The Indomitable Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, "I Feel Proud, and I Feel Mad as Hell" (died 2 September 2026)

I woke this morning to the news that Gloria Steinem died yesterday, 2 September 2026.

I feel bereft.

I've loved this late-in-life image of 
Gloria Steinem since I first saw it 
(Photo by Robyn Twomey/Redux Images)

Waldrada: Wife, Not Wife? Queen, Not Queen?

 Waldrada (death of Lothair II, 9 August 869)

In 855, the king of Lotharingia, Lothair II, and a woman named Theutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder, were married. Lothair was a young man, probably about eighteen years old, and had newly come to the throne. His wife's father, Boso, was a Frankish nobleman who played an important role in the divided Carolingian empire: he was count of Arles, count of Valois, count of Italy, and count of Burgundy. 

In 843, Charlemagne's empire was divided among 
his three grandsons, Charles the Bold,
Louis (Ludwig) the German, and Lothair I--
who further divided his kingdom, Middle Francia,
among his three sons, with Lothair II receiving
the northern portion, Lotharingia 

As historian Charles West notes, Lothair's decision to marry Theutberga was a political one: after the death of his father, the king of Middle Francia, Lothair was in a precarious position, his kingdom squeezed by his two powerful uncles, Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, and Louis the German, king of East Francia. Since Lothair's father had subdivided Middle Francia into three kingdoms for each of his three sons, the new king of Lotharingia needed "to secure his fragile position," so he "hastily entered into" the marriage; Theutberga's "kin group," in particular her father and her brother, Hubert, count of Valois, offered Lothair valuable support.

But before Lothair entered into this advantageous marriage with Boso the Eldedr's daughter, he had a long-standing relationship with a woman named Waldrada.

While Theutberga's family was an influential one and Lothair's marriage to Theutberga brought him an imprtant alliance, little is known about Waldrada or about the status of her union with Lothair. In her book Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages, historian Ruth Mazo Karras explores the many forms of "sexual unions" that were practiced in the early Middle Ages. (Many of them challenging modern notions about "traditional" marriage.) Karras notes the work of earlier scholars who identified what they called an épouse de jeunesse--a young man, like Lothair, might be provided with a suitable sexual partner until the time was right for a political alliance. These arrangements were only temporary. Another scholarly view is that such a relationship was a kind of "trial marriage," arranged by a woman's family "in the hopes that the relationship would last and turn into a real, recognized marriage." Another possibility, more simply, is that Waldrada was simply Lothair's "boyhood mistress," that the two had found their way to one another and enjoyed a sexual (or romantic) relationship. Any one of these might be the case--there is just no way to determine which one.

Whatever the nature of their relationship, it would endure even after Lothair married Theutberga. Waldrada gave birth to at least four of Lothair's children--the first of them, a son named Hugh, was born in 855, just before or shortly after Lothair's marriage. 

And as historian Pierre Riché notes, this situation was not a problem, at least at first, for Lothair--who had his "advantageous marriage" even as he "kept his cherished mistress." Riché offers no opinion about how state of affairs this might have affected Theutberga and Waldrada.

But by 857, Lothair decided that he no longer wanted to be married to Theutberga, and he wanted to be rid of her. It may be that he no longer needed the political alliance with Theutberga's family--West speculates that Lothair might have felt frustrated and overwhelmed by his wife's relatives and hoped to "free himself from their influence." 

But Theutberga's family wasn't the only source of political pressure he felt--Lothair needed an heir to stave off the threats posed by his two powerful uncles. And so, despite the brevity of his marriage, Lothair decided Theutberga was incapable of bearing him the heir he needed. He wanted his marriage annulled.*

Whatever the reasons for his decision, Lothair wasn't only focused on getting out of his marriage to Theutberga. He also wanted his relationship with Waldrada to be recognized and to have their children legitimized.

His efforts to set aside Theutberga were to occupy Lothair from 857 until his death in 869. It proved to be no easy task. And no matter how hard the Frankish king tried to bend ecclesiastical authorities to his will, his machinations were unsuccessful. 

This Carolingian family tree
is from a twelfth-century
"universal chronicle"--
on the tree is Lothair II,
who unforunately (for him)
is not depicted with any wife 
at all (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek MS
Lat. fol. 295; the image is on
80v, but you can view the
entire ms. at this link)

I've already relayed at some length Theutberga's situation in this ninth-century marital debacle. Her marriage to Lothair may have been beneficial for her father and brother as well as for Lothair, at least at first, but it brought nothing but unhappiness to Theutberta herself. In his fight to have his marriage annulled (or to be divorced from Theutberga), Lothair accused her of incest and other sexual abominations, subjected her to physical examination, and forced her to defend her name and honor through a trial by ordeal. When Lothair was compelled to take her back as his wife, he imprisoned her, had her tortured to produce a "confession" of her supposed perversions, and confined her in a convent. Theutberga ultimately fled, her confession recognized as invalid because it was coerced. Although ecclesiastical authorities, including the pope, ordered Lothair to recognize Theutberga as his wife and return to her, he refused to do so. Even when Theutberga herself wanted to end her marriage, that was not to be.

While Theutberga's trials as Lothair's rejected wife are lamentable, Waldrada's as his preferred "wife" are no better, though given her anomalous position, her experiences during the long conflict are less well documented. The extended ecclesiastical wrangling over the marriage focused on Lothair and Theutberga. 

One of the complicating factors in the ongoing struggle is not only the nature of Waldrada's relationship with Lothair but but also her uncertain origin--while Theutberga's familial status and support are clear, Waldrada's lack of connections seem to contribute to her predicament. Theutberga's powerful male relatives intervened to insist on the legality of her marriage, even if their motivations were to protect their own power and not her feelings. But no one supported Waldrada. Well, except for Lothair . . . 

Early sources do not have much to say about Waldrada herself, much less her family connections. In the Frankish Annales Bertiniani (The Annals of Saint Bertin), a contemporary (ninth century) history recorded at the Abbey of St. Bertin (Omer, France), the chronicler notes in 853 that Lothair's father, Emperor Lothair, had taken two mistresses, identified as "serving-women," and adds, with a sniff, that the emperor's sons, like their father, "gave themselves up to adulterous affairs." In this source, Waldrada is simply identified as Lothair's "concubine" (Hlotharius Waldradam concubinam), and it is suggested that she used witchcraft to achieve her hold over Lothair.

In his support of Lothair II's desire for recognition of his union with Waldrada, Adventius, bishop of Metz, rejected any suggestion that Waldrada was a concubine. In letters written after a council held at Aachen in 862, Lothair's advocate asserted that the king had been formally married to Waldrada--that the marriage had taken place before Lothair I, nobles, and bishops (though Adventius says he himself was not there to witness the event!), and that Waldrada had received a bridal gift, provided by Lothair I. Adventius also referred to Waldrada not only as a free woman, but as a woman of noble birth. Regardless of his claims about Waldrada's status, He offers no no specifics about her family, and most surviving records documenting Lothair's efforts to get rid of Theutberga continue to refer to Waldrada as his "concubine." 

Here's a detail from the 
Carolingian family tree
showing Lothair II--
unfortunately for him, 
the family tree doesn't
give him a wife (but he
is in a castle tower, so 
I guess it's not all bad 
for him)

Interestingly, a specific family connection for Waldrada emerges in later chronicles. In the tenth-century Vita Sancti Deicoli (Life of Saint Deicolus), Waldrada is said to be a member of the Alsatian Etichonid family, and the chronicle also claims she was also related to Eberhard II, count of Nordgau (Waldrada…Heberardo comitis consanguinitatis). (Lothair II's mother, Ermengarde of Tours, is a descendant of the Etichonid family.) Despite offering these family connections, the author reiterates the claim that Waldrada had used witchcraft to secure the affections of Lothair and refers to her as a "she-wolf." This connection, between Waldrada and the Etichonids, seems to have been based principally on the name of Lothair and Waldrada's son, Hugh--it is a common name in the Etichonid family.

In later sources, more is said about Waldrada's background. According to the Gesta Treverorum (The Deeds of the Trevians), a collection of materials begun by Benedictine monks in the twelfth century (the monks were from the Abbey of St. Mathias in Trier, or Trèves, thus "Trevians"), Waldrada is identified as the sister of Gunther, archbishop of Cologne (Waldradam sororem…Guntheri Coloniensis archiepiscopus).

In the thirteenth century, a Cistercian monk named Caeserius of Heisterbach compiled lists of church leaders in his Cæsarii Heisterbacensis Catalogus. He also writes that Waldrada is the sister of Gunther, archbishop of Cologne (Waldradam, sororem Guntheri archiepiscopi Coloniensis) and, further, claims that Gunther encouraged Lothair to ignore his marriage to Theutberga and return to Waldrada. 

This account of Waldrada, "her brother," and his efforts on her behalf also appears in the Annals of Novesia (Annales Novesienses), compiled by Augustinian canons in the Oberkloster, near Neuss, and founded by members from the cathedral in Cologne. Again, this chronicle notes Gunther's approval of 'his sister's" relationship with Lothair and indicates that Gunther approved Lothair's divorce from Theutberga, who was his "legitimate wife" (legitima uxore Tyberga).

This identification of Waldrada was embraced in the nineteenth century by the historian Alfred-August Ernouf, in his history of Waldrada, Lothar II, and "their descendants" (Histoire de Waldrade, de Lother II, et de leurs descendants). Indeed, the first section of his history is on "the family of Waldrada." According to Ernouf, the archbishop of Cologne was not Waldrada's brother but her uncle, "the most active auxiliary of his niece and Lothar." Further, he claimed that Theutgard, archbishop of Trier, was Waldrada's brother. 

Where did these family connections for Waldrada's come from? Lacking any documentation for Waldrada's background, later chroniclers may have supplied her these family connections as a way of explaining the support of these clergymen for Lothair (and, thus, Waldrada) as the king sought to separate himself from Theutberga. Both Archbishop Gunther of Cologne and Archbishop Theutgaud of Trier aided Lothair II in his efforts to get rid of Theutberga--in 860, they obligingly annulled Lothair's marriage to her, and in 862, they judged that Lothair had been married to Waldrada all along. In 863, they traveled to Rome to present their findings to the pope, who promptly put their findings before a synod, where they were rejected. When the two archbishops refused to submit, the pope excommunicated them and then deposed them. But if Gunther and Theutgaud were indeed closely related to Waldrada, it did not protect them from Lothair's wrath at their failure.

I've spent a fair amount of time here with what is known--and what is speculated--about Waldrada's social status and family connections because her lack of support seems relevant to the widespread opposition by the Church to Lothair's efforts to set aside his marriage to Theutberga. If Waldrada had family as significant as Theutberga, the outcome for her may have been different. Not that Theutberga's life was made easy by her family connections. 

For a brief period of time, between 862, when Gunther and Theutgad had decided matters in Lothair's favor, and 863, when Pope Nicholas I decided against him, Waldrada was "recognized" as queen of Lotharingia and, as Charles West notes, she "participated," at least for a short while, in Lothair's court, "in the full theatre of medieval queenship." In his book on Lothair's divorce, historian Karl Heideker writes that after the king presented Waldrada to his court with a retinue, she was acclaimed queen and crowned. But by 865, Lothair was once more compelled to take Theutberga back as his wife. The couple appeared together, both wearing their crowns, in August of that year. As for Waldrada, she was summoned to Rome. According to an account in the Annales Bertiniani (The Annals of Saint Bertin), Waldrada set off with the papal legate, but at some point she took off, and in 866, she was excommunicated. 

In a letter to Frankish bishops dated 13 June 866, the pope provides a few interesting details about Waldrada. After outlining his summons of Waldrada and her refusal to travel to Rome, Pope Nicholas claims that she returned to Lotharingia so that she "might rule over it." She "dominates the state" and she continues "plotting the destruction of Queen Theutberga." And although she does not seem to have returned to court, Nicholas writes that she has placed herself so that she has "easier access" to Lothair, and "he to her." And then, while noting that some critics say that if Waldrada is so condemned, Lothair should be blamed also, Nicholas seems to dismiss that--Waldrada is the one responsible for leading the king into sin and causing all the problems. (Crucially, West observes, the pope does not mention any supporters or family for Waldrada.)

During his reign, Lothair issued at least one royal charter, from 863, referring to Waldrada as "our beloved wife" and her son, Hugh, as "our son." After the 865 papal decision, Waldrada nevertheless functioned as his queen--even though she did not return publicly to Lothair, those wishing favors from him sought out Waldrada, and she is also said to have counseled the king about ecclesiastical appointments (hmmm). In 867, Lothair made Hugh the duke of Alsace.

In 867, Pope Nicholas died, and--ever hopeful he would achieve his goal--Lothair  put his case before the new pope, Adrian II, who at least removed the excommunication from Waldrada. (His letter to Waldrada on this occasion is available at Epistolae--click here.) Lothair himself took off for Rome, met with Pope Adrian, and presented him with gifts. Unfortunately, the king died on his return journey to Lotharingia. (His death date, 9 August, provides the occasion fot this post.)

As for Waldrada? Like her rival, Theutberga, she retired to a convent--sources indicate she entered the convent of Remiremont after Lothair's death and died there. The year of her death is unknown. 

Waldrada's son with Lothair, Hugh, was declared illegitimate and thus unable to inherit the kingdom of Lotharingia--it was to go to Lothair's brother, Louis, but ultimately it went to Charles the Bald. Hugh spent nearly two decades after his father's death trying to recover Lotharingia, but in 888 he was blinded and sent off to a series of monasteries. He died in 895. 

The Carolingian family tree (above, right)
does include Waldrada's daughter,
Bertha (who gets to keep not only her
second husband, Adalbert of Tuscany,
but also her son, Guy, for whom
she was regent after Adalbert's death)

Waldrada's daughter Bertha (b. 863-68) was married to Theobald of Arles about the year 879. You won't believe this, but Theobald was the son of Theutberga's brother . . . Bertha  gave birth to four children during her marriage, the eldest named Hugh, after her brother, and a daughter named, you guessed it, Theutberga. (She also had a son named Boso.) After the death of Theobald, Bertha married Adalbert II, margrave of Tuscany, with whom she had at least three children. After Adalbert's death, Bertha was regent for their eldest son, Guy.

Gisela (b. 860-865) was married to a Viking, Godfrid Haraldsson, son of the Danish king Harald Klak. Godfrid was baptized in 822, with Lothair I as his godparent, but after remaining part of Lothair's retinue for some time, he ultimately rebelled against him. In 882, after being baptized once again (did he forget?), he married Gisela and was named duke of Frisia. After Godfrid's death, Gisela became abbess of Nivelles. She died in the year 907.

Ermengarde (b. c 861) may have been married to Berlion, vicomte of Vienne, and it has been suggested that she traveled to Provence with her sister when Bertha married Theobald of Arles. This identification is not certain, however--Berlion did marry an Ermengarde, but it may not have been Waldrada's daughter, Ermengarde. Ermengarde of Lotharingia may not have married at all, but she did become a nun at the abbey of Santa Giustina in Lucca--the epitaph recorded at the time of her death identifies her as the daughter of Lothair. 

Lothair's divorce is much discussed, researched and analyzed in work by many great scholars, some of whom I have linked to here. Unfortunately, with the exception of Karras and West (links, above) not much information is provided about Waldrada. The exception is Ernouf's nineteenth-century Histoire de Waldrade, de Lother II et de leurs descendants which is easily accessed via the Internet Archive, but which is not accessible if your don't read French. 

You may be interested in a podcast from History Extra: "Lothar II vs Theutberga: A Marriage Scandal that Shook the Ninth Century" (click here). If you can't listen to it at that link, search wherever you usually find your podcasts--the History Extra series is available on Apple, for instance, and the episode is #1929.

*The details and chronology of events in what follows vary significantly in the sources I've used for what follows, and I have done my best to produce a reasonable summary here. These sources also vary in the word they use to describe the separation Lothair desires, employing both "annulment" and "divorce." In canon law, these are not the same, and I am not always sure which is technically correct at each step of Lothair's process. For an accessible version of Lothair's effort to divorce Theutberga, "The Marriage of Lothair and Theutberga," click here. This essay appears in Encyclopedia.com, usually a reliable resource, but I can't find an author. For a longer read, see Karl Heidecker, The Divorce of Lothair II: Christian Marriage and Political Power in the Carolingian World, trans. Tanis M. Guest.

Anna of Kyiv, Queen and Regent of France

Anna of Kyiv, queen and regent of France (married 19 May 1051)

Anna of Kyiv was the daughter of Yaroslav I Vladimirovich, grand prince of Kyiv. If you read that he was called "the Wise," the source for that soubriquet is not to be found among his tenth-century contemporaries but, as historian Christian Raffensperger notes, in the nineteenth century, part of a "nation-building scheme" by academics. And it wasn't only Ukrainian academics who burnished Yaroslav's reputation--in his 1878 Histoire de la Russie, French historian Alfred Rambaud called him "the Charlemagne of the Russians" (les Charlemagne des Russes).

A "portrait" of Anna of Kyiv, 

(detail, MS NAL 779, fol. 176r

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale)

Anna of Kyiv's mother was Ingegerd Olofsdotter, a Swedish princess, the daughter of Olof Skötkonung, king of Sweden, and his Slavic wife, Estrid of the Obotrites (the Obotrites were members of a West Slavic confederation). Estrid's family and history are not known. According to the Saga of St. Olaf (Óláfs saga helga), Estrid had been kidnapped and brought back to Sweden, where she was "lawfully" married to Olof about the year 1000. That's important to note, because while Estrid became Olof's queen, another Slavic woman became his concubine. Like Estrid, Edla had also been captured and taken to Sweden, but she was Olof's "slave woman" (and mother of two of Olof's sons and two of his daughters).*

Unlike many of the women in this blog, whose lives are difficult to trace, much has been written about Anna of Kyiv, though very little is known about her childhood. The exact date of her birth is unknown; as Emily Warden notes in her recent work on Anna of Kyiv,  "the best estimates have still only succeeded in narrowing it down to sometime between 1024 and 1032."

Anna was one of nine children born to Yaroslav I and Ingrid Olofsdottir. (Ingrid may have been Yaroslav's second wife; as the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy notes, the existence of a first wife is possible--there does seem to have been a son, Iliya Yaroslavich, born before Yaroslav's marriage to Ingrid, though the existence of this child seems also uncertain.)

Nothing is known about Anna's education either, though something of it has been inferred. Anna was born during the period, from 988 to 1244, identified as the "golden age" of Kyivan Rus´. Under her father's rule, Kyiv "became eastern Europe’s chief political and cultural center." Yaroslav I expanded his territories, supported arts and artists, and built St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. In addition to territorial expansion and the "embellish[ing]" of his capital, Anna's father "collected books" and sponsored their translation. He also founded schools. 

At least one modern historian has speculated that, given Yaroslav’s father's interest in education, his daughter would have been well educated. Anna is known to be literate--what may be her autograph signature survives, in Cyrillic script, which suggests she learned to write before her marriage. And she presumably learned French before her marriage in order to converse with her husband. (As Joel Rosenthal notes, there is no evidence that the man Anna would marry, Henry I, king of the Franks, was himself literate, and "no direct evidence which testifies to any appreciable education.")

The life of Anna of Kyiv emerges more fully after her marriage. A fair amount of analysis has focused on the making of the marriage between the daughter of the grand prince of Kyiv and the king of the Franks. As Talia Zajac notes, "Over two hundred articles and books exist on the reign of the princess who left her Eastern Orthodox cultural environment of Kyiv (Kiev) and travelled some 2,000 kilometres across Europe to become the wife of the French king."

The fourteenth-century family tree

(arbre généalogique) showing

Anna of Kyiv, on the right; 

Henry I's first wife, Matilda,

is just to Anna's left 

(MS NAL 779, fol. 176r,

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale)

Much of the analysis about Anna's marriage reflects the need for the Capetian king, grandson of Hugh Capet, to avoid his father's marital disasters. Hugh Capet had looked to the east to find an appropriate bride for his son, Robert "the Pious"--reflecting the concern of the king of the Franks about arranging a marriage that would not violate clerical injunctions against spouses who were too closely related by blood. Hugh Capet had first sought a bride for his son and heir from the Byzantine emperor.** When it came time for Hugh's grandson, Henry I, to seek a wife, these worries about consanguinity were still significant. (And the Church's strictures about such marriages will be important later in Anna's life too . . . )

For Henry, this would be a second marriage. He had been betrothed to Matilda of Franconia, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia, but the girl died in 1034, before any marriage could take place. (By the way, Matilda was just six years old in 1033 when she was betrothed to the twenty-five-year-old Henry.) In 1034, "little Matilda was replaced by 'another Matilda,'" who was also quite young. The king of the Franks married Matilda of Frisia (b. c. 1025-27), daughter of Liudolf, the marquis of Frisia, and Gertrude of Egesheim.*** Matilda of Frisia gave birth to a daughter about the year 1040. Within four years, both mother and child had died. 

And so, after 1044, Henry needed a wife--or, rather, he needed an heir--but it wasn't until 1049 that his envoys reached Kyiv in search of a woman who would bear him children. 

Meanwhile, Anna's father had been securing significant marriages for his many sons and daughters throughout the continent. The identity of the wife of Yaroslav's son Vladimir of Novgorod (b. 1020) is not clear, but Yaroslav's daughter Anastasia of Kyiv (b. c. 1023) married Andrew I, king of Hungary; his son Iziaslav of Kyiv (b. 1024) married Gertrude of Poland, daughter of Mieszko II, king of Poland; his daughter Elisiv of Kyiv (b. c, 1025) married Harald II, king of Norway****; Sviatoslav (b. 1027) married Killikiya (or Cecilia) of Dithmarshen, daughter of Etheler, count of Dithmarshen, and then, after Killikiya's death, he married Oda of Stade, the daughter of Liudolf of Derlingau and Ida of Elsdorf (who, by the way, was the sister of Matilda of Frisia, Henry I's first wife--yikes!)--Oda had also been a nun, and she was the sister of the bishop of Trier; Vsevolod of Kyiv (b. c. 1030) married a Byzantine  princess whose name was Irina (or maybe Anastasia), and after her death, he was married a second time, to Anna, the daughter of a khan of the Kumans (or Cumans); Igor Yaroslavich (b. c. 1034-6) was married to the countess of Orlamünde (whose name may have been Konigunda); and then there may have been Agatha (b. before 1030), about whose parentage nothing is known, but who has been suggested (by some scholars) as a daughter of Yaroslav, and who was married to Edward the Exile (Edward Ætheling), an unsuccessful claimant to the English throne.

A map showing the "dynastic connections"
of Yaroslav's "ruling family"
and the rest of medieval European royalty
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
(Ukrainian Research Institute,
Harvard University)

I've listed all these marriages in order to show the range of Yaroslav's politcal connections, alliances secured by the marriages of his children. (I've also included the dates of birth for Anna's siblings here to demonstrate possibilities for her date of birth.) As for Anna, in 1043, Yaroslav had sent an envoy to the Holy Roman Emperor, seeking to arrange a marriage between his daughter and the emperor, Henry III. As Raffensperger lays out the advantages for the emperor, Yaroslav's daughters "were the queens of much of Europe, ruling [in] the German Empire, Hungary, Norway, and Poland in the mid-eleventh century." But the emperor declined the invitation, most likely because he needed to secure alliances on his western, rather than his eastern, "frontiers." (The emperor wound up marrying Agnes of Poitou, daughter of the duke of Aquitaine.)

Anna of Kyiv,
miniature from the fourteenth-century
Grandes Chronices de France
MS Royal 16 G VI, fol. 269v
(British Library)--
I love the hesitant expression 
on Anna's face!

And so, when Henry I sent two bishops to Kyiv in 1049, seeking a bride from among Yaroslav's daughters, there were political advantages for both men. Raffensberger notes that there are no surviving records of the negotiations, but their success is clear: in 1050, Anne Yaroslavna arrived in France with the bishops and some unspecified gifts. On 19 May 1051 she was married to the king of the Franks in a ceremony in Rheims and consecrated as queen. The king was forty-two years old, and Anna between nineteen and twenty-seven.

The new queen of the Franks quickly fulfilled her most important role, at least in Henry's eyes: she had children. She gave birth to a son and heir, Philip, in February of 1052 (though there is some uncertainty about this date). His birth was followed by Robert (b. before 1054), whom chronicles say died young, and then Hugh (b. 1057). A daughter, Emma, may have been born about 1054, between the births of Robert and Hugh. 

As was the practice for Capetian kings, Henry had his heir crowned in Rheims on 23 May 1059, when the boy was about seven years old. And then, having secured the succession, Henry died a year later, on 4 August 1060.

Recent scholarship has revisited Anna's role as queen consort, arguing her active role during Henry's reign rather than relegating her to a role as a producer of heirs. In Emily Joan Ward's words, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historians' views of Anna of Kyiv, reducing her to a "pious" queen and "dutiful" wife,  were "limited by a refusal fully to recognize the evidence with which they were presented." Historians also focused on her foreignness, identifying Anna as an "alien" queen, unable to play a significant role as queen. As Talia Zajac notes, Anna was dismissed for her "inability" to exercise her public abilities as queen" or for her lack of preparation to do so.

I will not rehearse their arguments here--I've linked you to two great sources, readily available online, and you can access these materials if you are interested. In brief, royal charters demonstrate Anna's role in royal power, as does her presence in the royal court (curia regis) when important disputes were heard and resolved. Along with her husband, Anna also extended patronage to numerous ecclesiastical institutions.

After Henry I's death, Anna's son, Philip, became the sole king of the Franks. Since he was still a minor, the young king had two regents, his mother and his uncle Baldwin V of Flanders (Baldwin was Henry I's brother-in-law, married to the king's sister, Adela of France--both Henry and Adela were the children of their father's third marriage). Anna's role as co-regent has also been discounted in the past, though contemporary chronicles emphasize the queen's significance in her son's reign. Just a few months after Philip became king, in a document dated 25 November 1060, the bishop of Chartres addressed Anna and Philip jointly "our most serene lords, the kings" (dominos nostros serenissimos reges)--though the document has only the young king's seal affixed, with the notary acknowledging Baldwin's acceptance. The young king also acknowledges the role of his mother in a charter from 1061:  "I, Philip, his [Henry's] son I, when still very young, assumed the kingdom together with my mother" (ego, Philippus, filius ejus [Henrici] admodum parvulus, regnum unacum matre suscepissem).

But quite soon after her son became king of France, the dowager queen married again. Her "hasty marriage" to Raoul, count of Crépy-en-Valois, encountered some difficulties because of Raoul's complicated marital history. But whatever scandal this second marriage may have caused among her contemporaries, it did not alienate Anne from the royal court, nor did it end her active role as co-regent. Recent scholarship, like that of Ward and Zajac, has emphasized, in Ward's words, Anna's ongoing "maternal power in the minority kingship of Philip I of France."

And now, we are back to the Church's views of what constituted a valid marriage and what did not--and what role these views played in the judgments made of the dowager queen's second marriage. Before Raoul of Crépy's marriage to Anna, he had been married twice. He first married Adèle of Bar-sur-Aube (he was her fourth husband), and after her death (about 1053-4), he married a woman possibly named Eleanor (or Alienor), who was also derisively referred to as "La Haquenée" (or "the mare"), supposedly a great heiress. But Raoul repudiated his second wife, accusing her of adultery, and then married Anna.

Aside from the obvious charge of bigamy (as if that weren't enough), another problem for this marriage was the relationship between Anna's first and second husbands. The two men were second cousins, both descendants of Herbert of Vermandois, this connection falling well within the prohibited degree of consanguinity (blood relationship). In the words of one outraged chronicler, "Count Raoul, [the king's] cousin, married his widow, which was contrary to human law and divine law [contre jus et fas]" (comte Raoul, son cousin, épousa sa veuve, ce qui était contraire au droit humain et à la loi divine [contre jus et fas]). Raoul's repudiated second wife may have gone to Rome to appeal her case, and Raoul may have been threatened with excommunication or even excommunicated. Sources on all this vary. 

But surviving evidence suggests that Anna continued her role as co-regent for her son despite whatever "scandal" may have been the result of her marriage. She continued to play a role at court and her name continues to appear in numerous royal charters. She was described as the queen throughout her second marriage. As well, Anna arranged for the marriage of her son, Hugh, with Raoul's granddaughter, Adela of Vermandois. And Raoul's son, Gautier, fought with his father at the siege of Vitry, both men serving King Philip. Anna's role as co-regent did not end with her remarriage: as Zajac observes, "it was not when Anna remarried in 1061 that her status as queen changed." Anna remained a strong presence in her son's life even after he began his personal rule in 1066. Her significance only diminished "when her son Philippe married in 1072 and hence had a queen of his own."*****

Anna of Kyiv's second husband died in 1074. In the mean time, Anna had devoted herself to the restoration of the abbey of St. Vincent in Senlis, where she had dower lands. According to the charter of foundation, her support was "a gift from my goods and those which king Henry, my husband, gave me at our marriage, all of which, with the favour of my son Philip, by the grace of God king, and the counsel of all the magnates of his kingdom, I granted to be assigned to it." Anna's further contributions are documented in two surviving charters signed by Philip, one of which was issued after his mother's death.

The last documented evidence of Anna of Kyiv is in a charter of 1075. There is no record of her death--but in 1079, her son made a donation to the Church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs (Paris) for the remission of his own sins and for "those of my father and mother and of all the kings of the Franks, my ancestors" (Facio autem hanc donationem pro remissione peccatorum meorum et genitoris gentricisque meę et omnium regum Francorum, antecessorum meorum). Her place of burial is unknown.

The monastery at Senlis dedicated an annual memorial service for Anna of Kyiv every year, on 5 September, which suggests she may have died on that date. The memorial was held until the French Revolution.

Mykola and Valentyn Znoba's
bronze statue of Anna of Kyiv
at Senlis (Ouse, France),
unveiled in 2005 as a gift from Ukraine

A selection of letters from Anna of Kyiv can be found at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters. Letters come from both Anna and Henry, from Anna and her son, Anna and her second husband, and Anna alone. Also included there is a letter to Anna of Kyiv from Pope Nicholas II. 

I've linked to so many of my sources above that I will not add any further suggestions for reading here. As I have noted, there is a great deal written about Anna of Kyiv, so an interested reader will have no trouble finding a wide range of online sources as well as books and articles to be accessed through libraries. 

By the way, Anna of Kyiv can be linked to Olga of Kyiv, a woman whom I've written about before in this blog. Olga was the grandmother of Vladimir the Great, while Anna was the granddaughter of Vladimir the Great--Vladimir the Wise was Vladimir the Great's son.

*For an extended exploration of marriage during this period, and of how Olof's relationship to Edra might have been understood at the time, I recommend Caroline Wilhelmsson's The Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, c. 970-1330: Their Lives, Power, and Legacy.

**Henry I was Hugh Capet’s grandson. His father,  poor Robert "the Pious," had a disastrous marital career. To read about his first wife, Rozala of Italy, click here. To read about his second, Bertha of Burgundy, click here. And to read about his third, Constance of Arles, click here. (Robert’s third wife, Constance, was Henry I’S mother.)

***Little is known about this "other Matilda," but what is known is carefully articulated in Szabolcs de Vajay's “Mathilde, Reine de France Inconnue,” Journal des Savants 1971, no. 4 (1971): 241-60 (full text availble here). Vajay undertakes extensive genealogical research, a research that leads to this rather startling claim: in marrying Anna of Kyiv, Henry I is "united" with the "sister-in-law of the niece of his dead wife, who was, herself, the niece of [the woman to whom he was first betrothed]." (See especially the family tree on p. 259.) Yikes! Is it any wonder it was hard to find a royal alliance that didn't challenge ecclesiastical "laws" about marriage!

****This Harald is the Harald who invaded England, landing in the north, on 25 September 1066, while William of Normandy invaded on 28 September, landing in Sussex. Elisiv and her children may have landed in England with her husband. 

*****Anna's son had his own marital scandals. He repudiated his first wife, who had given him an heir, and then "remarried" a woman who may or may not have still been married to her first husband . . . The king of France was excommunicated--more than once, since he kept going back to the woman from whom he was supposed to separate. I'll let  you follow up on all this on your own, but you can start by clicking here . . . 

Rozala of Italy, Countess and Regent of Flanders, and Queen of the Franks

Rozala of Italy, countess and regent of Flancers, then queen of the Franks (married 1 April 987)

The year of Rozala of Italy's birth is not certain--she seems to have been born near the middle of the tenth century, likely between 950 and 960. She was the daughter of Berengar II of Ivrea, who ruled as king of Italy during this same decade. Her mother was Willa of Tuscany, daughter of Boso, margrave of Tuscany.*

Detail from a late-fifteenth
century manuscript portrait
of the counts of Flanders
and members of theirfamilies
buried in St. Peter's Abbey,
Ghent

According to at least one contemporary chronicle, Rozala and her sister were "brought up in the imperial palace by the empress after being brought to Germany." (Although it seems clear that Berengar and his wife had two daughters, the name of Rozala's sister is unknown.)

Given the dates suggested for Rozala's birth, the Holy Roman Emperor would have been Otto I. As a younger man, Berengar, then margrave of Ivrea, had led a revolt against his uncle, who was king of Italy--the unsuccessful Berengar had been forced to flee, winding up in then King Otto of Germany's court, where he spent several years. Thus Berengar's decision to send his daughters to Otto's imperial court makes political sense.

According to several contemporary chroniclers, it was the emperor who arranged Rozala's marriage to Arnulf II, count of Flanders. Again, however, the dates of this marriage are not clear. According to the Annales Elnonenses Minores (Minor Annals of Elnon, Latin chronicles of the Abbey of Saint-Amand), the marriage took place about 968. By contrast, in his history of medieval Flanders, the historian David Nicholas claims that the marriage took place in 976, when Arnulf reached the age of majority. (Arnulf had been born c. 960, making him sixteen in 976). 

Before Arnulf's death on 30 March 987, Rozala had given birth to two children, a son named Baldwin, born in 980, and a daughter, Mathilde, whose date of birth is unknown. After Arnulf's death, Baldwin succeeded his father as count of Flanders, with Rozala acting as regent for her minor son. 

Early in 988, Rozala was married for a second time, to Robert the Pious, the son and "co-ruler" of Hugh Capet, king of the Franks. (To reinforce his kingship, Hugh Capet advocated for his son's "co-kingship," a way of reinforcing the legitimacy of this new dynasty.) The marriage was evidently a way of rewarding the Flemish for their support when Hugh seized power in 987. As for Rozala--hstorian Jean Dhondt has argued that the widowed Rozala would likely have been "pushed" (poussée) into this marriage by her Flemish advisors, fearing that Flanders, assailed on all sides by more powerful neighbors, would crumble.

Fifteenth-century manuscript
containing portraits of
the counts of Flanders
(Ghent, Ghent City Museum
 [STAM], Inv. 779)

At some point, Rozala's name seems to have been changed, never mind all the variations in the spellings of Rozala (Rozela, Rosala, Rosela, for example). 

According the author of the contemporary Vita Sancti Bertulfi (Life of Saint Bertulf), after her marriage to Robert, Rozala became Suzanne (or Susanna or Susanne): "after the death of Prince Arnulf, she married Robert, king of the Franks, and was called Susanna" (post mortem Arnulfi . . . principis, Roberto Regi Francorum nupsit et Susanna dicta). As research by the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy illustrates, however, contemporary records refer to Rozala as "Susanna" before her marriage to Robert.

No matter when Rozala became Suzanne, her second marriage would not turn out well for her. By 991, Robert had separated himself from Rozala/Suzanne. During the brief years of their marriage, Rozala/Suzanne had not borne a child, and according to Robert (and many accounts of Robert's complicated marital disputes), that was because she was too old.

Here's where Rozala's date of birth becomes crucial. The exact birth date of Robert "the Pious" (got to love his soubriquet) is also unknown--if you look at the entry in Wikipedia, for example, the date is given as "c. 972." This date reflects the conclusions of many historians, including the nineteenth-century Chrétien Pfister, in his Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (996-1031): while Robert's exact date of birth is not clear, he was known to be "about sixty" when he died on 20 July 1031, suggesting he was born about 970. Pfister also claims that, when Robert separated from Rozala/Suzanne (Pfister says this occurs in 989), the young man was "in his nineteenth year." 

But how old was Rozala when Robert decided he had to get rid of her? She had married Arnulf of Flanders (born c. 960) in 976, when he was about sixteen. Would Rozala have been similarly aged (born c. 960), or a decade older (born c. 950)? In other words, would Rozala have been about sixteen years old, like her husband, when she was first married, or would she have been twenty-six?

More critically for Rozala/Suzanne, how old would she have been when Robert claimed that she was too old to bear children? In his Histories, the monk Richerus of Reims says that poor Robert is "in the prime of his youth" when he marries, while his wife was "too old" (and also Italian . . . ). For his part, Pfister sniffs at the marriage between Rozala, "the old widow" (la vieille veuve), and Robert. The young king hasdbeen tied to an aged crone, a woman who was much older than he (beaucoup plus âgée que lui) while he is a man "in the springtime of youth" (dans le printemps de sa jeunesse). By the mid-twentieth century, historian Alexander Vasiliev would casually refer to Rozala as an "elderly widow" at the time of her marriage. 

What can we say about the characterizations of Rozala/Suzanne and her marriage? If we use the earliest suggested date for Rozala's birth, 950, she would be some twenty years older than Robert, who was born in 970. If she was born around the year 960, she would have been about ten years older than he was. If Robert was eighteen or so when he married, Rozala could have been anywhere between twenty-eight and thirty-eight. 

More recently, Dhondt has suggested a likely date of around 962 for Rozala's birth: "She was at least ten years older than Robert, perhaps fifteen" (Elle avait aux moins dix ans de plus que Robert, peut-être quinze). In Dhondt's view, the age difference was not a relevant consideration for Robert's father, Hugh Capet, who had arranged his son's marriage solely for its political advantage, the alliance giving the Franks a level of influence and authority in Flanders. Interestingly, Dhondt suggests that the union may never have been consummated. 

But whatever Rozala's age at the time of her second marriage (and whether it was ever consummated), once Robert's father, the "senior" king, Hugh Capet, died in 996, Robert formally repudiated Rozala and divorced her. Even though he had ended their marriage, Robert kept a significant part of her dowry, including the castle of Montreuil in Ponthieu.** 

According to Richerus of Rheims, when Robert wouldn't return the castle to her, Rozala built another one nearby. (I really hope Richerus is right about this.) After her separation from Robert, she returned to Flanders, where she was reunited with her son, Baldwin IV, who had by now reached his age of majority. Although Robert managed tp lee[ Montreuil-sur-Mer, Baldwin managed to recover several of the territories that had been given to his mother on the occasion of her marriage, including Artois and Ostrevant. Rozala also became one of Baldwin's "principal advisors." A charter dated 26 June 995 notes that, along with her son Baldwin, "Queen Susanna" (Susanna regina) made donations to St. Peter's Abbey (Ghent), for the soul of her daughter, Matilda. On June 1003, she made several grants of land to St. Peter's. 

In the Annales Elnonenses, Rozala's death is recorded in 1003. A Latin poem in memory of her death says that she died on 7 February, but if the date of the charter granting land to St. Peter’s Abbey is correct, then Rozala cannot have died in February. A date of 13 December 1003, recorded in another contemporary annal, is also possible. As with her birthdate, then, the exact date of Rozala’s death is uncertain. 

Rozala of Italy, countess of Flanders (and briefly queen of the Franks) is buried in St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent, next to her first husband. 

By the way, after repudiating Rozala, Robert "the Pious" had a long and sordid marital career. He entered into an incestuous marriage with Bertha of Burgundy, then repudiated her, then married Constance of Arles--who was eighteen when he was thirty-two. Hmmm. Although she did give him children, he wanted to get rid of her too . . .  

You may also be interested in reading a bit about Rozala's father, Berengar II, who had his own adventures in marriage, attempting to force the widowed Adelaide of Burgundy whom he was holding captive, into marrying his son, Rozala's brother Adalbert. 

All I can say is: traditional marriage! Yikes!

*One of the most reliable sources I've found is the genealogical information made available by the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, which I've linked to several times throughout this post. 

**In "Sept femmes et un trio de rois," Dhondt examines why this marriage would have been politically advantageous for Hugh Capet. He also provides documentary evidence for why Rozala was likely born before 962 (when her father was dethroned), and he suggests that it would have been highly unlikely, even given his political considerations, that Hugh would have forced his son into a marriage with a woman who was too old to bear an heir.  

Olga of Kyiv, Regent of Russia: "As the Day-Spring Precedes the Sun and as the Dawn Precedes the Day "

Olga of Kyiv, regent of Kyiv (died 11 July 969)

Although little of her early life is known, traditional accounts of Olga of Kyiv claim that she was born in Pskov, a city that is now in northwest Russia. Her date of birth is unknown, as are her origins--some accounts claim she was of Viking descent, others that she was of Slavic descent. (This disagreement may reflect a larger dispute over whether the Rus' were of Scandinavian or Slavic origin.)

The earliest mention of Olga is found in the twelfth-century Russian Primary Chronicle (Povest' vremennykh let), which begins by claiming it preserves "the narratives of bygone years regarding the origin of the land of Rus', the first princes of Kiev, and from what source the land of Rus' had its beginning." These annals begin after Noah's flood, move on to the division of the world among Noah's three sons, skip to the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and quickly focus on "the long period of the Slavs," various "parties" of whom separated and spread among many lands. 

A detail from 
the fifteenth-century
Radziwill Chronicle
depicting Olga of Kyiv

Rather quickly, the chronicler arrives at the figure of Igor of Kyiv, who was the son of Rurik, a Varangian (Viking) chieftain who settled in Novgorod. Igor was "very young" when Rurik died (at some point in the 870s), becoming prince of Novgorod. Oleg, appointed by Rurik as Igor's regent, gets busy with lots of fighting, conquering, and killing, all in the boy's name, of course. Eventually Oleg "set himself up as prince in Kyiv, and declared that it should be the mother of Russian cities. The Varangians, Slavs, and others who accompanied him, were called Russes."

As for Igor, "he followed after Oleg, and obeyed his instructions." Presumably one of Oleg's instructions that Igor obeyed was about his marriage. In 903, according to the chronicler, "[a] wife, Olga by name, was brought to him from Pskov." A later, sixteenth-century history, The Book of Royal Degrees (Stepennaya kniga), contains a fanciful story of how Igor was fishing in the Velikaia River in Pskov, how he got into a boat, then realized the "boatman" was not a man but a woman, Olga, "very beautiful, young, and brave." Since his "passions were kindled," Igor proceeded to act on his desires and "uttered shameless words to her." As one does.

Sources vary widely when providing a date of birth for Olga--many standard references, like the Encyclopedia Britannica, suggest the year "c. 890" for her birth, this date also offered by Michael C. Paul, in his recent biographical essay. If we accept this date, Olga would have been about thirteen at the time of her marriage to Igor.

After her brief mention in the twelfth-century chronicle, Olga's name disappears until the entry for 945, when Igor is killed by the Derevilians, whom he had attacked because they had lots of great stuff--his "retinue" had told Igor that the Derevilians were "adorned with fine weapons and raiment," and they urged Igor to go "after tribute." He did, and he was killed.

Then the chronicle return to the woman whom Igor had married decades earlier, Olga. She was in Kyiv with her son, a two-year-old boy named Svyatoslav. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Derevilians hatched a plot after murdering Igor: "See, we have killed the Prince of Rus'. Let us take his wife Olga for our Prince Mal, and then we shall obtain possession of Svyatoslav, and work our will upon him."

They sent their twenty best men to Kyiv, where Olga was waiting to receive them. She received the Derevilians with gracious words. When they delivered their offer, she replied, "Your proposal is pleasing to me; indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, 'We will not ride on horses nor go on foot; carry us in our boat.' And you shall be carried in your boat."

Of course Olga was not at all pleased by the prospect of marrying Prince Mal. The chronicle goes into some detail about just what she had in mind for the men who had killed her husband--which is interesting, since the chronicle has passed over decades of Olga's life after her marriage to Igor without mentioning her at all. But the chronicle explains at length her plan for revenge. In short, Olga sets a trap, and the Derelians in their boat are buried alive. 

In one of her acts of vengeance, 
Olga burns some Derelians alive in a bathhouse
(from the fifteenth-century Radziwill Chronicle)

But this is just the first act of her terrible vengeance. The chronicle goes on for pages regaling its readers with details about Olga's brutal campaign against her enemies. About all this, historian Michael C. Paul notes, "the accounts of the vengeance Olga wrought on the Derevlians are probably not historically accurate; rather, they are hagiographic devices representing her behavior after baptism, demonstrating how Christianity tempered her pagan barbarism."

Aside from wreaking vengeance on her enemies, Olga began ruling Kyivan Rus' on behalf of her son. According to the chronicle, she established laws, "collected tribute," and set up trading posts. Interestingly, the ruler's personal role in the collection of taxes seem to have caused a lot of resentment, particularly in Igor's case, so one of Olga's innovations was establishing a system of tax collectors. Returning to "her city of Kiev" in 947,  she "dwelt at peace with it." 

During her years as regent for her son, Olga "set about reforming the governmental structure" of Kyiv. In The Czars, James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci write that she "had little interest in expanding the state," but she did preserve it, putting down rebellions and "recaptur[ing] lands lost during her husband's reign." By the time her son assumed his reign in 962, when Olga resigned as regent, she had not only "restored his domain to roughly the same borders" it had had at the time of Oleg's death, but she had put into place for her son a "well-organized government." 

In the mean time, about the year 955, Olga traveled to Constantinople--a city her husband had besieged (twice). Emperor Constantine VII was smitten, at least according to the Russian Primary Chronicle: "when he saw that she was very fair of countenance and wise as well, the Emperor wondered at her intellect. He conversed with her and remarked that she was worthy to reign with him in his city." 

Olga, however, reminded the emperor that she was a pagan--so she was soon being instructed by the patriarch of Constantinople: "He taught her the doctrine of the Church, and instructed her in prayer and fasting, in almsgiving, and in the maintenance of chastity." She was baptized jointly by the patriarch and the emperor. 

After Olga's baptism, the emperor suggested that Olga marry him, but Olga is as intelligent as she is keen for vengance. "How can you marry me," she asks him, reminding him that during the baptismal ceremony, he had referred to her as his "daughter" in faith. The emperor recognizes he has been "outwitted," and sends her off home, "still calling her his daughter," with "many gifts of gold, silver, silks, and various vases."

I haven't been able to find a map
of Kyivan Rus' under Olga,
but this map of the eleventh-century
state is a way to see the geographical
location and extent of the territory

Once back in Kyiv, Olga tried her best to convert her son, but she was unsuccessful. There were already Christians in Kyiv, but Svyatoslav was not interested, though he did not persecute them: according to the chronicle, "when any man wished to be baptized, he was not hindered, but only mocked."

As soon as Svyatoslav attained his majority, he was off to war. He "collected a numerous and valiant army," undertaking "many campaigns." During his absences, presumably, Olga once again acted on her son's behalf, though the chronicle is silent about that. 

However, when Kyiv is besieged 968, Olga "shut herself up in the city" with her three grandsons. (The chronicle is also silent about when Svyatoslav might have married, when these children were born, and who their mother or mothers might be.) The siege is brutal, the inhabitants of the city suffering greatly, but Olga and her three grandsons are eventually rescued. Hearing of the suffering of the city (he receives a note from Kyiv accusing him of "neglect"), Svyatoslav returns, "kiss[ing] his mother and children and regrett[ing] what they had suffered."

Svyatoslav tells his mother that he no longer wants to live in Kyiv, preferring to move his government to the city of Pereyaslavets, because of its central location in his "realm." Olga does not want to go, and she laments that her son wants to leave her--she was, in the words of the chronicle, "in precarious health." She begged him to wait until she died before he left so that he could bury her. 

Three days later, in 969, Olga of Kyiv died. 

In 972, Svytasoslav died, succeeded by his son eldest son, Yarapolk, though a civil war soon broke out, turning him against his brothers. Yarapolk killed one of his brothers, but when he died in 978, he was succeeded by his surviving brother, Vladimir. 

In 988, Olga's grandson, Vladimir "the Great," converted to Christianity. It took him a while--he remained a pagan, enjoying 800 concubines (reportedly) as well as several wives, and building temples to numerous gods. Finally, however, he decided to convert--because he wanted to marry a Byzantine princess, and he couldn't do that if he were a pagan. So Vladimir converted and married Anna, daughter of Romanos II and sister of the emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII. She wasn't thrilled about it. 

Michael Paul notes that Olga was "probably not formally canonized until the fourteenth century." In 1547 she was formally canonized by the Orthodox church and designated as Isapóstolos, "equal to the apostles." Her feast day is 11 July, conventionally accepted as the date of her death.

The Russian Primary Chronicle calls Olga of Kyiv the "precursor of the Christian land" that Kyivan Rus' would become, "even as the day-spring precedes the sun and as the dawn precedes the day."

By the way, Olga of Kyiv is linked to Anna of Kyiv, another woman whom I've written about in this blog. Olga was the grandmother of Vladimir the Great, while Anna was the granddaughter of Vladimir the Great--Vladimir the Wise was Vladimir the Great's son.

Beatrice of Lorraine, Regent of Tuscany

Beatrice of Lorraine, marchioness and regent of Tuscany (died 18 April 1076)

Before his death in 855 (and after decades of rebellion and instability within the Frankish empire that had once been ruled by Charlemagne), the Carolingian emperor Lothair I divided his kingdom among his three sons--the northern third was given to Lothair II. This region, known as Lotharingen (in German) or Lotharii regnum (in Latin, "Lothair's kingdom"), would ultimately become known as Lorraine. 

Beatrice of Lorraine,
from a twelfth-century manuscript of

Donizo's Vita Mathildis

(Vatican Library,

Codex Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 30v)

In this act of partition, Lothair I followed a divsion of territory that had occurred after the death of his father, Louis I, "the Pious." Louis was the only surviving son of Charlemagne, inheriting the entirety of the Carolingian empire after his father's death in 814. But during his tumultuous rule, he faced a series of civil wars (he had four rebellious sons by two different wives). 

After his death and yet another civil war, an attempt was made to settle the conflicts among his three sons. By the terms of the Treaty of Verdun (843), the empire was divided: Middle Francia was inherited by Lothair, East Francia, by Louis "the German," and West Francia by Charles "the Bald." (No territory needed to be given to Louis' fourth rebellious son, Pepin, who had predeceased his father.)

And so, as Lothair I approached his death--after years of further unrest--he too attempted to solve conflicts by means of partition. He divided Middle Francia, the portion of the empire he had inherited following the Treaty of Verdun. The Treaty of Prüm (855) did not establish peace, however, and the result was further instability and conflict. 

It was by the terms of this agreement that Lothair II inherited what would become known as Lorraine from his father.* Lothair II would marry twice, but his "marital" history was more than a bit complicated. Although he had several children (at least two sons) by his second "wife," Waldrada, they were all declared illegitimate. Thus, when Lothair II died in 869, the succession was disputed, with control of Lorraine swinging between his two uncles, Louis the German and Charles the Bald.

In 870, by the terms of the Treaty of Mersen, Lorraine was once again partitioned, this time along slightly different lines. (And, interestingly, one of Lothair II's "illegitimate" sons, Hugh, got the duchy of Alsace under the deal.)

But conflict continued until 925, when the Germany king Henry I conquered Lorraine, establishing the kingdom as a duchy under German control. In 953, Henry I's son and successor, Otto I, deposed his rebellious son-in-law as duke of Lorraine and handed the title off to his own younger brother, Bruno. As archbishop of Cologne, Bruno did not marry and have children, but he did have two important feudal commanders to support him in Lorraine, Frederick, count of Bar, and Godfrey, count of Hainault.

In 959, Bruno, divided Lorraine, creating Upper and Lower Lorraine. Control of Upper Lorraine and the title of margrave were given to Frederick. After Bruno's death in 965, Frederick became duke of Upper Lorraine, and it was Upper Lorraine that was inherited by his grandson, Frederick II--who was Beatrice of Lorraine's father. 

All of this just to get us through something of Beatrice of Lorraine's paternal background! 

As for Beatrice of Lorraine's mother. About the year 1012 or 1013, Frederick married Matilda of Swabia, a woman with her own relationship to the conflicts of this tumultuous geography. There had been some dispute about the validity of Matilda's first marriage, said to be consanguinous, though the couple remained together despite condemnation by the church.** After the death of her first husband, Matilda married Frederick despite very similar objections, that the two were too closely related to enter into a valid marriage. (Like her husband, Matilda of Swabia was a descendant of Charlemagne.)

Nevertheless, Frederick II and Matilda remained married and had three children: Sophie (born c. 1013-1018), Beatrice (born in Mantua c. 1013-1026), and Frederick (born c. 1017-1020). As you can see from the range of dates I've offered here, the birthdates--and, thus, birth order--of these children are not clear. Various dates and orders of birth are suggested by sources.

The seal of Beatrice of Lorraine
(reproduced in Nora Duff's Matilda of Tuscany,
La gran donna d'Italia)
 

Whatever the dates of their birth, the three children were still very young when their father died about the year 1026. Frederick's son succeeded his father as Frederick III, duke of Upper Lorraine, though I have found very little information about him. He seems to have died in 1033 because his sister Sophie inherited the county of Bar from him in that year. 

Meanwhile, after Frederick II's death and his son's succession, both Sophie and Beatrice were sent to the imperial household of the Holy Roman Emperor--their mother Matilda of Swabia's sister, Gisela, was married to Emperor Conrad III. (The marriage of Gisela and Conrad was also disputed because of their consanguinity--sheesh.) At the imperial court, the two girls were "nourished" by their aunt.

Matilda of Swabia was known to be at the imperial court with her sister and her children in 1030, but she died some time before January 1034. Her two daughters, Sophie and Beatrice, now "orphans," were "adopted" by their aunt.

It was at the imperial court of Conrad II and Gisela that a marriage was arranged for Beatrice with the the most powerful nobleman in northern Italy, Boniface of Canossa. From his father, Boniface had inherited the cities and counties of Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Ferrara, among others. From his mother, he had inherited parts of Tuscany, including territory in and around Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia. Boniface supported the Holy Roman Empire in its various expeditions in northern Italy, and in 1027 Conrad awarded Boniface the lordship of Tuscany. 

In 1036, when Boniface attended the marriage of Conrad and Gisela's son, he seems to have met Beatrice. Recently widowed and childless, the fifty-two-year-old Boniface was soon married to Beatrice, then about seventeen years old, but perhaps a bit younger. In addition to her imperial connections, Beatrice brought her inheritance in Lorraine to the marriage: she was dame du château de Briey and "heiress of the lordships of Stenay, Mouzay, Juvigny, Longlier and Orval, all in the northern part of her family's ancestral lands."

After a magnificent marriage ceremony, Boniface and Beatrice took up residence in the ducal castle in Mantua, where the couple's "homecoming" was celebrated with lavish banquets and entertainments. Their court was known for its "brilliance and culture." 

Little documentation about Beatrice survives from the period, but during the years of her marriage, she seems to have spent most of her time in and around Canossa--there are references to her in Bologna (1040), Ferrara (1042), Mantua (1044), and Luca (1044).

During these years, Beatrice gave birth to three children. As with her natal family, the birth order and dates of birth of Beatrice's children are variously given, with only Matilda of Canossa's birthdate, 1046, generally agreed on. This year is derived from the epic poem about her life, Vita Mathildis, written by the monk Donizo of Canossa, who says Matilda was sixty-nine years old when she died in 1115. In addition to Matilda, Beatrice gave birth to a son, Frederick of Canossa (referred to in some chonicle sources, confusingly, as Boniface), and a third child, probably a daughter named Beatrice of Canossa, though some early chronicles indicate this child was also a boy, a younger son, "Beatricio." 

Boniface maintained his strong relations with the Holy Roman Empire after Conrad II's death in 1036, and received further territories, including Spoleto and Camerino, for his support for Conrad's son and successor, Henry III. In 1046, he hosted Henry, on his way to be crowned as emperor. But ultimately their relationship broke down, and the emperor may (or may not) have played a role in Boniface's assassination in 1052.

Boniface's son, Frederick, succeeded his father, with Beatrice of Lorraine assuming the role of regent for him. To protect his inheritance--to preserve what she could of Frederick II's lands and titles (as well as her own)--the widowed Beatrice needed to act quickly. In the words of a contemporary chronicler, Beatrice, having lost the protection of her husband, needed to find a new protector (Destitutam se priori marito desolatae domui patronuni paravisse). And so, Beatrice quickly married her cousin, Godfrey III, duke of Lorraine, probably in 1053.*** 

The marriage of Beatrice and Godfrey had, however, taken place without the permission of the emperor, Henry III, against whom Godfrey had already rebelled. Traveling to Florence in 1055 for a meeting with the pope, the emperor had Beatrice arrested--she and her daughter Matilda, then about ten years old, were taken as a prisoner to Germany. Her son, Frederick, remained in Tuscany. (It isn't clear whether Beatrice's third child was still alive at this point.)

But Frederick III did not survive for long, and it was rumored that the emperor had had both Frederick and Beatrice's third child killed, leaving only Matilda of Canossa as heir to Frederick II. (Beatrice of Lorraine would make a donation to the abbey of Santa Maria de Fenonica for the souls of of her husband, Boniface, her son, and her daughter, so perhaps that solves the question of her third child's sex).

As for Godfrey, he assumed control of Tuscany in the right of his wife and Matilda. The emperor died suddenly in October of 1056, succeeded by his son, Henry, a minor. The boy's mother, Agnes of Poitou, was appointed to act as the boy's guardian and regent--and she rather quickly reconciled with Godfrey of Lorraine. Beatrice and Matilda were released and reunited with Godfrey, who was recognized as margrave of Tuscany.

Beatrice of Lorraine, her husband, and her daughter, Matilda, were all in Rome in 1059, celebrating celebrating the election of Pope Nicholas II. Indeed, Beatrice played a role in three papal elections over the course of just a few years, those of Stephen IX (1057), Nicholas II (1059), and Alexander II (1061). Historian Valerie Eads notes that these elections were accompanied by a "turbulence" in Rome and that Beatrice "played an active role" in maintaining the peace, protecting the elections, and opposing the anti-popes supported by the empire. 

After 1060, Godfrey returned to Lorraine, leaving Beatrice in Italy, though the two were together again in Rome in 1062 and 1063. During these years, Beatrice took an active rold in papal politics and reform as well as governing Tuscany on behalf of her daughter. In November 1069, Beatrice returned to Lorraine with her husband and daughter, but by December Godfrey III of Lorraine lay dying. Before his death, Beatrice arranged for her daughter, Matilda, to be married to Godfrey's son, another Godfrey (he would succeed his father as Godfrey IV).****

Beatrice of Lorraine,

from a 14th century manuscript of 

Donizo's Vita Mathildis

(Biblioteca Panizzi, MS Turri E52)

Beatrice remained loyal to her second husband, commemorating their marriage in a seal (reproduced above) dating to 1073. The legend reads, "May you always be happy, dear Godfrey, Beatrix" (Sis semper felix, Gotfredo cara, Beatrix). But the younger Godfrey and Beatrice's daughter, Matilda, were not well matched, and after the birth and death of a daughter in 1071, Matilda left her husband and rejoined her mother.

Although Matilda of Tuscany was by now fully old enough to rule in her own name, Beatrice continued to exercise power as "dux of Tuscany." In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini details Beatrice's "jurisdictional activity" (attività giurisdizionale) involving ecclesiastical institutions in the years from 1070 through 1076 in various locations, including Florence, Lucca, Siena, Perugia, Arezzo, and Pisa. Interestingly, given her past involvement in papal politics, Beatrice appears not to have played a role in the 1073 papal election of Gregory VII--she received news of the election by letter. 

During these years Beatrice also founded and endowed a number of religious institutions, including monasteries,  churches, and hospitals, in Siena, Arezzo, Luca, Florence, Parma, and Mantua, among other places (these are detailed by Bertolini).

Beatrice's daughter, Matilda of Tuscany, never reconciled with her husband, Godfrey. He was assassinated on 27 February 1076 while fighting on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV during what has become known as the Investiture Controversy--for her part, Matilda supported papal power against imperial power. 

On 18 April 1076, just two months after the death of her son-in-law (and stepson), Beatrice of Lorraine died. When he came to write his great epic poem about the life of Matilda of Tuscany, the Italian monk Donizo of Canossa noted the pivotal role that Beatrice had played during her lifetime: "She persuaded [the emperor] to peace with love for the pope, / And the pious pope for love of the king" (Pontificis pacem regem suadebat amore / Atque pium papam de regis amore rogabat, quoted by Bertolini--my Latin is really bad these days, so I hope this translation is close).

The tomb of Beatrice of Lorraine,
Camposanto, Pisa

Beatrice of Lorraine was buried in a Roman sarcophagus in the cathedral church of Pisa, her burial arranged by her daughter. Her tomb was relocated inside the church in the fourteenth century, and then moved to its current location, in the Camposanto, in the nineteenth century. (For an excellent analysis of the tomb and its construction, click here.)

Letters from and to Beatrice of Lorraine are available at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters (click here).

There is a full-length biography of Beatrice of Lorraine, Elke Goetz's Beatrix von Canossa und Tuszien :Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte des 11. Jahrhunderts (1995).

 

*For Paul B. Pixton's summary of all this, in Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, 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, click here.

***Godfrey III, "the Bearded," duke of Lower Lorraine, was a member of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, Beatrice of the house of Ardennes-Bar. In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini notes that after the death of Frederick II of Upper Lorraine in 1033, the House of Ardennes-Bar became "extinct," and  Gothelo, duke of Lower Lorraine, of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, was invested with Upper Lorraine, uniting the once-divided territories. After Gothelo's death, his son Godfrey eventurally succeeded to his father's role ("eventually" because there had been conflict and rebellion). Notably, Bertolini suggests that Godfrey had "probably" (probabile) administered Beatrice's holdings (dei beni) in Upper Lorraine. 

****Godfrey IV was the son of Godfrey III's first wife, Doda.