Gertrud (Bavaria and Saxony)

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Gertrude of Bavaria and Saxony (* probably 1154, † July 1, 1197 ) was a daughter of Henry the Lion , Duke of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria , and his first wife Clementia von Zähringen . As a wife, Gertrud was Duchess of Swabia for a short time, and later Queen of Denmark .

Romanesque St. Mary's Church in Vä
Ruins of the Gertrude Chapel in Vä

Life

In 1166, Gertrud was part of a mediation in the dispute between the Staufers and the Guelphs , which Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa managed at the court conference in Ulm : the twelve-year-old daughter of Heinrich the Lion and Friedrich IV , about ten years older , became Duke of Swabia , married. In 1167 Frederick IV moved to Italy with the imperial army led by Barbarossa, where a large part of the army fell ill with an epidemic in August 1167. On August 19, 1167, Friedrich IV died as a result of his illness. The short marriage between Friedrich and thirteen-year-old Gertrud remained childless.

In 1171, as part of his peace agreement with King Waldemar I of Denmark , Henry the Lion agreed the engagement of his widowed daughter to the then eight or nine-year-old Danish heir to the throne Knut VI. The wedding took place in 1176 or 1177. Gertrud's second husband had been crowned King of Denmark in 1170 , governor in Skåne at the time of their marriage, and followed his father as Knut VI in 1182. in office. This marriage also remained childless because - as the chronicler Arnold von Lübeck reports - the couple lived in chastity.

Gertrud died on July 1, 1197 and was buried in Vä . This place is in Skåne , a historic province in southern Sweden that belonged to Denmark until the 17th century. In Vä was around 1160 by Archbishop Eskil von Lund , who in 1170 Gertrud's husband Knut VI. was crowned king in Ringsted , founded a Premonstratensian monastery. This monastery was destroyed by fire in 1213, after which the canons moved to nearby Bäckaskog.

Gertrud's grave no longer exists. It is possible that she was buried in the Romanesque St. Mary's Church, which dates from the 12th century and survived the monastery fire of 1203. The Gertrude Chapel, of which only a ruin with a west gable from the 15th century remains, can also be used as a burial place. Gertrud's husband Knut VI. died in 1202 and was buried in St. Bendts Church in Ringsted, the then tomb of the kings of Denmark.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Tobias Weller: The marriage policy of the German nobility in the 12th century . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2004, pp. 270–272 u. P. 801.
  2. ^ A b Johannes CHR Steenstrup: Gertrud . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 6 : Gerson-H. Hansen . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1892, p. 10 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  3. ↑ a b c Peter Koblank: Marienkirche and Gertrudskapelle in Vä (Sweden) on stauferstelen.net; accessed on October 30, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Gertrud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gertrude of Bavaria; Gertrude of Saxony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Denmark (1182-1197)
DATE OF BIRTH unsure: 1154
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1197