- Plectrude
Plectrude or Plectrudis (d.717) was the wife of
Pepin of Herstal , themayor of the palace andduke of the Franks , from about 670. She was the daughter ofHugobert ,seneschal ofClovis IV , andIrmina d'Oeren .She brought a large amount of property to the
Arnulfing house and this probably helped to save Pepin in his warmaking with theNeustria ns. She tried to assure that her grandchildren (for both her sons by Pepin predeceased him) would inherit and she got Pepin's assent thatTheudoald should be his main heir. When Pepin died soon thereafter (714), she imprisoned his dangerous bastard sonCharles Martel inCologne .In 716,
Chilperic II ,king of the Franks , andRagenfrid , hismayor of the palace , together led an army intoAustrasia . Near Cologne, in which Plectrude had shut herself up, they defeated the escapedCharles Martel . The king and his mayor then turned to besiege their other rival in the city and took it, the treasury, and received the recognition of both Chilperic as king and Ragenfrid as mayor.At this juncture, events turned in Charles favour. In 717, he chased the king and the mayor to
Paris before turning back to deal with Plectrude in Cologne. He took the city and dispersed her adherents. She died later that year in Cologne, where she is buried.Her sons by Pepin were:
*Drogo, duke of Champagne
*Grimoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria
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