiting, and she had loyal followers, like a retinue for a queen.

Michael: 00:45:21

So, like, she completely outplayed clotaire in the church.

Michael: 00:45:25

She's essentially still a royal queen, but she doesn't have sex or anything to do with clotaire.

Michael: 00:45:32

And she gained a ton of unprecedented agency as a woman, which is pretty awesome.

Michael: 00:45:38

At this point, the royal villa would become her palace and her seat of power.

Michael: 00:45:44

She ordered a priest by the name of Magnus to begin collecting relics of saints, especially the ones of St.

Michael: 00:45:50

Andrew.

Michael: 00:45:51

For some reason, once he would return with these relics, she would place them on the altar in the villa.

Michael: 00:46:00

And these relics can believe to contain magical power.

Michael: 00:46:03

And by collecting these, even if they're not really magical, we don't know.

Michael: 00:46:08

We weren't there.

Michael: 00:46:10

They gave her more actual power because of the perception of them having that power alone, and therefore.

Michael: 00:46:19

And she did not let that power go to waste.

Michael: 00:46:23

From now on, Radagund developed a burning passion for acquiring relics to add to her domain, which increased her spiritual power as much as her, I don't know, worldly power.

Michael: 00:46:37

She basically held court like a king.

Michael: 00:46:39

Bishops would come to her.

Michael: 00:46:41

In return, she'd send him away with treasure.

Michael: 00:46:43

She acquired a and despite being a masterful political player at the same time, she was still this very pious woman deep inside.

Michael: 00:46:51

She has a very interesting dichotomy to her.

Michael: 00:46:55

She gave bread to the poor.

Michael: 00:46:57

She made flour.

Michael: 00:46:59

Sorry.

Michael: 00:47:00

She gave bread to the poor, made from flour that she herself would grind.

Michael: 00:47:05

She washed poor women's entire body and only the head of poor Mendez.

Michael: 00:47:10

Uh, because, you know, you have.

Michael: 00:47:13

You can't do the whole male body.

Scott: 00:47:14

Yeah, because.

Scott: 00:47:17

Which I would not be very, uh.

Scott: 00:47:19

That would not be very christian of you, now, would it?

Michael: 00:47:21

No, it would not.

Michael: 00:47:23

She would apply holy oil to their sores, which would help their healing.

Michael: 00:47:28

We are told that needy women would arrive in rags and depart in fresh clothing.

Michael: 00:47:34

She started gaining the reputation of being a literal, literal miracle worker amongst the locals.

Michael: 00:47:41

They would bring their sick.

Michael: 00:47:45

Sorry, the sick or their families brought leave leaves for her to bless, and they would use those leaves as medicine.

Michael: 00:47:54

I wonder how that worked.

Michael: 00:47:55

If they, like, chewed on the leaves or if they ground it up and put it into, like, a potion.

Scott: 00:48:01

Uh, I mean, yeah, it could either be.

Scott: 00:48:03

I mean, it depends on the nature of the leaves, but, um, I mean, yeah, you can, you know, if they're.

Scott: 00:48:08

You can chew them.

Scott: 00:48:10

Depending on what kind of leaves they are, you could make various.

Scott: 00:48:14

I'm sure you can make ointments.

Scott: 00:48:15

I'm trying to think of all the stuff you can do, but it just depends because, like, yeah.

Scott: 00:48:22

What you're using it for.

Michael: 00:48:24

I could see ointments where you have to get a specific plant because I know certain plants, like, the natural properties of it, actually have same healing properties.

Michael: 00:48:34

Is like just lab created drugs we have today.

Michael: 00:48:37

So I could see that.

Scott: 00:48:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott: 00:48:42

That.

Scott: 00:48:43

Not as potent naturally, but.

Michael: 00:48:45

Correct.

Scott: 00:48:46

Yeah, there's.

Scott: 00:48:47

There's some small stuff that can help and this and that.

Michael: 00:48:52

We are told that many are healed after they sent candles to be lit and burned in our presence.

Michael: 00:48:58

I guess that's one way to get free candles.

Scott: 00:49:02

There you go.

Scott: 00:49:03

I don't know if that was the objective, but here we are.

Michael: 00:49:05

Probably, probably not.

Michael: 00:49:07

And of course, what biblical like, or saint story would be complete without lepers?

Michael: 00:49:14

Just like Jesus.

Michael: 00:49:16

A group of lepers arrived, and she greeted them and arranged a feast.

Michael: 00:49:20

We are.

Michael: 00:49:21

She told.

Michael: 00:49:22

No, we are told.

Michael: 00:49:23

She hugged the leprous woman and kissed their faces.

Michael: 00:49:27

Um, do you know anything about leprosy or any of that?

Scott: 00:49:31

Or, um, it isn't that, like, I mean, I might be exaggerating, but isn't that where, like, limbs can just kind of, like, die and fall off?

Michael: 00:49:41

I think that might be.

Scott: 00:49:43

I know.

Scott: 00:49:43

I'm really.

Michael: 00:49:45

I could see that it causes skin lesions and nerve damage, which probably could lead to limbs falling off.

Michael: 00:49:51

I can imagine if you're a.

Michael: 00:49:52

Nerves aren't working.

Michael: 00:49:55

And it was thought to be highly googling.

Michael: 00:49:58

Okay.

Scott: 00:50:07

Okay, I see.

Scott: 00:50:08

So I totally misspoke.

Scott: 00:50:11

Well, not totally.

Scott: 00:50:12

So it actually.

Scott: 00:50:13

The reason why I said that is because apparently in my two second search, it as a common myth.

Scott: 00:50:18

And the reason why is that basically it would just totally mess up your limbs to the point where you just got them amputated.

Scott: 00:50:25

So not so much that they would, like, rot, you know, and just, like, kind of fall off.

Scott: 00:50:30

But, like, to this point where it's like, this isn't, you know, these fingers or whatever doing me no good.

Scott: 00:50:35

Might as well just cut them off.

Scott: 00:50:39

Like, how.

Scott: 00:50:40

Yeah, this or that.

Scott: 00:50:41

Or, like, I think it's like diabetes can also cause if you let it progress to the.

Scott: 00:50:46

To a certain point, at a certain point, you just have to.

Scott: 00:50:50

You just have to amputate, unfortunately, but, yeah, so, anyways, yeah, so leprosy, the limb losing limbs thing is entirely man made, not disease made.

Michael: 00:51:06

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:51:07

Well, it leads into the other.

Michael: 00:51:11

Historically, it was thought as highly contagious, and I'm guessing it's.

Michael: 00:51:15

It still is.

Michael: 00:51:18

I don't.

Michael: 00:51:18

I don't know anything about leprosy today.

Michael: 00:51:20

I just know about the historical context.

Michael: 00:51:23

Basically, though, you know, like, when you call someone a leper, there's someone to be an outcast or avoided is because of how contagious they thought this was.

Scott: 00:51:33

Yeah.

Michael: 00:51:33

Have you heard of that?

Scott: 00:51:35

I have, yeah.

Scott: 00:51:36

Yeah.

Scott: 00:51:36

And that's where I.

Scott: 00:51:36

Like, when you're like, oh, yeah, she's, you know, like, you know, kissing their faces.

Scott: 00:51:40

I'm like, ugh.

Michael: 00:51:42

Yeah, yeah.

Michael: 00:51:43

Basically, treating lepers is kindly is something that so many biblical stories and miracle stories have in there.

Michael: 00:51:55

It's a classic staple, so I'm not surprised it's not here with the rest of her good deeds.

Michael: 00:52:06

After murdering her brother, Clotaire knew Radagon would act.

Michael: 00:52:09

He's not an idiot.

Michael: 00:52:11

But he did not calculate that she would completely outplay him in the speed that she did.

Michael: 00:52:19

He had to be pretty impressed, even if it's against him.

Michael: 00:52:25

The thing is, if he tried to get her back, which she was very afraid of, he would have to acknowledge that she outmaneuvered him.

Michael: 00:52:35

So to not appear weak, he had to act like, oh, this was my idea all along.

Michael: 00:52:41

I was growing tired of her.

Michael: 00:52:43

It's good for her to go be a nun.

Michael: 00:52:51

After six years at the royal villa, with the financing of her husband, the king Clotaire, she founded a convent in Poitier.

Michael: 00:52:59

In Poitiers.

Michael: 00:53:00

Oh, my God, I almost said that horribly.

Michael: 00:53:02

In Poitiers, that will later be named Holy Cross, and it will essentially become the symbol of her legacy.

Michael: 00:53:11

Being backed by a king, no matter how much you hate him, has its perks.

Michael: 00:53:17

We're told the convent was built very, very quickly, and after getting it up and running, about 200 nuns were housed in it.

Michael: 00:53:26

And Radagund like a queen, kind of handed it off to an abbess to run for her.

Michael: 00:53:32

You know, like a king hands off his daily operations to his counselors.

Michael: 00:53:36

The king doesn't need to deal with that.

Scott: 00:53:38

Yeah.

Michael: 00:53:39

Therefore, the queen doesn't need to.

Michael: 00:53:41

In 558, Radagon received news that her husband, or ex husband.

Michael: 00:53:45

I'm not.

Michael: 00:53:46

It's not really clear.

Michael: 00:53:47

Clotaire died, and now the realm was being split amongst his children.

Michael: 00:53:53

We are told she never visits his grave or attends his funeral, which I do not blame her at all.

Michael: 00:54:02

Civil wars broke out between the sons, as we discussed in Sigibert's Kilbrick's gontran's episodes.

Michael: 00:54:09

We are told that she wrote letters to each of the kings at various times to get them to accept peace.

Michael: 00:54:15

Obviously, she wasn't as successful, because if you've been paying attention to our previous podcasts, there's a little bit of war between the brothers.

Scott: 00:54:25

Mm hmm.

Scott: 00:54:25

Just a small one.

Michael: 00:54:26

Just.

Michael: 00:54:27

Just a small one.

Michael: 00:54:28

A Ratigan's convent at this time would have been immune.

Michael: 00:54:32

Would not have been immune.

Michael: 00:54:33

Sorry.

Michael: 00:54:34

Radagon's convent at this time would not have been immune to the violence outside of the convent.

Michael: 00:54:39

Many of the nuns were very high nobility, and their families would be trying to kill each other of their fellow sisters families.

Michael: 00:54:49

So that would have to make some pretty awkward prayer sessions or meal times, I can imagine.

Michael: 00:54:58

Since her convent was in Poitiers, she would have lived under all of her stepson's rules.

Michael: 00:55:04

At one point or another, she would play political games with them and against them, trying to complete her various holy quests.

Michael: 00:55:15

In summary, we are told she opposed Karibert in his incestuous ways.

Michael: 00:55:20

She found support from Sigibert, faced great peril under Kilbrick, and passed away peacefully under Gontran.

Michael: 00:55:29

So a little detail.

Michael: 00:55:31

Under each reign, under Karibert's reign, she was immediately not a fan of this king when he blocked a bishop that was loyal to her from becoming bishop of Poitiers, and instead, he installed one of his yes men as a bishop.

Michael: 00:55:46

So, ready?

Michael: 00:55:49

Not a fan.

Michael: 00:55:49

And she got the last laugh when he was excommunicated in disgrace for marrying one of his wives sisters, which I'm sure she helped encourage.

Scott: 00:55:58

Yeah, some good old.

Scott: 00:56:01

Yeah.

Scott: 00:56:02

Divine retribution.

Michael: 00:56:03

Yeah, exactly.

Michael: 00:56:05

Life under Sigebert's reign, she and Sigebert were aligned, actually, for the most part, in values.

Michael: 00:56:10

If you could tell, between Sigibert's episode and this episode, we're told that they actually had a very positive relationship during his reign.

Michael: 00:56:18

Remember earlier how I said that she developed a passion for acquiring holy relics?

Michael: 00:56:24

You're about to see how deep this passion goes the positive relationship with Sigibert allowed her to acquire the holy grail of christian relics.

Michael: 00:56:34

Aside from the grail itself.

Michael: 00:56:36

A piece.

Scott: 00:56:36

Yeah, I was about to say, hold up.

Michael: 00:56:41

A piece of the true cross that Christ was crucified on from Constantinople.

Michael: 00:56:48

So whether we believe it or not, that this was an actual piece of the cross or just some piece of.

Scott: 00:56:55

Wood.

Michael: 00:56:58

Is irrelevant to, like, how impressive of a feat this was to pull off.

Michael: 00:57:02

Perception is reality at this time.

Michael: 00:57:05

And at the people.

Michael: 00:57:07

At the people at this time believe this was the real deal.

Scott: 00:57:11

I feel like a lot of it is held up by the fact that she has other relics and stuff.

Michael: 00:57:18

Yes, definitely.

Scott: 00:57:19

Like, hey, this lady has got all these relics.

Scott: 00:57:23

Went to great pains to get them.

Scott: 00:57:24

And presumably there's.

Scott: 00:57:26

There's some validity to it verified by other holy people under her command.

Scott: 00:57:33

Probably.

Scott: 00:57:33

But whatever.

Scott: 00:57:35

The point being is she has a collection.

Scott: 00:57:37

And so, like, yeah, if someone says, if a.

Scott: 00:57:40

If an art collector had a vast collection of art and then told me that, like, you know, they had this really rare, lost to the ages art piece that resurfaced, I'd be pretty inclined to believe them.

Scott: 00:57:52

Even if it was totally fake.

Michael: 00:57:54

Mm hmm.

Michael: 00:57:55

Yeah.

Michael: 00:57:55

And, I mean, when this thing was installed in the abbey at the time, it was tons of fanfare, as you can imagine.

Michael: 00:58:06

I mean, this is, this is the cornerstone of Christianity, is the cross.

Michael: 00:58:10

I mean, it's the sign of it, for crying out loud.

Michael: 00:58:13

When you think of Christianity, you think of the cross.

Michael: 00:58:15

So the fact that she has the real one would have created massive, massive discussions, even amongst the lay people.

Michael: 00:58:23

I'm imagining it had to have gotten to them.

Scott: 00:58:27

Yeah.

Michael: 00:58:28

This isn't something that would just be silent.

Michael: 00:58:34

How this all happened is Sigebert wanted a political agreement with the roman emperor Justin II.

Michael: 00:58:41

Radagund had connections to the court of Constantinople, and she wrote to Sigibert, basically, if you want to do that, I can help you out.

Michael: 00:58:52

I just want you to help me acquire a piece of the true cross.

Michael: 00:58:56

No small ask.

Scott: 00:58:58

Yeah.

Michael: 00:59:00

So as a result, though, through negotiations, Emperor Justin II and his Empress Sophia gave a fragment of the cross as a gift to Radagund.

Michael: 00:59:11

So I'm guessing what happened with the, like, they had a bunch of it and they broke it out into pieces.

Michael: 00:59:18

And it was really.

Scott: 00:59:22

A bold thing to do.

Michael: 00:59:23

It is a very bold thing to do, but that's what they did, and they didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts.

Michael: 00:59:31

This was a surefire way to improve their standing in the eyes of the western church, which is something they really were trying to do at this time.

Michael: 00:59:39

When we talk Justin about Justin II, when we get over there, you'll be able to see.

Michael: 00:59:44

In the meantime, you can check roman emperors to tell us rankium on Justin II's reign.

Michael: 00:59:49

He's.

Michael: 00:59:50

He's got an amazing reign.

Michael: 00:59:52

But anyway, back to Radagund.

Michael: 00:59:54

When she received her prized relic, she had a great fanfare placed in the convent, and the convent then went from a convent dedicated to the Virgin mother Mary to take the name Holy Cross, which is how we know it today.

Scott: 01:00:13

Ah, look at that.

Michael: 01:00:15

Uh, Radagon gained the most ground and held the most power under Sigebert's reign from 568 to 575.

Michael: 01:00:23

So she had a lot of years with a lot of power under him.

Michael: 01:00:28

However, then his brother Kilperic came along.

Scott: 01:00:34

The big bad.

Michael: 01:00:35

The big, big bad.

Michael: 01:00:38

We're told that before Galswintha, Kilperic's wife, shall we say, before she went to become his bride, she stopped at the holy Cross and was treated with the love of a mother by Radagund.

Michael: 01:00:56

And they actually got along pretty darn well to the point that the two exchanged letters quite a bit, until, you know, Gail Swintha was murdered.

Michael: 01:01:07

That probably increased her distaste of Kilperk even more.

Scott: 01:01:12

It's the little things.

Michael: 01:01:14

It is.

Michael: 01:01:15

Kilperick attempted to take one of his own daughters out of Radagon's holy Cross, so that way she could be a pawn in a marriage alliance for him.

Michael: 01:01:26

This daughter really did not want this to happen.

Michael: 01:01:29

Also, Radagund went, uh uh, this is not happening.

Michael: 01:01:33

I'm pretty confident she would have put her life on the line for this because, you know, this probably struck a nerve with her since she lived in fear so much of clotaire trying to reclaim her back from.

Michael: 01:01:44

And, like, she would not want that, um, precedence to be able to be set on, so she blocked that completely from him.

Michael: 01:01:53

And she probably did not enjoy life under Kilbrick.

Michael: 01:01:58

Let's just say that, yes.

Michael: 01:02:03

Then finally, we have Gontran.

Michael: 01:02:06

She lived her final three years under Gontran after Kilperk was assassinated on August 13, 587, Radagon departed from this world around the age of 65.

Michael: 01:02:20

That is her story.

Michael: 01:02:22

Initial thoughts.

Scott: 01:02:26

Feels like a very sanctuary kind of person.

Michael: 01:02:29

Yeah, definitely.

Michael: 01:02:31

Are you ready to rate her?

Scott: 01:02:33

Yeah.

Scott: 01:02:34

Yeah.

Scott: 01:02:34

Let's get her.

Scott: 01:02:35

Get her done.

Scott: 01:02:37

Royal power.

Michael: 01:02:38

All right, so the length of her reign doesn't really apply in this matter, since her life really breaks against the mold, like, we haven't judged anything like her yet.

Michael: 01:02:51

In many sources, we wrote that Radagon.

Michael: 01:02:55

It was very clear that she still performed the function of being queen, even after clothes, hair, died.

Michael: 01:03:02

She never seemed to lose her royal status, despite being a deaconess.

Michael: 01:03:07

And, you know, this holy woman, she is the exception to every rule.

Michael: 01:03:12

She had attendants, she had servants, and from I can tell, she was the only abbess to do so.

Michael: 01:03:17

She virtually held court in her villa and then later, her convent.

Michael: 01:03:22

Like a secular king, people would come to her, do her bidding while she would stay in the convent.

Michael: 01:03:28

Her convent had a royal physician, a court poet.

Michael: 01:03:31

Feasts, banquets, table games, notable guests like dignitaries, slaves in attendance.

Michael: 01:03:40

She even had a throne to sit upon.

Michael: 01:03:42

A little too much on the nose, I think.

Scott: 01:03:46

Yeah, yeah.

Scott: 01:03:48

And everything but name.

Scott: 01:03:49

She was basically still a ruler.

Michael: 01:03:51

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Michael: 01:03:52

All of this elevated her monastery above all frankish monasteries, and, I'm gonna guess, even other european monasteries.

Michael: 01:04:04

She hosted lay people, royals, nobility, clergy, male or female, and lavish feast, basically everyone.

Michael: 01:04:11

She herself would not partake in these feasts.

Michael: 01:04:15

And this was actually both on a pious thing to do and an incredible power move to demonstrate her power that I can deliver all these stuff, and yet I don't need to take it myself.

Michael: 01:04:31

She was given royal purple silks by Constantinople, and rather than rejecting them, she would make them into cloths, which would adorn in her convent and give it this very regal appearance.

Michael: 01:04:44

Uh, she used for not fortunatus, as a valuable tool.

Michael: 01:04:48

She commissioned him to write poems and secure favors and foster relationships for over 20 years.

Michael: 01:04:55

She would use him for those kind of things.

Michael: 01:04:57

The only negatives I can find is she couldn't stop the merovingian wars and that she was a woman, so she didn't have absolute power.

Scott: 01:05:05

That's about it, yeah.

Scott: 01:05:08

Well, I mean, we're kind of, like, looking at this on a different scale just because queens are very different.

Michael: 01:05:16

Yeah, it's more of different.

Scott: 01:05:20

Yeah.

Scott: 01:05:21

No, it's always hard to judge because we have so few queens.

Michael: 01:05:25

Mm hmm.

Scott: 01:05:27

I don't know.

Scott: 01:05:28

This feels like.

Scott: 01:05:28

This feels like a, you know, like an eight or something.

Michael: 01:05:32

Yeah.

Michael: 01:05:33

Yeah, I would have to agree.

Michael: 01:05:34

An eight.

Michael: 01:05:36

Eight or nine.

Scott: 01:05:38

Yeah, I'm gonna go with eight.

Michael: 01:05:39

I don't think she quite had a nine power.

Michael: 01:05:43

There's gonna be other queens, I think, that has.

Scott: 01:05:47

She's not, like, standing up to.

Scott: 01:05:50

Standing up to kings.

Scott: 01:05:51

She isn't.

Scott: 01:05:52

She isn't.

Michael: 01:05:53

She's very influential, is the way I'd put it.

Scott: 01:05:57

Yeah.

Scott: 01:06:00

All right.

Scott: 01:06:00

A Nate for 16.

Scott: 01:06:03

Infamy.

Michael: 01:06:04

Nada.

Michael: 01:06:05

She had enemies because she was a woman with too much power.

Michael: 01:06:08

That's it.

Scott: 01:06:09

Well, infamy in kind of its own right, but being excessively christian kind of puts you back in the mold a little bit.

Scott: 01:06:20

Yeah, we have a one.

Michael: 01:06:23

I'm nothing.

Michael: 01:06:24

Just nothing.

Scott: 01:06:25

Just for the sake of it.

Scott: 01:06:26

And the fact that she's, uh, you know, a little outlandish.

Michael: 01:06:31

Little.

Scott: 01:06:31

Yeah.

Scott: 01:06:32

Being lady in power, but the boss bitch.

Michael: 01:06:38

That's true.

Michael: 01:06:38

That's very true.

Scott: 01:06:40

So.

Michael: 01:06:41

All right, I'm gonna.

Michael: 01:06:42

Yeah, I'm gonna do zero still.

Scott: 01:06:45

Yeah, I'll give a one because I like her.

Scott: 01:06:47

All right.

Scott: 01:06:48

One and a zero for one.

Scott: 01:06:51

Religious passion.

Michael: 01:06:53

Do you just want me to repeat the entire episode?

Michael: 01:06:56

What?

Michael: 01:06:57

Did not give her a ten.

Michael: 01:06:59

I'm actually very tempted to give her either eleven or twelve.

Michael: 01:07:04

Acquiring the holy Cross is a step above and beyond.

Michael: 01:07:12

Yeah, she was gifted it, but she asked for it, and she had to maneuver her way to get gifted it.

Michael: 01:07:19

It wasn't just gifted to her.

Michael: 01:07:20

Out of the.

Michael: 01:07:21

Out of the clear blue, she went hunting for it.

Scott: 01:07:26

Yeah, she.

Michael: 01:07:28

And then the other, like, bonus point I'd have to give is her extreme asceticism was to the point of, like, self mutilation.

Michael: 01:07:35

People at the time, some of the most pious people at the time were like, that's a bit much.

Scott: 01:07:42

Hmm.

Michael: 01:07:43

Okay, but what are you thinking here?

Michael: 01:07:47

I don't.

Michael: 01:07:47

I don't.

Scott: 01:07:48

There's a nice big, fat ten.

Scott: 01:07:50

You know.

Michael: 01:07:54

I'm gonna go eleven.

Michael: 01:07:55

I think she breaks the mold, and I'm gonna break the rules for her.

Michael: 01:07:58

She breaks the scale.

Scott: 01:07:59

All right,: 1011

Scott: 01:08:03

Bard song.

Michael: 01:08:04

All right, quick storyline of her life.

Michael: 01:08:06

She's born of princess in Thuringia.

Michael: 01:08:09

Her father died when she was young and may or may not have been killed by her uncle, who she later lives with.

Michael: 01:08:16

She is captured by King Clotaire when he wipes out pretty much her in kingdom, forces her to marry him against her will.

Michael: 01:08:24

She was supposed to just be another one of his playthings, but she gambled with her life with a very powerful man who could have made her life absolutely hell if he didn't appreciate that she ran away, and in doing so, she was recognized fully queen.

Michael: 01:08:41

She completely outplayed clotaire in the church, to the point where she was essentially rule a ruling church queen, which I don't think we'll ever get another one of this type of person.

Michael: 01:08:54

I've never seen this before.

Michael: 01:08:56

And she got a ton of unprecedented agency and never had to have sex with him again.

Michael: 01:09:02

Acquired the holy grail of relics.

Michael: 01:09:04

Besides the holy grail itself, the true cross, and founded a powerful convent that would last centuries.

Scott: 01:09:12

Yeah.

Scott: 01:09:13

I mean, it's kind of.

Scott: 01:09:13

It's pretty interesting.

Scott: 01:09:14

Yeah.

Scott: 01:09:15

Uh, but, like, is it great, you know, from a.

Scott: 01:09:19

From a total story?

Scott: 01:09:20

I'm willing to splurge on, like.

Scott: 01:09:23

Like, an eight here.

Michael: 01:09:25

Yeah.

Michael: 01:09:28

The thing is, is I could see, like, a good tv show or movie, but it's not my type of tv show or movie, if that makes sense.

Scott: 01:09:35

Yeah.

Scott: 01:09:35

No, I totally agree.

Scott: 01:09:36

This feels like.

Scott: 01:09:37

This feels like something that would be like a big, old, wide spanning lake, something you'd see on, like, I don't like, streaming, like, HBO or something long spanning.

Michael: 01:09:52

Yeah.

Michael: 01:09:53

A big drama series.

Michael: 01:09:56

I don't know.

Michael: 01:09:57

It's just, again, this is completely subjectivable.

Michael: 01:10:00

It is.

Michael: 01:10:03

Yeah, it is.

Michael: 01:10:04

It definitely is.

Michael: 01:10:06

Is awesome.

Michael: 01:10:07

And as impressive she is, the storyline, it just isn't that exciting of a story to me for some reason, and there's something against it.

Michael: 01:10:18

I think I'm gonna go up a five.

Michael: 01:10:21

It's a good, great story, but nothing a six for it being a great story, not just an ordinary one.

Scott: 01:10:32

Yeah.

Scott: 01:10:33

It's kind of hard to judge when you're like, oh, yeah.

Scott: 01:10:35

You know, it definitely has, like, a lot of the trappings, like, you know, someone who's born into royalty and then rejects it kind of, you know, I mean, obviously they use the power for good.

Michael: 01:10:49

Yeah.

Michael: 01:10:50

Tired tropes that, you know, you've seen a lot of this stuff.

Michael: 01:10:54

I mean, she was.

Michael: 01:10:55

It was a.

Michael: 01:10:56

I mean, she's a saint and written completely in saint form.

Scott: 01:11:00

Yeah.

Scott: 01:11:00

But she, like, she lives this life.

Scott: 01:11:03

She lived this life before.

Scott: 01:11:04

It was a tired trope.

Michael: 01:11:07

That is true.

Michael: 01:11:07

That is true.

Scott: 01:11:08

She does.

Scott: 01:11:09

I'm like, does she kind of fit the mold of, like, if I watched a movie with it.

Scott: 01:11:14

Yeah.

Scott: 01:11:14

Would she hit a lot of the beats?

Scott: 01:11:15

I'm like, yeah, it's about right.

Scott: 01:11:17

I mean, it'd probably be like, you know, again, it'd probably be like a movie that's like, hey, look.

Scott: 01:11:23

Look at how great life is with God now.

Scott: 01:11:26

Go worship or something.

Scott: 01:11:27

You know?

Scott: 01:11:28

It'd be like some christian movie.

Michael: 01:11:30

Yeah.

Scott: 01:11:30

I could see, you know, at least being interesting.

Michael: 01:11:33

I could see in, like, a Game of Thrones her being like a very powerful side character, like, not a main character you'd follow or, like, a fantasy series.

Michael: 01:11:41

Like, you have to deal with her type deal, but she's not the main character by any means.

Scott: 01:11:46

Yeah.

Scott: 01:11:47

Yeah.

Scott: 01:11:47

It's pretty fair.

Scott: 01:11:48

Yeah, I'll recant that down to a six.

Scott: 01:11:50

Six.

Scott: 01:11:51

A six for twelve.

Scott: 01:11:53

Legacy.

Michael: 01:11:55

All right, so dynasty wise, obviously, she had no children with clothes, hair.

Michael: 01:12:00

Can't get any credit for that.

Michael: 01:12:02

But for the rest is she's got a.

Michael: 01:12:05

She's got a resume.

Michael: 01:12:06

She was made a saint, which we rewarded Gontran pretty high for that.

Michael: 01:12:10

She commissioned Fortunatus to write hymn Vexelius Regis.

Michael: 01:12:16

And apparently this is one of the most important christian hymns ever written.

Michael: 01:12:20

It is still sung today on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

Michael: 01:12:25

She's a massive patron to Fortunatus.

Michael: 01:12:28

20 years of a ridiculous number of poems and other religious works under her patronage.

Michael: 01:12:34

Her abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers lasted until the French Revolution, which.

Michael: 01:12:41

That's a long time.

Michael: 01:12:42

That's about a thousand years.

Michael: 01:12:44

The church of St.

Michael: 01:12:45

Radegund, where she is buried, is still standing today in Poitiers.

Michael: 01:12:50

She's the patron saint of many churches in England and France.

Michael: 01:12:55

And just in general, there's a lot of places in France named Saint Radagund.

Michael: 01:13:00

She had two contemporary sources write a biography of her.

Michael: 01:13:03

Despite being a woman in this day and age, pretty impressive legacy.

Scott: 01:13:10

Yeah.

Scott: 01:13:14

So, I mean, she feels pretty strong to me.

Scott: 01:13:19

Honest, it feels.

Scott: 01:13:22

Again, this has got to be like an eight or a nine to me, just a pretty strong showing, honestly, her legacy is almost stronger that she didn't have children.

Michael: 01:13:31

Yeah, it definitely is stronger that she didn't have children.

Michael: 01:13:34

I'd have to agree with that.

Michael: 01:13:36

Another thing I'd have to make is, like, she was a very.

Michael: 01:13:40

She was always looked upon after her death.

Michael: 01:13:42

She.

Michael: 01:13:43

Her legacy grew after her death.

Michael: 01:13:45

Like most saints like her, she became a legend, essentially, to especially nuns of, like, well, the abbey she was at.

Michael: 01:13:57

I'd have to go with eight.

Scott: 01:14:02

Okay.

Scott: 01:14:02

A Nate for 16.

Scott: 01:14:07

All right.

Scott: 01:14:08

Grand total is a.

Scott: 01:14:11

Actually ends up being a 33 and a 33 for 66.

Michael: 01:14:16

Execute order 66.

Michael: 01:14:20

Wow, that's pretty impressive.

Michael: 01:14:24

That's.

Michael: 01:14:25

That's one of the higher numbers out there.

Michael: 01:14:28

Queens, we don't have enough of a thing to judge by yet.

Scott: 01:14:33

Yeah.

Scott: 01:14:34

Yeah, that's the thing.

Scott: 01:14:34

This will be something that'll grow over time.

Michael: 01:14:38

Mm hmm.

Michael: 01:14:40

Definitely.

Scott: 01:14:41

As you get the wider pool, you'll see how the.

Scott: 01:14:43

How the.

Scott: 01:14:43

How she stacks up.

Scott: 01:14:44

But it's pretty darn up there.

Michael: 01:14:47

Yes, yes.

Michael: 01:14:48

Is it, though, exceptional enough for her to be crowned as a legendary queen?

Michael: 01:14:52

Just good enough for her to be a minor queen?

Michael: 01:14:55

Or is she so incompetent that we should just burn her at the stake?

Scott: 01:15:02

Yeah, let's.

Scott: 01:15:02

Let's.

Scott: 01:15:03

Let's give her some top marks here.

Scott: 01:15:04

Yeah.

Michael: 01:15:05

Legendary queen all right, well, congratulations, Radagund.

Michael: 01:15:11

You made legendary status, placed in the hall of Legends among the other greats of history.

Michael: 01:15:18

That brings us to the end of Saint Radagund.

Michael: 01:15:21

Let us know what you thought of her.

Michael: 01:15:23

Do you agree with us giving her legendary queen?

Michael: 01:15:27

You can catch us on messenger, on Facebook and Instagram at QuestforPower or email us@questforpowerpodmail.com.

Michael: 01:15:36

if you enjoyed our show, please give us a five star review on podchaser.com or wherever your podcast casts are potted.

Michael: 01:15:44

Tell a friend or family member about us is also very hugely appreciated.

Michael: 01:15:51

These podcast episodes take quite a bit of work together.

Michael: 01:15:55

I researched Scott's edits.

Michael: 01:15:57

If you want to help us build our resources so we can make better and more content for you, you can do so@patreon.com.

Michael: 01:16:05

questforpower as a thank you, we'll give you access to extra episodes and other fun benefits.

Michael: 01:16:11

We're going to start the House of Troy, which is going to be really fun if you like mythology.

Michael: 01:16:16

Next session we are going to review the child king who took over Saint Gontran's realm, Childebert II.

Michael: 01:16:24

And with that, the queen is dead.

Scott: 01:16:27

Long live the kingdom.