Beatrix of Swabia

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Beatrix of Swabia (April / June 1198 ; † August 11, 1212 in Nordhausen ) was Roman-German Empress for three weeks .

Life

Beatrix, ideal portrait in the Weingartener Stifterbüchlein , around 1510

Beatrix was the eldest daughter of the German royal couple Philip of Swabia from the Staufer and Irene (Maria) dynasty of Byzantium . In 1203 her father offered it to Pope Innocent III. to get engaged to his nephew. However, this attempt to achieve a reconciliation between the Hohenstaufen and the Popes failed. In 1208 Philip offered her to his rival king Otto IV , a Guelph , for marriage. He wanted to pacify the adversary, defeated at Wassenberg in 1206 , after a ten-year feud . Otto IV accepted the offer - after the murder of her father Philip in June 1208 and the death of her mother (Queen Irene died of the premature birth of her eighth child) in August of the same year, and became engaged to the still minor in 1209.

Beatrix had her grandfather I. Frederick Barbarossa and her great-grandmother Judith Welf with Henry the Black same Guelph as a great-great grandfather, who over Otto IV. Father Henry the Lion and his grandfather Henry the Proud was Otto's great-grandfather. Because of this relationship, the papal approval for a marriage had to be obtained; it was issued on May 24, 1209. In return, however, the Pope asked for funding from two churches. Since Otto, like his other great-grandfather Lothar von Supplinburg, was close to the Cistercians , he donated to the monastery church of Walkenried (founded in 1127, new Gothic church from 1209) and the Riddagshausen monastery church (founded in 1145; new church from 1216).

Welfentumba in the Brunswick Cathedral

It was not until July 22nd, 1212, that Emperor Otto IV was able to marry the 14-year-old who was now marriageable in Nordhausen. The marriage with the granddaughter Barbarossa served to legitimize Otto's rule after Friedrich II. , Grandson Barbarossa and son Heinrich VI. , had been raised to the rank of anti-king and was on his way to Germany to enforce his claim to regent. When her cousin arrived in Konstanz , Beatrix had already died - 21 days after their wedding. As a result of this death, supporters of Otto IV, who were friendly to the Hohenstaufen, fell away.

Beatrix was buried in the Braunschweig Cathedral of St. Blasii, as was her husband Otto IV six years after her. The grave of the imperial couple was originally located at the tomb of Otto's parents Heinrich the Lion and his wife Mathilde, where a commemorative plaque set in the ground on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Otto's coronation has been a reminder of the two since 2009. Since Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel had the bones of his ancestors, among them Otto IV and Beatrix, buried in the nave, exhumed and buried together in a monumental limestone tumba in 1707 , the two have been in this tumba in the northern apse of the cathedral .

In art

literature

Web links

Commons : Beatrix von Schwaben  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Tobias Weller: The marriage policy of the German nobility in the 12th century , Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004, p. 225.
  2. ↑ Josef Mühlberger: The way of life and fates of the Hohenstaufen women , Esslingen 1977, pp. 77-78.
  3. ↑ Cathedral: A touch of Otto behind every column. In: New Braunschweiger. May 27, 2009, p. 3.
  4. ↑ DIRECTORY OF THE v.DERSCHAUISCHE Kunstkabinett zu NÜRNBERG .... Nuremberg, at the obliged auctionator Schmidmer., 1825., directory of rare art collections., 1825., Google Books, online , pp. 3 and 4
predecessor Office Successor
Constance of Sicily Holy Roman Empress
July 22, 1212 to August 11, 1212 		Maria of Brabant
personal data
SURNAME Beatrix of Swabia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beatrix von Hohenstaufen; Beatrix of Braunschweig (married name.)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Consort of Otto IV, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire
DATE OF BIRTH April 1198 or June 1198
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1212
Place of death Nordhausen