Baring-Gould’s sources: Gallican and German Martyrologies. Venerated in the diocese of j Strassburg. Authority The Life or “ Epitaphium ” by Odilo, abbot of Clugny, d. 1049, in Pertz, Mon. Script. Germ. iv. p. 635. Also Wittekind, Ditmar of Merseburg, Frodoard, and other chroniclers of the period.] Hugh of Provence, king of Italy, held his court at Pavia. He reigned at a time when the Papacy had sunk to its lowest abasement. The infamous Marozia was supreme in Rome. She had married Guido of Tuscany. She seized Pope John X., the former paramour of her mother, and cast him into prison, where he died, smothered by her orders. On the death of Stephen VII. this shameless woman placed on the Papal throne her son, John XI., the offspring of her amours with Pope Sergius, according to one contemporary account; her lawful son according to another. But the lofty Marozia, not content with having been the wife of a marquis, the wife of a duke of Tuscany; perhaps the mistress of one, certainly the mother of another Pope, looked still higher in her lustful ambition: she must wed a monarch. She sent to offer herself and the city of Rome to the new king of Italy. Hugh of Provence was not scrupulous in his amours, lawful or unlawful. Through policy or through passion, he was always ready to form or to break these tender connections. Yet there was an impediment, a canonical impediment, to this marriage, which even Hugh and Marozia dared not despise. Guido, the late husband of Marozia, and Hugh of Provence were sons of the same mother. Even the Levitical law, which seems to have occurred to some, would not help them, for Marozia had borne children to Guido. Hugh struck out a happy expedient, at the same time to get over this difficulty, to obtain Rome, and to assume to himself also the duchy of Tuscany. He circulated rumours that the late duke of Tuscany was not the legitimate son of his father Adalbert, nor was his brother Lambert, the reigning duke, legitimate either. On the strength of this, Hugh treacherously seized on Lambert, put out his eyes, appropriated the duchy of Tuscany, and then rushed to Rome to take Marozia to his arms. The unhallowed marriage was celebrated in the castle of S. Angelo, and so this “holy man,” as Luitprand designates him, went to his ruin. Alberic, son of Marozia, was commanded to hold the water for the king to wash his hands after his meal. Performing his office awkwardly or reluctantly, he spilt it, and received a slap in the face for his fault. Alberic called the Romans to arms to resent this insult, and cast off the burden of maintaining the Burgundian soldiers of Hugh. The castle of S. Dec. ia.] S. Adelhaid.
Angelo was attacked, Hugh fled precipitately, and Alberic cast his mother into prison. Hugh made no further attempts to regain Rome. He held his court at Pavia. He now declared his marriage with Marozia Void, and married Alda, daughter of King Lothair. On her death he wedded Bertha, widow of King Rudolf II. of Burgundy, and daughter of Burkhardt, duke of Swabia, and united the daughter of Rudolf to his son Lothair. This daughter was Adelhaid, and she was aged sixteen when she married the son of the man who had wedded her mother. The marriage was incestuous, but no prelate of the time ventured to remonstrate. Hugh bestowed the great bishoprics according to his caprice. One of his bastards he made bishop of Piacenza, another he made archdeacon of Milan, and attempted the assassination of the archbishop in the hope of forcing his son into the place thus bloodily opened to him. To Manasses, a favourite, archbishop of Arles, he gave the bishoprics of Trent, Verona, and Mantua. His court was a scene of debauch and licence. But Berengar, marquis of Ivrea, who had married the daughter of Boso, brother of King Hugh, rose in revolt. At the head of a large army, which gathered as it swept through Lombardy, Berengar approached Pavia, and wrested from the king his richest possessions. Hugh, in disgust, withdrew, drawing after him his treasures in waggon-loads, and buried his chagrin in the cloisters of S. Peter's, at Arles, where he died the year after, a.d. 941. His son Lothair enjoyed the barren honour of the title of king for three years, and then died in delirium, a.d. 950.
Berengar and his son Adalbert became kings of Italy. Berengar sought to unite the young and beautiful widow of Lothair to his own son Adalbert, and on her refusal treated her with indignity. She was stripped of her jewels and costly raiment, beaten, her hair tom from her head, and she was cast into a fetid dungeon of a castle on the Lake of Como.
From this she escaped, it is said, by the aid of a priest, who bored a hole through the wall of her prison. During her flight she was so closely pursued that, on one occasion, she was obliged to crouch among the standing com to avoid those who were searching for her. She fell into a marsh, and lay there all night, till rescued by a fisherman in the morning. She took refuge with the bishop of Reggio, a kinsman, who sent her to his brother Atto, who commanded the strong fortress of Canossa. In this she was besieged by Berengar and his son during three years, but the impregnable situation and strong fortifications of Canossa defied all their efforts. Atto held counsel with the young queen, and sent entreaties to Otho, duke of Saxony, then victorious over the Hungarians, to come to her assistance, and accept her hand in return for her deliverance.
The castle was reduced to extremity, and about to capitulate, when the messenger returned with the joyful news that Otho had crossed the Alps, and was coming with forced marches to its relief. But the messenger could not get into the castle, so closely was it surrounded. He therefore tied his communication to an arrow, and launched it into the yard of the citadel. The news filled the gallant defenders with fresh courage. Otho was already at Verona, his son Ludolf had preceded him, and was at Milan when the messenger left The German army caught the besiegers unawares. Berengar fled, but Adalbert and his two sons were taken and sent as hostages into Germany. Otho married the young widow, who was some twenty years his junior. Ludolf, his son, quarrelled with his unwished-for stepmother, and dreading the fate of his unfortunate uncle Thankmar, suddenly quitted his father and plotted rebellion with the archbishop of Mainz. LudolFs sister, the wife of ft ft Dec. xs.] S. Adelhaid.
Conrad of Lorraine, to whom Adelhaid was greatly obnoxious, espoused the cause of her brother, who also found an ally in her husband, whom Otho had offended. For four years Otho was engaged in German wars, civil wars against his sons, and wars against the Hungarians. During three years Berengar and his son ruled the Italians with cruel severity. Ludolf, who had returned to the allegiance of his father, was despatched to Italy with an army to restrain them. After having overcome all resistance, he died, probably of fever. Berengar and Adalbert resumed their tyrannies, and the cry was loud for the interposition of the Germans. Otho descended the Alps in the winter of 961-2, and was met at Pavia by Pope John XII., who anointed and crowned him as emperor, and Adelhaid as empress. Thenceforth the king of Germany claimed to be the Western emperor. Otho swore to protect the Church of Rome against all her enemies; and Pope John took the oath of allegiance to him in Rome over the body of S. Peter, only to break it as soon as the back of the emperor was turned.
In the midst of the turmoil of political affairs, Adelhaid disappears from view. We only know of her that she was gentle, pious, and charitable, and that she attended with care to her son Otho. At Rome, in 972, this prince was married to Theophano, daughter of Romanus, emperor of Byzantium. Her extraordinary beauty attracted universal admiration. The trappings of the horse on which she rode were adorned with feathers, her Grecian dress was resplendent with jewels and pearls, and her hair was confined in a golden net. Yet all this splendour was outshone by the beauty of her features and the brilliancy of her eyes.
Otho I. died in 967, and the son of Adelhaid was king. Otho II [German king and emperor, co-ruler with his father Otto I from 967 and sole ruler 973–983]. was naturally of an impetuous and passionate temper, but his mother had carefully educated him, and not only had refined his tastes, but had given him a love of [Dec. xa.
letters. His wife Theophano also sympathized in his love of learning. Adelhaid had borne to Otho I. three sons — Otho II., Henry, and Bruno; and two daughters — Adelhaid, abbess of Essen, and Mathilda, abbess of Quedlinburg. Otho II. was only seventeen when his father died, and for a while his mother acted as regent. But Otho could not agree with his mother; the sudden acquisition of power in his hands proved too great a temptation for him to admit of her authority, or, perhaps, influenced by Theophano, his wife, who was jealous of the interference of her mother-in-law, he speedily broke with Adelhaid, drove her from court, and she was obliged to take refuge with her brother Conrad, king of Burgundy, at Vienne. Otho, however, at the exhortation of S. Majolus, abbot of Clugny, and probably stung by his own conscience, for he was good-hearted, recalled her. She went to meet her son at Pavia, accompanied by S. Majolus, and Otho threw himself on his knees before his mother, and asked her pardon for the wrong he had done her. She knelt before him, they clasped one another in their arms, and wept on each other's necks. After that Otho remained firmly attached to his mother.
Adelhaid took as her director first Adalbert, archbishop of the new see of Magdeburg [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)], founded by her husband, and after his death, Odilo, abbot of Clugny, her biographer. She founded or restored several monasteries and convents in Saxony, Italy, and Burgundy.
She endowed the abbey of Murbach in Elsass, and the priory of S. Peter at Colmar. She founded a monastery at Salz, or Schlehm, in the diocese of Strassburg. On the death of Otho II., Adelhaid had much to endure from the temper and pride of Theophano, who treated her with discourtesy and unkindness.
In the last year of her life Adelhaid went into Burgundy Ijl— ift to endeavour to compose the discord which had broken out between King Rudolf, her nephew, and his vassals. Whilst she was at S. Maurice, in the Valais, she heard of the death of Franco, the recently-appointed bishop of Worms, at Rome, where was her grandson, Otho III., and she felt anxious lest the fatal soil or lax morals of Italy should affect the health of either the soul or body of Otho. From S. Maurice she went to Lausanne, and then to Orbe, whence she sent presents to several churches — to S. Benoit on the Loire, to Clugny, and to S. Martin [St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), soldier turned bishop] at Tours, for the rebuilding of the abbey church, lately burned down. She saw S. Odilo of Clugny, kissed his habit, and bade him farewell: she should see his face no more.
Then she started for Salz, and falling ill with fever on the way, was conveyed there, and died, after having received the last sacraments with great devotion, on the 16th of December, 999, when aged about fifty-eight. She was buried at Salz.
Some of her relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] are contained in a shrine which is preserved at Hanover. December S. Antiochus, M. in ike Isle of Self a; circ. a.d. xax. S. Lucv, V.M. at Syracuse; a.d. 303.
SS. Eustratus, Orestes, and Others, MM. m Armenia; A.D. S. A bra, V. at Poitiers; circ. a.d. 40a S. Autbert, B. of Cambrai; a.d. 668.
S. Judoc, P.H. in Ponthieu; jtk cent. S. Odilia, V. in Elsass; 8 th cent. S. Elizabeth Rose, V. at Villechausson, near Courtenay; a.d. S. Jeanne* Franjoisk de Chantal, W. at Annecy; a.d. 1641.