Letter 16: Maurice, to our most noble and beloved daughter Queen Brunhild, greetings.

Maurice, to our most noble and beloved daughter Queen Brunhild, greetings. We have received your letter with the pleasure that a communication from so remarkable a ruler always brings. The reports that reach us of your governance of Austrasia during your son's minority speak of a woman of exceptional intelligence and political skill, and your letter confirms what those reports have conveyed. You ask for recognition as a full diplomatic interlocutor; we grant it gladly. The ambassador you send will be received at our court with the same ceremony as any royal representative, and the communications you address to us directly will receive the same attention as those from Childebert himself. On the alliance: our positions are, I believe, well aligned. The Lombard problem admits of no permanent solution that leaves them in possession of the Italian territories they have seized, and the cooperation of Frankish forces is essential to any campaign that has a reasonable prospect of success. We are committed to this alliance and we will honor its financial obligations as agreed. I add a personal note: you left the Visigothic kingdom as a young woman to marry into the Frankish world, and you have navigated that world with a skill that would be remarkable in a man who had been formed in it from birth. The Christian faith that sustained your family in Visigothic Spain has evidently sustained you in circumstances considerably more demanding than that comfortable world. We pray for your safety and that of your son. Maurice, Emperor