Gertrude of Saxony (1115–1143)
Gertrud (also called Gertraud von Süpplingenburg or von Supplinburg ; * April 18, 1115 , † April 18, 1143 ) was the only child of Emperor Lothar III. (Lothar von Süpplingenburg), Duke of Saxony , and the Richenza von Northeim .
Life
Sources give almost no information about Gertrud's upbringing. Born on Easter 1115 after 15 years of childless marriage of her parents, Gertrud was the sole heir of the Duchy of Saxony and, after her father was elected Emperor, a high-ranking party for marriage. It can be assumed that she has been prepared for this role and the associated expectations within the framework of her status. No written certificates have been received from Gertrud herself. Their late birth made further offspring very unlikely. Lothar von Sachsen had amalgamated large areas of Saxony, among other things through marriage, not least through the enfeoffment of the Duchy of Saxony and the Brunon inheritance of his mother-in-law Gertrud the Younger of Brunswick . Gertrud's ancestors already proved to be politically active: Her great-grandfather Otto von Northeim is considered the leader of the opposition in the so-called Saxon War against Heinrich IV .
With her father's election as king in September 1125, Gertrud became the most promising game in the German-Roman Empire. Although there was a family relationship to the heir to the throne Friedrich II of Swabia , Heinrich the Proud Lothar gave his vote in the 1125 king's election and thus received Gertrude and the Saxon inheritance as a compensation, although the clear relationship between these actions is not considered a general historical research consensus. Gertrud was promised to marry Heinrich the Proud Welf on May 22, 1127 at the “Hoftag in Merseburg”, who had been Duke of Bavaria since 1126 and also became Duke of Saxony after the death of his father-in-law. The wedding celebrations took place a few days later on May 29th on Gunzenlee near Augsburg . At the time of the marriage, she was only 12 years old, Gertrud was at the lower limit of the usual marriageable age of 12 or 13 to 20 years. In 1126 Heinrich the Proud was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Saxony, a guarantee of his future father-in-law to secure the military support of the Guelphs. In Gertrud's case, not only the date, place and potential witnesses of the wedding are given; It is also certain that after the wedding on Gunzenlee near Augsburg, Heinrich the Proud led his young wife to Ravensburg to the south-west and instructed her to stay there until autumn - presumably to protect her from the ongoing fighting between Staufers and Welfen .
Heinrich and Gertrud are parents of the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, Heinrich the Lion , born 1129/30. After the death of Heinrich the proud in 1139, Gertrud took over the reign of both duchies for her only ten-year-old son. Heinrich the Lion spends his childhood and youth under the care of his mother and grandmother and a select group of tutors. As the Saxon regent, Gertrud, with the help of her mother, was able to secure her son's right of inheritance against Albrecht the Bear by settling with King Konrad III. agreed.
After Heinrich's death in 1139, Gertrud married the Babenberg Heinrich II Jasomirgott , the margrave of Austria († 1177), on May 1, 1142 . This marriage was concluded through the mediation of King Konrad, who also organized the celebrations. Gertrude's second marriage to Duke Heinrich Jasomirgott of Austria was part of the so-called Frankfurt Compensation of 1142. At the court in Frankfurt, Albrecht the Bear renounced family-based claims to Saxony, which Heinrich the Lion received shortly afterwards as a fief. Heinrich Jasomirgott, brother of the late Leopold IV of Austria and half-brother of King Conrad III, was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Bavaria in the following year. From the brief period of guardianship after Richenza's death and his marriage to Heinrich Jasomirgott, documents have been handed down about jointly attested donations by Henry the Lion, at least one of them also with the participation of her second husband. Gertrud first traveled with her husband from Saxony to Austria. She died on April 18, 1143 giving birth to a daughter, probably Richardis, later Landgrave von Steffling.
She was buried first in Klosterneuburg near Vienna or possibly in Königslutter am Elm next to her husband and parents. In the 13th century her bones were transferred to the burial place of the Babenbergers in the chapter house of the Heiligenkreuz Abbey.
Role as regent of Henry the Lion
After the death of Heinrich the Proud, Gertrud had to actively defend her son's inheritance against claims from outside, after both Bavaria and Saxony were withdrawn from the Proud and taken by Emperor Konrad III. had been reassigned. While her mother Richenza initially took a leading role in this context and defended Saxony by force, Gertrud took a different course after her mother's death. Presumably in order to secure his inheritance for her son until his approaching maturity, she tactically remarried and referred to Konrad III's plans. with a. Due to Richenza's great influence in Saxony, it was awarded to Heinrich the Lion in 1139. Gertrud advised her son not to use Bavaria and instead married its new owner, Heinrich Jasomirgott. In this way, the duchies would not have been directly preserved for her son, but his direct family would have been preserved. With Gertrude's death in childbed, however, hopes that Bavaria would bond with her children were dashed. Gertrud's negotiations with Konrad, who paid for the wedding, show her as an active political figure for her son's successor.
The marriage of Gertrude while her son was still a minor is remarkable. A new marriage during guardianship was usually a disadvantage for a widow if she wanted to carry out the tasks for her son independently until he came of age. In the case of Henry the Lion, Gertrude's remarriage took place shortly before her son reached the age of majority, and so there was no risk of losing his / her independence, which was already limited in time.
Gertrud's second marriage to Heinrich Jasomirgott represented an important move to ease the Welfisch-Hohenstaufen conflict. It is true that local research argues that this marriage was an order by Konrad that Gertrud had to submit to; however, it is unlikely that she was passively and compliantly married. One of the few documents that have come down from the guardianship testifies to this, a testimony to the distribution of land from September 1142. The reception of Konrad in Braunschweig by Gertrud in 1143 also signaled a willingness to compromise. The much-cited 300 silver marks that Konrad wants her waived and the fact that he himself organized and paid for the wedding celebrations underpin the importance of her marriage in Konrad's policy of détente. Her decision for Heinrich Jasomirgott influenced the life of her son and the events in the empire far after her death.
progeny
From her first marriage to Heinrich the Proud:
- ⚭ Mathilde Plantagenet , daughter of King Henry II of England .
From her second marriage to Heinrich II. Jasomirgott:
- Richardis (Richenza)
- ⚭ Heinrich Landgrave von Steffling
literature
- Laura Brander: Gertrud, Süpplingenburg Duchess; Mathilde, Duchess of Saxony. In: "Given to marriage with great splendor". Wedding celebrations at court in the 11th and 12th centuries and the construction of family identity by the princesses. (= Dvory a rezidence ve stredoveku. 3. Prague 2009, ISBN 978-80-7286-153-8 , pp. 393-421 opac.regesta-imperii.de ).
- Laura Brander: Genus & generatio: Role expectations and role fulfillment in the field of tension between the sexes and generations in antiquity and the Middle Ages . Ed .: Hartwin Brandt, Anika M. Auer, Johannes Brehm, Diego De Brasi, Lina K. Hörl (= Bamberg historical studies . Volume 6 ). University of Bamberg Press, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86309-043-2 , ISSN 1866-7554 , 4th female reign within the framework of external constraints and 5th daughter, wife, mother. Regency and family role , p. 209 ff . ( books.google.de - excerpt).
- Joachim Ehlers : Heinrich the lion. A biography . Munich 2008.
- Bettina Elpers: Governing, Educating, Preserving: Maternal Regencies in the High Middle Ages . Frankfurt 2003.
- Odilo Engels : The Hohenstaufen . 8th edition. Stuttgart 2007.
- Ruth Hildebrandt: Duke Lothar von Sachsen (= contributions to the history of Lower Saxony and Westphalia ). Hildesheim 1987.
- Gudrun Pischke: Gertrud von Süpplingenburg, Duchess of Bavaria. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 260 .
- Bernd Schneidmüller : The Guelphs . Stuttgart 2000.
- Hans K. Schulze: Basic structures of the constitution in the Middle Ages . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Stuttgart 2000.
- Heinrich von Zeißberg : Gertrud . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 70.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hildebrand, Lothar von Dinge, p. 106 ff.
- ↑ Elpers, Regieren, p. 81
- ↑ Ehlers, Heinrich the Lion, 33ff
- ↑ Engels, Staufer, p. 25f
- ^ Brander, Wedding Celebrations, p. 402
- ↑ Schulze, Constitution, p. 26
- ^ Brander, Wedding Celebrations, p. 396
- ↑ cf. Brander, wedding celebrations, p. 394f
- ↑ cf. Ehlers, Heinrich the Lion, p. 53f
- ↑ Elpers, Regieren, p. 96.
- ^ Zeißberg, Gertrud, General German Biography
- ^ Pischke, Gertrud von Süpplingenburg, Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon
- ↑ Engels, Staufer, p. 39.
- ↑ Elpers, Regieren, pp. 260 ff.
- ↑ Elpers, Regieren, p. 265
- ^ Schneidmüller, Welfen, p. 264
- ↑ Ehlers, Heinrich the Lion, p. 56
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gertrude of Saxony |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gertrud von Süpplingenburg; Gertrud von Supplingburg; Gertraud of Saxony; Gertraud von Süpplingenburg; Gertraud von Supplingburg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Daughter of Emperor Lothar III, Duchess of Bavaria and Saxony, Margravine of Austria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 18, 1115 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 18, 1143 |