Gundobad (; ; 452 – 516 AD) was King of the Burgundians (473 – 516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy. Previous to this, he had been a patrician of the moribund Western Roman Empire in 472 – 473, three years before its collapse, succeeding his uncle Ricimer. He is perhaps best known today as the probable issuer of the Lex Burgundionum legal codes, which synthesized Roman law with ancient Germanic customs. He was the husband of Caretene.
Early life
Gundobad seized the title of Patrician when his uncle Ricimer, who had been the power behind the throne for the Western Empire, died on 18 August 472. According to John of Antioch, Gundobad had previously executed the deposed emperor Anthemius on his uncle's orders.
Once in power, Gundobad elevated the current Count of the Domestics, Glycerius, to the position of Western Roman Emperor. However, not long after this Gundobad left for Burgundy where his father, Gundioc, had died; the exact date is unclear, with authorities stating it was in either 473 or 474. Once in Burgundy, his three brothers presumably challenged his rule: Godegisel, Chilperic II and Gundomar. Ian Wood speculates that Gundobad's departure may have been connected with the arrival of a new emperor, Julius Nepos, who had the support of the Roman Emperor in Constantinople. Once Julius Nepos landed in Portus (June 474), he deposed Glycerius, whom he made Bishop of Salona.
Reign
The events of the first decades of Gundobad's reign are not well known. The only available source that covers this part of his reign is Gregory of Tours, who wrote almost a century later. According to Gregory, Gundobad set about ridding himself of his brothers. First slain was Gundomar, though little is known of this encounter.
Next killed was Chilperic. According to Gregory, Gundobad had his wife drowned by tying a stone round her neck and Chilperic's two daughters driven into exile. The older daughter, Chroma, became a nun. The other, Clotilde, had been seen by envoys of Clovis I, King of the Franks, who told their master of her beauty and intelligence. Clovis then asked Gundobad for Clotilde's hand in marriage. Gundobad was said to have been afraid to deny him.
However, a letter written by Avitus, bishop of Vienne, consoling Gundobad on the death of an unnamed daughter, gives details that suggest there was more to the story. According to the explication of Danuta Shanzer and Ian Wood of Avitus' notoriously difficult Latin, the bishop writes, "In the past, with ineffable tender-heartedness, you mourned the deaths of your brothers." Further, Avitus alludes to Gundobad's intent to marry his deceased daughter to a foreign ruler, whom they suggest was Clovis: "Indeed," they write, "Clovis is really the only likely candidate as a prospective son-in-law for Gundobad shortly after 501." If their reading is correct, then it is likely that Clotilde was offered to Clovis as an act of diplomacy, not subservience.
At this point occurs the earliest firm date in Gundobad's reign: in the early months of 490, while Odoacer and Theodoric the Great were locked in battle over control of Pavia, the Burgundians seized the opportunity to invade northwestern Italy. They devastated Liguria, and carried away an unknown number of victims into captivity, if not slavery. Once Theodoric had killed Odoacer and was securely in control of Italy, he sent bishop Epiphanius of Pavia on a mission to ransom as many of these captives as possible. Accompanied by Bishop Victor of Turin, they crossed the Alps in March. Shanzer and Wood believe Epiphanius was possibly also entrusted with a mission in connection with the marriage of Gundobad's son Sigismund to Theodoric's daughter Ostrogotho. In his account of this visit, Magnus Felix Ennodius, who accompanied Epiphanius on this journey, describes Godegisel as germanus regis, the "king's brother", and not king—again contradicting Gregory of Tours' later account. Ennodius notes that "more than six thousand souls" were so ransomed; from Lyons alone 400 men were thus freed.