Person Page 410

Divorced in 1058.

May 1068.

Petronilla of Aquitaine (c. 1125 – 1193) was the daughter of William X of Aquitaine and Aenor of Châtellerault. She was the sister of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was Queen consort of England. She is variously called Alix (or Aelith in Occitan) and Petronilla; she typically went by Alix after her marriage, while Petronilla seems to have been her childhood name (she is referred to as such in her father's will).

Petronilla accompanied her sister to the French court, where she met Count Raoul I of Vermandois,who was a married man and a cousin to her brother-in-law Louis VII of France. He repudiated his wife and married her, and they were excommunicated by the Pope. Pope Innocent II promised to lift the excommunication, but recanted his promise in 1143. Hostilities flared, and Louis VII infamously burned Vitry-le-François. Finally the Pope died and his successor Pope Celestine II lifted the excommunication at Council of Reims in 1144. However, Petronilla and Raoul divorced in 1151, as he remarried the next year. Petronilla remained a member of the French royal court and a constant companion to her sister Eleanor while she was imprisoned by her husband King Henry II in England and Wales. After Henry's death, Eleanor was freed, and Petronilla planned on returning to France. Yet, records of Petronilla after 1189 are scarce. It is believed that she came down with a fever on her voyage from England back to France and died in early 1190 before her arrival at port.

Together Raoul and Petronilla had three children:

Elizabeth (Isabelle Mabile) (1143 – 28 March 1183), married Philip, Count of Flanders.
Raoul II, count de Vermandois and Valois (1145–1167), married Margaret I, Countess of Flanders.
Eleanor of Vermandois (1148/49 – 1213).

Sadly, tragedy struck the family in 1130. Aenor of Chatellerault died at the age of 27, as did William Aigret, at the age of 4. The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, but they both probably suffered from tuberculosis.

A Lydian nobleman, was said to be the father of the semi-historical figure Gyges of Lydia.

Gunhilda of Denmark (c. 1020 – 18 July 1038) was the first spouse of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Gunhilda was a daughter of Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy. Her maternal grandparents were Richard I of Normandy and his second wife Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy.

She was a sister of Harthacanute. She was a paternal half-sister of Svein of Norway and Harold Harefoot. She was also a maternal half-sister of Alfred Aetheling and Edward the Confessor.

In 1036, Gunhilda married Henry III, King of Germany. He was the son and heir of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor and Gisela of Swabia. Upon her wedding, she took the name Kunigunde. They only had one daughter, Beatrix I (1037 – 13 July 1061), Abbess of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim Abbeys.

Her marriage was part of a pact between her father Canute and Conrad II over peaceful borders in the area of Kiel. The agreement had occurred prior to the death of Canute in 1035.[1] She had by the time of her marriage lived at the German court since 1025.

According to the chronicles of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines and William of Malmesbury, Gunhilda was accused of adultery and defended in trial by combat, but after her champion's victory she disdained the success and became a nun.[2][3] However, it seems that Gunhilda and her husband reconciled shortly afterwards.

In 1038, Conrad II was asked to intervene in a territorial dispute between Guaimar IV of Salerno and Pandulf IV of Capua. He campaigned in the Mezzogiorno in support of Guaimar. Their victory found most of the Mezzogiorno loyal to the Holy Roman Empire. Both Henry III and Gunhilda followed Conrad in his campaign.

During the return journey to Germany, an epidemic broke out among the Imperial troops. Gunhilda was among the casualties.[4].

Beatrice I, also known as Beatrice of Franconia (German: Beatrix von Franken; 1037 - 13 July 1061), was Abbess of Gandersheim Abbey from 1043 and Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg Abbey from 1044 until her death.

Beatrix was born in Italy towards the end of 1037 as the only child of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III and his first wife, Gunhilda of Denmark, who died about six months after Beatrice's birth.
Consecration

On 14 January 1044, after the death of her kinswoman, Abbess Adelaide I, Beatrice was installed as abbess of Gandersheim Abbey by her father, overriding the right of the canonesses to elect their own head. She was additionally consecrated Abbess of Quedlinburg on 24 June 1044 in Merseburg Cathedral, also succeeding Adelaide I, and a little later was created abbess of Vreden Abbey.
[edit] Conflicts

In Gandersheim, she was at the centre of a long-running conflict with the canonesses, who accused her of subinfeudating estates of the abbey that were intended for the direct support of the community, and thereby bringing them into financial hardship. Three popes were involved in this affair, which went on for years: Leo IX decided initially in favour of the canonesses; Victor III reversed the decision in favour of the abbess. Finally, Stephen IX set out a compromise, at the end of 1057, which was apparently that the prebendal estates of the community were to be reserved for its upkeep, but that the abbess had the right to manage freely the remaining estates and her own properties as she saw fit.

Even this solution held only until the death of Beatrice; under her successor, her half-sister Adelaide II, the conflict broke out all over again.
[edit] Death

Beatrice died on 13 July 1061. She was buried in the abbey church of Quedlinburg but her remains must have been removed elsewhere after the disastrous fire of 1070. A lead casket, which almost certainly contains the bones of Beatrice, has been preserved in Michaelstein Abbey since about 1161. In the crypt of the rebuilt church at Quedlinburg a tablet from the time of its rededication in 1129 serves as Beatrice's memorial.

Judith-Maria of Swabia (b. Goslar, 9 April 1054 – d. 14 March ca. 1105?) was a German princess, a member of the Ottonian dynasty and by her two marriages Queen of Hungary and Duchess of Poland renamed Sophia in 1089.

She was the daughter of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor by his second wife Agnes, daughter of William V, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou.
Judith (also named Maria in some sources) was the youngest of the six children born to Emperor Henry III and Empress Agnes. Her older five siblings were: Adelaide (later Abbess of Quedlinburg), Gisela (who died in infancy before her birth), Matilda (later wife of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Duke of Swabia and Antiking), Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Conrad II, Duke of Bavaria (who also died in infancy). In addition, Judith had an older half-sister, Beatrix I, Abbess of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim, born from her father's first marriage with Gunhilda of Denmark.
[edit] Queen of Hungary

Soon after her birth on 9 April 1054, Judith was betrothed to Philip, eldest son and heir of King Henry I of France. However, the engagement was broken in September of 1058, when her brother Emperor Henry IV concluded a peace treaty with Andrew I, King of Hungary; as a part of the alliance, she was engaged to the Hungarian King's son and heir, Solomon. When King Andrew I died in 1060, his widow and sons took refuge in the German court. With the support of his powerful brother-in-law, Solomon could recover the Hungarian throne after the death of his uncle Béla I in 1063 and soon after married with Judith in (Stuhlweißenburg) Székesfehérvár.

The marriage proved to be unsuccessful, and apparently both the King and Queen had love affairs. Although it is generally believed that the union was childless, some sources[1][2] state that Solomon and Judith had a daughter, Sophia, who later married Poppo, Count of Berg-Schelklingen. If this parentage is correct, Judith was the great-grandmother of Salomea of Berg, second wife of Boleslaw III Wrymouth (her later stepson).

During the 1070s, a struggle for power commenced between King Solomon and his cousins (sons of the late Béla I). On 14 March 1074 at the Battle of Mogyoród, the King's forces were decisively defeated by his cousins and their allies, the Dukes of Poland and Bohemia. Judith fled to Germany while Solomon continue his fight for the Hungarian throne; in 1077 he accepted the rule of his cousin King László I, who gave him in exchange extensive landholdings after his formal abdication (1081). Despite this, Solomon never gave up his pretensions and began to plot against King László I; however, his plans were discovered and he was imprisoned by the King in the Tower of Visegrád until 15 August 1083, when on the occasion of the canonization of István I, the first King of Hungary, Solomon was released.

In the meantime, Judith remained in Germany and settled in her residence in Regensburg (with short breaks) from May or July 1074 until 1088. After his release, Solomon went to Germany and tried to reunite with his wife, but she refused to receive him. After a long wandering, Solomon made an alliance with Kuteshk, the leader of a Pecheneg tribe settled in the later principality of Moldavia. Between 1084-1085 he married his daughter, committing bigamy with this act.

Solomon promised to hand over parts of the kingdom of Hungary in exchange for his new father-in-law's military assistance. In 1085, Solomon led the Pecheneg troops against Hungary, but King László I defeated them. Two years later, in 1087, Solomon took part in the Pechenegs' campaign against the Byzantine Empire and was killed in a battle near Hadrianopolis.
[edit] Duchess of Poland

In 1089, Judith married with Wladyslaw I Herman, Duke of Poland. This union considerably benefitted German-Polish relations; on the occasion of the wedding, Emperor Henry IV commissioned to the St. Emmeram's Abbey the creation of Gospel Books to the Polish court, now kept in the library of the chapter in the Kraków Cathedral.

After her marriage, Judith changed her name to Sophia, perhaps to distinguish herself from Wladyslaw I's first wife, Judith of Bohemia. She bore her husband four daughters: Sophia (by marriage Princess of Vladimir-Volynia), Agnes (later Abbess of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim), Adelaide (by marriage Countess of Vohburg and Margravine of the Northern March),[3] and an unnamed daughter (later wife of a Polish lord).

She probably had a big impact on Poland's political life. It's believed that she was the mistress of Sieciech, the Count Palatine and true governor of the country. Judith actively aiding Sieciech in his schemes to take over the country; the death of Mieszko Boleslawowic under mysterious circumstances was, in all probability, caused by orders of the Count Palatine and Judith. With the help of Sieciech, Judith convinced her husband to postpone the return of Wladyslaw I's first-born son Zbigniew, who seems to be a strong candidate to the succession despite his illegitimacy; also, they wanted an eventual alliance with the only legitimate son of Wladyslaw I, Boleslaw, born from his first marriage with the Bohemian princess.

After discovering the plans of Sieciech and Judith to take over the country, Boleslaw and Zbigniew became allies. Both brothers demanded that the reigns of government should be handed over to them. Eventually, after some attempts to break the alliance between the brothers, Sieciech was defeated, deposed and exiled (ca. 1100-1101). On 4 June 1102 Duke Wladyslaw I died. The country was divided between Boleslaw III and Zbigniew.

Judith's date of death was disputed among historians and web sources. Although 14 March is stated as the correct day in almost all the known sources, in the case of the year is more difficult to ascertain. Sources established that she died between 1092–1096, but this seems improbable, because is known that in 1105, Boleslaw III entered into an agreement with her, the so-called Tyniec Accord. In exchange for a generous grant, Judith guaranteed her neutrality in the Duke's political contest with his half-brother Zbigniew. Thus, she died after that date. Gerard Labuda stated that Judith spent her last years of life in Regensburg with her (supposed) daughter Adelaide, wife of Count Dietpold III of Vohburg and Cham; since the date of the marriage between Adelaide and Count Dietpold III was ranked between 1110–1118, it's assumed that Judith died after the latter year, in a relative advanced age.[4] Her place of burial, Admont Abbey in Austria, apparently confirm this theory.