Adela of Champagne

Adela of Champagne
Adela with Louis VII and Philip II
Queen consort of Franks
Tenure	1164–1180
Coronation	1164
Born	C. 1140 Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France
Died	4 June 1206 (aged 65–66) Paris, Île-de-France, France
Spouse	Louis VII of France
Issue	Philip II of France Agnes, Byzantine Empress[1]
House	House of Blois
Father	Theobald II, Count of Champagne
Mother	Matilda of Carinthia

Adela of Champagne (French: Adèle; c. 1140 – 4 June 1206), also known as Adelaide and Alix, was Queen of France as the third wife of Louis VII. She was the daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Matilda of Carinthia, and was named after her grandmother, Adela of Normandy.

Louis and Adela married on 18 October 1160, five weeks after his previous wife, Constance of Castile, died in childbirth. Queen Adèle was the mother of Louis VII's only son, Philip II, and of the Byzantine empress Agnes.^[2]

Adela was active in the political life of the kingdom, along with her brothers Henry I, Theobald V, and Guillaume aux Blanches Mains. Henry and Theobald were married to daughters of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine.^[3] Adela and her brothers felt their position threatened when the heiress of Artois, Isabella of Hainault, married Adèle's son Philip. Adèle formed an alliance with Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy, and Philip of Flanders, and even tried to interest Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. War broke out in 1181, and relations became so bad that Philip attempted to divorce Isabella in 1184.

Although her power decreased after the accession of Philip in 1180, Queen Adela acted as regent in 1190 while Philip was away on the Third Crusade. She returned to the shadows when he returned in 1192 but participated in the founding of many abbeys.

Queen Adela died on 4 June 1206 in Paris, Île-de-France, France, and was buried in the church of Pontigny Abbey near Auxerre.

Family tree

16. Odo II, Count of Blois

8. Theobald III, Count of Blois

17. Ermengarde of Auvergne

4. Stephen II, Count of Blois

18. Herbert I, Count of Maine

9. Gersende of Maine

2. Theobald II, Count of Champagne

20. Robert I, Duke of Normandy

10. William the Conqueror

21. Herleva

5. Adela of Normandy

22. Baldwin V, Count of Flanders

11. Matilda of Flanders

23. Adela of France

1. Adèle of Champagne

24. Siegfried of Sponheim

12. Egelbert I of Sponheim

25. Richgard

6. Engelbert, Duke of Carinthia

13. Hedwig of Eppenstein

3. Matilda of Carinthia

28. Count Rapotos IV

14. Ulrich I, Count of Passau

29. Matilda

7. Utta of Passau

30. Kuno of Lechsgemünd

15. Adelaide of Frontenhausen

31. Matilda of Horburg

Sources

1. Garland, Lynda. Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204. London, Routledge, 1999.
2. Gislebert of Mons' Chronicon
3. Women's Biography: Alix/Adela of Champagne, queen of France