Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou

Notes:

"Wife of four husbands, and the ancestress of important comital families through three of her marriages, Adélaïde, alias Blanche, was also briefly queen of France, and the mother of another French queen. Yet, in the early nineteenth century, scholars were still confused about her identity. Her story has to be pieced together from various records which, for example, mention an Alaiz, mother of count Pons de Gévaudan, or a Blanca, wife of Louis V, king of France, or an Adelaidis, cui prenomen erat Candida, mother of queen Constance, and only in hindsight is it clear that these records refer to the same woman. The discovery of the work of the historian Richer in the 1830's added a key piece to the puzzle by mentioning three of Adélaïde's marriages, but historians were slow to take advantage of the new information. Nevertheless, by the late nineteeth century, historians had accepted that Adélaïde, alias Blanche, daughter of Foulques II of Anjou, had been successively married to Étienne de Brioude (at the time often incorrectly called count of Gévaudan), king Louis V of France, and Guillaume I (or II) of Provence, and that she was the mother by the last of queen Constance, wife of king Robert II of France, although the marriage to Raymond of "Gothia" was still widely doubted. More recently, in the face of clear proof that Adélaïde was the mother of Guillaume "Taillefer", count of Toulouse, it has been recognized that her marriage to the obscure Raymond was genuine." [The Henry Project]

Family/Spouse: Etienne de Brioude. Etienne (son of Bertrand and Emilde) died between 970 and 975. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adelaide-Blanche married Raymond de Toulouse about 975. Raymond died before 982. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adelaide-Blanche married Louis V, King of Western Francia in 982 in Vieille-Brioude, Haute-Loire, France, and was divorced in 984. Louis (son of Lothair, King of Western Francia and Emma of Italy) was born in 966; died on 21 May 987. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adelaide-Blanche married Guillaume I "le Liberateur" after 984. Guillaume (son of Boso and Constance) was born in 950; died after 29 Aug 993; was buried in Sarrians, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 4 Mar 1019

Notes:

Count of Arles, 967. Marquess of Provence from before 967 to 993-94. ]

Family/Spouse: Gerberga of Mâcon. Gerberga (daughter of Otto-William of Burgundy and Ermentrude de Roucy) died between 1020 and 1023. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 986
• Alternate death: 25 Jul 1032, Château Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France

Notes:

Also called Constance de Toulouse; Constance of Arles.

"Queen Constance was not someone to be caught with down a dark alley, or even a well-lit street -- she was a violent termagant who once poked out a priest's eye with a stick when undertaking crowd control at a heresy trial. She fomented war between her sons over the succession after Robert II's death." [Peter Stewart, SGM, 3 Jun 2022]

Constance married Robert II, King of France about May 1004. Robert (son of Hugues Capet, King of France and Adélaïde, Queen Consort of France) was born about 970-974 in Orléans, Loiret, France; died on 20 Jul 1031 in Château Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Provence.

Family/Spouse: Ermengarde. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Josfred. Count of Provence.

Family/Spouse: Etiennette. Etiennette died in 1095. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Advisa; Adele of France.

Hedwig married Renaud I de Nevers on 25 Jan 1016. Renaud (son of Landry de Maers and Matilda of Burgundy) was born about 990; died on 24 May 1040 in Sainte-Vertu, Burgundy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henri married Anne of Kiev, Queen Consort of France on 19 May 1051 in Rheims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Anne (daughter of Yaroslav I "The Wise", Grand Prince of Kiev and Ingegerd (St. Anna) of Sweden) was born in 1036 in Kiev, Ukraine; died after 1075. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1003
• Alternate birth: Abt 1009, Ypres, Flanders
• Alternate death: Abt 1063

Notes:

Also called Adela; Aelis; Alais; Adelaide; Adelheid; Alix; Adela the Holy; Adela of Messines. Countess of Auxerre; Countess of Cotentin.

Adele married Richard III on 10 Jan 1027. Richard (son of Richard II and Judith of Brittany) was born in 1001; died on 5 Aug 1027. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adele married Baldwin V in 1028 in Paris, France. Baldwin (son of Baldwin IV "The Bearded" and Otgiva of Luxembourg) was born about 1010; died on 1 Sep 1067; was buried in Lille, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 May 1076

Notes:

"The Old." Duke of Burgundy.

"In 1025, with the death of his eldest brother Hugh Magnus, he and Henry rebelled against their father and defeated him, forcing him back to Paris. In 1031, after the death of his father the king, Robert participated in a rebellion against his brother, in which he was supported by his mother, Constance of Arles. Peace was only achieved when Robert was given Burgundy (1032). Throughout his reign, he was little more than a robber baron who had no control over his own vassals, whose estates he often plundered, especially those of the Church. He seized the income of the diocese of Autun and the wine of the canons of Dijon. He burgled the abbey of St-Germain at Auxerre. In 1055, he repudiated his wife, Helie of Semur, and assassinated her brother Joceran and murdered her father, his father-in-law, Lord Dalmace I of Semur, with his own hands. In that same year, the bishop of Langres, Harduoin, refused to dedicate the church of Sennecy so as not "to be exposed to the violence of the duke." [Wikipedia]

Robert married Helie of Semur about 1033. Helie (daughter of Dalmas I of Semur and Aremburge de Vergy) was born about 1015; died after 1055 in Priory of the Holy Trinity of Marcigny-lès-Nonnains, Burgundy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Ermengarde of Anjou about 1048. Ermengarde (daughter of Foulques III "Nerra" and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born about 1018; died on 18 Mar 1076. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Provence.

Family/Spouse: Adelaide de Cavenez. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Provence, 1061-1093.

Bertrand married Mathilde in 1063. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Countess of Provence; Countess of Arles.

Ancestral Roots [111:26] gives her as a daughter of Fulk (Bertrand), Count of Provence, citing Europäische Stammtafeln, but the discussion in this SGM thread suggests that this is an error on ES's part and that she was, as most other sources have her, a daughter of Fulk (Betrand)'s father, Geoffrey I of Provence.

Family/Spouse: Gilbert of Gévauden. Gilbert (son of Berenger and Adele de Carlat) died in 1111. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Nevers.

Guillaume married Ermengarde de Tonnerre about 1039. Ermengarde (daughter of Renaud de Tonnerre) died before 1090. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Robert "The Burgundian." Died on the First Crusade.

Family/Spouse: Hawise de Sable. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philippe married Bertha of Holland, Queen Consort of France in 1072. Bertha (daughter of Floris I of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony) was born about 1055; died on 30 Jul 1093 in Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philippe married Bertrade de Montfort in 1093. Bertrade (daughter of Simon I de Montfort l'Aumary and Agnès d'Évreux) was born about 1070; died between 1115 and 1117. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 18 Oct 1102, Tarsus, Cilicia

Notes:

Count of Crépy. Count of Vermandois and Valois. Duke of France.

Also called Hugh "Magnus".

The place where he died, in what is now south-central Turkey, is the same Tarsus as in "Saul of Tarsus," before he turned into St. Paul.

Post to SGM by Nathaniel Lane Taylor, 22 Jan 2004, about the battle in which Hugues died:

[I]t was I who first first posted the death date & circumstances on Hugh of Vermandois when I started this whole messy thread. But the 1101 date is clearly correct, because Hugh died of wounds after the battle in which a Crusader force was annihilated at Heraklea (Asia Minor) in late September of 1101. There is no mistaking the year, in the chronology of the first Crusade's aftermath. Runciman (2:28-29) does not provide a precise date for that battle, but it was one of three major failures of Western forces the Summer and Fall of 1101. See generally his History of the Crusades, vol. 2, chapter 2, "The Crusades of 1101." On the battle at Heraklea, he says:

"Early in September they [see below] entered Heraclea, which they found deserted as Konya had been. Just beyond the town flowed the river, one of the few Anatolian streams to flow abundantly throughout the summer. The Christian warriors, half-mad from thirst, broke their ranks to rush to the welcoming water. But the Turkish army lay concealed in the thickets on the river banks. As the crusaders surged on in disorder, the Turks sprang out on them and surrounded them. There was no time to reform ranks. Panic spread through the Christian army. Horsemen and infantry were mixed in a dreadful stampede; and as they stumbled in their attempt to flee they were slaughtered by the enemy. The duke of Aquitaine, followed by one of his grooms, cut his way out and rode into the mountains. After many days of wandering through the passes he found his way to Tarsus. Hugh of Vermandois was badly wounded in the battle; but some of his men rescued him and he too reached Tarsus. But he was a dying man. His death took place on 18 October and they buried him there in the Cathedral of St Paul. He never fulfilled his vow to go to Jerusalem. Welf of Bavaria only escaped by throwing away all his armor. After several weeks he arrived with two or three attendants at Antioch. Archbishop Thiemo [of Salzburg] was taken prisoner and martyred for his faith. The fate of the Margravine of Austria is unknown. Later legends said that she ended her days a captive in a far-off harem, where she gave birth to the Moslem hero Zengi. More probably she was thrown from her litter in the panic and trampled to death."

Runciman cites Albert of Aachen, 8.34-40 (pp. 579-82 in the edition he cites); and Ekkehard, 24-26 (pp. 30-32), among other material on the legend of the the Margravine of Austria, etc.

It is PNH's contention that this Hugh le Grand is the exact bellybutton of the Middle Ages. His father was a king of France; his mother was one of the daughters of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev; and his daughter Isabel married, as her first husband, one of the Conqueror's proven companions at Hastings. Another daughter, Agnes, married a marcher lord of northern Italy. Through his mother he was also descended from three canonized Kievan saints and two kings of Sweden. He married the last member of the Carolingian dynasty. He died on Crusade. He was called Hugues le Grand. Case closed.

Hugues married Adèle de Vermandois about 1080. Adèle (daughter of Herbert IV and Adela of Vexin) died in 1120; was buried on 28 Sep 1120 in Vermandois, Aisne, Picardy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 17 Jul 1070

Notes:

Count/Marquess of Flanders and (as Baldwin I) Count of Hainaut.

Baldwin married Richilde of Hainaut about 1055. Richilde was born between 1015 and 1020; died on 15 Mar 1086; was buried in Abbey of Hasnon, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 3 Nov 1083

Notes:

She was about four feet tall, probably accounting for the short stature reported of some of her children, notably including Robert "Curthose" and probably including William Rufus as well.

Matilda married William I, King of England about 1050. William (son of Robert I and Herleve) was born in 1027-1028 in Falais, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 9 Sep 1087 in St. Gervais, near Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Flanders.

Robert married Gertrude of Saxony in 1063. Gertrude (daughter of Bernard II and Eilika of Schweinfurt) was born about 1030; died on 4 Aug 1113. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Called "The Gallant" (le Damoiseau).

Family/Spouse: (Unknown wife of Henry I of Burgundy). (Unknown died after 5 Jul 1074; was buried in Besançon, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1093

Constance married Alfonso VI, King of Leon, Castile, and Galicia in 1079. Alfonso (son of Ferdinand I, King of Leon and Sancha of Leon) was born about 1039; died on 1 Jul 1109 in Toledo, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain; was buried in Royal Monastery of San Benito, Sahagun, León, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hildegarde married Guy-Geoffrey of Poitou in 1069. Guy-Geoffrey (son of William III of Poitou and Agnes of Burgundy) was born about 1024; died on 25 Sep 1086 in Chizé, Deux-Sèvres, Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]