Gundoin, Duke of Alsace

Who is Gundoin, Duke of Alsace?

Gundoin was the first Duke of Alsace in the middle of the seventh century. He was a Frankish nobleman from the Meuse-Moselle basin. He was, according to the author of the Vita Sadalbergae, an "illustrious man, opulent in wealth and fame according to the highest secular dignity and skilled in courtly affairs."

Gundoin's duchy comprised both sides of the Vosges, the Burgundian Gate, and the Transjura. It was probably created by Dagobert I in order to defend southern Austrasia from the Alemanni and to assert Austrasian claims to the region in the face of Burgundian opposition. In 596, Childebert II bequeathed Alsace to his son Theuderic II, who was raised there. This attached it to Burgundy, but in 610 Theudebert II, Theuderic's brother of Austrasia, forced Alsace' cession to him only to lose it two years later to Burgundy again. In 623, when Chlothar II granted Austrasia to Dagobert, he excluded Alsace, the Vosges, and the Ardennes, but was shortly after forced to concede it to Dagobert by the Austrasian nobility. The rule of a Frank from the Austrasian heartland tied Alsace more closely to the Austrasian court. By some accounts, Gundoin even lived in "Meuse", a villa at the headwaters of the Meuse and may have been a royal courtier. He did have problems retaining the faithfulness of the Sundgau.