Adelaide of Paris

Adelaide of Paris
Queen consort of the West Franks
Tenure	6 October 877 – 10 April 879
Born	c. 850/853
Died	10 November 901 (aged 47–51)
Burial	Saint-Corneille Abbey, Compiègne, France,
Spouse	Louis the Stammerer
Issue	Ermentrude of France Charles the Simple
Dynasty	Girardids (by birth) Carolingian (by marriage)
Father	Adalard of Paris, Marquis of Friuli

Adélaïde of Paris (or Aélis) (c. 850/853 – 10 November 901) was the second wife of Louis the Stammerer, King of Western Francia, and was the mother of Princess Ermentrude and King Charles the Simple.

Life

Adelaide was the daughter of the count palatine Adalard of Paris. Her great-grandfather was Bégon, Count of Paris. Her great-grandmother, Alpaïs, wife of Bégon, was the illegitimate daughter of Louis the Pious by an unnamed mistress.

Adelaide was chosen by Charles the Bald, King of Western Francia, to marry his son and heir, Louis the Stammerer, despite the fact that Louis had secretly married Ansgarde of Burgundy against the wishes of his father. Although Louis and Ansgarde already had two children, Louis and Carloman,^[1] Charles prevailed upon Pope John VIII, to dissolve the union. This accomplished, Charles married his son to Adelaide in February 875.

However, the marriage was called into question because of the close blood-kinship of the pair. When on 7 September 878 the pope crowned Louis (who had succeeded his father in the previous year), the pope refused to crown Adelaide.^[2]

When Louis the Stammerer died in Compiegne on 10 April 879, Adelaide was pregnant, giving birth on 17 September 879, to Charles the Simple.^[3] The birth of this child led to a dispute between Adelaide and Ansgarde. Ansgarde and her sons accused Adelaide of adultery; Adelaide in turn disputed the right of Ansgarde's sons to inherit. Eventually, Adelaide succeeded in winning the case; but despite this, Ansgarde's sons Louis and Carloman remained kings until their deaths without heirs in 882 and 884 respectively, with the crown then being contested between Odo, Count of Paris and Charles the Fat.

Charles eventually succeeded to his father's throne in 898; his mother assisted in crowning him. She died in Laon on 10 November 901 and was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Corneille, Compiègne, Picardy.

References

1. Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, (Pearson Education Limited, 1999), 258.
2. McKitterick, Rosamond (2005). New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 0-521-36292-X.
3. McKitterick, Rosamond (2005). New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press. p. 138. ISBN 0-521-36292-X.