Vulgar History - Your Favorite Royal's Favorite Royal： Fredegund, Part One

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome to vulgar history feminist women's history comedy podcast hosted by me

00:00:21.840 and foster i want to give a special welcome to all of the new listeners i mean and a special

00:00:28.960 welcome to all of the the aged older listeners everybody but it's just I think there are

00:00:35.660 my nope there's a whole lot of people who are listening to this who have this is maybe your

00:00:40.860 first like real-time episode of vulgar history there's been a number of people catching up

00:00:46.440 binge listening I'm not sure why but thank you for being here and this is a super special episode

00:00:54.660 so I like to do the podcast in seasons thematic seasons because that's just kind of how my brain

00:01:04.320 works and it's just more manageable for me to you know put out a season then like take a break do 0.98

00:01:09.080 some other stuff come back etc but here's the thing uh COVID is still being a little bitch 1.00

00:01:16.600 delta is out there um and and i just felt like i needed to to bring some tits out energy 0.96

00:01:25.320 into the world so that's one reason i'm doing this the other reason is that i became

00:01:31.800 very interested in a woman who i had never heard of before and whose story the more i read about

00:01:39.920 it the more excited i got about it if you've been following my instagram stories you'll know who i'm

00:01:44.800 talking about it is Fredegund the queen of Neustria so this is a story that takes place in

00:01:52.640 the 6th century basically France the Frankish kingdoms and it's an era in which of which I knew

00:02:03.280 nothing I didn't know anything about 6th century Frankish kingdoms but Fredegund's story is so

00:02:11.540 fascinating and so interesting i had to do a podcast about it and honestly there's enough

00:02:16.500 stuff here i feel like this is like her own season it's just fredigan is a season unto herself and i

00:02:23.320 mean to shout out my instagram friend egg who is the one who suggested fredigan to me

00:02:30.440 just a casually a few weeks back i just post on instagram like hey what are some like interesting

00:02:38.600 woman from history who you think would be interesting on the podcast and i got a lot of

00:02:43.260 really interesting answers and suggestions and i've been like reading up on various people but

00:02:47.880 egg just sent in just a single word fredigand all in caps and i was like well who's this and

00:02:54.720 then a quick google search and a skim over her like criminally short wikipedia later and i'm

00:02:59.880 just like i'm all in on fredigand and then i asked egg where where had they heard of fredigand

00:03:08.400 because she is not a well-known person right um at least not yet and egg says i remember my

00:03:17.680 grandmother was a big stan of her so i used to hear the stories i mean shout out to egg's

00:03:23.060 grandmother and i wonder where she heard about it anyway egg's grandmother says i was always like

00:03:29.000 it's okay if your husband dies if you're rich and then just research from there and so egg became a

00:03:34.320 stan and i became a stan of fredigand just because she's everything she's everything i've

00:03:42.060 ever wanted in a historical woman's story it's just everything like usually in these stories

00:03:47.760 it's like when i can even find enough as much information as i want there's always this part

00:03:52.840 in the middle where it's like and then she went off and had you know six children and the next

00:03:57.840 time we hear her in the public record it's because she did a murder or whatever at both fredigand

00:04:01.940 it's unrelenting you know what she's up to every year of her life from when it first gets exciting

00:04:08.720 so that's like 40 years of stuff and here's the big news so i was researching fredigan and it's

00:04:16.620 just like so there's a couple of books like frankly i just looked at the wikipedia i'm like

00:04:21.420 where did what were their sources so then i looked up those books so they were um doomed queens royal

00:04:27.160 women who met bad ends by chris wald hair uh women rulers throughout the ages an illustrated

00:04:34.900 guide by guida m jackson absolute power the real lives of europe's most infamous rulers by c.s

00:04:44.000 denton and here's the thing all those books are cute they're all good i got my hands on them and

00:04:50.080 they all have all the same information and the thing is that that's because there's one main

00:04:55.320 source of information about fredigand's life and that is the writings of a bishop called gregory

00:04:59.820 of tours and in a nice um difference from how this often goes gregory of tours actually lived

00:05:06.480 at the same time as fredigand in fact fredigand outlived him so we're getting like real-time

00:05:11.640 information and that's kind of it that's like that's the source so these books and the wikipedia

00:05:18.420 article i looked at uh biography your dictionary.com and i'm like okay this is some stuff

00:05:24.780 but i need a deeper doubt i need to know more about ms fredigand and then i discovered that

00:05:32.580 there's a book coming out soon so in february 2022 by shelly puhack who also has an article

00:05:39.740 online i think you can find about fredigand but um her book is called the dark queens the bloody

00:05:46.320 rivalry that forged the medieval world by shelly puhack the dark queens i'll put a link to it in

00:05:51.900 the show notes obviously and so I was just like I need to get my hands on this book like it's coming

00:05:55.800 in February I'm sure it's you know it's done they're just waiting to print it and I managed

00:06:01.260 to get an early advanced reader copy of it and I just like devoured this book so I've got so much

00:06:07.700 information about Fred again it's like every piece of information I could have possibly wanted is all

00:06:12.220 in this book and but the thing about doing the research is it's like so far outside of anything

00:06:19.720 i've ever read about like again like sixth century frankish kingdoms like it took a lot of um i can

00:06:27.640 read like a chapter or two and i'm just like this is it like my brain can't handle any more

00:06:31.180 information it's like all new information and so between just how much stuff there is to tell you

00:06:38.060 about and just kind of how much brain power it takes like this is going to be a two-part episode

00:06:42.640 So this is part one of two of the story of Fredegund. And so here we go. So this story

00:06:57.200 takes place in the sixth century, aka the 500s AD, during the end of the Merovingian

00:07:05.920 frankish dynasty era so frankish the franks you might have heard of them their lands are now

00:07:14.660 called france mostly so the merovingians i mean that's just a dynasty that's just like the family

00:07:21.480 who were in power at the time so this is all in modern day france um just to place this amongst

00:07:29.640 other stories we've talked about on this podcast this all happened like 300 years before ethel

00:07:36.740 fled um and 500 years later than bodica and cleopatra so like we're in it's the medieval

00:07:44.820 world but it's like the early medieval world like 300 years before ethel fled like that's where we

00:07:51.800 are so the Franks were a group of Germanic people so their name was first mentioned in this is just

00:08:01.080 a lot of kind of place setting that I needed and so I'm going to assume to help you to just to

00:08:05.660 really understand what this world is we're looking at as so the Franks group of Germanic peoples

00:08:13.340 whose name was first mentioned in a third century Roman source and they were associated with tribes

00:08:20.600 between the lower rhine and the ems river on the edge of the roman empire the franks this is very

00:08:28.140 crucial you don't even know how crucial this is they wore their hair long and there's going to

00:08:34.460 be several instances in this story where somebody gets in trouble like a man and then to shame him

00:08:41.620 they cut off his long hair like the hair was like majorly important to them they also wore

00:08:47.060 big fluffy mustaches the romans had never seen mustaches before and so in translation they

00:08:54.720 referred like they'd never seen mustaches like romans i feel like they might have had beards but

00:08:59.080 they're like why would you just have the top part of the hair and not the bottom of the beard like

00:09:03.660 what is this so it was described the romans described mustaches as locks of nose hair

00:09:09.280 arranged with the comb so these are just some long hair mustache having germanic people

00:09:16.700 and they well they clashed against the romans sometimes they sided with the romans um so in

00:09:25.500 the 450s so like 100 ish years before this story happens uh there was a man called chill derrick

00:09:33.560 the first and side note the names in this are names i've with a couple exceptions like justin

00:09:42.080 names i've never encountered like letters arranged in a way i've never seen

00:09:47.240 so i'm gonna pronounce them like i assume they're pronounced based on my understanding of letters

00:09:55.720 but um unlike when i'm looking at other languages that exist now like i feel like there's not

00:10:02.400 i would love it if there's some note they're listening to this who was like an expert in

00:10:06.680 a sixth century frankish um language but assuming not just know i'm doing my best

00:10:14.400 so chill derrick the first was a frankish guy nose hair long hair one of several military

00:10:22.780 leaders commanding roman forces so he was working with the romans at this point um

00:10:27.780 um he and his son clovis the first faced competition from a roman guy called agideus

00:10:36.220 um basically to become the king of the franks so just like who would be in charge of the franks

00:10:46.100 so the merovingians childeric is part of the merovingians his son clovis the first

00:10:54.080 is as well so they had succeeded in conquering most of what's called gaul which didn't research

00:11:01.860 this one word please forgive me but that's like you know asterix and obelisk so they had succeeded

00:11:08.020 in conquering most of gaul so i guess gaul is like what the frankish kingdoms were called before

00:11:11.220 they're taken over by the merovingian franks so the merovingians took over most of gaul in the

00:11:18.200 6th century as well as established leadership over all of the frankish kingdoms uh they sort

00:11:24.960 of took over from the romans because at this point the roman empire was like not doing great

00:11:30.460 but they had the romans had left behind lots of architecture and aqueducts you know they had like

00:11:35.380 plumbing and whatever so the merovingian franks took over and they're like we're just gonna this

00:11:40.640 is great we're just gonna move into this existing cute little roman architecture the these franks

00:11:47.200 the merovingians uh they considered themselves the heir the heirs to the roman empire and aspire

00:11:53.320 to be as cultured and cool and elegant as them so they really um when they wanted to be like

00:11:59.020 fancy about it they would like throw a roman themed party or they were like dressed like

00:12:03.200 the romans like they spoke in latin sometimes they were just like they thought the romans

00:12:07.740 really cool so but the merovingian frankish dynasty what was their deal well they were

00:12:16.880 known for their frequent kidnappings brawls assassinations and wars and why did that happen

00:12:23.500 so much with them it's because they had this wild rule so they had no established line of succession

00:12:30.540 so there's primogeniture it's that concept where like the oldest person usually the oldest boy

00:12:36.960 inherits everything takes over becomes the next king the merovingians were like not into that

00:12:43.120 so what kept happening or what happens three times in this story um is that the king dies

00:12:49.540 and then he gives each of his sons some territory and then the sons fight each other till the death

00:12:55.100 till there's only one of them left and then when he dies he divides the territory among his sons

00:12:59.160 they all fight to the death until one of them dies so it's a lot of inter-familial 0.96

00:13:04.280 um wars going on among this squad so unlike the roman let me see so oh yes women in this era

00:13:17.020 so roman empresses before them um and then also the medieval queens who followed

00:13:24.640 were often coronated in their own right like they became queens not just like wife of the guy

00:13:30.860 but with the Merovingians they were just wife of the guy so they were only queens as long as the

00:13:36.440 marriage lasted and divorces annulments and convenient deaths were not uncommon what kept

00:13:42.120 happening too is that a guy would get tired of his wife and he would just be like and our marriage

00:13:48.220 is done and I'm just going to send you to a convent and then they're just like stuck in a

00:13:51.060 convent that happens numerous times in this story as well so women were specifically barred from 0.99

00:13:57.920 inheriting the throne as well so they kind of they could be the wife of the guy they could be the 0.62

00:14:03.700 mother of the guy but and that also complicated thing is because where it's like all the sons

00:14:09.900 get land the daughters don't get land and then as you'll see in the story as well i don't know i'm

00:14:14.560 just like really getting you ready for for the juicy stuff but maybe i'm just trying to let you

00:14:19.000 know this isn't just going to be me explaining dynastic law forever the daughters tend to die

00:14:25.140 a lot less than the sons and if they just let the daughters inherit there would have been a lot less

00:14:29.080 wars that's my hot take so fast forward to 561 and clothar the first king of the franks died and

00:14:39.420 his sons split the empire well he said in his will or whatever i want the kingdom to be the

00:14:46.100 empire to be divided into four separate kingdoms and so each son got one of the kingdoms the sons

00:14:52.460 were and this is like we're getting into the story cherubert guntram chill peric and sigibert

00:15:01.140 so sigibert quickly saw an opportunity to set himself apart from and above his brothers so

00:15:09.480 he observed that his brothers were taking wives who were quote completely unworthy of them and

00:15:14.680 were so far degrading themselves as to even marry their own servants that's a quote from gregor

00:15:20.300 tours our main um chronicler of this whole situation so sigbert said that because so two

00:15:28.160 of his brothers guntram and cherubert both had many low-born mistresses but then the issue

00:15:33.700 why he's speaking out about it was that the third brother chill peric was had taken as his mistress

00:15:40.900 a one of his household servants um and they weren't servants who were paid so basically

00:15:48.200 an enslaved person and chill peric oh my god i'm so excited i almost tipped over the microphone

00:15:55.400 because guess who's making your entrance is ms fredigand so how did she she was a household 0.98

00:16:07.500 servant of the unpaid kind and next thing you know the she's sort of a little exacerbating

00:16:17.380 the tensions between these brothers because chill peric was head over heels in love with her

00:16:21.940 so who is this person so obviously we know incredibly little about fredigan's early years

00:16:32.300 because of the era um but also because she was enslaved and poor and a woman and so nobody wrote

00:16:40.960 like why would it's still like well that's just another girl who was like captured from some

00:16:46.800 tribe or whatever like no one knew who she was going to become so we don't know about her early

00:16:51.700 years she's likely born around the year 530 potentially likely she was born into a tribe

00:17:01.440 of people who were taken over by the franks and because that's where a lot of these unpaid

00:17:06.420 servants came from so she was potentially born into maybe a pagan celtic culture but who's to

00:17:13.860 say we do know that she had like red gold hair not unlike the color of hair i have um which makes me 0.98

00:17:23.480 feel like the celtic thing maybe is true so and so she started her her time working in the palace 0.99

00:17:31.760 presumably as a young woman so she started off working in the kitchens and then she became she

00:17:41.480 elevated herself so presumably she was like interesting and cool enough that she caught

00:17:46.320 the attention of the queen queen otto vera who is chilperic's wife and so she became a

00:17:54.420 helper to her and this kind of reminds me of the trajectory of emma stone in the movie the

00:17:59.060 favorite where she just kind of like works her way up by being especially charming and so while

00:18:05.020 working as a servant slash slave Fredegund won Chilperic's affection and became his concubine

00:18:11.820 so here we go while Merovingian kings were certainly not given to lifelong devotion to

00:18:20.980 one woman some scholars believe they practiced serial monogamy like once married they took

00:18:26.920 only concubines not second or third wives and they divorced one wife before acquiring the next

00:18:31.880 um others believe they enjoyed the polygamy customarily practiced by frankish kings but

00:18:39.260 chilperic like basically fredigan was like if you're going to be with me that's it you can't

00:18:44.340 be with anyone else as well so he was wowed by her obviously um and so she also became very

00:18:54.420 influential over him so she he came to like her more than his own wife this is where the brothers

00:19:01.700 are like what what are you doing with this like household servant person so auto vera the queen

00:19:07.860 had had three sons with the king um 1.00

00:19:14.160 let's see so autovira also is a queen she could have been able to acquire political authority 1.00

00:19:25.080 independent of her husband being the king and she had plenty of time to organize followers who

00:19:30.240 could have opposed her political eclipse by fredegund but she was basically once fredegund

00:19:36.280 sets her sights against you like you that's it like this is you will see this over and over but

00:19:41.520 this is an early example of it so basically what happened is that um she convinced chilperic to

00:19:52.760 divorce autovira and to banish her to a convent and that is what happened so his wife autovira 0.94

00:19:59.280 was just like i'm tired of being your husband goodbye and off to the convent she went is she 0.83

00:20:05.620 gonna show up again in this story in a scheming way yes she is um is she gonna be out for revenge

00:20:13.220 against fredegund she will be there's a lot of very cool women in this story so anyway so he got

00:20:19.300 rid of autovira but then rather than marry fredegund this happened so sigibert one of the

00:20:27.340 other brothers um and again like the story begins with these four brothers who just like all of them

00:20:33.280 are just it's like a hunger games colon brothers version colon merovingian dynasty era where they

00:20:41.020 all just wanted to take over the brothers kingdoms and have there only be one kingdom

00:20:44.980 so sigbert sigbert so he wanted to legitimize his reign through a marriage alliance and so he asked

00:20:54.440 for the hand in marriage of a woman called brunhilda now brunhilda was the daughter of

00:21:01.520 king athenagild who was from the visigoths which are like people who lived in modern day spain

00:21:09.400 brunhilde had grown up in toledo toledo in modern day spain which is where the visigoths were she

00:21:16.200 was an elegant well-educated princess and came with a considerable dowry and also this like

00:21:21.080 very useful alliance with the visigoths so sigbert married brunhilde in 567 and this was like a major

00:21:29.940 a slap in the face to the other brothers because they had mostly married and taken as concubines

00:21:35.060 lower class women so sigbert was just like noticed the other brothers weren't doing dynastic marriages

00:21:40.560 and he was like well that will give me a step ahead and like good for him good idea so sigbert

00:21:46.620 marrying a princess from another kingdom made it obvious he had he had aspirations to expand his

00:21:51.780 territory and the only place to expand his territory into was taking over his brother's

00:21:55.340 territory so this same year the eldest brother cherubert was excommunicated oh side note they're

00:22:02.300 all christian at this point um like there's a pope that is the religion that these people all

00:22:08.580 practice so cherubert was excommunicated for marrying a nun just pause to take that in who

00:22:15.520 was the sister of his other wife pause to take that in gonna repeat it so cherubert i think the

00:22:23.220 oldest brother was excommunicated for marrying a nun who was the sister of his other wife

00:22:27.920 two issues there um one is that they really were not into um incest so and to them they considered

00:22:40.000 if you marry a woman and then marry that woman's sister like that's too close together you can't

00:22:45.080 which is wild to me because what happened in european history like a thousand years later

00:22:49.980 is everyone was marrying their like aunt or whatever anyway so but also he married a nun

00:22:55.400 and that also was not cool so because he was excommunicated he no longer got to keep his

00:23:01.120 kingdom so that means there's three kingdoms left three brothers left um ruling these kingdoms so

00:23:08.280 cherubert's ex-wife oh wait sorry so the nun he married died of the plague but his other wife

00:23:19.300 the non-nun um she tried to take it over um saying like well i was his wife and i think i 0.70

00:23:25.180 should take it over but the brothers laughed at her and send her to a nunnery like if you're 0.96

00:23:29.400 going to do a bingo sheet just like and a woman speaking out getting sent to a nunnery is like

00:23:35.700 the middle square every bingo sheet so again they re-divided so the land had been divided

00:23:41.040 when their father died into four they re-divided it into three bits and agreed to jointly control 0.56

00:23:47.520 Paris um sure but um anyway so it's basically Cherbert oh wait and I think Cherbert died of

00:23:59.540 a heart attack yeah so he's excommunicated and then he died of a heart attack so there's three

00:24:03.640 brothers left anyway um and so the three brothers are just like at war Sigbert had made this bold

00:24:10.040 statement by marrying Brunhilde and so Chilperic in order to compete with Sigbert decided to marry

00:24:16.840 Brunhilde's sister Gilswintha so this is again with the powerful Visigoth kingdom so but Gilswintha's

00:24:24.980 father Athanagild knew that Chilperic was like this famous playboy the Leonardo DiCaprio of his

00:24:33.360 era um and so Gilswintha's dad demanded that Chilperic like before he would give permission

00:24:39.940 for them to get married he demanded Chilperic had to swear a solemn oath not to have any concubines

00:24:45.680 or mistresses and to be faithful to gil swintha and chill peric was like yeah totally sure whatever

00:24:52.800 and i mean fredegond is just there like we'll see about that so a second lavish marriage

00:25:00.160 lavish marriage took place so because the one with brunhilde and sigebert was like this amazing

00:25:05.000 marriage so then there's a second extravagant wedding um in rouen a city which is going to

00:25:13.620 come up a lot as well um Gelswintha so she converted to Roman Catholicism upon her marriage

00:25:23.680 to Chilperic um Chilperic just for the record like yes I mean spoiler he is going to become

00:25:30.640 Fredigan's husband but he also sucks well I mean he was well okay everyone in the story is pretty 0.84

00:25:37.560 terrible kind of equally but chilperic was terrible in an additional way in that he was 0.99

00:25:44.140 kind of an asshole gregory of tours described him as the nero and herod of our time so he's 0.91

00:25:50.400 just like a hedonistic sort of guy and fredigan is just there being like um figure out what she's 0.97

00:25:58.760 gonna do so the marriage between chilperic and gil swintha began happily um gregory of tours

00:26:07.460 says he loved her very dearly for she had brought a great dowry with her i would contest that that

00:26:14.320 means the marriage began happily i think that just is more like he was happy to get the money

00:26:18.200 as time went by um basically chilperic couldn't quit fredegund and fredegund would not

00:26:25.840 let him forget about her um and so they kept sleeping together and she like to the point

00:26:32.940 that gilswintha kept finding the two of them in bed with each other to the point that gilswintha

00:26:38.700 begged chilperic to return her dowry so she could just return home to her dad and like dissolve this

00:26:43.760 marriage but chilperic was not into that idea and then brunhilde and gilswintha's father died

00:26:51.260 which led to an election among the Visigoths because to them king was an elected job again

00:26:57.800 just no one's doing like a the inheritance thing that so many other people did but this also meant

00:27:03.640 that the two sisters were now without their father's protection as king and so it was about

00:27:10.040 a year after the wedding Gelswintha was found strangled in her bed by Chilperic himself so

00:27:17.760 I don't even want to pretend this is a whodunit like pretty obviously Chilperic and or Fredegund

00:27:23.180 murdered her um why do I say that not just because like that makes sense but because

00:27:28.880 Chilperic didn't investigate at all he just like went into his bedroom he's like oh no my wife is

00:27:33.120 dead that's okay so it seems notable like he didn't even question the guard posted outside

00:27:38.880 of the room that night um he's just kind of like well so she's dead that's convenient I guess I'll

00:27:46.180 just marry Fred again three days later which is in fact what he did he married Fred again three

00:27:51.340 days after he discovered his wife strangled body and or strangled her and Gregor of Tours says King

00:27:56.820 Chilperic wept for the death of Gals Winth both in a few days he asked Fred again to sleep with

00:28:01.860 him again so I wrote this down here just so we all know Fred again read and wrote in the Frankish

00:28:11.840 language with a sort of like a proto-german language um proto-french language anyway but

00:28:18.220 she also learned latin and she read a lot and that's notable because with her book learning

00:28:24.580 that's how she figured out a lot of her schemes and i think that's how she figured out that she

00:28:27.900 could dream bigger for herself fredegund is married to chilperic which means she's now

00:28:33.060 sister-in-laws with brunhilde so the sophisticated princess brunhilde and the former palace servant

00:28:40.680 Fredegund were now sisters-in-law in positions of power because remember as long as you're married

00:28:45.340 you've got some power but here's the thing Brunhilde and Gilswintha were sisters and Fredegund

00:28:52.380 even if she didn't personally strangle Gilswintha was like pretty um clearly involved in that

00:28:58.200 situation and so Brunhilde was now set on avenging her murdered sister by destroying

00:29:05.780 chilperic and here's the thing brunhilde is also ferocious and amazing in the story but because it

00:29:12.300 came across this story from the fredigun point of view i'm team fred for life but brunhilde is

00:29:18.440 this rivalry just made both of them even better basically so um brunhilde's husband

00:29:27.540 sigibert was totally on board with his plan to destroy chilperic because he just wanted to take

00:29:33.280 over Chilperic's lands because that was the whole deal their other surviving brother Guntram 0.76

00:29:38.520 helped out because he also just thought Chilperic sucked and wanted to take over his lands so the 0.90

00:29:45.320 two brothers and Brunhilde I think put Chilperic on trial for the murder of Gelswintha but Chilperic

00:29:53.480 in kind of a baller move never showed up to testify and so he's found guilty in absentia

00:29:58.980 so the brothers are like well he's guilty in the court we just convened where he couldn't defend

00:30:04.440 himself and so the two brothers sigibert and guntram set about invading chilperic's kingdom

00:30:10.840 to usurp his land and take over which they did they were successful so by the year seven five

00:30:18.900 75 seven years after gil swentha's murder so basically this was all happening so there's the

00:30:25.680 trial they took over and fredigan and chilperic are just kind of like just war war war fredigan

00:30:31.380 had two kids with chilperic in this time um a daughter named rigunth who we are going to hear

00:30:39.840 about later and a son called claudebert so but this is kind of like okay whatever because chilperic

00:30:46.920 had a bunch of other sons from his previous wives and mistresses and there wasn't primogeniture so

00:30:51.020 just kind of his various sons would all were all understood to inherit things because remember

00:30:55.280 autovira the wife he sent off to the convent she had had three sons and they were so he had like

00:30:59.300 adult sons as well so fredigun and these two kids her son being clodiburt so it wasn't like

00:31:05.460 clodiburt was going to rule so it was kind of like bonus kid but then the older sons all started

00:31:12.300 dying in the war of chilperic versus his brothers and then fredigun became pregnant again so at this

00:31:19.480 point it's like elizabeth woodville vibes she's pregnant with two young children um in hiding

00:31:25.060 i want to say a bunker but i don't know if bunkers were invented yet but that sort of place

00:31:30.160 so she's just in hiding i don't know tunnels under her castle with her kids very pregnant

00:31:35.340 while chilperic fought battles with alongside his two remaining adult sons but things are going

00:31:43.440 amazing for the other two brothers uh they were seizing tons of land including paris which

00:31:48.660 remember the brothers were supposed to share paris but anyway so sigbert and brunhilde they

00:31:56.540 seized paris and so they marched triumphantly into paris with their three young children and

00:32:00.580 took over the palace at around the same time brunhilde appointed gregory the bishop of tours

00:32:08.300 so this is a gregory who's writing from which we learn a lot of these details so you can see how

00:32:13.220 he maybe has a pro brunhilde slant in that she is the one who appointed him bishop but he also

00:32:20.800 puts in a lot of we know a lot of stuff about him from the weather about things that happen and he

00:32:24.720 puts kind of his opinion to spin it to make brunhilde sound good and fred sound bad but like

00:32:29.060 anyway so those two are friends so as brunhilde became queen of paris in a palace fredegund and

00:32:38.860 her young kids and pregnant self were hiding out in a bunker and then while there she had another

00:32:45.320 baby which was another son called samson which is an interesting biblical name it makes sense

00:32:52.320 because in the bible samson had the long hair and then they cut off the hair and he lost his power

00:32:56.300 so the franks liked the long hair but also just the fact that everyone's called like fredegund

00:33:02.080 and chilperic and then they called their son samson is interesting and i think speaks to how

00:33:06.860 fredigand really liked reading and information and learning about other cultures so while she's

00:33:13.100 still in the bunker like 10 seconds postpartum she summoned two uh servant slash enslaved boys 0.69

00:33:21.320 to her and ordered them to sneak into the victory celebration to assassinate sigibert so

00:33:28.000 this was a suicide mission because there's no way that these two little servant boys would be able to 0.99

00:33:34.260 escape after doing that but also like how the fuck was this gonna ever work like why did she 0.99

00:33:38.860 think that these two would be able to get away with this and I love that she's just like short 0.97

00:33:43.920 circuiting the whole thing like the brothers have been at war for however many years and she's just

00:33:48.660 like gives birth and then like the next second is like here's what we're gonna do we're gonna just

00:33:53.560 assassinate Sigbert and get on with this because this is all going way too long and that's one of

00:33:57.700 things I appreciate about I appreciate about Fred again is she's just like efficient so all 1.00

00:34:04.440 the Frankish people kind of carried this sort of knife around with them those sort of like a 0.65

00:34:08.120 multi-purpose like hunting knife like it wasn't a super it wasn't seen as a deadly weapon it was

00:34:12.800 just like a thing to like cut open apples with or like whatever like everyone just had this knife

00:34:18.880 with them so she gave each of the boys one of these knives so it was not think of it like a

00:34:25.760 steak knife um like it's not really deadly unless you were really close to somebody with it

00:34:30.480 because she knew that the boys would be searched going into Sigbert's camp but they wouldn't

00:34:34.940 like these knives wouldn't be confiscated because it's just like everyone carries one of these

00:34:38.560 knives around and then she invented and or brought into her era something from the book she'd write

00:34:47.260 about the romans which is poison knives so nobody had really done this in this way in the frankish

00:34:54.660 era so nobody expected this to happen because so just the way that poisons were at this time

00:35:02.120 like people knew that there were poison things you could eat um but also the poisons they weren't

00:35:07.960 like shelf stable people weren't like carrying poisons around with them so but she was i don't

00:35:15.400 know like she was just good with chemistry apparently so she gave the boys a vial of

00:35:20.280 poison potentially like snake venom or something like at this so she might have gotten this idea

00:35:26.820 from reading ideas from antiquity or maybe just from how she saw that when people went hunting

00:35:31.920 sometimes people would poison arrows but usually those were just poisons to create infected wounds

00:35:37.320 which didn't kill immediately she was in fact a pioneer of poison assassinating assassinations

00:35:44.300 so she gave the boys a boil of some sort of poison snake venom not sure um but also something that

00:35:53.160 the poison that they got was something that would lose its potency quickly so she instructed them

00:35:58.260 not to put it on the knife until they were in the enemy camp because they couldn't it had to like

00:36:02.700 be still poison at the time they did the stabbing guess what the boys were successful um they showed

00:36:09.660 up at the camp and they claimed to be hey we were from jill perrick but we're we've changed our mind

00:36:16.200 and we want to be on sigebert's side now and so they were allowed in and because they looked so

00:36:21.840 non-threatening that the bodyguards didn't even stop them when they went running up

00:36:26.460 to sigebert and then they just stabbed him on both sides with poison knives and he died

00:36:34.040 so sigibert now dead um and chilperic fredegund's husband set to work taking over

00:36:44.380 sigibert's lands rumors circulated probably from gregory of tours and other men who just

00:36:51.180 didn't like how fredegund was like starting to make it apparent that she was like smarter than

00:36:56.580 anybody so rumors began to spread that fredegund was a witch um and this was a serious offense it

00:37:03.780 was like an actual crime you could be fined for being a witch um fredigan never defended herself

00:37:10.380 against these claims which is also interesting and potentially that's because fredigan just

00:37:15.440 preferred to be feared there's other claims people make against her that she does defend herself

00:37:20.660 against um but it seems like she was cool being thought of as a witch because i guess

00:37:26.140 I don't know she's into it and good for her so meanwhile back in Paris the now widowed Brunhilde 0.86

00:37:36.740 was just staying put because like she wasn't sure what her best move was like her husband was dead

00:37:41.940 but she had children she had sons um so her five-year-old son was childebert not to be

00:37:49.700 mistaken for chilperic fredigan's husband childebert so anyway childebert was smuggled out

00:37:58.400 in a cart of vegetables by brunhilde because presumably she would think like oh someone's

00:38:04.580 going to try to kill him because to get rid of you know the air but she got him smuggled out

00:38:09.100 i think yeah and then she also smuggled out her daughters but she stayed put why did she stay 0.99

00:38:17.640 there on her own maybe to protect her treasure because remember when she was married she brought 0.91

00:38:21.800 this dowry with her and she brought her treasure there with her maybe she stayed there to provide

00:38:25.840 a distraction to allow her children to safely escape so the girls were caught by chilperic's

00:38:31.440 men and brought back but child de bert escaped in his like vegetables cart brunhilde was sent to a 0.96

00:38:38.420 convent but kept alive um alive but apart from her daughters she was kept cloistered which meant she 0.87

00:38:46.980 couldn't leave the convent or meet anyone new and could only interact with other people in the

00:38:50.940 convent so her son was childebert was the king of her kingdom which was called austrasia but i mean

00:39:02.760 he was five and it seems like the other brothers could maybe move in and take over his land she

00:39:08.780 needed a new powerful husband to return herself and therefore her son to power but where in this 0.88

00:39:13.460 cloistered convent could she find a man well so remember chilperic's first wife autovira the one

00:39:22.880 who fredegund was a servant of and then convinced chilperic to divorce her remember autovira was

00:39:30.120 sent to a convent she was staying at this same convent where brunhilde was and so autovira really

00:39:36.680 hated fredegund because fredegund like had her removed as queen and sent her convent and then

00:39:42.520 fredigand married her husband brunhilde still hated fredigand because fredigand was basically

00:39:48.420 responsible for the murder of brunhilde's sister gil swintha so they just started a we hate fredigand

00:39:53.400 club in the convent and the bishop of the city where they were staying was called

00:39:59.460 pray tax status it's a name that every time i see it has like at least two more syllables than i

00:40:07.280 expected to have but he's gonna do a lot of stuff so i need to get used to saying it i guess

00:40:11.000 pray textatus he was the godfather of otto vera's oldest son merovich so merovich was an important

00:40:21.040 general to his father chilperic but he his father ordered him to go and invade and conquer this one

00:40:29.940 place but instead he headed to the convent to liaise with his mother and his aunt by marriage

00:40:35.200 brunhilde somehow messages had gone through to him because otto vera had at this point been at

00:40:40.720 the convent for quite a while so i think she would have figured out who who to trust and how

00:40:44.680 to get messages out there even though they're supposed to be all hidden away so next thing you

00:40:48.840 know brunhilde was married to maravich so just to the family tree of this all so maravich is

00:40:58.220 fredigan's stepson maravich is the son of chilperic and autovira and now he's married to

00:41:07.320 brunhilde so this was a wedding slash act of war and you love to see it oh and the officiant

00:41:14.940 was merovec's godfather bishop pretext status so this is all happening in the city of rouen

00:41:23.640 and they declared merovec their king so suddenly this is like another challenger in the whole

00:41:31.160 situation between the brothers and who owns which kingdom so like the city of rouen all joined

00:41:37.300 team Brunhilde and so they are now very anti-Fredegund anti-Chilperic basically because

00:41:42.980 Brunhilde had brought a whole treasure with her and Praetax Tetes was paying off all the

00:41:47.220 influencers to join their team. Merovich sent an assassin to kill Chilperic but that did not work

00:41:55.880 because he was not as good at getting assassins as Fredegund was so Chilperic and his forces

00:42:01.520 a sieged ruin um and the best course of action because brinhala meravich had gotten married

00:42:08.540 who know you know what no they never met each other it was not a love match like they got

00:42:13.340 married because this was beneficial for both them in terms of like seizing more land but they figured

00:42:18.180 the best way to avoid being executed was to portray the marriage as a love match um because

00:42:24.160 chilperic had the love match with fredegund you know where he's like you know i don't care what

00:42:28.120 you say i'm gonna marry my servant who's also a murderer so they kind of went out they just like

00:42:34.880 appeared amid the siege and they're like we're in love and so they came out to distract while

00:42:43.780 they're talking to him their army snuck off to seize his kingdom but their siege did not work

00:42:49.840 and chilper connected the dots to see the brunhilde and meravich were behind this uprising against

00:42:56.360 him so he tried to get the marriage annulled because Brunhilde was technically Merovich's

00:43:01.020 aunt uh the two of them were kept apart so they didn't conceive a child you know hashtag Catherine 0.93

00:43:07.560 Gray to be extra sure that Merovich would be powerless Merovich Jill Perrick had Merovich's

00:43:15.940 hair all cut off and not just and remember the hair was so important to them and it wasn't just

00:43:19.940 cut off the outside is the top of his hair all shaved off so like a friar tuck moment like a

00:43:25.400 captain picard type hairstyle so in a place where like really long hair was beautiful and

00:43:30.980 that was your power they just like gave him this unconsensual haircut and forced him to become a

00:43:37.100 priest and this now meant so if meravich had sex with brunhilde it would be illegal due to his

00:43:43.200 priest vows and if brunhilde had children from this the children would be like sacrilegious and 0.51

00:43:48.020 unable to rule brunhilde was then given a choice her husband or her children she chose her children 0.80

00:43:54.280 so she left returning to austrasia and her five-year-old son who is the king but she did 0.76

00:44:01.720 leave behind her treasure so that praetax tetus could continue funding her secret anti-chilperic

00:44:08.100 rebellion anyway meravich escaped started growing back his hair and kept trying to bring down

00:44:17.100 chilperic so this is like we're getting into brunhilde but this is just giving you context

00:44:22.040 of what Fred again is going to be up to next so Brunhilde's son Childebert king of Austrasia

00:44:30.700 had also been named the heir to Guntram I haven't mentioned his name in a minute so that's the other

00:44:36.280 brother so Guntram did not have any heirs they had I forget they'd all died or something

00:44:42.660 and he was very very very religious and would never marry again so she he had made an alliance

00:44:50.320 with brunhilde such that childebert would be his heir now too so when guntram died childebert would

00:44:57.400 become the king of austrasia as well as guntram's kingdom so brunhilde was kind of like hmm she had

00:45:04.640 to decide like did she want to back meravich so meravich like again he's out growing his hair out

00:45:08.720 like moving against chilperic but brunhilde is like oh but like me teaming up with guntram is

00:45:13.780 maybe better because my son like that's gonna be better anyway so that's happening and then

00:45:20.180 what happened next is that fredegund is just like okay what is happening with this anti-chilperic

00:45:27.000 rebellion like who is funding this and so she went to her spy network which she has a spy

00:45:34.080 network by now and like of course she does she learned that praetax status had been paying people

00:45:38.960 off to move against her husband so she had praetax status arrested and put on trial

00:45:45.260 fredigan bribed the bishops to convince him to confess so like she bribed the bishops so the

00:45:51.500 bishops would be like hey pretax tetas you should confess that'll be a good idea and then pretax

00:45:57.460 tetas was like okay i trust you the bishops so he confessed and then he's found guilty and was

00:46:02.180 forced into exile but don't forget his name how could you possibly pretax tetas is gonna return

00:46:09.820 again so um fredigan's team was now moving in on meravich uh and it just seemed kind of like now

00:46:19.620 that fredigan was against him like he knew that this was it like his father had figured out about

00:46:24.580 the rebellion and stuff knowing he'd surely soon be captured and knowing the gruesome punishment

00:46:30.340 that rebellious sons got meravich had got one of his assistant one of his servants to

00:46:35.880 assisted suicide kill him so he is r.i.p maravich brunhilde now kind of a widow again except was

00:46:43.940 that really a marriage in 577 fredigan's young son samson died of dysentery uh which is a thing

00:46:55.580 that just happened a lot in specifically in this era it was a time of like a lot of rain and a lot

00:47:01.320 of flooding which got the poo water everywhere still have dysentery so but if you're keeping

00:47:07.700 track which frankly congratulations if you are i need to keep re-inventorying who's alive and

00:47:15.580 who's dead samson is now dead this leaves chilperic with only two heirs oh because meravich also just

00:47:24.240 died as well right so fredigan's other son clodiburt and then autovir's adult son clovis

00:47:33.480 um fredigan had another son the son was called dagobert his birth was celebrated with literal

00:47:41.160 circuses um frederick fredigan and chilperic moved into paris it's just like people just

00:47:47.080 keep taking over paris being like now we're in charge of paris and then someone else takes over

00:47:50.500 were like you thought so so now there's three three heirs of chilperic claudiburt clovis and

00:47:58.740 no dagobert in 580 there was flooding from constant rain again this is some of the stuff

00:48:04.240 the scintillating weather detail we get from gregor of tours leading to a truly horrific

00:48:08.780 new dysentery epidemic and rumors began to spread that fredegand was having an affair

00:48:14.240 with a bishop of bordeaux whose name was bertram this meant rumors that fredigan's sons were maybe

00:48:21.460 illegitimate which would get in the way of them inheriting and becoming the new kings

00:48:26.280 and she could not have that for her kids so this is remember when people said she was a witch she's

00:48:31.960 like i'll allow it but now when people were like challenging that her sons were illegitimate

00:48:36.580 she's just like hell no so she had the rumors were largely coming from gregory of tours

00:48:44.220 her main biographer so she had him put on trial um bertram her alleged lover got to cross-examine

00:48:52.100 him gregory was found innocent of spreading rumors but dysentery was still going on um chill

00:48:59.920 Perrick came down with a bad case of dysentery and then baby Dagobert did too and then also

00:49:07.440 slightly older child Clodabert also did so just like everyone around her is like just getting

00:49:11.880 dysentery and people didn't know then that it's about like the cleanliness of water and where

00:49:17.440 you're pooing so um Fred again deduced she tried to figure out what was up and she was like here's

00:49:23.440 what I figured out from my book learning um she figured out that the issue was this was God's

00:49:29.280 punishment because she and Chilperic had um raised the taxes too much and then they had also

00:49:36.680 ruthlessly killed people who protested against the tax hike there's a lot of casual murder in

00:49:44.020 this story so and frankly if she's like she was like god is punishing me but for what and she's

00:49:50.760 like taxes slash killing tax protesters so this is kind of cool of her she burned the tax registers

00:49:59.440 and wiped out all tax debt in one afternoon hell yeah but um that wasn't it that obviously doesn't

00:50:06.820 cure a plague of dysentery dagobert the youngest son died um clodabert the other son was gravely

00:50:15.420 ill and they prayed day and night for his recovery but then he also died so

00:50:21.320 the only remaining heir to chilperic right now is clovis who is his son with auto vera

00:50:30.540 so fredigand in her grief or just because this is her way she sneakily tried to have clovis

00:50:39.200 also die and she did that by sending him to unbattle to a place where the dysentery was

00:50:45.060 really bad hoping he would like get it and die but he survived so by now fredigand is maybe like

00:50:51.820 30 years old chilperic maybe 40 their only remaining child was their daughter riggunth 0.95

00:50:57.980 and just for bullshit reasons daughters couldn't inherit anything like they needed a son

00:51:03.340 oh clovis increasing threat because he's like the only heir to chilperic 0.97

00:51:09.420 but then clovis took up romantically with a servant girl and fred again was just like oh

00:51:17.380 i know servant girls are like actually the most dangerous people there are because i

00:51:21.120 was one myself so she spread rumors that this girl whose name i don't know i don't think fred

00:51:29.220 again spread rumors that this girl and the girl's mother who's also a servant i guess were both

00:51:32.880 witches and in fact she alleged that they were responsible for the deaths of her sons dagobert

00:51:39.040 and samson so fredigan ordered the girl to be disfigured and beaten her long hair cut off 0.96

00:51:44.580 and tied to a stake and presumably burned the mother was tortured until she confessed to being

00:51:51.400 a witch chill peric allowed fredigan to decide the fate of clovis his son and she decided he

00:51:57.860 would be sent to a faraway castle where he apparently stabbed himself to death despite

00:52:03.480 being alone in a room with his hands tied behind his back which i think means fredigan had him

00:52:10.100 killed so she also sent servants to the convent in rouen to assassinate autovira who had by now

00:52:21.340 outlived all three of her sons autovira's daughter was there in the convent with her her name was

00:52:27.160 bassina and she was um either raped or reported to be raped either of which ruined her reputation

00:52:36.020 so she wouldn't be a valuable bride to marry off anywhere not sure if fredegund ordered that 0.98

00:52:42.640 step as well but she basically it was just she had no children so she was doing everything she

00:52:49.800 could to just destroy anyone else who potentially could ever have a claim to the kingdom so 1.00

00:52:56.180 then the servant girl's mother

00:52:59.180 recanted her confession to being a witch

00:53:01.000 because she only confessed it because she was being tortured

00:53:03.180 but even though she recanted

00:53:05.340 she was still executed by being

00:53:07.480 set on fire 0.98

00:53:09.680 and then

00:53:11.960 so Chilperic had literally no

00:53:15.440 heirs

00:53:15.860 Brunhilde's son Childebert

00:53:19.480 was still the boy king he was by now

00:53:21.340 11 the 11 year old

00:53:23.560 boy king of Austrasia

00:53:25.220 and so Chilperic decided because he needed an heir at this point he's going to do what Gundrum

00:53:32.240 had also done so Chilperic symbolically adopted Childebert as his heir too so weirdly this seems

00:53:41.220 like it might be sort of causing peace if Childebert is now the heir to all three kingdoms

00:53:46.180 potentially he could then become the king of all of them so these two were aligned

00:53:51.860 meanwhile in the byzantine empire basically the byzantine empire wanted access to italy through

00:54:00.460 some mountains controlled by the other brother guntram but guntram didn't want to ally with them

00:54:06.040 and then they got impatient and they had this alliance with gundvald so gundvald i don't have

00:54:16.620 i mentioned him before you see why this is going to be a two-part episode there's just like i think

00:54:23.320 we all need a week to like think it over gundavald is the youngest half-brother of all the brothers

00:54:30.320 so there was the brothers remember their father there's four of them they each got a kingdom

00:54:34.080 gundavald is like the fifth brother who did not get a kingdom so he had peaced out to um well

00:54:40.280 actually because i didn't want him to do anything they had cut off all his hair way back earlier in

00:54:45.380 story i just didn't say that part and he ran off and he allied himself with the byzantine empire

00:54:52.280 so gundavald was an appealing so they the byzantine empire was like what if we make

00:55:01.120 gundavald the new heir to everything because he's you know working with us he was an appealing

00:55:07.780 heir to the frankish people because he was an adult person um he's also a widower with two

00:55:14.120 children so that kind of set up like some good succession like there's not going to be all this

00:55:18.020 like who will be the heir stuff going on Gundevald could offer a stable succession and since the

00:55:24.820 Frankish people in general um they weren't super fans of the whole Chilperic Fredegund situation

00:55:32.160 they also weren't big fans of Guntram and they also weren't fans of Brunhilde and Sons so I'm 1.00

00:55:36.840 just like the Frankish people being so picky the thing is Gundevald was like young and hot and 0.99

00:55:43.000 maybe popular enough that he could maybe take over all three kingdoms but fredegund got pregnant

00:55:49.720 again she was by now in her 30s still fertile whatever 30 flirty and thriving and this was

00:55:58.680 another son and they called this boy theoderic so this is where we're gonna end part one

00:56:07.180 basically so here's what the situation is so we have gundivald is teamed up with the byzantines

00:56:15.800 empire to um maybe challenge everybody we have guntram getting old made vows to effectively be

00:56:23.780 a priest so he'll never have another heir he's named as his heir brunhilda's son childebert

00:56:29.020 um chilperic doesn't have an heir so he symbolically adopted childebert just so there

00:56:34.340 would be somebody but then fredegund had one more son theoderic and that's where we're gonna leave

00:56:44.020 it for now i frankly i feel like that's as much as i can even process in my brain the next part

00:56:51.340 is gonna be like i mean just for some teasers um we've got headings like frederick's fredegund's

00:57:00.020 black widow era um what do we call it there's a section that i call like queen vs queen um

00:57:08.100 the rigunth of it all um fredigan's warrior queen era like

00:57:16.080 there's a lot there's a lot to get into and we'll get into that next time so it feels funny to not

00:57:25.780 be scoring her but like honestly if we scored her at this point if she died now i would just

00:57:31.020 be like 10 out of 10 in every category but we're gonna get into a lot more scandalousness a lot

00:57:38.540 more scheminess significance um and the ongoing sexism of it all so this is the vulgar history

00:57:45.500 podcast my name is ann foster so nice to be talking to you all again um there's all the

00:57:53.020 usual things they're all in the show notes so on i have a little page on bookshop.org

00:58:00.100 if you go to bookshop.org slash shop slash vulgar history there's a list of all the books that i

00:58:05.380 have used as a reference for all the seasons including a link to pre-order the book that

00:58:10.920 we've been the fredegund book which is called again um the dark queens the bloody rivalry that

00:58:18.500 forward to the medieval world by shelly puhack so when you buy through bookshop.org that helps

00:58:25.100 um support independent bookstores there's also the vulgar history merch store at teespring.com 0.68

00:58:33.120 the link to that is in the show notes um there's some real cute tits out merchandise literally just

00:58:38.780 things that say tits out um if you want to support the podcast patreon.com and foster writer 0.85

00:58:45.460 and then keep up with us on instagram vulgar history pod on twitter at vulgar history

00:58:51.640 and i'm excited to bring you part two because there's gonna be some wild occurrences um

00:59:01.720 but i hope that this wasn't too confusing all the people with all the names that i'll start with ch

00:59:09.080 Anyway, mask on, tits out. Talk to you all next time. 0.79

00:59:39.080 scattered like bones in the dust.

00:59:41.440 Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world,

00:59:45.660 praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight.

00:59:48.920 But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins.

00:59:53.200 This is old school adventuring at its most cruel.

00:59:56.700 Your torch ticks down in real time.

00:59:58.860 And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.

01:00:02.640 This is a brutal rules light nightmare with a story that emerges organically

01:00:07.500 based on the decisions that the characters make.

01:00:10.180 This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s,

01:00:12.620 and man, it is so good to be back.

01:00:14.920 Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark

01:00:17.900 every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern

01:00:19.940 on youtube.com slash the glass cannon

01:00:22.240 with the podcast version dropping the next day.

01:00:25.460 See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.

01:00:32.960 Hi, listeners.

01:00:34.400 We want to tell you about a podcast we love.

01:00:36.860 It's called Rebel Girls, formerly known as Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

01:00:41.760 It's about real-life women who are changing the world with their courage, creativity, and big, bold ideas.

01:00:49.040 Want to know how Taylor Swift became a superstar?

01:00:52.380 Or hear how Simone Biles became the greatest athlete of all time?

01:00:56.520 From immersive stories, to heartfelt interviews, to super smart advice,

01:01:01.680 Rebel Girls brings you stories that will get you fired up to become your best self.

01:01:06.060 There are over 400 episodes for you to explore, with new episodes every week.

01:01:10.680 So check it out.

01:01:12.220 Listen to Rebel Girls wherever you get your podcasts. 0.99

01:01:15.040 And find us on youtube.com slash rebelgirls.

01:01:18.420 And whatever you do, stay rebel.

01:01:24.560 You've watched them from the outside your whole life.

01:01:27.620 On TV, on stage, on the cover.

01:01:30.300 The success that always looks like it happened to someone on a different planet.

01:01:34.180 But what if it didn't?

01:01:36.060 I'm Evelyn, and I've spent over 25 years in entertainment, producing for some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

01:01:42.200 And here's what I learned. The distance between you and them, it's a lot shorter than anyone's letting on.

01:01:48.380 On my podcast, Reppin', I sit down with the people you've been watching, and I ask them who they actually are.

01:01:54.760 Not the brand, the person. Where they started. What it costs them. What almost broke them.

01:02:00.960 their grit their courage their resilience and the lessons they've learned it's all yours

01:02:07.020 for the taking reppin wherever you listen

Vulgar History - September 15, 2021

Your Favorite Royal's Favorite Royal： Fredegund, Part One

Episode Stats

Transcript