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Saint Adela (Aelis) DE FRANCE (1009?-1079)
Name: | Adela (Aelis) DE FRANCE 1 |
Sex: | Female |
Name Prefix: | Saint |
Father: | Robert II OF FRANCE (972-1031) |
Mother: | Constance OF PROVENCE (986?-1032) |
Individual Events and Attributes
Birth | 1009 (est) | |
Occupation (1) | Countess of Contentin | |
Occupation (2) | frm 1036 to 1067 (age 26-58) | Countess of Flanders |
nun | 1067 (age 57-58) | retreating to the Benedictine convent of Messines, near Ypres |
founded | Colleges of Aire (1049), Lille (1050) and Harelbeke (1064) as well as the abbeys of Messines (1057) and Ename (1063) | |
Title | Countess of Corbie | |
Group/Caste Membership | Capetian Dynasty | |
National or Tribal Origin | France | |
Death | 8 Jan 1079 (age 69-70) | Messines |
Burial | the Benedictine convent of Messines, near Ypres |
Additional Information
nun | Following Baldwin's death, she went to Rome, took the veil from the hands of Pope Alexander II and |
Marriage (1)
Spouse | Baldwin V OF FLANDERS (1012-1067) | |
Children | Maud OF FLANDERS (1032-1083) | |
Robert I OF FLANDERS (1035?-1093) | ||
Baldwin VI (I) DE MONS (1030?-1070) | ||
Marriage | 1028 (age 18-19) | Paris, France |
Marriage (2)
Richard III, Duke of Normandy | Judith of Flanders, Countess of Northumbria | |||
Spouse | Richard III OF NORMANDY (997-1028) | |
Children | Judith OF NORMANDY (1028-1094) | |
Marriage | 1027 (age 17-18) |
Individual Note
Adela Capet, Adèle of France or Adela of Flanders[1], known also as Adela the Holy or Adela of Messines; (1009 – 8 January 1079, Messines) was the second daughter of Robert II (the Pious), and Constance of Arles. As dowry to her future husband, she received from her father the title of Countess of Corbie.
She was a member of the House of Capet, the rulers of France. As the wife of Baldwin V, she was Countess of Flanders from 1036 to 1067.
She married first 1027 Richard III Duke of Normandy (997 † 1027). They never had children. As a widow, she remarried in 1028 in Paris to Baldwin V of Flanders (1012 † 1067). Their children were:
Baldwin VI of Flanders, (1030 † 1070)
Matilda of Flanders (1032 † 1083). In 1053 she married William Duke of Normandy, the future king of England
Robert I of Flanders, (1033-1093)
Henry of Flanders (c. 1035)
Sir Richard of Flanders (c. 1050-1105)
Adèle’s influence lay mainly in her family connections. On the death of her brother, Henry I of France, the guardianship of his seven-year-old son Philip I fell jointly on his widow, Ann of Kiev, and on his brother-in-law, Adela's husband, so that from 1060 to 1067, they were Regents of France.
When Adela's third son, Robert the Frisian, was to invade Flanders in 1071 to become the new count (at that time the count was Adela's grandson, Arnulf III), she asked Phillip I to stop him. Phillip sent troops in order to aid Arnulf, being among the forces sent by the king a contingent of ten Norman knights led by William FitzOsborn. Robert's forces attacked Arnulf's numerically superior army at Cassel before it could organize, and Arnulf himself was killed along with William FitzOsborn. The overwhelming triumph of Robert made Phillip invest him with Flanders, making the peace. A year later, Phillip married Robert's stepdaughter, Bertha of Holland, and in 1074, Phillip restored the seigneurie of Corbie to the crown.
Adèle had an especially great interest in Baldwin V’s church-reform politics and was behind her husband’s founding of several collegiate churches. Directly or indirectly, she was responsible for establishing the Colleges of Aire (1049), Lille (1050) and Harelbeke (1064) as well as the abbeys of Messines (1057) and Ename (1063). After Baldwin’s death in 1067, she went to Rome, took the nun’s veil from the hands of Pope Alexander II and retreated to the Benedictine convent of Messines, near Ypres. There she died, being buried at the same monastery. Honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, her commemoration day is 8 September.
NOTE:
1. Other forms of her name are Adela, Adélaïde, Adelheid, Aelis and Alix.2
Sources
1 | Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 125, 128-22; 156, 162-22; 157, 163-22; 157, 164-22; 158, 166-22. |
2 | "Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adela_of_France,_Countess_of_Flanders. |