Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou

Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou[lower-alpha 1] (c.  940 –1026) was, by her successive marriages, countess of Gévaudan and Forez, of Toulouse, of Provence, and of Burgundy, and queen of Aquitaine. She was the regent of Gevaudan during the minority of her sons in the 960s, and the regent of Provence during the minority of her stepson from 994 until 999.

Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou
Bornc. 940
Died1026
Avignon
Burial
Montmajour Abbey
Spouse
HouseIngelger
FatherFulk II, Count of Anjou
MotherGerberge
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Life

She was the daughter of Fulk II, Count of Anjou, and Gerberga, and sister of Geoffrey Greymantle.[1] She successfully increased Angevin fortunes, being married a total of five times.[2] Her family had become upwardly mobile to the point that, as a member of just the third generation from Ingelger, Adelaide-Blanche had married into the highest ranks of the older nobility of western Francia.[2]

Her first marriage was to Stephen, the powerful Count of Gévaudan[3] and Forez in eastern Aquitaine.[4] She was no more than fifteen at the time[5] and he was much older. Still, they had three children who survived to adulthood.[4] Stephen died in the early 960s[4] and after his death she ruled the lands as regent for her sons William, Pons and Bertrand.[6] She continued to govern Gevaudan and Forez while her remaining two sons learned to rule their father's counties.[6] Additionally, after her oldest son William's death in 975 she raised his infant son Stephen.[6] Her brother Guy (a.k.a. Guido II) was made Count-Bishop of le Puy in 975 amidst local opposition and at his request Adelaide, acting for her sons Guy and Bertrand, led an army to aid him in establishing the "Peace of God" in le Puy.[6]

In 982, as the widow of her second husband, Raymond, count of Toulouse, she wed Louis, son of King Lothair of France.[7] The two were crowned King and Queen of Aquitaine at Brioude by her brother Bishop Guy of le Puy.[7] The marriage lasted just over a year due to the couple being unable to peacefully live together.[7] There was also a significant age difference—he being fifteen and Adelaide-Blanche being over forty.[7] Adelaide found herself in a precarious situation with King Lothair but was rescued by Count William I of Provence[lower-alpha 2][8] whom she subsequently married in c. 984.[9] Count William of Provence died in 994 shortly after becoming a monk at Avignon.[10]

In 1010 king Robert II of France along with Odo II, Count of Blois went to Rome to secure an annulment from Robert's second wife, Constance of Arles, Adelaide-Blanche's daughter by William I. Pope Sergius IV, a friend to the Angevin counts, upheld the marriage and additionally upheld Adelaide's struggle to maintain control of lands at Montmajour Abbey.[11] These lands, at Perth, had been donated by Count William I of Provence with his wife Adelaide-Blanche, as well as by a previous donation by William's father, Boson.[12] A dispute over these lands arose by four brothers, sons of Nevolongus, who pope Sergius threatened with excommunication if they did not withdraw their claim.[12] The claim was withdrawn and the lands remained under the control of Adelaide-Blanche acting as regent for her son William II of Provence.[12]

The cloister of Montmajour Abbey her final resting place.

It has been suggested that she married a fifth time, to Otto-William, Count of Burgundy, whose second wife was named Adelaide.[13][14] However, it is disputed whether his wife Adelaide was the same as Adelaide-Blanche.[15][16]

Adelaide-Blanche died in 1026, aged approximately eighty-six.[3] The location of her death was probably at Avignon, since the year of her death is recorded by Arnoux, a monk of the abbey of Saint-André, near Avignon. She was buried in Montmajour Abbey, near Arles, considered at the time as the burial place of the family of counts of Provence.

Marriages and children

Notes
  1. The majority of historians refer to her as Adelaide, for example see Stasser (1997). Bernard Bachrach refers to her as Adelaide-Blanch throughout his book Fulk Nerra (1993), and in his article 'Henry II and the Angevin Tradition', Albion, 16, 2, (1984), p. 117 n. 35 in writing of Ermengarde-Gerberga of Anjou states that Angevins were known to give daughters two names, giving her aunt Adelaide-Blanche (the subject of this article) as an example, without explaining that his novel theory has no contemporary documentation. Constance Bouchard, in Those of My Blood (2001) consistently refers to her as Adelaide-Blanche, parroting Bachrach. In Europäische Stammtafeln (citations below) she is correctly called either Adelaide or Adelaide (Blanche). At least two chronicles, the Chronicle S. Albin and the Chronicle S. Maxent. call her Blanche, See: Norgate, Eng. Under the Angevin Kings, Vol. 1 (1887), p. 191. In the work Rodulfi Glabri Historiarum libri quinque, Ed. & Trans. John France (2002), on pp. 16–17 n. 5 she is referred to as "Adelaide, also called Blanche" while on pp. 106–7 n. 5 she is called "Adelaide-Blanche." Also see the reference to the letter by pope Benedict VIII addressing her as Countess Adelaide, "cognomento Blanche" in the note below. The name Adelaide-Blanche has clearly become the preferred version of her name among a subset of modern historians. Nevertheless Adelaide-Blanche was not her contemporary name; her given name was Adelaide and the "pet" name/nickname used by her closest family and friends was Blanche. At the height of her political power, she is explicitly named as the still living 'Adelaix' in a 992 charter of her son William III and his wife Emma.
  2. Rodulfus Glaber had a somewhat different version. That Lothar's son Louis was wed to a woman from Aquitaine (Adelaide also called Blanche), and she wanting a separation and being a clever woman lured her young husband to Aquitaine where she deserted him and returned to her own family; that it was Lewis who was rescued by his father king Lothar. See: Rodulfi Glabri Historiarum libri quinque, Ed. & Trans. John France (2002), on pp. 16–17 & n. 5.

References
  1. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 1 (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1984), Tafel 116
  2. Constance Brittain Bouchard, Those of My Blood: Constructing Noble Families in Medieval Francia (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2001), p. 23
  3. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1984), Tafel 1
  4. Bernard S. Bachrach, 'The Idea of the Angevin Empire', Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Winter,1978), p. 296
  5. Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), p. 9
  6. Jerome Kroll, Bernard S. Bachrach, Medieval Dynastic Decisions: Evolutionary Biology and Historical Explanation, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History,, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Summer, 1990), p. 9
  7. Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), p. 15
  8. Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), p. 51
  9. Kate Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, Volume 1 (Macmillan & Co., London & New York, 1887), p. 191
  10. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1984), Tafel 187
  11. Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), p. 115
  12. F de Marin de Carranrais, L'Abbaye de Montmajour. E'tude historique, etc. (Marseille,, 1877), pp. 33–4
  13. Constance B. Bouchard, Those of My Blood (2001), pp. 24–5; Constance B. Bouchard, "The Origins of the French Nobility: A Reassessment", The American Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Jun., 1981), p. 516 n. 42; Bouchard, Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198, (1987), p. 270.
  14. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1984), Tafel 59
  15. Thierry Stasser, "Adélaïde d'Anjou, sa famille, ses unions, sa descendance - Etat de las question", Le Moyen Age 103 (1997): 9-52
  16. Christian Settipani, La Noblesse du Midi Carolingien (Prosopographia et Genealogica 5, 2004), p. 313, note 2
  17. Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040 (University of California Press, 1993), pp. 8,9
  18. Rodulfus Glaber, The Five Books of the Histories, ed. & trans. John France (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1989), p. 107 n. 5
  19. Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1989), Tafel 819

Sources
  • Thierry Stasser, "Adélaïde d'Anjou, sa famille, ses unions, sa descendance - État de la question", Le Moyen Age 103 (1997): 9-52
Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou
Born: circa 947 Died: 29 May 1026
Preceded by
Anne		 Countess of Gévaudan
bef. 960–975		 Succeeded by
Theutberg
Preceded by
Gundinildis		 Countess of Toulouse
975–978		 Succeeded by
Arsende
Preceded by
Emma of Italy		 Queen of Aquitaine,
junior Queen of the West Franks
982–984
Served alongside: Emma of Italy		 Succeeded by
Emma of Italy
Preceded by
Arsenda		 Countess and Margravine of Provence
984–993
Served alongside: Emilde of Gévaudan		 Succeeded by
Gerberga of Mâcon
Preceded by
Ermentrude de Roucy		 Countess of Burgundy
1016–1026		 Succeeded by
Alice of Normandy
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