I am Audofleda, Queen of the Ostrogoths.

You have seldom heard of me as such, or even at all. I was born a Frankish princess, daughter of King Hilderich, and sister of King Hlodwech the Merovingian, more often known as Clovis. According to Jordanes, Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths, requested my hand in marriage around the year 493, in the interest of a political alliance between his people and mine. Jordanes got my father's name wrong, however.

The political alliance did not last long. Of our marriage or of myself, nothing is known. Beside Jordanes, the Anonymous Valesianus mentions me as Augoflada. Gregory of Tours does not name me, not even as Clovis' sister (a fact that should be meaningful for a history of the Franks), but he has a fancy story about how my daughter Amalaswintha is supposed to have poisoned me after the death of Theodoric because I killed a slave she loved. No other source mentions this, not even that gossip Procopius. Gregory did NOT like my daughter. John Moorhead ("Theoderic in Italy") has an interesting theory that the slave was actually a Goth who caused a falling-out between Amalaswintha and her son Athalaric.

My husband never mentioned me in his extant letters. Am I just a token wife, not even able to provide a male heir? Am I an enemy in his own house? Or do we somehow understand each other? I appear at his side on public occasions, and I must say I know how to look the part. I am mostly free to enjoy the baths and gardens of our palace in Ravenna, or Verona, or Pavia, or Galeata, or... you get the idea, decked in the best clothes and jewels, eating the finest foods, surrounded by ladies and servants ready to cater to my every whim. They say the Franks are barbarians, even compared to the Ostrogoths; this should make the Romans a bit embarrassed of me at banquets. And am I, perhaps, a closet pagan? Or did I convert to Catholic Christianity, like my brother Clovis, and thus go to Mass with the Queen Mother Erelieva, all the while gossiping about her Arian son? It is open to speculation. For the rest, my private life is of no concern to you.

But above all, finally, I demand homage and fealty as Queen of Italy and mother of Princess Amalaswintha, the Strength of the Amals. Now, you may kneel before me.