Engelberga (or Angilberga, died between 896 and 901) was the wife of Emperor Louis II and thus Carolingian empress to his death on 12 August 875.[1] As empress, she exerted a powerful influence over her husband.
Born around 830, Engelberga probably spent her youth in Pavia.[1] She married Louis II in 860, after being his concubine for roughly ten years, but did not play a role in political life until after the death of his father, Lothair I, in 855.[2] Upon his death, Lothair's kingdom was divided between his three sons[3] and, as the eldest, Louis received Italy and the title of emperor. Engelberga had far more political influence than was usual of a queen, partially due to Louis' love for her.[4] Engelberga's active participation in politics was unusual, when queens were typically consigned to the domestic sphere.[5]
In 856, the imperial couple were hosted in Venice by Doge Pietro Tradonico and his son Giovanni Tradonico.[1] A few years later, Engelberga began to exert her influence in a conflict between Pope Nicholas I and Archbishop John of Ravenna. Seen as insubordinate by the Pope, John was thrice summoned to appear before a papal tribunal. Instead, he took refuge in the imperial court at Pavia, where Engelberga attempted to intervene with Rome on his behalf. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the incident was the beginning of Engelberga's efforts to assert her influence as empress.[1]
In 862, Louis's brother Lothair II sought to annul his marriage to Teutberga, as she had failed to bear him any children. The local bishops had blessed the annulment and Lothair's subsequent remarriage, but in November 863, Pope Nicolas summoned the bishops to Rome and excommunicated them for their violation of ecclesiastical law. The bishops fled to Louis's court and pleaded their case, resulting in the Emperor laying siege to the Holy See in January 864. Engelberga sent a communication to Nicholas, guaranteeing his safety if he were to come to court to negotiate with her husband. Their meeting resulted in an agreement whereby the bishops were allowed to return and the siege was ended.[1]
In subsequent years Engelberga was granted additional titles by her husband, due in large part to her diplomatic role. In 868, she became abbess of San Salvatore, Brescia, a convent with a history of royal abbesses.[6] Engelberga's control of San Salvatore is indicative of her power, as this monastery was typically owned by royal women and served as a power base for the royal family.[7] Engelberga maintained control of San Salvatore following Louis' death in 875, which was unusual, because this meant the monastery was no longer controlled by a direct relative of the monarch.[8] Engelberga also founded her own monastery, San Sisto, Piacenza in 874.[9]
In January 872, the aristocracy tried to have her removed, as she had not borne the emperor any sons, only having two daughters.[10] The nobility attempted to replace Engelberga with the daughter of a local aristocrat, Winigisus.[11] Louis ordered Engelberga to remain in the northern regions of his land during this period, but Engelberga disobeyed and joined Louis in the south, ending any potential rift between the couple.[12] Instead, Louis opened negotiations with Louis the German, King of East Francia, to make him his heir. In order to sideline Engelberga, the nobility elected Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, on Louis's death in 875. Boso V of Arles, a faithful of Charles, kidnapped Engelberga and her only surviving daughter, Ermengard. He forced the latter to marry him in June 876, at the same time he was made Charles' governor in Italy with the title of dux.
With Engelberga's backing, Boso declared himself King of Provence on 15 October 879. Subsequently, Engelberga was banished to Swabia. After Charles the Fat's forces took Vienne in 882, Engelberga was allowed to return to Italy. In 896, Engelberga became abbess of her own foundation of San Sisto, Piacenza, but died shortly afterward.
Adelaide of Italy, also called Adelaide of Burgundy, was Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Emperor Otto the Great. She was crowned with him by Pope John XII in Rome on 2 February 962. She was the first empress designated consors regni, denoting a "co-bearer of royalty" who shared power with her husband. She was essential as a model for future consorts regarding both status and political influence. She was regent of the Holy Roman Empire as the guardian of her grandson in 991–995.
Louis the Pious, also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only surviving son of Charlemagne and Hildegard, he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814, a position that he held until his death except from November 833 to March 834, when he was deposed.
Louis the German, also known as Louis II of Germany, was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the Pious, emperor of Francia, and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye, he received the appellation Germanicus shortly after his death, when East Francia became known as the kingdom of Germany.
Charles the Bald, also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.
Carloman was a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty. He was the eldest son of Louis the German, king of East Francia, and Hemma, daughter of a Bavarian count. His father appointed him governor of Carantania in 856, and commander of southeastern frontier marches in 864. Upon his father's death in 876 he became King of Bavaria. He was appointed by King Louis II of Italy as his successor, but the Kingdom of Italy was taken by his uncle Charles the Bald in 875. Carloman only conquered it in 877. In 879 he was incapacitated, perhaps by a stroke, and abdicated his domains in favour of his younger brothers: Bavaria to Louis the Younger and Italy to Charles the Fat.
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century CE. The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Lothair I was a 9th-century Carolingian emperor and king of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (843–855).
Louis II, sometimes called the Younger, was the king of Italy and emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 844, co-ruling with his father Lothair I until 855, after which he ruled alone.
Charles III, also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was the last Carolingian emperor of legitimate birth and the last to rule a united kingdom of the Franks.
Ealhswith or Ealswitha was wife to King Alfred the Great. She was one of the most powerful noble women in early medieval England during the time of the Vikings. She was mother to King Edward the Elder who succeeded King Alfred to the Anglo-Saxon throne. Her father was a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucel, Ealdorman of the Gaini, which is thought to be an old Mercian tribal group. Her mother was Eadburh, a member of the Mercian royal family and her lineage was one of the primary reasons for Alfred taking Ealhswith as his wife. Her legacy persists; after her death in the nunnery she founded and in the estates left to her by Alfred.
Ermengardeof Hesbaye, probably a member of the Robertian dynasty, was Carolingian empress from 813 and Queen of the Franks from 814 until her death as the wife of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious.
Berengar I was the king of Italy from 887. He was Holy Roman Emperor between 915 and his death in 924. He is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friuli from 874 until at least 890, but he had lost control of the region by 896.
Boso was a Frankish nobleman of the Bosonid family who was related to the Carolingian dynasty and who rose to become King of Lower Burgundy and Provence.
In medieval historiography, West Francia or the Kingdom of the West Franks constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the year 843, from the Treaty of Verdun, to 987, the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. It was created from the division of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious, with its neighbor East Francia eventually evolving into the Kingdom of Germany.
Middle Francia was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Francia was allocated to emperor Lothair I, the eldest son and successor of emperor Louis the Pious. His realm contained the imperial cities of Aachen and Pavia, but lacked any geographic or cultural cohesion, which prevented it from surviving and forming a nucleus of a larger state, as was the case with West Francia and East Francia.
The Bosonids were a dynasty of Carolingian era dukes, counts, bishops and knights descended from Boso the Elder. Eventually they married into the Carolingian dynasty and produced kings and an emperor of the Frankish Empire.
Ermengarde of Tours was daughter of Hugh of Tours and Ava of Morvois.
Richilde of Provence was the second wife of the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald. By her marriage, she became queen and later empress. She ruled as regent in 877.
Emma of Altdorf, also known as Hemma, a member of the Elder House of Welf, was Queen consort of East Francia by marriage to King Louis the German, from 843 until her death.
The County of Piacenza was a county of the Frankish kingdom of Italy. Its centre was the ancient and walled city of Piacenza at the confluence of the Trebbia and the Po, just downriver from the royal capital of Pavia. Much of the county was dominated by the Apennine Mountains. It roughly corresponds to the modern province of Piacenza.
References
Wickham, Chris. Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. MacMillan Press: 1981.
Valerie L. Garver, Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World, Cornell University Press, 2009.
Gay, Jules. L'Italie méridionale et l'empire Byzantin: Livre I. Burt Franklin: New York, 1904.
Odegaard. C, ‘The Empress Engelberge’, Speculum 26 (1951), pp. 77-103.
MacLean. S, ‘Queenship, Nunneries and Royal Widowhood in Carolingian Europe’, Past & Present 178 (2003), pp. 3-38.
MacLean. S, Ottonian Queenship, Oxford, 2017.
La Rocca. C, ‘Angelberga, Louis’s II wife and her will (877)’, in Corradini, et al, eds., Ego trouble: authors and their identities in the early Middle Ages (Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010), pp. 221-226.
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