Rosela (Susanna) OF IVREA (952?-1003)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note 1

Rozala of Italy (also known as Rozala of Provence, or Susannah of Italy) was the daughter of King Berengar II of Italy. By her first marriage, she was Countess of Flanders; by her second, she was Queen of France. She was a seventh generation descendant of Charlemagne.

Her first marriage was to Count Arnulf II of Flanders (d. 988). They had three children: Baldwin IV of Flanders (980–1035); Eudes of Cambrai; and Mathilda (d. 995). On her husband's death, she acted as regent for her young son.

In 988 or 989, despite being over fifty years old, she married Robert the Pious, the Rex Filius of France; he was not particularly enthusiastic about the marriage, which had been arranged by his father, King Hugh of France. She brought her husband Montreuil and Ponthieu as a dowry. Upon her marriage, she took the name of Susannah.

When her father-in-law died, however, Robert repudiated her, desiring to marry Bertha of Burgundy in her place. Rozala then retired to Flanders, where she died and was buried. Robert retained control of her dowry.²

Individual Note 2

As early as 989, having been rebuffed in his search for a Byzantine princess,[6] Hugh Capet arranged for Robert II to marry the recently-widowed daughter of Berengar II of Italy, Rozala, who took the name of Susannah upon becoming Queen.[7] She was many years his senior. She was the widow of Arnulf II of Flanders, with whom she had children, the oldest of whom was of age to assume the offices of count of Flanders. Robert divorced her within a year of his father's death. He tried instead to marry Bertha, daughter of Conrad of Burgundy, around the time of his father's death. She was a widow of Odo I of Blois, but was also Robert's cousin. For reasons of consanguinity, Pope Gregory V refused to sanction the marriage, and Robert was excommunicated. After long negotiations with Gregory's successor, Sylvester II, the marriage was annulled.

Finally, in 1001, Robert entered into his final and longest-lasting marriage to Constance of Arles, the daughter of William I of Provence. She was an ambitious and scheming woman, who made life miserable for her husband by encouraging her sons to revolt against their father

NOTES:

6. The letter compopsed by Gerbert survives, though no Byzantine response is recorded: Constance B. Bouchard, 'Consanguinity and Noble Marriages in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries" Speculum 56.2 (April 1981:268-287) pp 274, 276.

7. The most complete account of the marriages of Robert II remains that of Charles Pfister, Etudes sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (Paris 1885:41-69); see Constance Bouchard 1981:273ff.

REFERENCES:

Lewis, Andrew W. "Anticipatory Association of the Heir in Early Capetian France." The American Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4. (Oct., 1978), pp 906–927.

Jessee, W. Scott. "A missing Capetian princess: Advisa, daughter of King Robert II of France". Medieval Prosopography, 1990.³

Sources