Adalbert King of Italy

     Adalbert King of Italy was born circa 932.¹ He was the son of Berenger II King of Italy and Willa of Tuscany. Adalbert King of Italy married Gerberge, daughter of Lambert Count of Chalon. Adalbert King of Italy died circa 975.¹
     On 15 December 950, both he and his father were crowned kings of Italy after the death of Lothair II. His father tried to force Adelaide, widow of Lothair, to marry Adalbert and cement their claim to the kingship. When she refused and fled, she was tracked down and imprisoned for four months at Como.
In 960, he joined his father in attacking the pope, John XII. Otto came down at the pope's call and defeated the two co-kings and was crowned Emperor. Adalbert fled to Fraxinet, then under the Saracens. From there he fled to Corsica. When he returned, he tried to take Pavia, the Italian capital, but was defeated by another invading Swabian army, this time under Burchard III. Only the interference of his brothers Conrad and Guy, who died fighting, saved him to fight another day, which he never did. His negotiations with the Byzantine Empire fell through and he retired with his wife Gerberga to Burgundy, where he died at Autun sometime between 971 and 975. His widow married Henry I, Duke of Burgundy, and his son, Otto-William, inherited through his stepfather the county of Burgundy and is thus the forefather of the Free Counts and the Hohenstaufen emperors.²