Azalaïs of Montferrat (also Adelasia or Alasia) (1150–1232) was Marchioness consort of

Saluzzo Saluzzo (; ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy. The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are found in the su ...

by marriage to Manfred II of Saluzzo, and regent for her grandson,

Manfred III of Saluzzo Manfred III (died 1244) was the third Marquess of Saluzzo, from 1215 to his death. He was the son of Boniface of Saluzzo and Maria di Torres of Sassari (in Sardinia). Since his father died in 1212, he succeeded his grandfather Manfred II of Salu ...

from 1215 to 1218.

Biography

Azalaïs was one of at least three daughters of

William V of Montferrat William V of Montferrat (occ./piem. ''Guilhem'', it. ''Guglielmo'') ( 1115 – 1191) also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest ...

and his wife

Judith of Babenberg Judith (called ''Julitta'' in Latin, ''Giuditta'' in Italian; – 1191?) was a German noblewoman who was the List of consorts of Montferrat, marchioness of Montferrat by marriage from 1133 until her death. She was a member of the House of Bab ...

. Her brothers included

William of Montferrat, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon William Longsword (1140s – June 1177) was a member of the House of Montferrat from northern Italy who became the count of Jaffa and Ascalon in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. As a cousin of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and King Louis VII of France, W ...

, Conrad I of Jerusalem, and Boniface of Montferrat. She married Marquis Manfred II of Saluzzo before 1182, in which year she received lands in Saluzzo, Racconigi, Villa, Centallo and Quaranta, in case her marriage (like that of her sister Agnes) should need to be annulled for reasons of sterility. Like her brother Boniface, Azalaïs was a patron of

troubadours A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tro ...

. She is mentioned in Peire Vidal's song, ''Estat ai gran sazo'': ::''Dieus sal l'onrat marques'' ::''E sa bella seror...'' ::(''God save the honoured marquis'' ::''And his beautiful sister'') and is the dedicatee of his ''Bon' aventura don Dieus als Pizas''. Around 1192, she had built the church of San Lorenzo, which she granted to the canons of San Lorenzo in

Oulx Oulx (, , ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, in the Susa Valley on the border with France. Names Like many other towns in the Susa Valley, Oulx has diff ...

; her eldest son, Boniface, named after her brother, is mentioned for the first time in the donation. However, Boniface died in 1212, and with the death of her husband in February 1215, Azalaïs became regent of Saluzzo for her grandson, Manfred III. In 1216, she made a treaty with

Thomas I of Savoy Thomas Ι (''Tommaso I''; 1178 – 1 March 1233) was Count of Savoy from 1189 to 1233. He is sometimes numbered "Thomas I" to distinguish him from his son of the same name. His long reign marked a decisive period in the history of Savoy. Biog ...

for a marriage between his son

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: People and fictional characters * Amadeus (name) Amadeus is a theophoric name, theophoric given name derived from the Latin words ' – the Imperative mood, imperative of the word ' ("to love") – and ' ("god"). As a Compou ...

and her granddaughter Agnes. However, the marriage never took place, possibly on grounds of consanguinity, since Azalaïs was a first cousin of Thomas's father. Amadeus married Anne of Burgundy, and Agnes became Abbess of the Cistercian convent of Santa Maria della Stella in Rifreddo.comune.rifreddo.cn.it: Informazioni storiche
/ref> Azalaïs also made political and ecclesiastical agreements with

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...

and with the Bishop of Asti. When young Manfred reached his majority in 1218, Azalaïs returned to church patronage. In 1224, she endowed the convent of Rifreddo with the income of the church of San Ilario. In 1227, she made further grants to the canons of Oulx. She died in 1232, and was buried in the Cistercian abbey of Santa Maria di Staffarda.

Issue

Manfred and Azalaïs had at least five children: * Agnes m. Comita III, '' giudice'' of

Logudoro The Logudoro (; ) is a large historical region Sardinia, Italy. It is the namesake of the Logudorese dialect of Sardinian language, Sardinian, which covers a large area of northern-central Sardinia. The first denomination of the area is contai ...

, in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

. * Boniface (the heir, who predeceased his father) m. Maria of Torres (daughter of Agnes's husband). They were the parents of Manfred II's successor

*Margaret m. Geoffrey de Salvaing. * (daughter, given name unknown) m. Marquis William II of Ceva. * Thomas.

Notes

Sources

Ernest Hoepffner Ernst Hoepffner (14 November 1879 – 1956) was a French scholar of medieval literature. Biography Hoepffner was born in Rountzenheim, Bas-Rhin. He hailed from a family of Protestant pastors, and studied in Strasbourg, Florence, and Paris. He rec ...

, ''Le Troubadour Peire Vidal: sa vie et son œuvre'', Paris, 1961 * A M Patrone, "Alasia", ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', vol. 1, p. 583 * Leopoldo Usseglio, ''I Marchesi di Monferrato in Italia ed in Oriente durante i secoli XII e XIII'', 1926.

External links

Santa Maria di Staffarda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azalais Of Montferrat 1150 births 1232 deaths Regents of Italy Marquesses of Montferrat Italian patrons of literature Aleramici Marchionesses of Saluzzo 13th-century women regents 13th-century Italian nobility 13th-century Italian women 12th-century Italian nobility 12th-century Italian women 13th-century regents