Engelberga

Engelberga (also Angilberga ) († March 23, 890 or 891 ) was Empress as the wife of Emperor Ludwig II († August 12, 875).

In 868 she became abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia , later abbess of the monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza, which she founded .

It is believed that she was the daughter of Count Adelgisus I of Parma from the Supponid family . The engagement to Ludwig took place before October 5th in 851, the date of the marriage is not known. She participated intensively in her husband's political work, which is why her contemporaries described her as domineering. She was also said to be greedy, probably based on the fact that her husband made twelve donations to her. When Ludwig fell ill in 864, her influence even increased, and she was increasingly faced with an opposition to the nobility.

Since Ludwig and Engelberga had no male descendants, after the nobility had tried to remove them from the imperial court in January 872, in the same year they started negotiations with Ludwig the German in order to make him heir to Italy and the imperial crown. After the death of her husband (875) the northern Italian nobility chose the West Franconian King Karl the Kahlen as his successor and thereby deprived Engelberga of power. Karl's brother-in-law and ally Boso von Vienne kidnapped Engelberga's only surviving daughter, Ermengarde , and forced her to marry (March / June 876). In the same year Boso was appointed governor in Italy with the title dux .

Boso's election as King of Lower Burgundy on October 15, 879, which Engelberga apparently supported in the interests of her daughter, then led to Charles the Bald's successor, Charlemagne, who banished Engelberga to Swabia . After her daughter Ermengarde failed to hold Vienne against Karl's troops, Engelberga was allowed to return to Italy in 882 and was even confirmed in her possessions.

progeny

Ludwig and Engelberga had two daughters:

• Gisela (Gisla), * probably 852/855, † before April 28, 868, 861 abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia
• Ermengarde , * probably 852/855, † 896 before June 22nd, 878 abbess of San Salvatore in Brescia ; ∞ March / June 876 Boso of Vienne , † January 11, 887, 876 dux of Italy , 877 Count of Troyes , October 15, 879 King of Lower Burgundy , buried in Saint-Maurice in Vienne ( Buviniden )

literature

• François Bougard:  Engelberga. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 42:  Dugoni – Enza. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1993, pp. 668-676.
• Brigitte Kasten : Empresses in Carolingian times . In: Amalie Fößel (Ed.): The Empresses of the Middle Ages . Pustet, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7917-2360-0 , pp. 11-34, especially pp. 18-23 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Martina Hartmann , The Queen in the Early Middle Ages , Stuttgart 2009, p. 217.

predecessor	Office	Successor
Judith	Roman-German Empress after 851 to 875	Richardis