Adalberto
AdalbertoAdalberto was crowned as joint-king of Italy with his father Berengario II on 15 December 950, and they reigned until 961, when Otto the Great was declared king of Italy ["Et in viesimo quarto die qui fuit die di dominico 15. die Decembris, inter basilica sancti Michaeli qui dicitur maiore, fuerunt electi et coronati Berengarius et Adalbertus filio eius regibus, et regnaverunt in pace annos 12; et viscerunt se postquam coronam acceperant annis 24 et menses 4 et dies 5." Regum et imperatorum catalogi, MGH SS 3: 217; "Beringarius rex cum Adalberto filio suo primo anni sui regni erant ab incarnatione Domini anni 950. regnavit annos 11.", ibid.; most give 11 years, e.g., Annales breves, MGH SS 3: 188; Regum et imperatorum catalogi, MGH SS 3: 216, 218]. Liudprand states that king Adalberto fled from Italy to Freinet (in Provence) in about 962 or 963 ["Adeo enim eundem Adelbertum, eclesiarum dei eiusdemque papae Iohannis persecutorem, imperator sanctus terruerat, ut omnem Italiam deserens, Fraxinetum adiret, seque Sarracenorum fidei commendaret." Liudprand, Historia Ottonis, c. 4, Dümmler (1877), 125; Dümmler gives a marginal date of 963, as does Pertz in his edition in MGH SS 3: 340; Bouchard (1987), 311 gives a date of 962]. Benzo of Viviers states that Adalberto was driven out of Italy by Otto the Great and went to Autun ["... rex Albertus ... Quem magnus Otto exterminavit ab Italia, sed deficiente terra receperunt eum maria. Ubi per trihennium iactatus fluctibus evasit captivus, veniensque Augustidunum obiit peregrinus." Benzo, Ad Heinricum imperatorum libri VII, iii, 15, MGH SS XI: 628]. He spent his last days in Burgundy, and was the ancestor of the counts of Burgundy through his son Otte-Guillaume.
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: 20 April 975?
One of the catalogs of the Italian
kings has the following to say about Berengario II and Adalberto:
"... et viscerunt [i.e., vixerunt] se postquam coronam
acceperant annis 24 et menses 4 et dies 5." ("...
and they lived after they had accepted the crown 24 years, 4
months, and 5 days") [Regum et imperatorum catalogi,
MGH SS 3: 217; see above]. Calculating from their coronation on
15 December 950 gives a date of 20 April 975. Since Berengario
died in 966, it is difficult to see what this date could be other
than the death date of Adalberto. Werner gives the range 972×5
for the death of Adalberto [Werner (1967), table].
Place of death: Unknown.
Father: Berengario II, d. 4 August 966, king of Italy, 950-961.
Mother: Willa, d. after 4 August 966, daughter of Boso, margrave of Tuscany.
Spouse: Gerberge, d.
986×992, daughter of Lambert, count of Chalon. She m. (2) Eudes-Henri,
d. 1002, duke of Burgundy.
She is not directly documented as the wife of Adalberto, but she
is documented as the mother of his son Otte-Guillaume. See the
pages of Gerberge and Otte-Guillaume for the details.
Child:
Otte-Guillaume,
d. 1026, count of Burgundy.
["Necnon etiam Willemus, Heinrici
ducis privignus, Adalberti Longobardum ducis filius, ..."
Rodulfus Glaber, lib. 3, ii, 6 (pp. 56-7)] His ancestry is also
given in a charter of the German king Heinrich II in 1014 ["Otto
qui et Vuillielmus comes filius Adalberti nepos Berengarii regis"
MGH DD H II, 381 (#305)]
Conjectured daughter:
Willibirg, m. Liutold,
count (Sundgau).
[Jackman (1997), 84, with table on p. 85] See the comments on the
page of Gerberge.
Falsely attributed
children:
These four additional supposed
children are given by Schwennicke, whose source is unclear [ES 2:
59].
Gisela, m. ca. 983, Anselme I,
margrave of Montferrat.
Gisela appears in a charter of 4 May 991,
in which she is called the daughter of a margrave Adalberto
["Gisla comitissa filia Adalberti similique marchio"
Breßlau (1879-84), 391]. However, there
does not seem to be any good reason to identify Gisela's father
with king Adalberto of Italy, especially in view of Breßlau's
more probable identification of Gisela's father Adalberto with a
member of the "Otbertiner" family [ibid., 391, 393, 419; Gisela had a son named Otbert, see p.
393].
Arduin, d. 1015, margrave of Ivrea,
king of Italy.
Schwennicke omits the title "king of
Italy" and spells the name Harduin, but since he also lists
Wibert and Amadeus, his identity is clear. Arduin was the son of
a certain Dado, who is discussed on the page of Adalberto's
father Berengario II. Schwennicke's source was evidently identifying
Adalberto and Dado as the same individual, but there seems to be
no good reason to accept that identification.
Wibert, d. 1030, margrave of Ivrea.
Wibert was a son of Dado, and brother of
Arduin ["Wibertus comes, filius bene memorie Dadoni
itemque comes ..." Pabst (1864), 459].
Amadeus.
Amadeus was another brother of Arduin [Pabst
(1864), 459].
Bouchard (1987) = Constance Brittain Bouchard, Sword, Miter, and Cloister - Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198 (Ithaca & London, 1987).
Breßlau (1879-84) = Harry Breßlau, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs unter Konrad II., 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1879-84).
Dümmler (1877) = Ernst Dümmler, ed., Liudprandi episcopi Cremonensis opera omnia (MGH SRG, Hannover, 1877).
ES = Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln (neue Folge), (Marburg, 1980-present).
Hirsch (1862-75) = Siegfried Hirsch, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich II, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1862-4; Leipzig, 1875).
MGH DD = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata series.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Pabst (1864) = Hermann Pabst, "Arduins Geschlecht und Familienverbindungen", in Hirsh (1862-75), 2: 458-461 (Excurs IV).
Rodulfus Glaber = Maurice Prou, ed., Raoul Glaber - les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044) (Paris, 1886).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 20 September 2008.