Bertha OF LORRAINE (863-925)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Bertha (died 925) was the second illegitimate daughter of Lothair II, King of Lotharingia, by his concubine Waldrada.[1] She was renowned to be beautiful, spirited, and courageous. Ambition, coupled with her influence, involved her husbands in many wars.

She married firstly to Bosonid Theobald of Arles, by which she had: Boso and Hugh of Provence, later king of Italy. Her second husband was Adalbert II of Tuscany and her two sons, Guy and Lambert, both ruled Tuscany later.[2] Guy's minority was spent under her regency. When Hugh desired to marry Marozia, the widow of his half-brother Guy, he tried to eliminate the descendants of his mother by her second husband.

She also had a daughter Ermengard, who married Adalbert I of Ivrea.

Bertha is also known for her curious correspondence to Caliph al-Muktafi in 906, in which she described herself rather grandly as "Queen of the Franks". Bertha's letter is of interest in that she appears to have little knowledge of Baghdad politics or culture, and it is for this reason that details of her correspondence were recorded by one of the Muslim chroniclers. Bertha was seeking a marriage alliance between herself and the Emir of Sicily, unaware that al-Mukfati has little influence over the Aghlabid colony in Sicily. Moreover, the letter was written in a language unfamiliar to the Caliph's translators, and the accompanying gifts (among them a multicoloured woollen coat) which no doubt indicated a largesse on Bertha's part, were unlikely to have impressed al-Muktafi beyond their novelty value.[3]

NOTES:

1 http://www.jstor.org/stable/551042 C. W. Previté Orton. "Italy and Provence, 900-950."

2 http://www.jstor.org/stable/551042 C. W. Previté Orton. "Italy and Provence, 900-950."

3 Muslims of Medieval Italy, Google Books

SOURCES:

Metcalfe, A. (2009) Muslims of Medieval Italy (Edinburgh University Press)

Previté Orton, C. W. "Italy and Provence, 900-950." The English Historical Review Vol. 32, No. 127 (Jul., 1917) (pp. 335-347)²

Sources