Bertha of Savoy

Bertha of Savoy
Bertha of Savoy
Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire
Reign	1084–1087
Coronation	31 March 1084
Queen consort of Germany
Reign	1066–1087
Born	21 September 1051
Died	27 December 1087 (aged 36) Mainz, Rhenish Franconia
Burial	Speyer Cathedral
Spouse	Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Issue more...	Agnes of Germany Conrad II of Italy Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
House	House of Savoy
Father	Otto I, Count of Savoy
Mother	Adelaide of Susa

Bertha of Savoy (21 September 1051 – 27 December 1087), also called Bertha of Turin, a member of the Burgundian House of Savoy, was Queen consort of Germany from 1066 and Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of the Salian emperor Henry IV.

Life

Bertha of Savoy was a daughter of Count Otto of Savoy (also called Eudes and Odo) and his wife Adelaide of Susa from the Arduinici noble family. Her maternal grandparents were Margrave Ulric Manfred II of Turin and Bertha of Milan.

Marriage

During the lifetime of Emperor Henry III, Bertha (aged four) was betrothed to Henry III's son, Henry IV (aged five) on 25 December 1055 in Zürich.^[1] Bertha was raised in Germany thereafter. When she was fifteen, Bertha was crowned queen in Würzburg in June 1066 and married Henry on 13 July 1066 at the Königspfalz of Trebur.^[2]

Although they had grown up together and Bertha was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno of Merseburg, an avowed opponent of Henry IV, reported on Henry's continual unfaithfulness: "He had two or three concubines at the same time, in addition [to his wife], yet he was not content. If he heard that someone had a young and pretty daughter or wife, he instructed that she be supplied to him by force. (...) His beautiful and noble wife Bertha (...) was in such a manner hated by him that he never saw her after the wedding any more than necessary, since he had not celebrated the wedding out of free will."^[3]

Attempted repudiation

In 1069, Henry attempted to repudiate Bertha. At an assembly at Worms, Henry "explained publicly (before the princes), that his relationship with his wife was not good; for a long time he had deceived others, but now he did not want to do so any longer. He could not accuse her of anything that justified a divorce, but he was not capable of carrying out conjugal relations with her any longer. He asked them for the sake of God to remove him from the bonds of a marriage closed under bad signs ... so that the way to a luckier marriage might be opened. And nobody knowing any objection to raise, and his wife being an obstacle to a second marriage ceremony, he then swore that she was as he received her, unstained and her virginity intact."^[4]

The German episcopacy dared not submit to the king's demands, and no conclusion was reached at the Worms assembly. Instead, the German bishops called on Pope Alexander II for assistance. A synod was convened at Frankfurt for later in the year. During this time, Bertha retired to the abbey of Lorsch. The papal legate Peter Damian presided at the Frankfurt synod; he opposed Henry's repudiation of Bertha on the grounds of canon law, but many of the German princes were more concerned about the response of Bertha's mother Adelaide.^[5] Henry IV reluctantly reconciled with Bertha. His first daughter with Bertha was born in the following year (1070).

Canossa

During the fierce Investiture Controversy, Bertha's husband was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII at the Lenten synod in Rome in 1076. In October, the German princes took the occasion and swore an oath at Trebur that they would no longer recognise Henry as king unless this excommunication was lifted. Henry thus had to cross the Alps and travel to Italy in order to meet with Gregory during the winter of 1076/77.

Bertha and their young son, Conrad, accompanied Henry on his dangerous journey. While the South German princes blocked his path, Henry hoped to travel through one of the Alpine passes controlled by his mother-in-law, but Adelaide extracted a high price before allowing him to do this.^[6] Adelaide then accompanied Henry and Bertha on the long and dangerous Walk to Canossa, where from 25 January 1077, Henry underwent penance for several days and begged Gregory VII's forgiveness. Adelaide was among those who acted an oath-helper to secure Henry’s absolution from excommunication.^[7]

After the forces of Henry IV had besieged and occupied Rome, he and Bertha were crowned emperor and empress on 31 March 1084 by Antipope Clement III.^[8]

Death

Bertha was thirty-six years old when she died in Mainz on 27 December 1087. She was buried in Speyer Cathedral.^[9]

Children

From her marriage with Henry, Bertha eventually had five children, two of whom died while still young:^[10]

• Adelheid (1070 – bef. 4 June 1079).^[11]
• Henry (1/2 August 1071 – 2 August 1071).
• Agnes (summer 1072/early 1073 – 24 September 1143), married firstly Frederick I, Duke of Swabia and secondly Leopold III, Margrave of Austria.
• Conrad (12 February 1074 – 27 July 1101), later Roman-German King and King of Italy.
• Henry V (11 August 1081/86 – 23 May 1125), later Roman-German King and Holy Roman Emperor.

References

• Bruno of Merseburg, Brunonis Saxonicum bellum in Brunos Buch vom Saxonkrieg, ed. H-E. Lohmann, MGH Dt. MA 2 (Leipzig, 1937), accessible online at: Monumenta Germaniae Historica (in Latin)
• Bruno of Merseburg, Brunonis Saxonicum bellum. Brunos Sachsenkrieg, in Quellen zur Geschichte Kaiser Heinrichs IV., ed. and trans. F-J. Schmale (Darmstadt, 1968), pp. 191–405. (in German)
• Lampert of Hersfeld, Annales, in Lamperti monachi Herfeldensis Opera, ed. O Holder-Egger, MGH SS rer Germ 38 (Hannover and Leipzig, 1894), accessible online at: Moumenta Germaniae Historica (in Latin)
• I.S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056-1106 (Cambridge, 2003).

External links

• Medieval Lands Project
• Bertha von Turin, Deutsche Königin (in German)

Notes

1. Robinson, Henry IV, p. 25
2. Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 60f.
3. 'Bruno of Merseburg, Brunonis Saxonicum bellum, p. 16
4. Lampert of Hersfeld, Annales, p. 106
5. Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 110f.
6. Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 159ff.
7. Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 161ff.
8. Robinson, Henry IV, pp. 229ff.
9. Robinson, Henry IV, p. 266
10. Robinson, Henry IV, p. 266
11. The chronicles of Jan Długosz and Archdiacon Sulger reported that she married Bolesław III Wrymouth, Duke of Poland at Bamberg in 1110 as her second wife. This view was challenged by Oswald Balzer (O. Balzer: Bolesław III Krzywousty, pp. 122-123) and contemporary charters and documents, who placed her as deceased in infancy or at least before 1101. Die Urkunden Heinrichs IV no. 466, p. 629 and no. 474, p. 644.