Agnes of Waiblingen

Agnes of Waiblingen (1072/73 – 24 September 1143), also known as Agnes of Germany, Agnes of Poitou and Agnes of Saarbrücken, was a member of the Salian imperial family. Through her first marriage, she was Duchess of Swabia; through her second marriage, she was Margravine of Austria.[1][2]

Agnes of Waiblingen
Duchess consort of Swabia Margravine consort of Austria
Margravine Agnes, Babenberg pedigree, Klosterneuburg Monastery, c. 1490
Born	1072
Died	24 September 1143 (aged 70–71) Klosterneuburg
Noble family	Salian
Spouse(s)	Frederick I, Duke of Swabia Leopold III of Austria
Issue Frederick II, Duke of Swabia Conrad III, King of Germany Leopold IV, Duke of Bavaria Henry II of Austria Agnes Otto of Freising Conrad II, Archbishop of Salzburg Judith Gertrude
Father	Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Bertha of Savoy

Family

She was the daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Bertha of Savoy.[3]

First marriage

In 1079, aged seven, Agnes was betrothed to Frederick, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; at the same time, Henry IV invested Frederick as the new duke of Swabia.[4] The couple married in 1086, when Agnes was fourteen. They had eleven children, named in a document found in the abbey of Lorsch:

• Hedwig-Eilike (1088–1110), married Friedrich, Count of Legenfeld
• Bertha-Bertrade (1089–1120), married Adalbert, Count of Elchingen
• Frederick II of Swabia
• Hildegard
• Conrad III of Germany
• Gisihild-Gisela
• Heinrich (1096–1105)
• Beatrix (1098–1130), became an abbess
• Kunigunde-Cuniza (1100–1120/1126), wife of Henry X, Duke of Bavaria (1108–1139)[5]
• Sophia, married a count named Adalbert
• Fides-Gertrude, married Hermann III, Count Palatine of the Rhine

Second marriage

Following Frederick's death in 1105,[6] Agnes married Leopold III (1073–1136), the Margrave of Austria (1095–1136).[7] According to a legend, a veil lost by Agnes and found by Leopold years later while hunting was the instigation for him to found the Klosterneuburg Monastery.[1]

Their children were:[8]

• Leopold IV
• Henry II of Austria
• Berta, married Heinrich of Regensburg
• Agnes, "one of the most famous beauties of her time", married Wladyslaw II of Poland
• Ernst
• Uta, wife of Liutpold von Plain
• Otto of Freising, bishop and biographer
• Conrad, Bishop of Passau, and Archbishop of Salzburg
• Elizabeth, married Hermann, Count of Winzenburg
• Judith, m. c. 1133 William V of Montferrat. Their children formed an important Crusading dynasty.
• Gertrude, married Vladislav II of Bohemia

According to the Continuation of the Chronicles of Klosterneuburg, there may have been up to seven other children (possibly from multiple births) stillborn or who died in infancy.

In 1125, Agnes' brother, Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, died childless, leaving Agnes and her children as heirs to the Salian dynasty's immense allodial estates, including Waiblingen.

In 1127, Agnes' second son, Konrad III, was elected as the rival King of Germany by those opposed to the Saxon party's Lothar III. When Lothar died in 1137, Konrad was elected to the position.[1]

Sources and further reading

• Karl Lechner, Die Babenberger, 1992.
• Brigitte Vacha & Walter Pohl, Die Welt der Babenberger: Schleier, Kreuz und Schwert, Graz, 1995.
• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 45-24
• I.S. Robsinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056-1106 (Cambridge 2003).
• H. Decker-Hauff, Die Zeit der Staufer, vol. III (Stuttgart, 1977).

Notes

1. Wilhelm Muschka (22 May 2012). Agnes von Waiblingen - Stammmutter der Staufer und Babenberger-Herzöge: Eine mittelalterliche Biografie. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag. pp. 74–. ISBN 978-3-8288-5539-7.
2. Thomas Oliver Schindler. "Die Staufer - Ursprung und Aufstieg eines Herrschergeschlechts". Grin. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
3. Robinson, Henry, p. 266
4. Robinson, Henry, pp. 189, 223.
5. Decker-Hauff, Zeit der Staufer, III, p. 350.
6. Robinson, Henry, p. 330.
7. Robinson, Henry, p. 332.
8. Decker-Hauff, Zeit der Staufer, III, p. 346