, Adelaide Of Italy

Adelaide of Italy (931 – 16 December 999), also called Adelaide ofBurgundy, was the second wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great[1] andwas crowned as the Holy Roman Empress with him by Pope John XII in Romeon February 2, 962.[2] She was the daughter-in-law of St. Queen Matildaof East Francia. Empress Adelaide was perhaps the most prominent Europeanwoman of the 10th century; she was regent of the Holy Roman Empire as theguardian of her grandson in 991-995.[1]

Born in Orbe, today in Switzerland, she was the daughter of Rudolf II ofBurgundy, a member of the Elder House of Welf, and Bertha of Swabia.[2]Her first marriage, at the age of fifteen, was to the son of her father''srival in Italy, Lothair II, the nominal King of Italy;[3] the union waspart of a political settlement designed to conclude a peace between herfather and Hugh of Provence, the father of Lothair. They had a daughter,Emma of Italy.
Marriage to Otto I[edit]

Adelaide and her second spouse Otto I the Great
The Calendar of Saints states that her first husband was poisoned by theholder of real power, his successor, Berengar of Ivrea, who attempted tocement his political power by forcing her to marry his son, Adalbert;when she refused and fled, she was tracked down and imprisoned for fourmonths at Como.

According to Adelheid''s contemporary biographer, Odilo of Cluny, shemanaged to escape from captivity. After a time spent in the marshesnearby, she was rescued and taken to a "certain impregnable fortress,"likely the fortified town of Canossa near Reggio.[4] She managed to sendan emissary to throw herself on the mercy of Otto the Great. His brotherswere equally willing to save the dowager queen, but Otto got an army intothe field. The widow met her rescuer at the old Lombard capital of Paviaand they married in 951. They had four children, as discussed below. PopeJohn XII crowned Otto Holy Roman Emperor in Rome on February 2, 962, and,breaking tradition, also crowned Adelheid as Holy Roman Empress.[2]

In Germany, the crushing of a revolt in 953 by Liudolf, Otto''s son by hisfirst marriage, cemented Adelheid''s position, for she retained all herdower lands. She and their eleven-year old son, the crown prince whobecame Otto II, accompanied Otto in 966 on his third expedition to Italy,where Otto restored the newly elected Pope John XIII to his throne (andexecuted some of the Roman rioters who had deposed him). Adelheidremained in Rome for six years while Otto ruled his kingdom from Italy.Their son Otto II was crowned co-emperor in 967, then married theByzantine princess Theophanu in April 972, resolving the conflict betweenthe two empires in southern Italy, as well as ensuring the imperialsuccession. Adelheid and her husband then returned to Germany, where Ottodied in May 973, at the same Membleben palace where his father had died37 years earlier.

Retirement
Adelaide had long entertained close relations with Cluny, then the centerof the movement for ecclesiastical reform, and in particular with itsabbots Majolus and Odilo. She retired to a nunnery she had founded in c.991 at Selz in Alsace.[5] Though she never became a nun, she spent therest of her days there in prayer. On her way to Burgundy to support hernephew Rudolf III against a rebellion, she died at Selz Abbey on December16, 999, days short of the millennium she thought would bring the SecondComing of Christ. She had constantly devoted herself to the service ofthe church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she alsointerested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus aprincipal agent—almost an embodiment—of the work of the Catholic Churchduring the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religion-cultureof western Europe.[6] A part of her relics are preserved in a shrine inHanover. Her feast day, December 16, is still kept in many Germandioceses.

Issue
In 947, Adelaide was married to King Lothair II of Italy. The unionproduced one child:
Emma of Italy - born 948, queen of France and wife of Lothair of France

In 951, Adelaide was married to King Otto I, the future Holy RomanEmperor. The union produced four children:
Henry - born 952
Bruno - born 953
Matilda - born 954, the first Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg
Otto II - born 955, later Holy Roman Emperor

Legacy
Adelaïde is the heroine of Gioacchino Rossini''s 1817 opera, Adelaide diBorgogna and William Bernard McCabe''s 1856 novel Adelaide, Queen ofItaly, or The Iron Crown.
Adelaide is a featured figure on Judy Chicago''s installation piece TheDinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the HeritageFloor.[7][8]