Individual Details
Aelis (Adelheid) de Bourgogne
(Abt 931 - 16 Dec 999)
Aelis (or Adelheid or Adelaďde) was born about 931/932, the daughter of Rudolf II, king of Burgundy, and Bertha von Schwaben. She was perhaps the most prominent European woman of the 10th century. Her first marriage, at the age of fifteen, was to Lothar I, king of Italy, the son of her father's rival in Italy, Hugo of Arles, king of Italy. The union was part of a political settlement designed to conclude a peace between her father and Hugo. They had a daughter Emma who would have two sons by Lothar I, king of France, though neither would have progeny.
The Calendar of Saints states that her first husband was poisoned by the holder of real power, his successor Berengar II, king of Italy, who attempted to cement his political power by forcing her to marry his son Adalbert; when she refused and fled, she was tracked down and imprisoned for four months at Como. She escaped to the protection, at Canossa, of Adalbert Atto, where she was besieged by Berengar. She managed to send an emissary to throw herself on the mercy of Otto 'the Great' of Germany, son of Heinrich I 'the Fowler', King of the Germans, and Mathilde von Ringelheim. Otto's brothers were equally willing to save the heiress of Italy, but Otto brought an army to Lombardy and forced Berengar to acknowledge him as the overlord of Italy. Otto and Aelis subsequently met at the old Lombard capital of Pavia and were married in 951. He was crowned Emperor in Rome on 2 February 962 by Pope John XII, and, most unusually, she was crowned Empress at the same ceremony. Among their children, four lived to maturity but only Otto II, later Holy Roman Emperor, would have progeny.
In Germany, the crushing of a revolt in 953 by Liudolf, Herzog von Schwaben, Otto's son by his first marriage, cemented the position of Aelis, who retained all her dower lands. She accompanied Otto in 966 on his third expedition to Italy, where she remained with him for six years.
When her husband Otto I died in 973 he was succeeded by their son Otto II, and Aelis for some years exercised a powerful influence at court. Later, however, her daughter-in-law, the Byzantine princess Theophano Skleraina, turned her husband Otto II against his mother, and she was driven from court in 978; she lived partly in Italy, and partly with her brother Conrad I, king of Burgundy, by whose mediation she was ultimately reconciled to her son. In 983 Otto appointed her his viceroy in Italy. However, Otto died the same year, and although mother and grand-mother were appointed as co-regents for the child-king Otto III, Theophano forced Aelis to abdicate and exiled her. When Theophano died in 991, Aelis was restored to the regency of her grandson. She was assisted by Willigis, bishop of Mainz. In 995 Otto III came of age, and Aelis was free to devote herself exclusively to works of charity, notably the foundation or restoration of religious houses.
Aelis had long entertained close relations with Cluny, then the centre of the movement for ecclesiastical reform, and in particular with its abbots Majolus and Odilo. She retired to a monastery at Selz in Alsace that she had founded about 991. Though she never became a nun, she spent the rest of her days there in prayer. On her way to Burgundy to support her nephew Rudolf III against a rebellion, she died at the monastery of Selz, on 16 December 999, days short of the millennium she thought would bring the Second Coming of Christ. She had constantly devoted herself to the service of the Church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she also interested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus a principal agent - almost an embodiment - of the work of the Catholic Church during the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religion-culture of western Europe. Her feast day, 16 December, is still kept in many German dioceses.
Source: Leo van de Pas
The Calendar of Saints states that her first husband was poisoned by the holder of real power, his successor Berengar II, king of Italy, who attempted to cement his political power by forcing her to marry his son Adalbert; when she refused and fled, she was tracked down and imprisoned for four months at Como. She escaped to the protection, at Canossa, of Adalbert Atto, where she was besieged by Berengar. She managed to send an emissary to throw herself on the mercy of Otto 'the Great' of Germany, son of Heinrich I 'the Fowler', King of the Germans, and Mathilde von Ringelheim. Otto's brothers were equally willing to save the heiress of Italy, but Otto brought an army to Lombardy and forced Berengar to acknowledge him as the overlord of Italy. Otto and Aelis subsequently met at the old Lombard capital of Pavia and were married in 951. He was crowned Emperor in Rome on 2 February 962 by Pope John XII, and, most unusually, she was crowned Empress at the same ceremony. Among their children, four lived to maturity but only Otto II, later Holy Roman Emperor, would have progeny.
In Germany, the crushing of a revolt in 953 by Liudolf, Herzog von Schwaben, Otto's son by his first marriage, cemented the position of Aelis, who retained all her dower lands. She accompanied Otto in 966 on his third expedition to Italy, where she remained with him for six years.
When her husband Otto I died in 973 he was succeeded by their son Otto II, and Aelis for some years exercised a powerful influence at court. Later, however, her daughter-in-law, the Byzantine princess Theophano Skleraina, turned her husband Otto II against his mother, and she was driven from court in 978; she lived partly in Italy, and partly with her brother Conrad I, king of Burgundy, by whose mediation she was ultimately reconciled to her son. In 983 Otto appointed her his viceroy in Italy. However, Otto died the same year, and although mother and grand-mother were appointed as co-regents for the child-king Otto III, Theophano forced Aelis to abdicate and exiled her. When Theophano died in 991, Aelis was restored to the regency of her grandson. She was assisted by Willigis, bishop of Mainz. In 995 Otto III came of age, and Aelis was free to devote herself exclusively to works of charity, notably the foundation or restoration of religious houses.
Aelis had long entertained close relations with Cluny, then the centre of the movement for ecclesiastical reform, and in particular with its abbots Majolus and Odilo. She retired to a monastery at Selz in Alsace that she had founded about 991. Though she never became a nun, she spent the rest of her days there in prayer. On her way to Burgundy to support her nephew Rudolf III against a rebellion, she died at the monastery of Selz, on 16 December 999, days short of the millennium she thought would bring the Second Coming of Christ. She had constantly devoted herself to the service of the Church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she also interested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus a principal agent - almost an embodiment - of the work of the Catholic Church during the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religion-culture of western Europe. Her feast day, 16 December, is still kept in many German dioceses.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Events
| Birth | Abt 931 | ||||
| Marriage | 937 | Lothar King of Italy | |||
| Death | 16 Dec 999 |
Families
| Spouse | Lothar King of Italy (926 - 950) |
| Child | Emma of Italy (948 - 988) |