Willa of Spoleto (also Willa of Tuscany) ( – 7 January 978) was the daughter of Boniface I, duke of Spoleto. Through marriage to
Hubert, Duke of Spoleto
Hubert (or Humbert, Italian ''Uberto'' or ''Umberto''; died c. 969) was the illegitimate son of King Hugh of Italy and his concubine Wandelmoda. He became Margrave of Tuscany in 936 and Duke of Spoleto and Margrave of Camerino in 943.
Hubert had ...
Willa became duchess of Spoleto and margravine of Tuscany.
Family
Willa’s parents were Boniface I, duke of Spoleto and Waldrada, daughter of
Rudolf I
Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death.
Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which h ...
, king of
Upper Burgundy
The Kingdom of Upper Burgundy was a Frankish dominion established in 888 by the Welf king Rudolph I of Burgundy on the territory of former Middle Francia. It grew out of the Carolingian margraviate of Transjurane Burgundy (''Transjurania'', ...
. Thus her maternal uncle was
Rudolph II of Burgundy
Rudolph II (c. 11 July 880 – 11 July 937), a member of the Elder House of Welf, was King of Burgundy from 912 until his death. He initially succeeded in Upper Burgundy and also ruled as King of Italy from 922 to 926. In 933 Rudolph acquired the ...
, and his daughter
Adelaide of Italy
Adelaide of Italy (german: Adelheid; 931 – 16 December 999 AD), also called Adelaide of Burgundy, was Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Emperor Otto the Great; she was crowned with him by Pope John XII in Rome on 2 February 962. She was the ...
was her cousin.
Marriage and issue
Around 945 Willa married
Hubert
Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and '' beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname.
Saint Hubertus or Hubert (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers ...
, an illegitimate son of
King Hugh and Wandelmoda. Hubert and Willa at least two children:
*
Hugh
Hugh may refer to:
*Hugh (given name)
Noblemen and clergy French
* Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks
* Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II
* Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...
, who succeeded Hubert as margrave of Tuscany;
*
Waldrada
Waldrada (also Vuldetrada) (531572), wife (firstly) of Theudebald, King of Austrasia (ruled 548–555), reputed mistress (secondly) of Chlothar I, King of the Franks (ruled until 561), was the daughter of Wacho, King of the Lombards (ruled ''ca''. ...
, who married
Pietro IV Candiano
Pietro IV Candiano (925–976) was the twenty-second (traditional) or twentieth (historical) doge of Venice from 959 to his death. He was the eldest son of Pietro III Candiano, with whom he co-reigned and whom he was elected to succeed.
Rise
Pie ...
,
doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...
;
*It is sometimes argued that
Bertha
Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German ''berhta'' meaning "bright one". It was usually a short form of Anglo Saxon names ''Beorhtgifu'' meaning "bright gift" or ''Beorhtwynn'' meaning "bright joy".
The name occurs as a theonym, s ...
, who married Margrave
Arduin of Ivrea
Arduin ( it, Arduino; – 14 December 1015) was an Italian nobleman who was King of Italy from 1002 until 1014.
In 990 Arduin became Margrave of Ivrea and in 991 Count of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran in Rome. In 1002, after the death of Em ...
, future king of Italy, was also the daughter of Willa and Hubert.
Religious patronage
According to a diploma issued by Emperor
Otto III
Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
Otto III was crowned as King of ...
in 998, Willa was the founder of the convent of San Ponziano in Lucca.
Willa was widowed, around 968, and her son Hugh succeeded Hubert as margrave of Tuscany. Willa moved with Hugh from Lucca to Florence, establishing this as the new capital of Tuscany. In 978 Willa founded the monastery of
Badia Fiorentina
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church now home to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence, Italy. Dante supposedly grew up across the street in what is now called the ' Casa di Dant ...
in Florence to commemorate her late husband.
[Goez, ''Beatrix'', pp. 77, 128.]
Willa’s date of death is not known.
Notes
References
*
Liutprand of Cremona
Liutprand, also Liudprand, Liuprand, Lioutio, Liucius, Liuzo, and Lioutsios (c. 920 – 972),"LIUTPRAND OF CREMONA" in ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, 1991, p. 12 ...
, Antapodosis, i
J. Becker, ed., ''Die Werke Liutprands'', MGH SS rer Germ 41 (Hannover, 1915)
*
*
*Brunhofer, Ursula: ''Arduin von Ivrea. Untersuchungen zum letzten italienischen Königtum des Mittelalters'' (Augsburg, 1999).
*Goez Elke: ''Beatrix von Canossa und Tuszien. Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte des 11. Jahrhunderts'' (Sigmaringen, 1995).
*Hlawitschka, Eduard: ''Franken, Alemannen, Bayern und Burgunder in Oberitalien (774-962)'' (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1960).
*Thiele, Andreas: ''Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte Band II, Teilband 2 Europäische Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser II Nord-, Ost- und Südeuropa'' (R.G. Fischer Verlag, 1994).
* {{cite book , last=Wickham , first=Chris , title=Early medieval Italy : central power and local society, 400-1000 , publisher=Macmillan , location=London , year=1981 , isbn=0-389-20217-7 , oclc=7576748
* D. Carutti, ''Il conte Umberto (Biancamano) e il re Ardoino. Ricerche e documenti'' (Rome, 1884, 2nd ed., first published 1878).
Margraves of the Holy Roman Empire
10th-century Italian women