King Chilperic I (±539-584), the Nero & Herod of his time

Frankish King Chilperic I (±539-584) was one of the sons of Clothaire I of the French Merovingian dynasty. After his father’s death in 561 Chilperic became King of Neustria (the northwestern part of France). Chilperic’s reign saw the introduction of the Byzantine punishment of eye-gouging (the act of pressing or tearing the eye). After sizing some ecclesiastical property, chronicler Gregory of Tours described Chilperic as “the Nero and Herod of his time”.

Chilperic murdering his wife

Chiliperic had his first wife Audovera, the mother of 5 of his children, committed to a convent. There she was murdered in 580. Next, Chilperic married the Visigothic Princess Galaswintha (540-568) in 567, but soon tired of her. One day she was found strangled in bed. She may have been murdered at the instigation of Chilperic’s mistress, a serving-woman called Fredegund, who then married him. Rumour also had it that Chilperic himself had murdered his wife in bed (see picture). 
Since Chilperic’s brother Sigibert had married Galaswintha’s sister, the Visigothic Princess Brunhilda, the murder of Galaswintha resulted in a series of bloody wars. In 575 Fredegund had Sigebert assassinated. His widow Brunhilda then married her nephew Merovech, a son of Chilperic and his first wife Audovera. To nullify the marriage, Chilperic had Merovech tonsured and sent to a monastery to become a priest.

There is a story that one day Chilperic found his new wife Fredegund washing over a basin, and then smacked her bottom. She thought it was her lover and cried out “what do you think you are doing, Landeric?’ She saved herself by having her husband killed. Chilperic was stabbed to death by an unkown assailant. 

The cruelty & bloodshed of Queen Keo Phimpha of Lan Xang

The notorious Queen Nang Keo Phimpha of Lan Xang in Laos may have been born as the eldest child of King Samsenthai (†1417) and his 1st-wife-and-1st-cousin, Queen Bua Then Fa. After Samsenthai's death Keo Phimpha intrigued and connived as King Maker and Breaker for the best part - or worst - of a decade.

In 1428 King Phommathath, Keo Phimpha's nephew, was beheaded on her orders within 10 months of his accession. Another nephew, King Youkhon, reigned for 8 months and then fled for his life before being killed on the others of his aunt. A 3rd nephew, King Konekham, reigned for 1½ year before Keo Phimpha had him murdered, too.

One of Keo Phimpha’s brothers, called Lue-Sai or Meunsai, who had earlier been passed over in the succession, was allowed to reign for 6 months before committing suicide in the Palace gardens. In 1436 Keo Phimpha raised another brother to the throne. This Khong Kham claimed to be a reincarnation of this own father. He died from a fit in 1438.

Then, finally, the aged Keo Phimpha mounted the throne herself. By then the Council of Ministers and the senior nobility had tired of her intrigues, cruelty and bloodshed. They succeeded in deposing Keo Phimpha within a few months of her accession. She was abandoned on a rock at Pha-Dieo, bound together with her husband and grandnephew, Wiang Pha. They died from either thirst, starvation or being eaten by wild animals.

The brain damage of Charles The Young of Aquitaine (†866)

Emperor Charles the Bald (823-77) was a grandson of Charlemagne. He married twice and had several sons and daughters. In 855 Charles the Bald passed the rebellious Kingdom of Aquitaine to his son Young Charles (±847-866).

Charles The Bald

As Charles the Child became a teenager, he tried to exercise what little personal authority he could. In 862 he married a widow without his father's consent. Charles the Bald suppressed his son’s rebellion and forced Young Charles to put away his wife.

In 864 Charles apparently intended to play a joke on one Albuin during a hunt, ambushing him and stealing his horse. Albuin believed the assault to be genuine, and hit Charles on the head with his sword. Brain damage due to the blow left Charles mentally incapacitated. He never recovered and died 2 years later on September 29, 866.

Sources: J. Bradbury's The Capetians (Kings of France 987-1328) & wikipedia.

Sofie Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1685–1735)

Sofie Luise was born on 6 May 1685 as the 4th and youngest child and only daughter of Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Grabow, and his wife Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse-Homburg. Sofie Luise's father died before her 3rd birthday. Her eldest brother, who was 10 years her senior, succeeded their childless uncle as Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1692.

Sofie Luise
of Mecklenburg

On 28 November 1708 Sofie Louise became the 3rd wife of Friedrich I (1657–1713), the 1st King in Prussia. Friedrich had just one surviving son from his earlier marriages and still hoped to get additional sons with his young wife. He was a little man with a little hump, unimpressive in appearance, asthmatic, sickly and weak. At 50, Friedrich was no longer capable of making love, and the marriage remained childless.

Worse, the marriage was a disaster. Sofie Luise proved to be a fanatic, puritan Lutheran and a complete nuisance. Gradually, she showed herself to be mentally unstable, and the King estranged from her. Soon, she was over the hill and required watching. During periodic fits of violence Sofie Luise had to be kept under restraint.

Maria d’Aragona (±1503-1568)

In the "Golden Age of Bastards" King Ferrante I of Naples (1423-1494) was an illegitimate son of King Alfonso V of Aragon and his mistress Giraldona Carlino. Ferrante I married twice and had several illegitimate children, too. One of Ferrante’s mistresses, Diana Guardado, was a member of an aristocratic patrician family. She gave birth to three of his children: Maria d’Aragona (who married a brother of Pope Pius III), Giovanna d’Aragona (who married a brother of Pope Julius II) and Ferdinando d’Aragona (†1542). Ferdinando was created Duke of Montaldo and married twice, too. His youngest child was Maria d’Aragona (1503-1568).

Maria's sister Giovanna 

d'Aragona (1502-1575) 

was also a patron 

of writers.

Maria d’Aragona’s brilliance and beauty were widely praised. She frequented intellectual and religious circles, and was acquainted with the poetess Victoria Colonna. In 1523 Maria married Alfonso d’Avalos (1502-1546), Marquess del Vasco. He became a decorated soldier. In 1538 he was appointed governor of Milan for Emperor Charles V. Subsequently, Maria lived in the ducal palace in Milan, while her husband was constantly in the field with his army. In 1544, in one of the worst massacres of the century, Alfonso lost 12,000 of his men in a battle against the French. He was wounded in a battle and never fully recovered from his wounds. The last years of his life he was a broken. After her husband’s death in 1546 Maria, her 7 children and her sister Giovanna (to the right), settled in Pavia, where they established a literary salon. In 1547 they moved to Castell dell’Ovo in Naples and reopened their salon. Driven out of the castle during a rebellion, Maria managed to live out the last years of her life in Naples, where she died in 1568.

In 2012 the remains of Maria d’Aragona were dug up in Naples. When a linen bandage was cut off from Maria’s arm, a large, oval ulcer was discovered. Examination of the tissue with a microscope showed the presence of Treponema Pallidum, a spirochaete bacterium that is known to cause syphilis. The tissue was so well preserved that the spiral shape of the bacteria could be detected. Maria also harbored human papillomavirus in a venereal wart—the first diagnosis of this sexually transmitted, cancer-causing disease in the tissue of a mummy.

Sexually transmitted diseases were common in Renaissance Italy. It was easily spread by soldiers, having sex with - or raping – women, so Maria was most likely infected by her soldiering husband. See also: Syphilis in the Italian Renaissance.