Bertha of Burgundy, queen of the Franks? (succession of Conrad I to the kingdom of Burgundy, 11 July 937)
I am back again to profile yet another of the wives of Robert "the Pious," king of the Franks. But, hey! It's not like the guy is Henry VIII or anything--he only had three wives, and he didn't kill any of them . . . (Once you've read about Robert's three marriages, you'll see why I can't call him "the Pious" without the quotation marks.)
It's not that poor Robert's wives kept dying on him either. Rather, poor Robert needed an heir, but he had a terrible time finding a wife whom he found suitable--his first wife was Rozala of Italy, but he repudiated her because she was too old. Then he married Bertha, who wasn't that much younger than Rozala, but he thought she was better. And then, when he was forced to separate from Bertha because his marriage was deemed "incestuous," he married Constance of Arles. She bore Robert the children neither of his previous wives had managed to produce for him, but he tried to get rid of her too . . . You just have to love "traditional marriage"!
 |
| A twelfth-century image of Bertha of Burgundy (detail from the Genealogy of the Ottonians) |
So that's the background for today's post: poor "pious" Robert who just needed a wife. And although he had three, one of whom obligingly gave him an heir (and then some--Constance gave birth to seven surviving children), none of the women he married seemed to be just what he was looking for.
All that said, here is what we know about the second of Robert's three wives, Bertha of Burgundy.
Bertha (or Berthe) of Burgundy was the daughter of Conrad I, king of Burgundy. Conrad was the second king of a united Upper and Lower Burgundy, inheriting the throne from his father, Rudolf II, who died on on 11 July 937 (and thus the date for today's post). Conrad's mother, by the way, was Bertha of Swabia, who has her own interesting marital connections.*
As for Bertha of Burgundy's mother, she was Matilda of France, who was Conrad I's second wife. (Conrad's first wife, Adelaide of Bellay, had given birth to at least one child, a daughter named Gisela, born c. 955-60. Adela seems to have died about the year 963, since a charter dated 23 March refers to her, suggesting she was still alive.) Matilda, whose marriage to Conrad thus took place around 964, was the daughter of the Carolingian Louis IV, king of the Franks, and Gerberga of Saxony. (Louis was Gerberga's second husband--she had had four children with her first husband, Gilbert, duke of Lorraine) and then, during her marriage to Louis, she bore eight more, including Bertha.
Bertha of Burgundy was first married to Otto (or Odo or Eudes) I, count of Blois, probably between the years 978-80, and during the years of this marriage, she gave birth to at least three sons and a daughter. In 986, a charter refers to the presence of Bertha, the countess, during the signing of the document--also present were two sons, Theobald and Otto, who was "still in the cradle" (adhuc in cunabulo). Another charter, from 989, also refers to her sons, naming Robert, Theobald, and Otto. A donation in 1001 and a charter from 1024 refer to Agnès, Bertha's daughter. Two other sons may have been born, though their existence seems less certain--in 1007 a charter about property is confirmed by "Count Otto and his brother Landry," and in 1024, a record notes that a boy named Thierry was buried "at his brother Theobald's feet."
As you can see from these references, the birth order of Bertha's children isn't clear. The most reliable source I have found for this period is the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, which I've linked to several times, above. The FMG suggests the following about the births and deaths (and possible birth order?) of Bertha's children: Robert (b. date unknown - d. 989-95); Theobald (b. c. 979-81 - d. 11 July 1004); Otto (b. 982-3 - 15 November 1037); Agnès (fl. 1001 - 1024); Thierry (d. c. 1024); and Landry (d. after 27 September 1007).
At some point during the decade and a half of her marriage to Otto, Bertha of Burgundy, then countess of Blois, met the man who would become her second "husband," Robert, king of the Franks. In fact, Robert acted as godfather to one of her children. (An online source suggests this was Theobald, but I have not been able to verify that information.)
Bertha's husband, Otto, died on 12 March 996, leaving her a widow. A few months later, on 24 October 996, Robert's father, Hugh Capet, also died. It was after the death of his father that Robert, now king of the Franks, decided to marry Bertha of Burgundy.
 |
Genealogy of the Ottonians, including Rudolf II and Berthe [Chronica Regia Coloniensis], Cod. Guelf. 74.3 Aug. 2°; Heinemann-Nr. 2710, fol. 114v) |
There was only one problem. In 996, Robert was already married--he had been married to Rozala of Italy since 988, although he had separated himself from her within a year or two of their marriage. But after the death of his father, who had arranged his marriage to Rozala, Robert decided to free himself entirely from his first wife, and he formally repudiated her. The two were divorced. (Rozala doesn't seem to have fought this action, and she returned to Flanders, where she was reunited with her son, Baldwin IV, count of Flanders. Rozala, once queen of the Franks, would never remarry. She died in Flanders in 1003.
Interestingly, one of the principal reasons Robert gave for discarding Rozala was that she was too old to bear him children. She was not infertile or incapable, that much was clear--Rozala had been married before, and she had borne two children, an all-important male heir and a girl. As for her age--there is a great deal of uncertainty about the date of Rozala's birth (and of Robert's, for that matter) as well as a great deal of exaggeration about the difference in age between Rozala and Robert. But the best historical evidence, as opposed to misogynist story-telling, is that Rozala was probably ten (or perhaps fifteen) years older than Robert, that when she was repudiated for being "too old" for Robert, she was likely in her mid-thirties while he was in his mid-twenties.
But here's the thing--Bertha was not much younger than Rozala. In recent analysis, historian Jean Dhondt suggests that Rozala may have been born just before 962. Bertha meanwhile, was born in 964 or 965.
But the age of his second wife was the least of Robert's problems. Unfortunately, Robert and the woman he now wanted to marry were too closely related--Robert's father, Hugh Capet, had considered Bertha when he was first looking for a marital alliance for his son, but he rejected her as a possible bride because the two were cousins. A marriage between them would be considered incestuous by the Church because they were too closely related by blood.** Moreover, their "spiritual affinity," the bond that had been created with Robert's role in the baptism of Bertha's child, compounded their incestuous (by contemporary standards) union.***
The two, Robert and Bertha, knew about the problematic nature of their relationship, but in December 996, despite the union being "in breach of canon law," they married anyway, the ceremony performed by the obliging archbishop of Tours with some additional French bishops witnessing the marriage.
In reaction, Pope Gregory V convened a synod in Pavia in January 977 (where he had gone after he had been forced to leave Rome). Robert and Bertha were condemned and prescribed seven years of penance. (Archambaud of Tours, who had married the pair, was summoned to appear before the synod and if he failed to appear, threatened with "suspension from communion.") If they did not separate, Robert was threatened with excommunication. And, for good measure, the French clerics who had supported Robert were 'rebuked." But this ruling had no effect on Robert, and so a general council in Rome was convened in 998 and "threatened the king with anathema" (menaça le roi d'anathème).
Still Pope Gregory V didn't live long enough to bother Robert very much--the pope died in early 999, to be succeeded by Pope Sylvester II, a man that Robert hoped would be more amenable to the king of the Franks. After all, as a younger man, then Gerbert of Aurillac had supported Robert's father, Hugh Capet, in particular when the king of the Franks wanted to establish a co-kingship with his son, and Gerbert had also functioned as a kind of teacher for Robert. But perhaps Robert shouldn't have been so hopeful when Gerbert became pope--at some danger to himself, Gerbert had refused Robert and Bertha when he had been asked to perform their marriage.
 |
Jean-Paul Laurens, 1875 The Excommunication of Robert the Pious L'Excommunication de Robert le Pieux (Paris, Le Musée d'Orsay) |
As it happened, then, the new pope proved less supportive than Robert might have wished--or, maybe not. Because in 999, after three years of marriage, Robert's second "wife" had failed to provide him with an heir. A single pregnancy had resulted in a stillborn son, which perhaps was a sign of God's disapproval of this marriage.
In any case, after yet another synod addressed the issue, Pope Sylvester II, formerly Gerbert of Aurillac, confirmed Robert's condemnation. Still, Robert and Bertha stayed together. They finally separated in September 1001 after Rome repeated the call for Robert to separate himself from Bertha and put his kingdom under a sentence of excommunication. Still without an heir, Robert decided at last that Bertha had to go. Robert "the pious" repudiated his second wife about the year 1003.
 |
| Jean-Paul Laurens, 1883 The Parting of King Robert and Bertha (Philadelphia Museum of Art)-- unfortunately, the painting is very dark, but if you go to the original, you can enlarge the image to see the suffering on Bertha's face |
Still in need of an heir, Robert "the Pious" married Constance of Arles in 1004. It was a somewhat peculiar arrangement, at least from a modern point of view. I'll let historian Kathleen Nolan describe it:
Bertha [of Burgundy]'s son, young count Odo II of Blois, married Ermengarde of Auvergne, granddaughter of Adelaide of Anjou and her first husband, Stephen of Brioude, while Robert himself wed Constance, daughter of the same Adelaide of Anjou and her last husband, Count William "the Liberator" of Provence.
In other words, while Bertha's son married the granddaughter of Adelaide of Anjou, her former husband (right after he divorced her) married the daughter of the same woman. Got that?
As Nolan writes, a royal marriage was difficult in the best of circumstances, since a bride "entered a rather closed community" where there were already long-established connections and loyalties. But poor Constance encountered a rather different set of circumstances--she faced "personal animosity, political intrigue, and clerical hostility."
None of the whole affair between Bertha and Robert seemed to do much damage Robert's reputation, however. Remember, his sobriquet: "the Pious." In his biography of the king, for example, Robert's chaplain, Helgaud de Fleury, did mention the unfortunate nature of the king's marriage to Bertha, but rather than condemning the sin of incest, Helgaud regarded the whole affair as yet another reason to praise Robert "the Pious"--Helgaud compared the "virtuous" and "humble" King Robert to the biblical King David and then explained that Robert's sin had been "washed away" because he had recognized his fault and prayed for forgiveness.
 |
| A distraught Bertha of Burgundy, detail from Jean-Paul Laurens, The Excommunication of Robert the Pious |
Despite Helgaud's claims about the king recognizing his sin and praying for forgiveness, Robert wasn't quite done with Bertha of Burgundy. In the words of medieval historian Constance Bouchard, "Robert repeatedly attempted . . . to rejoin Bertha." There is some evidence that, as late as 1008, when Robert visited Rome, he was trying to get Pope John XIII to grant him a divorce his third wife, Constance of Arles, in order to reunite with Bertha.
According to historian Penelope Ann Adair, Robert was back in Rome again, in 1010, still trying to get a divorce from Constance. And Bertha "followed Robert to Rome hoping for permission to remarry him." But Pope Sergius IV, who had assumed the papacy in July 1009, was no more interested in granting it than his predecessors had been.
Unfortunately--or fortunately?--for Bertha of Burgundy, Robert "the Pious" was never able to divorce his third wife, Constance of Arles who, despite her own set of difficulties with Robert, managed to produce seven children with him, four sons and three daughters.
I haven't been able to trace Bertha after she was separated from Robert, and the date of her death is based on a reference in the records of the cathedral of Chartres recording the death on "XVII Kal Feb" 1010 of "Bertha, mother of count Odo" (Berta mater Odonis comitis), but some sources suggest (without documentation) that Bertha may have died years later. Writing about Bertha, the nineteenth-century historian Chrétien Pfister notes a "legend" that the repudiated Bertha sought refuge in Montreuil, just outside Paris, and built a number of churches.
Here and there I've also run across speculation that Bertha of Burgundy may be the Bertha who married Arduin of Ivrea, who became king of Italy in 1002, just a year or so before Bertha was finally repudiated by Robert of France. But, then, you find all sorts of crazy stuff online, and I've found no documentation that supports this identification--nothing that provides any sources.
Still, I'd like to think Bertha of Burgundy was the Bertha who married Arduin of Ivrea, became his queen, had three sons with him, and lived happily ever after for some number of years. That's probably not the case, but, still, it would be a nice ending for her. (I'm not at all a Hemingway fan, but I'll steal a line from The Sun Also Rises: "Isn't it pretty to think so?")
There were no contemporary chroniclers like Helgaud de Fleury who cared to document Bertha of Burgundy's life, and even today there are no biographies of her--there is just too little known about her, other than that she was married at least once, twice if you count her union with Robert, that she had at least four children, maybe two more, and that she was ensnared in what the Church regarded as an illegal marriage. But I have to think that her story would make a great novel . . .
*Fun fact: after the death of her first husband, Rudolf II, king of Burgundy, Bertha of Swabia, married Hugh of Provence, king of Italy. With this marriage, the widowed queen of Burgundy became the queen of Italy--Bertha was Hugh's fourth wife. Hugh's marital career was as complicated as that of Robert "the Pious." Hugh's first wife died, who knows what happened to his second, and his third wound up imprisoned and dead (and their marriage seems to have been illegal anyway). And oh, by the way--before her marriage to Hugh, Hugh's first wife, Guilla of Provence, had been married to Rudolf I of Upper Burgundy, the father of--you guessed it--Rudolf II, Bertha of Swabia's first husband! To put this another way, Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, married Rudolf II's mother and then his widow. Hugh also married off his son, Lothair, to Rudolf II and Bertha of Burgundy's daughter, Adelaide. All these marriages were attempts to resolve ongoing conflicts bertween Burgundy and Italy.
**Robert and Bertha were cousins. According to historian Penelope Ann Adair, "Robert and Bertha were both great-grandchildren of the German king, Henry I, and thus second cousins." In their excellent edition of Helgaud de Fleury's life of Robert the Pious, Robert-Henri Bautier and Gillette LaBoury note that the relationship of Robert and Bertha was calculated "at the third degree" (au troisième degré), a claim that is also made by Elizabeth Hallam. (Being related in the third degree is not the same as being second cousins--degrees count "steps" to reach a common ancestor, while "cousins" are about generations--but to be honest, I just can't figure out cousins/degrees myself.) Anyway, the excellent genalogical table provided by Bautier and LaBoury shows their relationship--Robert II's grandmother was Hedwig of Saxony, while Bertha's grandmother was Hedwig's sister, Gerberga of Saxony, both daughters of Henry the Fowler, king of Germany, and his wife, Matilda of Ringelhelm. On cousinship and degrees, click here.
Canon law concerned itself with the blood relationships among those who would marry. For a discussion of consanguinity as an impediment to a valid marriage, and for an explanation of the way these relationships were calculated, click here.
***Among the marriage canons of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) were several relating to godparents, including one that prohibited the marriage of a person to his/her child's godparent. To be a godparent established a spiritual consanguinity (blood relationship)--so the marriage of a godparent to a godchild, of two godparents to one another, or, as in the case with Prince Edward and Joan, of a spiritual and natural parent, were all considered incestuous. (And the Fourth Lateran council extended consanguinity to the fourth degree, so that marriages of fourth cousins, or any nearer relatives, were prohibited.)
For the problems of finding royal marriage partners during this period, see For the best explanation Constance B. Bouchard's "Consanguinity and Noble Marriage in Tenth and Eleventh Centuries," Speculum 56, no. 2 (1981): 268-87.
No comments:
Post a Comment