Agnes of Austria (c. 1151/54 – 13 January 1182), a member of the

House of Babenberg The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...

, was

Queen of Hungary The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1 ...

from 1168 until 1172 by her first marriage with King

Stephen III of Hungary Stephen III ( hu, István, hr, Stjepan, sk, Štefan; summer of 11474 March 1172) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1162 and 1172. He was crowned king in early June 1162, shortly after the death of his father, Géza II. However, his two un ...

and Duchess of Carinthia by her second marriage with Duke

Herman of Carinthia Herman of Carinthia (1105/1110 – after 1154), also called Hermanus Dalmata or Sclavus Dalmata, Secundus, by his own words born in the "heart of Istria", was a philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and translator of Arabic works ...

from 1173 until 1181.

Life

Agnes was the eldest child of the Babenberg duke

Henry II of Austria Henry II (german: Heinrich; 1107 – 13 January 1177), called Jasomirgott, a member of the House of Babenberg,Lingelbach 1913, pp. 91–92. was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1140 to 1141, Duke of Bavaria (as ''Henry XI'') and Margrave of Austria ...

and his second wife, the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

princess Theodora Komnene.

Queen

In 1166, Duke Henry II, who was mediating a peace between King

and Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, proposed a marriage between his daughter, Agnes and the young king. However, the King decided to marry Princess

Yaroslavna of Halych Yaroslavna of Halych, was a Hungarian queen consort, married to King Stephen III of Hungary. She was a daughter of Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl Yaroslav Osmomysl ( orv, Осмомыслъ Ярославъ, ''Osmomyslŭ Jaroslavŭ''; uk , Яросл ...

(1167); nevertheless, this marriage ended soon: the princess was repudiated and sent back to her father in 1168. The negotiations with Austria were renewed and Agnes was married to King Stephen III in the same year.

Later life

Just after her husband's funeral, the widowed Agnes left for the Duchy of Austria with her father. One year later (1173) she was married again, to the

Sponheim Sponheim is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany. History Sponheim was the capital of the County of Sponheim. Sponheim Abbey There was a Benedictine abbey which was founded in 1101 by Step ...

duke Herman of Carinthia. They had two sons: Ulrich II (born in 1176) and Bernhard II (born in 1180) who were later Dukes of Carinthia. Duke Herman died in 1181. Agnes survived him only one year. She was buried in the Crypt of the

Schottenstift The Schottenstift ( en, Scottish Abbey), formally called Benediktinerabtei unserer Lieben Frau zu den Schotten ( en, Benedictine Abbey of Our Dear Lady of the Scots), is a Catholic monastery founded in Vienna in 1155 when Henry II of Austria brou ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, next to her parents.

Sources

* Soltész, István: ''Árpád-házi királynék'' (Gabo, 1999) * Kristó, Gyula - Makk, Ferenc: ''Az Árpád-ház uralkodói'' (IPC Könyvek, 1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes of Austria 1150s births 1182 deaths 12th-century Austrian women Babenberg House of Árpád Remarried royal consorts Hungarian queens consort 12th-century Austrian people 12th-century Hungarian people 12th-century Hungarian women Daughters of monarchs Year of birth uncertain