More than 1,400 years after her death, the remains of a medieval queen reveal a remarkable story of childhood illness and royal life. Arégonde survived polio as a young girl, and traces of its lasting effects can still be found in her bones, teeth and even her shoes.
By Lorris Chevalier
The case of Arégonde is particularly remarkable because her identity and aspects of her personal history can be reconstructed through the convergence of written sources, archaeology, osteology and the study of funerary remains. Although the historical sources provide only a brief account of her life, the discovery of her burial at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1959 transformed her from a relatively obscure figure in the Merovingian historical record into one of the best-known women of the early medieval period.
Arégonde belonged to the Merovingian royal dynasty, the ruling family that controlled much of Gaul from the fifth to the eighth centuries. She was the sister of Ingonde and became the wife of Chlothar I, King of the Franks from 511 to 561. According to Gregory of Tours, Ingonde asked Chlothar to find a suitable husband for her sister. When the king encountered Arégonde, however, he decided to marry her himself. Their son, Chilperic I, was born around AD 534 and later became King of Neustria in 561. Beyond these brief references, Gregory of Tours provides little information about Arégonde’s life, health or physical appearance.
Arégonde therefore remained a relatively shadowy figure until the archaeological discovery of her burial. In 1959, during investigations beneath the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the archaeologist Michel Fleury discovered a stone sarcophagus, designated Tomb 49. The burial contained the remains of a woman accompanied by an exceptionally rich assemblage of jewellery, clothing accessories and other funerary objects. The quality and quantity of the grave goods immediately indicated that the deceased had occupied an exceptionally high social position.
The identification of the woman buried in the sarcophagus was made possible above all by a remarkable gold signet ring. The ring bears the name ARNEGVNDIS, together with a central monogram interpreted as REGINE, meaning ‘queen’. This object provided the crucial connection between the archaeological burial and the Arégonde mentioned by Gregory of Tours. The interpretation of the inscription and the attribution of the tomb were initially the subject of scholarly debate, particularly concerning the reading of the monogram and the dating of the burial. Nevertheless, the identification of Tomb 49 with Arégonde, wife of Chlothar I, is now generally accepted.
The gold ring of Arégonde – photo by Cangadoba / Wikimedia Commons
The discovery of the tomb was especially significant because it preserved an unusually rich combination of organic and inorganic remains. Although the human skeleton was in relatively poor condition, surviving fragments of textiles, leather footwear, jewellery and other elements of the funerary assemblage made it possible to reconstruct important aspects of Arégonde’s appearance and dress.
She had been buried wearing a purple silk mantle, a long silk samite veil and a pair of shoes made from kid leather. Her jewellery included a gold ring, two gold hairpins, a pair of Italian-Byzantine gold earrings and two gold brooches decorated with garnets. A large gold dress pin, embellished with polyhedral ornaments and garnets, was also present. Garters made from crossed leather straps were fastened at the knees and on the shoes with silver buckles. A glass vessel had also been placed at her feet.
The richness of the burial provides important evidence for Arégonde’s position within Merovingian society. This was not simply the grave of a wealthy woman. The combination of the archaeological context, the exceptional jewellery and the inscription identifying the deceased as a queen indicates that she belonged to the highest level of Frankish society. The tomb consequently provides an exceptional opportunity to investigate the material expression of royal identity, gender and social status during the sixth century.
At the same time, the burial allows questions to be addressed that cannot be answered through the written sources. Gregory of Tours makes no mention of any illness, impairment or physical disability affecting Arégonde. Her skeletal remains, however, preserve evidence of a childhood disease that appears to have had lasting consequences for the development of her right lower limb.
This discovery is particularly significant because the evidence for her physical condition comes from the body itself. The combination of skeletal asymmetry, abnormal bone development and dental enamel alteration indicates that Arégonde probably suffered from paralytic poliomyelitis, better known as polio, during childhood. Her case therefore provides an unusual opportunity to examine the relationship between physical impairment, social identity and status in Merovingian society.
The Burial and the Skeletal Remains
The jewelry found in Queen Aregund’s grave – Usually in the Museum of National Archeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris – photo by Cangadoba / Wikimedia Commons
The sarcophagus contained a body in relatively poor condition of preservation. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of the skeleton survived and provided valuable information about the deceased.
The skull was represented only by the occipital bone and mandible. None of the long bones survived in its entirety, while parts of the vertebral column had deteriorated. The morphology of the hip bones nevertheless establishes that the skeleton belonged to a woman.
Arégonde’s age at death has been estimated at approximately 61 years, plus or minus three years, through the analysis of cementum annulations in a canine tooth. If she was approximately twenty years old when her son was born, her death would therefore have occurred around AD 580.
The queen appears to have been a gracile and relatively short woman. Her stature has been estimated at approximately 1.50–1.60 metres, based on the reconstructed length of the femur.
The skeletal remains also reveal several pathological conditions. A hyperostotic condition is indicated by pronounced entheseal changes on the available bones. Arégonde also suffered from cervical and lumbar osteoarthritis. These changes are compatible, at least in part, with the effects of ageing.
More significant for the reconstruction of her life history, however, is an unusual alteration affecting the bones of the right foot. The bones of the right foot were substantially smaller than their counterparts on the left. The corresponding femur also displayed cortical hypoplasia.
The pattern does not appear to represent a congenital malformation. Instead, it is best interpreted as a developmental disturbance resulting from insufficient muscular stimulation during skeletal growth. The resulting atrophy is consistent with a paralytic episode occurring during childhood.
The distribution and nature of these skeletal alterations are characteristic of paralytic poliomyelitis affecting the distal portion of the right lower limb.
Evidence for Childhood Polio
Her belt buckle – photo by Françoise Foliot / Wikimedia Commons
Polio is a viral disease that can produce paralysis through damage to motor neurons and the consequent loss of muscular function. When infection occurs during childhood, particularly during the period of active skeletal growth, the resulting paralysis can interfere with the normal development of the bones and produce substantial asymmetry between the affected and unaffected limbs.
In Arégonde’s case, the reduced dimensions of the bones of the right foot, together with the cortical hypoplasia of the corresponding femur, indicate that the paralysis occurred while her skeleton was still developing.
Further evidence of physiological stress during childhood is preserved in her teeth. A hypoplastic line can be observed in the enamel of the mandibular canines. Its position corresponds to a period of dental development at approximately four to five years of age.
This enamel defect is significant because it indicates that Arégonde experienced a period of systemic physiological stress during childhood. When considered alongside the skeletal abnormalities of the right lower limb, the evidence supports the interpretation that she experienced polio at approximately this stage of her development.
The skeletal and dental evidence therefore provides a coherent biological history: Arégonde appears to have contracted polio during childhood, suffered paralysis affecting her right lower limb, and subsequently developed an asymmetrical skeleton as a consequence of reduced muscular activity.
The Physical Consequences of Arégonde’s Disability
Her earrings – photo by Cangadoba / Wikimedia Commons
The available evidence suggests that Arégonde’s physical impairment was relatively limited. She was probably not completely unable to walk. Instead, the condition appears to have resulted in a slight limp and impaired weight-bearing on the right foot.
The footwear recovered from the tomb provides an important additional clue. One of the shoes displays abnormal patterns of wear, which may reflect an altered gait and an asymmetrical distribution of body weight. This archaeological evidence complements the osteological observations and offers a rare indication of how Arégonde’s impairment may have affected her everyday movement.
Her condition should therefore not be understood simply as a diagnosis of polio. The skeletal remains provide evidence of the biological consequences of the disease, while the footwear provides a possible indication of its functional consequences.
The combination of these sources allows us to move beyond identifying a pathological condition and to consider how Arégonde may have experienced her impairment during everyday life. Although the evidence cannot tell us precisely how she moved or how she perceived her condition, it suggests that she retained the ability to walk and to participate in social life despite the permanent consequences of childhood paralysis.
Most importantly, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that her impairment prevented her from occupying a position of exceptional social privilege. On the contrary, Arégonde became the wife of a Frankish king and was buried with an exceptionally rich funerary assemblage. Her social trajectory demonstrates that physical impairment and high social status were not necessarily incompatible in Merovingian society.
Disability and Social Status in Merovingian Society
Two brooches – photo by Cangadoba / Wikimedia Commons
Arégonde’s burial is particularly valuable because it brings together two aspects of her life that are rarely documented simultaneously. On the one hand, her skeleton reveals evidence of a long-term physical impairment. On the other, her burial demonstrates that she occupied one of the highest positions in Merovingian society.
The distinction between impairment and disability is important here. The skeletal remains provide evidence of impairment: a lasting physical consequence of childhood polio affecting the right lower limb. They cannot, by themselves, demonstrate the extent to which this condition restricted Arégonde’s participation in society.
The archaeological context provides a different kind of evidence. The richness of her burial, the quality of her clothing and jewellery, and her identification as a Merovingian queen demonstrate that she maintained an exceptionally high social position throughout her life.
Her case therefore challenges any assumption that physical impairment necessarily resulted in social exclusion in the early medieval period. Arégonde’s disability may have affected her mobility, but there is no indication that it prevented her from fulfilling an important social and dynastic role.
Indeed, her burial suggests that her identity as a queen remained central to the way she was represented after death. The objects accompanying her body communicated wealth, status, gender and royal identity. Nothing in the funerary treatment suggests that her physical impairment diminished the social significance of her burial.
The case of Arégonde demonstrates the extraordinary potential of archaeological and osteological evidence for reconstructing aspects of individual lives that remain invisible in written sources.
Gregory of Tours records Arégonde primarily as the wife of Chlothar I and the mother of Chilperic I. He provides no information about her health, physical condition or experience of illness. The discovery of Tomb 49 beneath the basilica of Saint-Denis in 1959 changed this situation dramatically.
The identification of the tomb through the gold ring bearing the name ARNEGVNDIS established a direct connection between the archaeological remains and the historical queen. The exceptional funerary assemblage further demonstrated her elevated social position, while the surviving textiles, jewellery, footwear and other objects provided insight into her appearance and status.
The human remains add another dimension to this biography. The asymmetrical development of the lower limbs, the reduced size of the bones of the right foot, the cortical hypoplasia of the corresponding femur and the evidence of childhood physiological stress preserved in the dental enamel together support the diagnosis of paralytic poliomyelitis contracted during childhood.
The consequences appear to have been permanent but relatively mild. Arégonde probably experienced a slight limp and impaired weight-bearing on the right foot. The abnormal wear of her shoe may provide direct archaeological evidence of this altered gait.
The significance of the case extends beyond the diagnosis itself. Arégonde demonstrates that a person living with a physical impairment could occupy an exceptionally prominent position within Merovingian society. Her disability did not prevent her from becoming a queen, participating in the highest levels of dynastic life and receiving an exceptionally rich burial.
Her tomb therefore offers a rare opportunity to examine disability not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as part of an individual’s social history. Arégonde’s case reminds us that the archaeological record can reveal dimensions of past lives that historical texts overlook, and that impairment should not automatically be equated with marginalisation or exclusion.
The study of Tomb 49 ultimately brings together history, archaeology, anthropology and palaeopathology to reconstruct the life of a sixth-century woman whose experience of childhood disease remained unrecorded in contemporary written sources. Through her bones, her teeth, her footwear and the objects placed around her at death, it becomes possible to recover a fragment of her lived experience and to recognise her not only as a Merovingian queen, but also as an individual who lived with the long-term consequences of childhood polio.
Dr Lorris Chevalier, who has a Ph.D. in medieval literature, is a historical advisor for movies, including The Last Duel and Napoleon. Click here to view his website.
Véronique Gallien, Yves Darton, Claude Rücker, Luc Buchet, and Patrick Périn. “Arégonde : un cas de poliomyélite mérovingien.” In Décrypter la différence : lecture archéologique et historique de la place des personnes handicapées dans les communautés du passé, edited by Valérie Delattre and Rochdi Sallem, 87–90. CQFD, 2009
More than 1,400 years after her death, the remains of a medieval queen reveal a remarkable story of childhood illness and royal life. Arégonde survived polio as a young girl, and traces of its lasting effects can still be found in her bones, teeth and even her shoes.
By Lorris Chevalier
The case of Arégonde is particularly remarkable because her identity and aspects of her personal history can be reconstructed through the convergence of written sources, archaeology, osteology and the study of funerary remains. Although the historical sources provide only a brief account of her life, the discovery of her burial at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1959 transformed her from a relatively obscure figure in the Merovingian historical record into one of the best-known women of the early medieval period.
Arégonde belonged to the Merovingian royal dynasty, the ruling family that controlled much of Gaul from the fifth to the eighth centuries. She was the sister of Ingonde and became the wife of Chlothar I, King of the Franks from 511 to 561. According to Gregory of Tours, Ingonde asked Chlothar to find a suitable husband for her sister. When the king encountered Arégonde, however, he decided to marry her himself. Their son, Chilperic I, was born around AD 534 and later became King of Neustria in 561. Beyond these brief references, Gregory of Tours provides little information about Arégonde’s life, health or physical appearance.
Arégonde therefore remained a relatively shadowy figure until the archaeological discovery of her burial. In 1959, during investigations beneath the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the archaeologist Michel Fleury discovered a stone sarcophagus, designated Tomb 49. The burial contained the remains of a woman accompanied by an exceptionally rich assemblage of jewellery, clothing accessories and other funerary objects. The quality and quantity of the grave goods immediately indicated that the deceased had occupied an exceptionally high social position.
The identification of the woman buried in the sarcophagus was made possible above all by a remarkable gold signet ring. The ring bears the name ARNEGVNDIS, together with a central monogram interpreted as REGINE, meaning ‘queen’. This object provided the crucial connection between the archaeological burial and the Arégonde mentioned by Gregory of Tours. The interpretation of the inscription and the attribution of the tomb were initially the subject of scholarly debate, particularly concerning the reading of the monogram and the dating of the burial. Nevertheless, the identification of Tomb 49 with Arégonde, wife of Chlothar I, is now generally accepted.
The discovery of the tomb was especially significant because it preserved an unusually rich combination of organic and inorganic remains. Although the human skeleton was in relatively poor condition, surviving fragments of textiles, leather footwear, jewellery and other elements of the funerary assemblage made it possible to reconstruct important aspects of Arégonde’s appearance and dress.
She had been buried wearing a purple silk mantle, a long silk samite veil and a pair of shoes made from kid leather. Her jewellery included a gold ring, two gold hairpins, a pair of Italian-Byzantine gold earrings and two gold brooches decorated with garnets. A large gold dress pin, embellished with polyhedral ornaments and garnets, was also present. Garters made from crossed leather straps were fastened at the knees and on the shoes with silver buckles. A glass vessel had also been placed at her feet.
The richness of the burial provides important evidence for Arégonde’s position within Merovingian society. This was not simply the grave of a wealthy woman. The combination of the archaeological context, the exceptional jewellery and the inscription identifying the deceased as a queen indicates that she belonged to the highest level of Frankish society. The tomb consequently provides an exceptional opportunity to investigate the material expression of royal identity, gender and social status during the sixth century.
At the same time, the burial allows questions to be addressed that cannot be answered through the written sources. Gregory of Tours makes no mention of any illness, impairment or physical disability affecting Arégonde. Her skeletal remains, however, preserve evidence of a childhood disease that appears to have had lasting consequences for the development of her right lower limb.
This discovery is particularly significant because the evidence for her physical condition comes from the body itself. The combination of skeletal asymmetry, abnormal bone development and dental enamel alteration indicates that Arégonde probably suffered from paralytic poliomyelitis, better known as polio, during childhood. Her case therefore provides an unusual opportunity to examine the relationship between physical impairment, social identity and status in Merovingian society.
The Burial and the Skeletal Remains
The sarcophagus contained a body in relatively poor condition of preservation. Nevertheless, a substantial proportion of the skeleton survived and provided valuable information about the deceased.
The skull was represented only by the occipital bone and mandible. None of the long bones survived in its entirety, while parts of the vertebral column had deteriorated. The morphology of the hip bones nevertheless establishes that the skeleton belonged to a woman.
Arégonde’s age at death has been estimated at approximately 61 years, plus or minus three years, through the analysis of cementum annulations in a canine tooth. If she was approximately twenty years old when her son was born, her death would therefore have occurred around AD 580.
The queen appears to have been a gracile and relatively short woman. Her stature has been estimated at approximately 1.50–1.60 metres, based on the reconstructed length of the femur.
The skeletal remains also reveal several pathological conditions. A hyperostotic condition is indicated by pronounced entheseal changes on the available bones. Arégonde also suffered from cervical and lumbar osteoarthritis. These changes are compatible, at least in part, with the effects of ageing.
More significant for the reconstruction of her life history, however, is an unusual alteration affecting the bones of the right foot. The bones of the right foot were substantially smaller than their counterparts on the left. The corresponding femur also displayed cortical hypoplasia.
The pattern does not appear to represent a congenital malformation. Instead, it is best interpreted as a developmental disturbance resulting from insufficient muscular stimulation during skeletal growth. The resulting atrophy is consistent with a paralytic episode occurring during childhood.
The distribution and nature of these skeletal alterations are characteristic of paralytic poliomyelitis affecting the distal portion of the right lower limb.
Evidence for Childhood Polio
Polio is a viral disease that can produce paralysis through damage to motor neurons and the consequent loss of muscular function. When infection occurs during childhood, particularly during the period of active skeletal growth, the resulting paralysis can interfere with the normal development of the bones and produce substantial asymmetry between the affected and unaffected limbs.
In Arégonde’s case, the reduced dimensions of the bones of the right foot, together with the cortical hypoplasia of the corresponding femur, indicate that the paralysis occurred while her skeleton was still developing.
Further evidence of physiological stress during childhood is preserved in her teeth. A hypoplastic line can be observed in the enamel of the mandibular canines. Its position corresponds to a period of dental development at approximately four to five years of age.
This enamel defect is significant because it indicates that Arégonde experienced a period of systemic physiological stress during childhood. When considered alongside the skeletal abnormalities of the right lower limb, the evidence supports the interpretation that she experienced polio at approximately this stage of her development.
The skeletal and dental evidence therefore provides a coherent biological history: Arégonde appears to have contracted polio during childhood, suffered paralysis affecting her right lower limb, and subsequently developed an asymmetrical skeleton as a consequence of reduced muscular activity.
The Physical Consequences of Arégonde’s Disability
The available evidence suggests that Arégonde’s physical impairment was relatively limited. She was probably not completely unable to walk. Instead, the condition appears to have resulted in a slight limp and impaired weight-bearing on the right foot.
The footwear recovered from the tomb provides an important additional clue. One of the shoes displays abnormal patterns of wear, which may reflect an altered gait and an asymmetrical distribution of body weight. This archaeological evidence complements the osteological observations and offers a rare indication of how Arégonde’s impairment may have affected her everyday movement.
Her condition should therefore not be understood simply as a diagnosis of polio. The skeletal remains provide evidence of the biological consequences of the disease, while the footwear provides a possible indication of its functional consequences.
The combination of these sources allows us to move beyond identifying a pathological condition and to consider how Arégonde may have experienced her impairment during everyday life. Although the evidence cannot tell us precisely how she moved or how she perceived her condition, it suggests that she retained the ability to walk and to participate in social life despite the permanent consequences of childhood paralysis.
Most importantly, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that her impairment prevented her from occupying a position of exceptional social privilege. On the contrary, Arégonde became the wife of a Frankish king and was buried with an exceptionally rich funerary assemblage. Her social trajectory demonstrates that physical impairment and high social status were not necessarily incompatible in Merovingian society.
Disability and Social Status in Merovingian Society
Arégonde’s burial is particularly valuable because it brings together two aspects of her life that are rarely documented simultaneously. On the one hand, her skeleton reveals evidence of a long-term physical impairment. On the other, her burial demonstrates that she occupied one of the highest positions in Merovingian society.
The distinction between impairment and disability is important here. The skeletal remains provide evidence of impairment: a lasting physical consequence of childhood polio affecting the right lower limb. They cannot, by themselves, demonstrate the extent to which this condition restricted Arégonde’s participation in society.
The archaeological context provides a different kind of evidence. The richness of her burial, the quality of her clothing and jewellery, and her identification as a Merovingian queen demonstrate that she maintained an exceptionally high social position throughout her life.
Her case therefore challenges any assumption that physical impairment necessarily resulted in social exclusion in the early medieval period. Arégonde’s disability may have affected her mobility, but there is no indication that it prevented her from fulfilling an important social and dynastic role.
Indeed, her burial suggests that her identity as a queen remained central to the way she was represented after death. The objects accompanying her body communicated wealth, status, gender and royal identity. Nothing in the funerary treatment suggests that her physical impairment diminished the social significance of her burial.
The case of Arégonde demonstrates the extraordinary potential of archaeological and osteological evidence for reconstructing aspects of individual lives that remain invisible in written sources.
Gregory of Tours records Arégonde primarily as the wife of Chlothar I and the mother of Chilperic I. He provides no information about her health, physical condition or experience of illness. The discovery of Tomb 49 beneath the basilica of Saint-Denis in 1959 changed this situation dramatically.
The identification of the tomb through the gold ring bearing the name ARNEGVNDIS established a direct connection between the archaeological remains and the historical queen. The exceptional funerary assemblage further demonstrated her elevated social position, while the surviving textiles, jewellery, footwear and other objects provided insight into her appearance and status.
The human remains add another dimension to this biography. The asymmetrical development of the lower limbs, the reduced size of the bones of the right foot, the cortical hypoplasia of the corresponding femur and the evidence of childhood physiological stress preserved in the dental enamel together support the diagnosis of paralytic poliomyelitis contracted during childhood.
The consequences appear to have been permanent but relatively mild. Arégonde probably experienced a slight limp and impaired weight-bearing on the right foot. The abnormal wear of her shoe may provide direct archaeological evidence of this altered gait.
The significance of the case extends beyond the diagnosis itself. Arégonde demonstrates that a person living with a physical impairment could occupy an exceptionally prominent position within Merovingian society. Her disability did not prevent her from becoming a queen, participating in the highest levels of dynastic life and receiving an exceptionally rich burial.
Her tomb therefore offers a rare opportunity to examine disability not simply as a medical or biological condition, but as part of an individual’s social history. Arégonde’s case reminds us that the archaeological record can reveal dimensions of past lives that historical texts overlook, and that impairment should not automatically be equated with marginalisation or exclusion.
The study of Tomb 49 ultimately brings together history, archaeology, anthropology and palaeopathology to reconstruct the life of a sixth-century woman whose experience of childhood disease remained unrecorded in contemporary written sources. Through her bones, her teeth, her footwear and the objects placed around her at death, it becomes possible to recover a fragment of her lived experience and to recognise her not only as a Merovingian queen, but also as an individual who lived with the long-term consequences of childhood polio.
Dr Lorris Chevalier, who has a Ph.D. in medieval literature, is a historical advisor for movies, including The Last Duel and Napoleon. Click here to view his website.
Click here to read more from Lorris Chevalier
Further Readings:
Véronique Gallien, Yves Darton, Claude Rücker, Luc Buchet, and Patrick Périn. “Arégonde : un cas de poliomyélite mérovingien.” In Décrypter la différence : lecture archéologique et historique de la place des personnes handicapées dans les communautés du passé, edited by Valérie Delattre and Rochdi Sallem, 87–90. CQFD, 2009
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