Hellicha of Wittelsbach ( cs, Hellicha z Wittelsbachu, german: Heilika von Wittelsbach; – 13 August 1198), was

Duchess consort of Bohemia This is a list of the royal consorts of the rulers of Bohemia. The first Duchess of Bohemia (''česká kněžna'') was St. Ludmila, while the first Queen of Bohemia (''česká královna'') was Świętosława of Poland. Some of them were (like ...

from 1189 to 1198, married to Duke

Conrad II Conrad II ( – 4 June 1039), also known as and , was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms ...

Life

She was born in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, the daughter of

Count palatine A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an ord ...

Otto VII (d. 1189), himself a son of Count Otto IV of Wittelsbach, and his wife Benedicta, daughter of Count Mangold of

Donauwörth Donauwörth () is a town and the capital of the Donau-Ries district in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is said to have been founded by two fishermen where the rivers Danube (Donau) and Wörnitz meet. The city is part of the scenic route called "Roman ...

. She and Conrad, then Duke of

Znojmo Znojmo (; german: Znaim) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian R ...

, married before 1176, when she was about 16 years old and her husband was about 25 years her senior. In 1182 she became first Margravine of Moravia, when her husband was appointed

margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

by Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

in 1182. She became duchess when her husband, backed by both the emperor and the local nobles, ascended to the Bohemian throne in 1189. In 1191 Duke Conrad II accompanied Frederick's son and successor Henry VI on his campaign against the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...

and never returned as he died on 9 September during the siege of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Hellicha died on 13 August 1198.

References

* Čechura. J.; Jiří Mikulec, J.; Stellner, F. Lexikon českých panovnických dynastií. Praha, 1996, s. 96; Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české. Díl 1. Praha a Litomyšl, 1999, s. 752. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hellicha of Wittelsbach Duchesses of Bohemia 1198 deaths