Bertha BerthaDate of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: 8 March 925.
Place of
Burial: Lucca.
Bertha's date of death is given on
her epitaph at Lucca ["Idibus octavis Martis migravit ab
ista ... An dnicae incarnationis DCCCCXXV indic. XIII obiit de
mundo." Epitaphia Lucensia, MGH Poet. Lat. 4:
1008; see also RHF 9: 105; see below for more of the epitaph].
Father: Lothair II,
d. 869, king of Lorraine, 855-869.
Bertha's epitaph at Lucca shows that she
was of Carolingian descent, daughter of Lothair ["Hoc
tegitur tumulo comitissae corpus humatum, / Inclita progenies
Berta benigna pia. / Uxor Adalberti ducis Italiae fuit ipsa, /
Regalis generis quae fuit omne decus. / Nobilis ex alto Francorum
germine regum, / Karolus ipse pius rex fuit eius avus. / Quae
specie speciosa, bono speciosor actu, / Filia Lotharii, pulchrior
ex meritis. / ..." Epitaphia Lucensia, MGH
Poet. Lat. 4: 1008; see also RHF 9: 105]. That this Lothair was
Lothair II is indicated by chronology and by the fact that
Thibaud was mentioned as a sororius of Hugues, son of
Lothair II in Annales Bertiniani ["Quo
venientes, quia Hugonem non invenerunt, sororium illius
Teutbaldum bello adgressi sunt, et multis interfectis, illum in
fugam verterunt." Ann. Bertin., s.a. 880,
151]. Other sources falsely make Bertha a daughter of the emperor
Louis II (see below in the Commentary section).
Presumed mother: Waldrade, mistress and (unrecognized)
wife of Lothair.
For Waldrade, see the page of Lothair II. Bertha's mother is not directly documented.
Spouses:
(1) before 880, Thibaud, living June 887, count of Arles.
As indicated below, Bertha's son Hugo mentions the names of his
parents as Thibaud and Bertha in charters.
(2) Adalberto II,
d. 17 August, no later than (and probably in) 915, margrave of
Tuscany.
["... Adelbertus, illustris
Tuscorum marchio, ... Huic erat uxor nomine Berta, Hugonis,
nostro post tempore regis, mater; ..." Liudprand, Antapodosis,
i, 39, Dümmler (1877), 21-2] His epitaph indicates that he died
on 17 August ["Noster Adelbertus dux pius atque bonus
... In sesto decimo Septembre notante Calendas" Epitaphia
Lucensia, MGH Poet. Lat. 4: 1007]. He was succeeded as
margrave of Tuscany by his son Guido (Wido) [Liudprand, Antapodosis,
ii, 55, Dümmler (1877), 47], no later than 915, because Guido
appears as margrave on 8 December 915 [Dümmler (1871), 39, n.
2]. [For the ancestry of Adalberto II, see Hofmeister (1907),
290; for more on Adalberto II, see ibid., 388-400]
Children:
[Dates not otherwise documented
are from Werner (1967), table]
(by Thibaud)
Hugo/Hugues/Ugo, d. 10 April 947;
count of Vienne; marquis of Provence; king of Italy, 926-947;
m. (1) 912, Willa, perhaps
the widow of Rudolf I, king of Burgundy.
m. (2) ca. 924, Hilda/Alda.
m. (3) ca. 932, Marozia,
daughter of Theophylakt, Roman senator.
m. (4) 12 December 937, Bertha, daughter of Burchard, duke of Schwaben
(Swabia), and widow of Rudolf II, king of
Burgundy.
In a charter of about 924, count and marquis Hugo mentions his
father Thibaud, mother Bertha, former wife Willa, present wife
Hilda, and unnamed brothers and sisters ["... ego Hugo
humilis comes et marchio, ... memoriale patris mei Teutbaldi et
matris meæ Berthæ, simul et uxoris quondam meæ Willæ, necnon
et præsentis conjugis meæ Hildæ, atque fratrum et sororum
mearum, ..." RHF 9: 689-690 (#1). Also, in a joint
charter with his son Lothario of 8 March 934, king Hugo again
mentioned his parents ["Hugo et Lotharius, gratia Dei
reges. ... remedioque animarum nostrarum seu patris et matris
nostræ, Teubaldi scilicet et Berte, ..." Cart. Cluny,
1: 403 (#417)]. The Willa mentioned as his deceased wife in the
charter of ca. 924 has been identified as the widow of Rudolf I,
king of Burgundy. This identification, suggested by Manteyer,
comes from the fact that Willa is called regina in one
source, but died before Hugo became king of Italy. This
identification suffers from the difficulty (not conclusive) that
it would have Hugo married to the widows of both Rudolf I and
Rudolf II, father and son [see Poupardin (1907), 28, n. 2;
(Brandenburg (1964), 88, n. 7]. His second, third, and fourth
marriages are all mentioned by Liudprand ["Hic
ex Francorum genere Teutonicorum uxorem acceperat nomine Aldam,
quae filium ei genuerat nomine Lotharium." (Hic
refers to Hugo) Liudprand, Antapodosis, iii, 20,
Dümmler (1877), 62; "Marozia, scortum impudens satis,
nuntios suos post Widonis mariti sui mortem Hugoni regi dirigit,
eumque invitat, ut se adeat Romamque nobilissimam civitatem sibi
adsumat. Hoc autem non aliter posse fieri testabatur, nisi eam
rex Hugo sibi maritam facerat. ... Quod recte esse actum, ..."
ibid., iii, 44, p. 73; "Burgundionum praeterea rex
Rodulfus mortem obiit; cuius viduam nomine Bertam rex Hugo, Alda,
Lotharii regis filii sui matre, defuncta, maritali sibi coniugio
sotiarat." ibid., iv, 13, p. 85]. Hugo became
king of Italy on 7 July 926 ["Hugo, filius Bertae, rex
Romae super Italiam constituitur, ..." Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 926, 35], and died on 10 April 947 ["Die sabati,
quod est decimo die mensis Apreliis et fuit in eo die secundum
pasce, civitate Arlenda migravit ab ac die Ugo rex, abead
regnatum annos 20 expletos et menses 9 et dies 3; ..." Regum
et imperatorum catalogi. MGH SS 3: 216].
Boso, d.
after 936; count of Avignon, 911-931; count of Arles, 926-931;
margrave of Tuscany, 931-6;
m. Willa.
Liudprand states that Hugo and Boso had the same father ["Boso
denique, ex eodem patre regis Hugonis frater, ..."
Liudprand, Antapodosis, iii, 47, Dümmler (1877), 75].
Flodoard also states that they were brothers ["Hugo rex
Italiae ..., repertisque quibusdam fratris sui Bosonis contra se,
ut fertur, insidiis, eundem fratrem suun dolo capit atque in
custodia mittit." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 936,
65], and this is also confirmed by several charters [e.g., "...
quod Ugo dux et gloriosus comes, necnon et Bozo frater suus, ..."
RHF 9: 685 (#16)]. For the suggestion that Boso was a son of
Thibaud by a woman other than Bertha, see the page of Boso.
(by Adalbert)
["Haec, ut rumor est,
tres ex viro suo genuerat, Widonem quem prediximus, atque
Lambertum, qui nunc usque lumine privatus superest, Ermengardam
etiam gnatam suam sibi Afroditi dulcedine coequalem, quam
Adelberto Eporegiae civitatis marchioni ... copularet."
Liudprand, Antapodosis, ii, 56, Dümmler (1877), 47-8]
Guido (Wido),
d. 928×9, margrave of Tuscany, 915-928×9;
m. Marozia, daughter of Theophalakt,
Roman senator.
["Hoc in tempore Adelbertus
Tuscorum potens marchio moritur, filiusque eius Wido a Berengario
rege marchio patris loco constituitur." Liudprand, Antapodosis,
ii, 55, Dümmler (1877), 47; "Quo tempore Berta matre
regis ipsius Hugonis mortua, Wido filius eius, quem ex Adelberto
genuerat sicut prediximus, Tussciae marcam tenebat, qui Maroziam
scortum Romanam sibi uxorem acceperat." ibid., iii, 18,
p. 61; "... Widone, fratre Hugonis regis, ..."
Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 928, 41]
Lambert, d. after 958; margrave of
Tuscany, 928×9-931, blinded 931.
["Lambertus, qui post Widonis
fratris sui mortem Tusciae marcam tenebat, vir erat bellicosus et
ad quodlibet facinus audax." Liudprand, Antapodosis,
iii, 46, Dümmler (1877), 75; "... rex Hugo ... Consilio
autem accepto, eundem Lambertum tenuit et custodiae tradidit.
Timuerat enim, ne, si se dimitteret, regnum illi auferret. Hoc
igitur capto, Bosoni fratri suo Tusciae marcam contradidit; et
non multo post Lambertum lumine privavit." ibid., iii,
46, p. 76]
Ermengard, d. after 29 February 932,
m. ca. 915;
Adalberto, d. 922×4, margrave of Ivrea.
["Hoc eodem tempore defuncto
Adelberto, Eporegiae civitatis marchione, uxor eius Hermengarda,
Adelberti prepotentis Tuscie marchionis et Bertae filia, totius
Italiae principatum obtinebat." Liudprand, Antapodosis,
iii, 7, Dümmler (1877), 58]
Daughter of Thibaud, either by Bertha or by an earlier wife:
Theutberge, d. before September 948;
m. Garnier (Warnerius),
d. 924, viscount of Sens and count of Troyes.
Theutberge's case is discussed on the page
of Thibaud.
Falsely attributed
father (in fact her uncle): Louis II, emperor.
This parentage is given in a series of
genealogical tables from the eleventh century on [MGH SS 2: 314;
MGH SS 6: 32, 176; see also Schmid (1994)], of which some later
versions also confuse Louis II with his grandson Louis the Blind
[e.g., MGH SS 6: 176]. The earliest versions of this table were
evidently compiled in the reign of emperor Heinrich II
(1002-1024) with the purpose of showing the Carolingian ancestry
of his wife Cunégonde, so the branch of the family to which
Bertha belonged was evidently of lesser interest to the original
compilers of the table. That, and the fact that the tables are
not contemporary, show clearly that we should not accept these
tables with regard to Bertha's parentage when the evidence
placing her as a daughter of Lothair is earlier and better.
Conjectured daughter by
Thibaud: Ermengarde,
m. Bérillon, viscount of Vienne.
[Chaume (1925), 1: 545 (table 9)]
Ann. Bertin. = G. Waitz, ed., Annales Bertiniani (MGH SRG 6, Hannover, 1883).
Brandenburg (1964) = Erich Brandenburg, Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen (Frankfurt, 1964).
Cart. Cluny = A. Bernard & A. Bruel, Recueil des chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny, 6 vols., (Paris, 1876-1903).
Chaume (1925) = Maurice Chaume, Les origines du duché de Bourgogne, 4 vols. (Dijon, 1925).
Dümmler (1871) = Ernst Dümmler, Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris (Halle, 1871).
Dümmler (1877) = Ernst Dümmler, ed., Liudprandi episcopi Cremonensis opera omnia (MGH SRG, Hannover, 1877).
Flodoard, Annales = Ph. Lauer, ed., Les Annales de Flodoard (Paris, 1905).
Hofmeister (1907) = Adolf Hofmeister, "Markgrafen und Markgrafschaften im Italischen Königreich in der Zeit von Karl dem Grossen bis auf Otto den Grossen (774-962)", Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 7 (1907): 215-435.
MGH Poet. Lat. = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae latini aevi carolini.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Poupardin (1907) = René Poupardin, Le royaume de Bourgogne (888-1038) - Étude sur les origines du royaume d'Arles (Paris, 1907).
RHF = Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France.
Schmid (1994) = Karl Schmid, "Ein verlorenes Stemma Regum Franciae", Frühmittelalterliche Studien 28 (1994), 196-225 (& tables 1-14).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Werner (1967) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation)", Karl der Große 4 (1967): 403-483.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 20 September 2008.