Adelaide of Maurienne

Adelaide of Maurienne
Queen consort of the Franks
Tenure	1115–1137
Born	18 November 1092 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, France
Died	18 November 1154 (aged 61–62)
Burial	Saint-Pierre de Montmartre
Spouse	Louis VI of France Matthieu I of Montmorency
Issue	Philip of France Louis VII of France Henry, Archbishop of Reims Robert I of Dreux Constance, Countess of Toulouse Philip, Bishop of Paris Peter of Courtenay
House	Savoy
Father	Humbert II of Savoy
Mother	Gisela of Burgundy
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Adelaide of Savoy (or Adelaide of Maurienne) (Italian: Adelaide di Savoia or Adelasia di Moriana, French: Adélaïde or Adèle de Maurienne) (1092 – 18 November 1154) was the second spouse but first Queen consort of Louis VI of France. Adelaide was the daughter of Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy,^[1] and niece of Pope Callixtus II, who once visited her court in France.

Queen of France

She became the second wife of Louis VI of France, whom she married on 3 August 1113/14 in Paris, France.^[2] They had eight children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris.

Louis and Adelaide had seven sons and one daughter:

1. Philip of France (1116–1131)
2. Louis VII (1120–18 November 1180), King of France
3. Henry (1121–1175), Archbishop of Reims
4. Hugues (b. c. 1122)
5. Robert (c. 1123–11 October 1188), Count of Dreux
6. Constance (c. 1124–16 August 1176), married first Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne and then Raymond V of Toulouse.
7. Philip (1125–1161), Bishop of Paris. not to be confused with his elder brother.
8. Peter (c. 1125–1183), married Elizabeth, Lady of Courtenay

Queen dowager

After Louis VI's death, Adélaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead she married Matthieu I of Montmorency,^[3] with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and in religious activities.

Adélaide is one of two queens in a legend related by William Dugdale. As the story goes, Queen Adélaide of France became enamoured of a young knight, William d'Albini, at a joust. But he was already engaged to Adeliza of Louvain and refused to become her lover. The jealous Adélaide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt apocryphal.

In 1153 she retired to the abbey of Montmartre, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on 18 November 1154.^[3] She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmartre, but her tomb was destroyed during the Revolution.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Adelaide of Maurienne

16. Humbert I of Savoy               8. Otto of Savoy                       17. Auxilia of Lenzburg               4. Amadeus II of Savoy                             18. Ulric Manfred II of Turin               9. Adelaide of Susa                       19. Bertha of Luni               2. Humbert II of Savoy                                   20. Gérold I, Count of Geneva               10. Gérold II, Count of Geneva                       21. Bertha               5. Joan of Geneva                             11. Gisèle                       1. Adelaide of Maurienne                                         24. Otto-William, Count of Burgundy               12. Reginald I, Count of Burgundy                       25. Ermentrude of Reims and Roucy               6. William I, Count of Burgundy                             26. Richard II, Duke of Normandy               13. Adelaide of Normandy                       27. Judith of Brittany               3. Gisela of Burgundy                                   7. Stephanie

Notes

1. C.W. Previte-Orton, The Early History of the House of Savoy, (Cambridge University Press, 1912), 276-277.
2. Mary Stroll, Calixtus the Second, 1119-1124, (Brill, 2004), 192.
3. Adelaide of Savoy, John Bell Henneman, Jr., Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, ed. William W. Kibler and Grover A. Zinn, (Routledge, 1995), 7.

Sources

• Nolan, Kathleen D. Capetian Women
• Facinger, Marion F. "A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237" Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 5 (1968: 3–48.