Gundoald or Gundovald, also called Ballomer, was a usurper king of Aquitaine in either 584

584

Year 584 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 584 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Asia :* Fourth Turkic khagan Taspar dies. Interregnum...

 or 585

585

Year 585 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 585 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* The Suebi kingdom on the Iberian peninsula...

. He claimed to be an illegitimate son of Clotaire I

Clotaire I

Chlothar I , called the Old , King of the Franks, was one of the four sons of Clovis. He was born circa 497, in Soissons .-Life:...

 and, with the financial support of the Emperor Maurice, took some major cities in southern Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

, including Poitiers

Poitiers

Poitiers is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region. The centre is picturesque and its streets are interesting for predominant remains of historical architecture, especially from the Romanesque...

 and Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, which belonged to Guntram

Guntram

Saint Guntram was the king of Burgundy from 561 to 592. He was a son of Chlothar I and Ingunda...

, king of Burgundy

King of Burgundy

The following is a list of the Kings of the two Kingdoms of Burgundy, and a number of related political entities devolving from Carolingian machinations over family relations.- Kings of the Burgundians :...

, a legitimate son of Clotaire. Guntram marched against him, calling him nothing more than a miller's son named 'Ballomer'. Gundowald fled to Comminges

Comminges

The Comminges is an ancient region of southern France in the foothills of the Pyrenees, corresponding closely to the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens in the department of Haute-Garonne...

 and Guntram's army set down to besiege the citadel (now known as Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association.-History:...

). The siege was unsuccessful; nevertheless, Gundowald's followers gave him over and he was executed.

The account of the sole source for these events (Gregory of Tours, Histories, Bks. 6-7) differs considerably from the summary above. For one thing, Gundovald was never king of Aquitaine. There was no such kingdom at the time. He had no Byzantine support when taking cities in the south. His main backers were magnates of Austrasia.

Further reading

• Bachrach, Bernard S.
  Bernard Bachrach
  Bernard S. Bachrach is an American historian and a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He specialises in the Early Middle Ages, mainly on the topics of Medieval warfare, Medieval Jewry, and early Angevin history...
  
   1994. The Anatomy of a Little War: A Diplomatic and Military History of the Gundovald Affair (568–586). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Widdowson, Marc. 2009. "Merovingian Partitions: A 'Genealogical Charter'?" Early Medieval Europe, 17(1), 1–22.