Adela of Champagne

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Adela von Champagne (4th from right) on a miniature in the Grandes Chroniques de France

Adela von Champagne ( French Adèle de Champagne ; * around 1145 ; † June 4, 1206 in Paris ), also called Adele and Alix , was Queen of France from 1160 to 1180 through her marriage to the French King Louis VII . Her son Philippe-Auguste gave her the guardianship of the heir to the throne Ludwig and, together with her brother Wilhelm von Blois , cardinal and archbishop of Reims , entrusted her with the government business for the time of his participation in the third crusade .

family

Adela was born around 1145 as the fifth daughter and thus the ninth child of Count Palatine Theobald II of Champagne (as Theobald IV also Count of Blois ) and his wife Mathilde von Spanheim . Her origins and affiliation with the Blois-Champagne house often determined Adela's actions during her time as Queen of France, because the Counts of Blois-Champagne and the French royal family were not always on the same side.

The marriage with Louis VII had three children:

  • Philip II Augustus (* 1165; † 1223)
  • Adelheid (* 1170; † after 1200), ⚭ Wilhelm III., Count of Ponthieu
  • Agnes (* 1171; † 1240)
⚭ 1) Alexios II.
⚭ 2) Andronikos I.
⚭ 3) Theodoros Branas

Life

Nothing is known about Adela's childhood and youth. It only became historically tangible on November 13th, 1160, when, around 15 years old, she married the 40-year-old French King Louis VII in the Paris Cathedral of Notre-Dame and became his third wife. Marriage and marriage of the two are by Suger of Saint-Denis ' chronicle Historia gloriosi regis Ludovici well known. The connection came about just six weeks after the death of Ludwig's second wife, Konstanze von Kastilien, on the advice of high ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries of the empire, because it was feared that the king might die without a male heir. It is possible that Adela's brother Henry I of Champagne proposed his younger sister as a candidate for marriage in order to bring about a rapprochement between the Capetians and the House of Champagne. For the royal family, the connection was again worthwhile in view of a possible coalition against the House of Plantagenet . The marriage took place so quickly that the Capetians were no longer able to respond to a further marriage offer made a little later by Konstanze von Bretagne, the sister of the Breton Duke Conan IV. , On the part of the Capetians. The wedding ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Hugo, who anointed Adela and crowned Adela on the same day . The marriage of Adela and Ludwig was not the only connection between the two families: The two daughters from Ludwig's first marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine married two brothers of the new queen. Marie was married to Henry I of Champagne, while Alix married Adela's brother Theobald , who also received the office of Seneschal of France .

The English King Heinrich Plantagenet reacted quickly to the alliance that was forming against him: A Pope Alexander III. The pressed dispensation made it possible for his son Heinrich the Younger to marry the promised Ludwig daughter Margarete , who was still a toddler at the time. The official engagement of the two took place in November 1160, after which the English king immediately seized the promised dowry in the form of the Norman county of Vexin . In the ensuing armed conflict towards the end of spring 1161, the French king benefited for the first time from his family relationship with the House of Champagne, because he was actively supported by his brother-in-law.

Birth of the long-awaited heir to the throne, miniature in the Grandes Chroniques de France

On August 21, 1165, after almost five years of marriage, Adela finally gave birth to the long-awaited heir to the throne, Philippe-Auguste, thus ensuring the continued existence of the Capetian dynasty . The two daughters Alix and Agnes followed in 1170 and 1171.

Due to his health condition weakened by a stroke , Ludwig VII had to withdraw from politics in 1179. With her brother Wilhelm at her side, Adela then took on political responsibility and thus came into competition with Count Philip I of Flanders , who had also tried to gain more power at court since 1175 and was also anxious to reduce the influence of the champagne. He enjoyed the trust of the heir to the throne, Philip, who was crowned co-king by Adela's brother Wilhelm on November 1, 1179 at the age of 14, and who now claimed sole reign for himself. Without the consent of his parents, he married Isabella von Hennegau on May 29, 1180 , who through her mother Margaret I of Flanders was a member of the Flemish count's house and thus a niece of Philip of Flanders. The House of Champagne tried to resist the loss of power and Adela stood by her brothers in this situation. She put the castles , which had been transferred to her as Wittum , into a state of defense and tried to persuade the king's vassals to desert their son. In the fight against the Flemish Count Philip I, she even tried to win the greatest adversary of the French royal family, Henry II of England, for an alliance, which the English king refused. Philip II had his mother's castles taken by his troops and the garrisons driven away. Adela then fled to her brother Theobald V. von Blois. When the Treaty of Gisors brought about a reconciliation between England and France on June 28, 1180, the quarreling court parties under the leadership of Adela of Champagne and Philip of Flanders had to settle their disputes.

After the death of her husband on September 19, 1180 at the latest , Adela von Champagne withdrew completely from the royal court to her Wittum and in the following period no longer actively sided with her family. At the request of her son, however, she returned to the court after ten years. Philip II not only gave her the reign in 1190 when he took part in the Third Crusade , but also entrusted her with the guardianship of his still underage son, Louis VIII, whose mother Isabella died on March 15 of that year. Adela's powers, however, were strictly regulated; for example, she was denied access to the crown jewels. Adela's reign was quite unspectacular. She was keen to maintain the status quo and postponed decisions of great political importance until her son returned from the crusade in December 1191. Her political activity at the French court came to an end, and the Queen Mother returned to her Wittum. Their Dotal estates were mainly in the southeastern part of the French crown domain and stretched from today's Corbeil-Essonnes via Melun , near which they supported the resettlement and re-establishment of the Le Jard monastery at the beginning of the 13th century , to the area around Sens .

After her death on June 4, 1206, Adela von Champagne was, according to her wishes, not buried next to her husband in the Basilica of Sant Denis , the traditional burial place of the French royal family, but first in the Cistercian Abbey of Barbeau . At the behest of the General Chapter of the Cistercians, however, her body was reburied only a short time later in the monastery church of Pontigny built by her father, 15 kilometers northeast of Auxerre .

literature

  • Christian Bouyer: Dictionnaire des Reines de France . Perrin, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-262-00789-6 .
  • Jean-François Dreux du Radier: Mémoires historiques, critiques, et anecdotes des reines et régentes de France . Volume 2. Neaulme, Amsterdam 1765, pp. 71-84 ( online ).
  • Gerd Hit: The French queens. From Bertrada to Marie Antoinette (8th – 18th centuries). Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1530-5 , pp. 106-108.
  • Karl Ferdinand Werner: Adela of Champagne . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 141.
  • Carsten Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 (= historical research . Volume 24.). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-08113-5 , pp. 242-250.

Web links

Commons : Adela von Champagne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ A b c Karl Ferdinand Werner: Adela of Champagne . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 141.
  2. ^ Anne Echols, Marty Williams: An annotated index of medieval women . Wiener [u. a.], New York [u. a.] 1992, ISBN 0-910129-27-4
  3. ↑ Information on Adela von Champagne on the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy website , accessed March 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Genealogische panel Kapetinger I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume 9. dtv; Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-59057-2 .
  5. ↑ C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 242.
  6. ↑ C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 244.
  7. ↑ C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 243.
  8. ↑ Information on Theobald V. von Blois on the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy website , accessed March 25, 2013.
  9. ↑ Carsten Woll, on the other hand, states that Adela had hardly any political influence during her husband's reign. Cf. C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 245.
  10. ↑ J.-F. Dreux du Radier: Mémoires historiques, critiques, et anecdotes des reines et régentes de France , p. 75.
  11. ↑ C. Bouyer: Dictionnaire des Reines de France .
  12. ↑ C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 247.
  13. ^ Jean Liron: Bibliotheque générale des auteurs de France . Volume 1. Paris 1733, p. 99 ( online ).
  14. ↑ C. Woll: The queens of high medieval France 987–1237 / 38 , p. 250.
predecessor Office Successor
Constance of Castile Queen of France
1160–1180 		Isabella of Hainaut
personal data
SURNAME Adela of Champagne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adele of Champagne; Adele de Champagne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of France, third wife of Louis VII of France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1145
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1206
Place of death Paris