Clothilde was born around 470 in Lyon; she died in June 545 in Tours, France, and was the daughter of Chilperic II, King of the Burgundians, and Queen Caretena. 

She married Clovis (465–511), King of the Franks  around 490 or 493. They had children: 

Ingomer (b. around 494, died young), 

Chlodomer (495–524), King of Orléans (511–524);

 Childebert I (d. 558), King of Paris (511–558); 

Chlothar I (497–561), King of Soissons (r. 511), King of the Franks (r. 558–561); 

and several daughters including Clotilda.

Clotilde was a princess of Burgundy. She was the granddaughter of King Gundioc of the Burgundians. Upon the old Burgundian ruler’s death, the lands of Burgundy were split between Gundioc’s four sons: Chilperic (Clotilde’s father), Gundomar, Godigisel and Gundobad

Gundebald started waging war against his brother Chilperic, the King of Burgundy, he bursted into his brother’s palace and murdered King Chilperic, the Queen, her mother, and the young princes.

Clothilde’s sister, Sedelenda, had found refuge and safety in the convent of Ainay, near at hand, and there, too, Clotilda would have gone, but her uncle, the new king, said: “No, the maidens must be forever separated.” He expressed a willingness to have Princess Clotilda brought up in his palace, which had been her father’s, and requested the priest Ugo of Rheims to remain awhile, and look after the girl’s education. In those days a King’s request was a command, and the good Ugo, though stern and brave in the face of real danger, was shrewd enough to know that it was best for him to yield to the King’s wishes. So he continued in the palace of the King, looking after the welfare of his little charge, until suddenly the girl took matters into her own hands, and decided his future and her own.

The kingdom of Burgundy, in the days of Princess Clotilda, was a large tract of country now embraced by Southern France and Western Switzerland. It had been given over by the Romans to the Goths, who had invaded it in the year 413. It was a land of forest and vineyards, of fair valleys and sheltered hill-sides, and of busy cities that the fostering hand of Rome had beautified; while through its broad domain the Rhone, pure and sparkling, swept from Swiss lake and glacier, southward to the broad and beautiful Mediterranean. 

Lyons was its capital, and on the hill of Fourviere, overlooking the city below it, rose the marble palace of the Burgundian kings

When Clovis heard about her, he did ask for her hand in marriage to Gundebald who didn’t dare to refuse. She wed Clovis that same year and soon gave birth to five children. She strived relentlessly to lead her husband away from his native paganism, and in 496 he was finally baptised. Clovis passed away in 511, after which Clotilda retired to the Abbey of St. Martin at Tours.

In 523, Clotilda finally avenged the murder of her father by inciting her sons against her cousin King Sigismund of Burgundy, the son of her uncle. This incited the Burgundian War, which led to Sigismund’s imprisonment and assassination. Afterwards, she attempted to prevent fighting among her children and grandchildren, but she was unsuccessful, and after her death she was buried at her husband’s side.