Willa, known as ''Willa of Tuscany'' (911/912–970), was a medieval noblewoman. By birth, she was a member of the

Bosonid The Bosonids were a dynasty of Carolingian era dukes, counts, bishops and knights descended from Boso the Elder. Eventually they married into the Carolingian dynasty and produced kings and an emperor of the Frankish Empire. The first great scion o ...

noble dynasty. By marriage to

Berengar II of Italy Berengar II ( 900 – 4 August 966) was the King of Italy from 950 until his deposition in 961. He was a scion of the Anscarid and Unruoching dynasties, and was named after his maternal grandfather, Berengar I. He succeeded his father as Ma ...

she was Countess of

Ivrea Ivrea (; pms, Ivrèja ; ; lat, Eporedia) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it strad ...

from 930 to 963, and

queen consort of Italy Queen of Italy (''regina Italiae'' in Latin and ''regina d'Italia'' in Italian) is a title adopted by many spouses of the rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire. The details of where and how the ruling kings ruled ...

from 950 to 963.

Life

Willa was the daughter of

Boso, Margrave of Tuscany Boso ( it, Bosone; died after 940?) was a Burgundian nobleman who spent much of his career in Italy, where he became Margrave of Tuscany about 932. He ruled semi-autonomously and was a benefactor of the churches of his region. He lost his office i ...

and his wife

Willa of Burgundy Willa is a feminine given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: * Willa or Guilla of Provence (died before 924), early medieval Frankish queen * Willa of Tuscany (died 970), queen consort of Berengar II of Italy * Willa Brow ...

. Boso was a grandson of Lothair II,

King of Lotharingia The rulers of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were kings of ...

via his mother,

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 ...

, and his elder brother Hugh was

King of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader ...

. Willa of Burgundy was the daughter of

Rudolph I of Burgundy Rudolph I (859 – October 25, 911) was King of Upper Burgundy from his election in 888 until his death. Rudolph belonged to the elder Welf family and was the son of Conrad, Count of Auxerre and Waldrada of Worms. From his father he inherited t ...

and sister of

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 t ...

. Around 930 Willa married

. The marriage was arranged by Willa's paternal uncle Hugh of Italy. About 940, however, Berengar led an unsuccessful revolt of Italian nobles against Hugh. Afterwards, he fled to the court of King Otto I of Germany. Although she was heavily pregnant, Willa left Italy, too, travelling through the Alps in the winter to rejoin her husband in Germany. In 950 when Berengar was crowned king of Italy, Willa became his queen consort. Berengar held Willa in high regard and designated her his ''consors regni'' (partner in rule). The contemporary chronicler

Liutprand of Cremona Liutprand, also Liudprand, Liuprand, Lioutio, Liucius, Liuzo, and Lioutsios (c. 920 – 972),"LIUTPRAND OF CREMONA" in '' The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, 1991, p. 1241. was a historian, diplomat, ...

, raised at the court at

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

, wrote about both Berengar and Willa in negative terms. He included several particularly vivid accounts of Willa's character in his ''Antapodosis'', including that she supposedly committed adultery with her chaplain Dominic, "a small priest, puny in height, soot-coloured, rustic, hairy, intractable, rough, shaggy, wild, uncouth, crazy; rebellious, iniquitous, with a tail-like appendage". In order to avoid discovery, Willa apparently cast spells upon her husband. When Berengar held

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 ...

captive in 951 Willa supposedly mistreated her. When Berengar was fighting against Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in the early 960s, Willa and her sons, Adalbert of Italy and

Guy of Ivrea Guy (or Guido) (940 – 25 June 965) was the margrave of Ivrea from 950 to his death. In 950, his father, King Berengar II of Italy, appointed him to rule in the familial margraviate. His mother was Willa of Tuscany, his elder brother was Adalber ...

were frequently by his side. After Otto deposed Berengar, Willa and Berengar were taken as prisoners to Bavaria. After Berengar's death in 966 Willa retired to a nunnery in Bamberg, where she remained for the rest of her life. The date of her death is not known exactly.

Marriage and issue

With Berengar, Willa had several children, including: * Adalbert * Guy * Conrad * Rozala *Gerberga, wife of

Aleram of Montferrat Aleram ( it, Aleramo; died 991) was the first Marquis of Montferrat and Liguria (the '' marca Aleramica'') in Northern Italy until his death. He was son of William I of Montferrat and is mentioned in documents for the first time in 933 when he rece ...

*Gisela,Liutprand of Cremona, ''Antapodosis'', V.32, p. 336.
/ref> a nun *Bertha, abbess of San Sisto in Piacenza

Notes

References

H. Keller, 'Bosone di Toscana'
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' - Volume 13 (1971).
P. Delogu, 'Berengario II, marchese d'Ivrea, re d'Italia'
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' - Vol. 9 (1967). *P. Skinner, ''Women in Medieval Italian Society, 500-1200'' (Harlow, 2001). *P. Squatriti, trans., ''The Complete Works of Liutprand of Cremona'' (Washington DC, 2007). *Detlev Schwennicke, ''Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten'', Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984). *P. Buc, ‘Italian Hussies and German Matrons. Liutprand of Cremona on Dynastic Legitimacy,’ ''Frühmittelalterliche Studien'' 29 (1995), 207-225. {{DEFAULTSORT:Willa of Tuscany Italian queens consort 910s births Queen mothers 970 deaths Year of birth uncertain 10th-century Italian women 10th-century Italian nobility