Agnes of Waiblingen (1072/73 – 24 September 1143), also known as Agnes of Germany, Agnes of Franconia and Agnes of Saarbrücken, was a member of the Salian imperial family. Through her first marriage, she was Duchess of Swabia; through her second marriage, she was Margravine of Austria.

Family

She was the daughter of

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and List of kings of Burgundy, Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was t ...

, and

Bertha of Savoy Bertha of Savoy (21 September 1051 – 27 December 1087), also called Bertha of Turin, was Queen of Germany from 1066 and Holy Roman Empress from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of Emperor Henry IV. Life Bertha of Savoy was a daughter ...

. She was named after her paternal grandmother,

Agnes of Poitou Agnes of Poitou ( – 14 December 1077) was the queen of Germany from 1043 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1046 until 1056 as the wife of Emperor Henry III. From 1056 to 1061, she ruled the Holy Roman Empire as regent during the ...

. She had two siblings, Adelaide/Adelheid and Henry, who died in infancy, and two brothers, Conrad, and Henry. Her mother died when she was around 15, and around 17, her father remarried to Eupraxia of Kiev.

First marriage

In 1079, aged seven, Agnes was betrothed to Frederick, a member of the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

dynasty; at the same time, Henry IV invested Frederick as the new

duke of Swabia The Dukes of Swabia were the rulers of the Duchy of Swabia during the Middle Ages. Swabia was one of the five stem duchy, stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most no ...

. The couple married in 1086, when Agnes was fourteen. They had two sons and three daughters: *

Frederick II of Swabia Frederick II (, 1090 – 6 April 1147), called the One-Eyed (), was Duke of Swabia from 1105 until his death, the second from the Hohenstaufen dynasty. His younger brother Conrad was elected King of the Romans in 1138. Life Early career Fr ...

Conrad III of Germany Conrad III (; ; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in t ...

* Gertrud, who married Hermann III, Count Palatine of the Rhine * Heilika, who married Frederick III of Pettendorf-Lengenfeld-Hopfenche, and were the parents to Heilika of Lengenfeld * Richildis, who married Hugh I, Count of Roucy In 1977, German genealogist and historian Hansmartin Decker-Hauff revealed the existence of several other children he claimed to have found in documents from the abbey of Lorch, the Staufers' family monastery. These claims were later exposed as forgeries. Historian Heinz Bühler's suggestion that Berta of Boll, the wife of Count Adalbert of Elchingen-Ravenstein, was Agnes' and Frederick's daughter is purely speculative.

Second marriage

Following Frederick's death in 1105, Agnes married Leopold III (1073–1136), the

Margrave of Austria From 976 until 1246, the Margraviate of Austria and its successor, the Duchy of Austria, was ruled by the House of Babenberg. At that time, those states were part of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1246 until 1918, the duchy and its successor, the Ar ...

(1095–1136). According to a legend, a veil lost by Agnes and found by Leopold years later while hunting was the instigation for him to found the Klosterneuburg Monastery. Their children were: * Adalbert * Leopold IV * Henry II of Austria * Berta, married Heinrich III, Burgrave of

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

* Agnes, "one of the most famous beauties of her time", married Wladyslaw II of Poland * Ernst * Uta, married Luitpold I, Count of Plain *

Otto of Freising Otto of Freising (; – 22 September 1158) was a German churchman of the Cistercian order and chronicled at least two texts which carry valuable information on the political history of his own time. He was the bishop of Freising from 1138. Ot ...

, bishop and biographer * Conrad, Bishop of Passau, and

Archbishop of Salzburg The Archdiocese of Salzburg (; ) is a Latin Church, Latin rite archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in Salzburg, Austria. It is also the principal diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian ...

* Elisabeth, married Hermann, Count of Winzenburg *

Judith The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the ...

, married c. 1133 William V of Montferrat. Their children formed an important Crusading dynasty. * Gertrude, married Vladislav II of Bohemia According to the ''Continuation of the Chronicles of Klosterneuburg'', there may have been up to seven other children (possibly from multiple births) stillborn or who died in infancy. In 2013, documentation regarding the results of DNA testing of the remains of the family buried in Klosterneuburg & Heiligenkreuz strongly favor that Adalbert was the son of Leopold and Agnes. In 1125, Agnes' brother,

Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (; probably 11 August 1081 or 1086 – 23 May 1125) was King of Germany (from 1099 to 1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 1111 to 1125), as the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. He was made co-ruler by his father, Henry IV, i ...

, died childless, leaving Agnes and her children as heirs to the

Salian dynasty The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty () was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). After the death of the last Ottonia ...

's immense allodial estates, including Waiblingen. In 1127, Agnes' second son, Konrad III, was elected as the rival King of Germany by those opposed to the Saxon party's Lothar III. When Lothar died in 1137, Konrad was elected to the position.

References

Sources

* * * Karl Lechner, ''Die Babenberger'', 1992. * Brigitte Vacha & Walter Pohl, ''Die Welt der Babenberger: Schleier, Kreuz und Schwert'', Graz, 1995. *Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 45-24 * *H. Decker-Hauff, ''Die Zeit der Staufer'', vol. III (Stuttgart, 1977). {{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes of Germany 1070s births 1143 deaths Year of birth uncertain Austrian consorts Duchesses of Swabia Hohenstaufen family House of Babenberg Salian dynasty Daughters of emperors Daughters of kings Remarried duchesses consort Mothers of Italian monarchs Mothers of Austrian monarchs Mothers of Bavarian monarchs Mothers of German monarchs Daughters of dukes