Individual Details
Berta de Savoia
(21 Sep 1051 - 27 Dec 1087)
Berta was born on 21 September 1051, the daughter of Otto, comte de Savoie, and Adelaide de Susa, Markgräfin von Susa, Herrin von Torino. During the lifetime of Emperor Heinrich III, Berta and Heinrich IV were betrothed as young children on 25 December 1055 in Zürich. The wedding took place on 13 July 1066 in Trebur.
While Berta was said to have fallen in love with Heinrich from the outset, Heinrich initially viewed his wife with aversion. Although she was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno, an avowed opponent of Heinrich IV, reported on the emperor's continual unfaithfulness: 'He had two or three Kebsweiber (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 Berta (...) 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.'
In 1069 Heinrich began procedures for a divorce, supplying what was for the time an unusually honest reason for the divorce: 'The king 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.' (Bruno of Merseburg)
The German episcopacy dared not submit to the king's demands, and called on Pope Alexander II for assistance. He sent Petrus Damiani as his legate to the Synod in Frankfurt, and rejected the divorce. Heinrich then apparently submitted to his fate, his first daughter by Berta being born in the year after the divorce attempt. They had two sons and three daughters, of whom Heinrich (the future Emperor Heinrich V) and Agnes would have progeny.
Berta also accompanied her husband on his dangerous journey to Canossa, carrying her three-year-old son Konrad. She remained with her husband between 25 and 28 January 1077 in freezing weather beyond the walls of the castle, in order to reach a solution of Heinrich's dispute with the pope. Together with Heinrich, Berta later also journeyed to Rome, and on 31 March 1084 she was crowned Empress.
Berta died in Mainz on 27 December 1087. She was buried in the cathedral of Speyer.
Source: Leo van de Pas
While Berta was said to have fallen in love with Heinrich from the outset, Heinrich initially viewed his wife with aversion. Although she was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno, an avowed opponent of Heinrich IV, reported on the emperor's continual unfaithfulness: 'He had two or three Kebsweiber (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 Berta (...) 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.'
In 1069 Heinrich began procedures for a divorce, supplying what was for the time an unusually honest reason for the divorce: 'The king 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.' (Bruno of Merseburg)
The German episcopacy dared not submit to the king's demands, and called on Pope Alexander II for assistance. He sent Petrus Damiani as his legate to the Synod in Frankfurt, and rejected the divorce. Heinrich then apparently submitted to his fate, his first daughter by Berta being born in the year after the divorce attempt. They had two sons and three daughters, of whom Heinrich (the future Emperor Heinrich V) and Agnes would have progeny.
Berta also accompanied her husband on his dangerous journey to Canossa, carrying her three-year-old son Konrad. She remained with her husband between 25 and 28 January 1077 in freezing weather beyond the walls of the castle, in order to reach a solution of Heinrich's dispute with the pope. Together with Heinrich, Berta later also journeyed to Rome, and on 31 March 1084 she was crowned Empress.
Berta died in Mainz on 27 December 1087. She was buried in the cathedral of Speyer.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Events
| Birth | 21 Sep 1051 | ||||
| Marriage | 13 Jul 1066 | Trebur - Heinrich IV Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire | |||
| Death | 27 Dec 1087 | ||||
| Burial | Dom, Speyer |
Families
| Spouse | Heinrich IV Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1050 - 1106) |
| Child | Agnes von Franken (1072 - 1143) |