Amalafrida
sister of Theodoric the Great and mother of Theodahad, both Ostrogothic jkings
465 CE to 525 CE
Amalafrida is the daughter of Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths, and his wife Erelieva.
She is the sister of Theodoric the Great, and mother of Theodahad, both of whom also are kings of the Ostrogoths.
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The Middle of The Earth
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Theodomir had two "brothers"—actually, brothers-in-law—named Valamir and Videmir, with whom he had ruled jointly as a vassal of the late Attila the Hun.
Theodemir is Arian, while his wife Erelieva is Catholic and had taken the Roman Christian name Eusabic upon her baptism.
Erelieva has borne him two children: Theoderic (454–526) and Amalafrida.
Theodomir takes over the three Pannonian Goth reigns after the death of Videmir in 470, having earlier inherited the heirless Valamir's part of the kingdom on the latter’s death in 465.
Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, marries Amalafrida, the widowed sister of Theodoric the Great.
She brings with her a very large dowry and an elite Gothic force of five thousand soldiers.
The Germanic Thuringii had appeared after about 350 and had been conquered by the Huns in the second quarter of the fifth century; examination of Thuringian grave sites reveal cranial features which suggest the strong presence of Hunnic women or slaves, perhaps indicating that many Thuringians took Hunnic wives or Hunnic slaves following the collapse of the Hunnic Empire. (Schutz, Herbert. The Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750. American University Studies, Series IX: History, Vol. 196; p. 411. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.)
There is also evidence from jewelry found in graves that the Thuringians sought marriages with Ostrogothic and Lombard women.
The Thrungiii had by 500 established a large kingdom stretching from the Harz mountains to the Danube.
Hermanafrid, king of the Thuringii, marries Amalaberga, the daughter of Amalafrida, daughter of Theodemir, king of the Ostrogoths.
Her father is unknown; her uncle is Theodoric the Great.
He begins his rule in 507, shared with his brothers Baderic and Bertachar.
Vandal king Hilderic, following the death of his predecessor Thrasamund in 523, issues orders for the return of all the Catholic bishops from exile, including Boniface, a strenuous asserter of orthodoxy, bishop of the African Church.
In response, Amalfrida, Thrasamund’s widow, heads a party of revolt; she calls in the assistance of the Moors, and battle is joined at Capsa, about three hundred miles to the south of the capital, on the edge of the Libyan desert.
Amalafrida's party is beaten in 523, and Hilderic has her arrested and imprisoned in a successful bid to overthrow Ostrogothic hegemony; he also has her Gothic troops killed.
She will die in prison, exact date unknown.
Amalafrida had two children, including Theodahad, who will succeed his uncle Theodoric as King of the Ostrogoths, and Amalaberga, who had married Hermanfrid, king of the Thuringii, between 507 and 511.
It is not known who the father of these children was.
Hilderic will escape war with her brother, the Gothic king Theoderic, only by the latter's death in 526.