Fastrada: Charlemagne’s Queen History Tried to Forget

Forgotten Women of History

Fastrada, Queen to Charlemagne

Charlemagne is usually thought of as the iron-willed king, crowned Emperor of the Romans in 800, architect of a European empire and champion of learning and reform. What we never hear about, however, are the women who stood beside him: women whose influence shaped politics, justice, and the fragile stability of his realm.

One of the most controversial of these women was Fastrada, Charlemagne’s fourth wife and queen, a woman remembered less for what she did than for how male chroniclers chose to describe her.

A Frankish Noblewoman in a Dangerous Court

Fastrada was born into the high Frankish nobility around the mid-8th century, the daughter of Count Radulf. Her marriage to Charlemagne in 783 was not a romantic match but a strategic one, strengthening ties between powerful families within the Frankish heartlands. This was a period when Charlemagne’s empire was expanding rapidly through conquest, forced conversion, and ruthless suppression of revolt.

Queens in the Carolingian world were not crowned consorts in the later medieval sense, but they were far from ornamental. They managed households, acted as intermediaries, dispensed patronage, and, crucially, advised the king. Fastrada arrived at court at a moment when Charlemagne’s rule was under strain from internal rebellion, particularly in Saxony.

“Cruel” Queen or Convenient Scapegoat?

Our surviving sources paint Fastrada in dark colours. Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer, describes her as harsh and cruel, claiming that her influence made the king more severe in judgement. Later chroniclers echoed this, blaming her for brutal punishments meted out against rebels and dissenters.

But this raises an uncomfortable question: Was Fastrada truly cruel, or was she blamed for decisions Charlemagne himself made?

Early medieval queens were often held responsible when kings ruled harshly. Advising firmness could easily be reframed as bloodthirstiness, especially when the adviser was a woman. Fastrada’s reputation may tell us more about medieval anxieties over female influence than about her actual character.

It is worth noting that Charlemagne’s most notorious acts of brutality, including the mass executions of Saxons, predated and outlasted Fastrada’s life. Yet only she became a symbol of excessive severity.

A Queen Who Took Risks

What is clear is that Fastrada was not passive. She remained politically engaged, supported Charlemagne during dangerous uprisings, and bore him children, including Theodrada, who later became abbess of Argenteuil, a position of significant religious and political authority.

Fastrada died young, in 794, likely from illness. Her death reportedly affected Charlemagne deeply. Despite the hostile chroniclers, he mourned her, suggesting a partnership more complex than the caricature left behind.

After her death, rebellions continued, a telling reminder that Fastrada had not been the root cause of unrest, merely a convenient explanation.

Reclaiming Fastrada Through Fiction

Queen of the Darkest Hour by Kim Rendfeld

One of the most compelling modern reimaginings of Fastrada appears in Kim Rendfeld’s novel Queen of the Darkest Hour. Rendfeld takes the scraps left by history and builds a nuanced portrait of a woman navigating an unforgiving political landscape.

Rather than a one-dimensional villain, Rendfeld’s Fastrada is intelligent, principled, and acutely aware of the cost of power. She must balance justice and mercy, loyalty and survival, while knowing that any failure will be blamed squarely on her shoulders. The novel explores how queenship in the early Middle Ages demanded moral courage, and how easily that courage could be recast as cruelty by hostile observers.

For readers interested in the inner lives of medieval women, Queen of the Darkest Hour is a powerful corrective to centuries of bias, reminding us that history is often written by those with the loudest voices, not the fairest judgement.

Why Fastrada Matters

Fastrada’s story matters because it exposes a recurring pattern in history: women in power remembered as monsters, while men who wielded the same authority are remembered as strong rulers. Her legacy invites us to question our sources, to read between the lines, and to ask whose interests are served by the stories that survive.

In reclaiming Fastrada, we reclaim not just one queen, but countless women whose influence was real, consequential, and deliberately obscured.

She was not merely the “cruel queen” of the chronicles.
She was a political actor in one of Europe’s most formative courts, and she deserves to be remembered as such.

Forgotten Women of History is a series dedicated to uncovering the lives of women pushed to the margins of the past. If you’re drawn to stories of medieval queens, power, and survival, Kim Rendfeld’s Queen of the Darkest Hour is well worth adding to your reading list.