From Dung to Dame: Power and Humility in the Lives of Balthild and Radegund
Hagiographies have a somewhat complicated relationship to their subjects. Oftentimes, but not always, the Life is commissioned after the person’s death, to describe what about their life was so exceptionally holy for them to be worthy of being canonized. In the Lives of Balthild and Radegund there is a specific image which appears in both: the image of the queen covered in dung. In both Lives, the queen’s willingness to debase herself by interacting with human excrement is presented as evidence of her piety. However, the way that dung is present in each queen’s story is very different. Radegund proves her holiness before she becomes queen, by showing her willingness to perform menial tasks. As is written in Venantius Fortunatus’ The Life of the Holy Radegund, “she did not shrink from cleaning the privies but cleaned and carried off the stinking dung. For she believed that she would be diminished if these vile services did not ennoble her” (Sainted Women of the Dark Ages 80). Radegund cleaning the privies has a meaning which is clearly more spiritual than literal. Whether or not she actually cleaned excrement is of little concern: it is the idea that she, a queen, desired nothing more than to debase herself as a servant that is powerful.
However, Balthild’s moment in the dung heap, so to speak, comes only after she has retired to a nunnery, after her queenship has ended. In her Life, her service as a latrine cleaner has much the same purpose — to prove to the reader how humble she was. But because it is not as a queen that she does this, the meaning shifts. It is not Queen Balthild who cleans the lavatory, but Sister Balthild, who “obeyed [the] holy abbess as her mother, and rendered service to them as the lowest of handmaidens out of holy desire.” (Late Merovingian France 127). Though the author may say that this is “just as [she had done] when she still ruled the royal palace,” the Life is organized chronologically. Though this would reinforce the overall goal of the Life — to present Balthild as exceptionally worthy of her sainthood by displaying the many holy virtues she displayed throughout her life — it still has less of an effect at this point in the story than it would have if it had been mentioned earlier.
The connection between these seemingly disparate though thematically connected examples becomes more apparent when they are considered as markers of a shift in power in their respective queens’ lives. Both queens were foreigners to the land they ultimately ruled, but only Balthild came to her country lacking a title. When Radegund was acquired by her husband-to-be, she was already “of the highest earthly rank, born from the seed of the kings of the barbarian nation of Thuringia” (Sainted Women of the Dark Ages 70). Radegund’s tenure as latrine maid comes relatively early in her Life, at a time when the author is trying to show that this foreigner, despite her barbarian lineage, was not only worthy of queenship but indeed sainthood. The writer of the Life therefore had to make as compelling a case as possible as quickly as possible: hence, the image of the queen cleaning the latrines. Balthild’s Life, on the other hand, emphasizes her willingness to submit to her post-royal life in the nunnery. It is not enough for her to be humble; she must be brought lower than ever. This is why the author constructs the image of the once-powerful queen in nun’s robes, cleaning out the latrines.
The dung pile therefore represents the queen’s shifting power in each Life, but in different directions. For Radegund, cleaning the dung pile is how she proves her humility to the audience, thereby gaining credibility as a queen despite her rank among foreigners. For Balthild, the dung pile represents the finality and totality of her retirement to the nunnery. By performing that which a queen should not do, Radegund proves to us that she is humble enough to give up her queendom, while Balthild proves that she is humble enough to deserve it. Perhaps it is not the action of cleaning out a latrine which is important, then, but where in the Life it is placed.
However, Balthild’s moment in the dung heap, so to speak, comes only after she has retired to a nunnery, after her queenship has ended. In her Life, her service as a latrine cleaner has much the same purpose — to prove to the reader how humble she was. But because it is not as a queen that she does this, the meaning shifts. It is not Queen Balthild who cleans the lavatory, but Sister Balthild, who “obeyed [the] holy abbess as her mother, and rendered service to them as the lowest of handmaidens out of holy desire.” (Late Merovingian France 127). Though the author may say that this is “just as [she had done] when she still ruled the royal palace,” the Life is organized chronologically. Though this would reinforce the overall goal of the Life — to present Balthild as exceptionally worthy of her sainthood by displaying the many holy virtues she displayed throughout her life — it still has less of an effect at this point in the story than it would have if it had been mentioned earlier.
The connection between these seemingly disparate though thematically connected examples becomes more apparent when they are considered as markers of a shift in power in their respective queens’ lives. Both queens were foreigners to the land they ultimately ruled, but only Balthild came to her country lacking a title. When Radegund was acquired by her husband-to-be, she was already “of the highest earthly rank, born from the seed of the kings of the barbarian nation of Thuringia” (Sainted Women of the Dark Ages 70). Radegund’s tenure as latrine maid comes relatively early in her Life, at a time when the author is trying to show that this foreigner, despite her barbarian lineage, was not only worthy of queenship but indeed sainthood. The writer of the Life therefore had to make as compelling a case as possible as quickly as possible: hence, the image of the queen cleaning the latrines. Balthild’s Life, on the other hand, emphasizes her willingness to submit to her post-royal life in the nunnery. It is not enough for her to be humble; she must be brought lower than ever. This is why the author constructs the image of the once-powerful queen in nun’s robes, cleaning out the latrines.
The dung pile therefore represents the queen’s shifting power in each Life, but in different directions. For Radegund, cleaning the dung pile is how she proves her humility to the audience, thereby gaining credibility as a queen despite her rank among foreigners. For Balthild, the dung pile represents the finality and totality of her retirement to the nunnery. By performing that which a queen should not do, Radegund proves to us that she is humble enough to give up her queendom, while Balthild proves that she is humble enough to deserve it. Perhaps it is not the action of cleaning out a latrine which is important, then, but where in the Life it is placed.
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