Adelaide of Maurienne

Adelaide of Savoy or Adelaide of Maurienne (Italian: "Adelaide di Savoia" or "Adelasia di Moriana", French: "Adélaïde" or "Adèle de Maurienne"; 1092–November 18, 1154) was the daughter of Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy, and niece of Pope Callixtus II, who once visited her court in France. Her father died in 1103, and her mother married Renier I of Montferrat as a second husband.

She became the second wife of Louis VI of France (1081-1137), whom she married on August 3, 1115. They had eight children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queen consorts. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris. She was reputed to be "ugly," but attentive and pious. She and Louis had seven sons and one daughter:
*Their children:
**1) Philip of France (1116–1131)
**2) Louis VII (1120–November 18, 1180), King of France
**3) Henry (1121–1175), archbishop of Reims
**4) Hugues (b. c. 1122)
**5) Robert (c. 1123–October 11, 1188), count of Dreux
**6) Constance (c. 1124–August 16, 1176), married first Eustace IV, count of Boulogne and then Raymond V of Toulouse.
**7) Philip (1125–1161), bishop of Paris. not to be confused with his elder brother.
**8) Peter (c. 1125–1183), married Elizabeth, lady of Courtenay Afer Louis VI's death, Adélaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead she married Matthieu I of Montmorency, with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and in religious activities.

Adélaide is one of two queens in a legend related by William Dugdale. As the story goes, Queen Adélaide of France became enamoured of a young knight, William d'Albini, at a joust. But he was already engaged to Adeliza of Louvain and refused to become her lover. The jealous Adélaide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt apocryphal. As a great-granddaughter of Adeliza and Louis VI and also of Adeliza and her second husband, William d'Albini, I can verify that story is purely the figment of someone's idle imagination.

In 1153 she retired to the abbey of Montmartre, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on November 18, 1154. She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmarte, but her tomb was destroyed during the Revolution.

Ancestry

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1= 1. Adelaide of Maurienne
2= 2. Humbert II of Savoy
3= 3. Gisela of Burgundy
4= 4. Amadeus II of Savoy
5= 5. Jeanne of Geneva
6= 6. William I, Count of Burgundy
7= 7. Étiennette de Longwy
8= 8. Otto of Savoy
9= 9. Adelaide of Susa
10= 10. Gérold II, Count of Geneva
11= 11. Gisèle
12= 12. Reginald I, Count of Burgundy
13= 13. Adelaide of Normandy
14= 14. Adalbert, Count of Longwy
15= 15. Clémence de Foix
16= 16. Humbert I of Savoy
17= 17. Auxilia of Lenzburg
18= 18. Ulric Manfred II of Turin
19= 19. Bertha of Luni
20= 20. Gérold I, Count of Geneva
21= 21. Berthe
24= 24. Otto-William, Count of Burgundy
25= 25. Adelaide Ermentrude of Reims and Roucy
26= 26. Richard II, Duke of Normandy
27= 27. Judith of Brittany
28= 28. Gérard I of Bouzonville
29= 29. Gisèle
30= 30. Bernard-Roger of Foix
31= 31. Garsenda de Bigorre

ources

*"Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700" by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 101-24, 117-24, 135-26, 274A-25
*Nolan, Kathleen D. "Capetian Women"Facinger, Marion F. "A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987-1237" Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 5 (1968: 3-48.