Adelaid Savoie
1092-1154
Born: Paris, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Died: France
<div>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div><!-- /tagline --><!-- subtitle --><div></div><div></div><div><strong>Adelaide of Savoy</strong> (or <strong>Adelaide of Maurienne</strong>) (<font color="#0645ad">Italian</font>: <span><em>Adelaide di Savoia</em></span> or <em>Adelasia di Moriana</em>, <font color="#0645ad">French</font>: <span><em>Adélaïde</em></span> or <em>Adèle de Maurienne</em>) (1092 – 18 November 1154) was the second Queen consort of <font color="#0645ad">Louis VI of France</font>.</div><span>[<font color="#0645ad">edit</font>]</span> <span>Biography</span> <p>Adelaide was the daughter of <font color="#0645ad">Humbert II of Savoy</font> and <font color="#0645ad">Gisela of Burgundy</font>, and niece of <font color="#0645ad">Pope Callixtus II</font>, who once visited her court in France. Her father died in 1103, and her mother married <font color="#0645ad">Renier I of Montferrat</font> as a second husband.</p><p>She became the second wife of <font color="#0645ad">Louis VI of France</font> (1081–1137), whom she married on 3 August 1115. They had eight children, the second of whom became <font color="#0645ad">Louis VII of France</font>. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens consort. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris. She was reputed to be "ugly," but attentive and pious.<sup style="white-space: nowrap">[<em><font color="#0645ad">citation needed</font></em>]</sup></p><span>Children:</span> <p>She and Louis had seven sons and one daughter:</p><ol><li><font color="#0645ad">Philip of France</font> (1116–1131)</li><li><font color="#0645ad">Louis VII</font> (1120–18 November 1180), King of France</li><li><font color="#0645ad">Henry</font> (1121–1175), <font color="#0645ad">Archbishop of Reims</font></li><li>Hugues (b. c. 1122)</li><li><font color="#0645ad">Robert</font> (c. 1123–11 October 1188), <font color="#0645ad">Count of Dreux</font></li><li><font color="#0645ad">Constance</font> (c. 1124–16 August 1176), married first <font color="#0645ad">Eustace IV</font>, <font color="#0645ad">Count of Boulogne</font> and then <font color="#0645ad">Raymond V of Toulouse</font>.</li><li><font color="#0645ad">Philip</font> (1125–1161), <font color="#0645ad">Bishop of Paris</font>. not to be confused with his elder brother.</li><li><font color="#0645ad">Peter</font> (c. 1125–1183), married Elizabeth, <font color="#0645ad">Lady of Courtenay</font></li></ol><span>Queen dowager:</span> <p>Afer Louis VI's death, Adélaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead she married <font color="#ba0000">Matthieu I of Montmorency</font>, with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and in religious activities.</p><p>Adélaide is one of two queens in a legend related by <font color="#0645ad">William Dugdale</font>. As the story goes, Queen Adélaide of France became enamoured of a young knight, <font color="#0645ad">William d'Albini</font>, at a joust. But he was already engaged to <font color="#0645ad">Adeliza of Louvain</font> and refused to become her lover. The jealous Adélaide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt apocryphal.</p><p>In 1153 she retired to the abbey of <font color="#0645ad">Montmartre</font>, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on 18 November 1154. She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmarte, but her tomb was destroyed during the Revolution.</p><span>Sources:</span> <ul><li><em>Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700</em> by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 101-24, 117-24, 135-26, 274A-25</li><li>Nolan, Kathleen D. <em>Capetian Women</em></li></ul><p>Facinger, Marion F. "A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987-1237" Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 5 (1968: 3-48.</p><div>Retrieved from "<font color="#0645ad">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_of_Maurienne</font>"</div><!-- /bodytext --><!-- catlinks -->