Apps

Adelaide of Italy — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Holy Roman Empress

Adelaide accompanied her husband on his second expedition to Italy to subdue the revolt of Berengar II and to protect Pope John XII. In Rome, Otto the Great was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on 2 February 962 by Pope John XII. Breaking new ground, Pope John XII also crowned Adelaide as Holy Roman Empress. In 960, a new ordo was created for her coronation and anointing, including prayers to biblical female figures, especially Esther. The ordo presents a theological and political concept that legitimizes the empress's status as a divinely ordained component of the earthly rule. In 966, Adelaide and the eleven-year-old Otto II, travelled again with Otto on his third expedition to Italy, where the Emperor restored the newly elected Pope John XIII to his throne (and executed some of the Roman rioters who had deposed him). Crucial to Otto's establishing legitimacy in his conquest of Italy and in bringing the imperial crown to the couple, was the support of Adelaide and her extensive network of relations. As heir to the Italian throne, Adelaide established for late Carolingian traditions the legitimate claim over Italy by the imperial throne.

Adelaide remained in Rome for six years while Otto ruled his kingdom from Italy. Otto II was crowned co-emperor in 967, then married the Byzantine princess Theophanu in April 972, resolving the conflict between the two empires in southern Italy and ensuring the imperial succession. Adelaide and her husband returned to Germany, where Otto I died in May 973, at the same Memleben palace where his father had died 37 years earlier.

After her coronation, which increased her power as she was now consors regni and able to receive people from the entire Empire, Adelaide's interventions in political decisions increased. According to Buchinger, "Between 962 and 972 Adelheid appears as intervenient in seventy-five charters. Additionally Adelheid and Otto I are named together in Papal bulls". She often protected the ecclesiastic institutions, seemingly to gain a sphere of influence separate from that of her husband. Between 991 and 993, the brothers of Feuchtwang wrote to her and requested to be "protected by the shadow of your rule from now on, we may be safe from the tumults of secular attacks". They promised they would pray for her so that her reign would be long and stable.

Adelaide wielded a great amount of power during her husband's reign, as evidenced by several requests made to her. A letter, written in the 980s by her daughter Emma demanded that Adelaide intervene against Emma's enemies and mobilize forces in the Ottonian Empire. She also asked that Adelaide capture Hugh Capet, who was already elected king of West Frankia in 987. Another enemy of Emma's was Charles, the brother of Emma's deceased consort Lothar, who had accused his sister-in-law of adultery. Another pleader was Gerbert of Aurillac, at that time archbishop of Reims (the later Pope Sylvester II), who wrote to Adelaide to ask for protection against his enemies. Buchinger remarks that, "These examples are remarkable, because they imply that Adelheid had the possibilities to help in both cases or at least Emma and Gerbert do believe that she could have intervened and succeeded. Both are themselves important political figures in their realm and still they rely on Adelheid. Adelheid’s power and importance must have been extremely stable and reliable to do as wished by the pleaders."

Regency

In 983, her son Otto II died and was succeeded by Adelaide's grandson Otto III under the regency of Theophanu while Adelaide remained in Italy. For some time, Adelaide and Theophanu were able to put aside their separate interests and work together to ensure Otto III's succession. This is seen through their joint appearance in the charters. According to the Annales Quedlinburgenses, after Otto II's death, Henry, duke of Bavaria kidnapped Otto III. The narrative claims that Adelaide returned from Lombardy to join with Theophanu, Matilda, and other leaders of Europe and reclaim the child.

When Theophanu died in 991, Adelaide assumed regency on behalf of Otto III until he reached legal majority three years later. Adelaide's role in establishing Otto's position can be seen in a letter Otto III wrote to his grandmother in 996: "According to your [Adelheid’s] wishes and desires, the divinity has conferred the rights of an empire on us [Otto III] with a happy outcome".

Troubles in the East continued under Adelaide, as Boleslaus of Bohemia wavered in his loyalty. In 992, there was war between Bohemia and Poland, and again like in Theophanu's time, the Ottonian regime sided with Poland. Jestice comments that, "Christianity was not re-established in the land of the Liutizi during their lifetimes. But there were territorial gains, and by 987 it was possible to begin rebuilding destroyed fortresses along the Elbe". A Saxon army, with Otto III's presence, took Brandenburg in 991. The Hildesheim annal reports that there was another expedition in 992.

Thietmar of Merseburg reports that Otto III dismissed his grandmother after his mother's death, but Althoff doubts this story. Even after Otto attained majority, Adelaide often accompanied him in his travels and influenced him, along with other women.

In Burgundy, Adelaide's homeland, the counts and castellans behaved increasingly independently from their king Rudolph III. Just before her death in 999, she had to intervene in Burgundy to restore peace.

Depictions in art

Adelaide is usually represented in the garb of an empress, with sceptre and crown. Since the 14th century, she is also given as an attribute a model church or a ship (by which she is said to have escaped from captivity).

The most famous representation of Adelaide in German art belongs to a group of sandstone figures in the choir of Meissen Cathedral, which was created around 1260. She is shown here with her husband, who was not canonized, since he founded the diocese of Meissen with her.

Adelaide of Burgundy is the main character of the opera l'Adelaide (1672) by Antonio Sartorio.

Adelaide is the subject of a 1723 opera by Nicola Porpora, where she was played by the great castrato Farinelli en travesti.

Lotario is a 1729 opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It is a fictionalisation of some events in the life of Adelaide.

Adelaide is the heroine of Adelaide di Borgogna, an opera with two acts (1817) by Gioachino Rossini (music) and Giovanni Schmidt (libretto).

Adelaide is the heroine of William Bernard McCabe's 1856 novel Adelaide, Queen of Italy, or The Iron Crown.

Adelheid, Mutter der Königreiche (Adelaide, Mother of Kingdoms) published in 1936 by Gertrud Bäumer.

Die fremde Königin (The Foreign Queen), published in 2017, Adelaide is one of the central characters in Rebecca Gablé's novel.

Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda: medieval female rulership and the foundations of European society by Penelope Nash (2017).

Imperial ladies of the Ottonian Dynasty: women and rule in tenth-century Germany by Phyllis G. Jestice (2018)

God's Maidservant: The story of Adelaide of Italy (Women of the Dark Ages) by Anna Chant (2017)

San Giuseppe con Gesù Bambino tra Sant'Adelaide, Sant'Antonio da Padova, San Lupo e San Michele arcangelo by Francesco Coghetti, 1828

Adelaide is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor, with the related place setting of Theodora (wife of Justinian I).

Adelaide of Italy

Comments

Adelaide of Italy

Comments

Adelaide of Italy across IJR

Article

Article

Life

Early life

Marriage and alliance with Otto I

Holy Roman Empress

Otto II's era

Regency

Later years

Issue

Historiography and cultural depictions

Historiography

Depictions in art

Adelaide of Italy across IJR