Sophia of Loon (c. 1044/46 - b. 1075; Hungarian: ''Loozi Zsófia''; Dutch: ''Sofia van Loon''; French: ''Sophie de Looz'') was the Queen of Hungary, the first wife of

Géza I of Hungary Géza I (; ; 104025 April 1077) was King of Hungary from 1074 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Béla I of Hungary, Béla I. His baptismal name was Magnus. With German assistance, Géza's cousin Solomon, King of Hungary, Solomon ac ...

. According to the old Hungarian sources, she was the daughter of the

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

duke Arnulf, the son of Rudolph, duke of Limburg, and countess Luitgard of Namur. In reality Arnulf might be

Arnulf, Count of Holland Arnulf, also known as Arnoud or Arnold, succeeded his father in 988 as Count of Frisia, which by around AD 1100 would come to be referred to as the county of Holland. He was born in 951 in Ghent and because of this he is also known as Arnulf of Ghe ...

, the father of Dirk III (the maternal great-grandfather of Sophia of Loon) or Arnulf of Haspinga (her paternal grandfather); and Luitgard might be Luitgarde of Namur, her paternal grandmother; thus, Rodolph was her paternal great-grandfather (see the ancestry chart below), who can possibly be identified with Richwin II, Castelijn of Baelen-Limbourg (1033).

Family

She may have been the daughter of Emmo of Loon, the third count of the

County of Loon The County of Loon ( , ) was a county in the Holy Roman Empire, which corresponded approximately with the modern Belgian province of Limburg. It was named after the original seat of its count, Loon, which is today called Borgloon. During the mid ...

, and his wife Swanhilde, the daughter of

Dirk III, Count of Holland Dirk III (also called ''Dirik'' or ''Theodoric'') was the count with jurisdiction over what would become the county of Holland, often referred to in this period as "West Frisia", from 993 to 27 May 1039. Until 1005, this was under regency of his ...

, and Othelindis (c. 985-1043/44), who in turn was the daughter of Bernard I of Saxony.

Marriage and issue

Sometime around 1062 or 1063, Sophie married the Hungarian prince Géza, the later Géza I of Hungary. It is believed that they may have met in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, where Géza was sent as a hostage in 1062–1063, at which time he must have been unmarried in line with the custom of not sending married men as hostages to foreign courts. Sophia probably died soon after her husband became king (1074-1077), since Géza in 1075 had already another wife, the Byzantine princess

Synadene Synadene (, ) was a Byzantine Greek woman who briefly acted as List of Hungarian consorts, queen consort of Hungary, probably in the 1070s. She was most likely married to Géza I of Hungary, King Géza I. Husband's identity Synadene's first n ...

. According to the sources, they had seven children, but not all of them reached adulthood. Sophia and Géza had the issue: * Kálmán (c. 1065/70-1116), King of Hungary *

Álmos Álmos (), also Almos or Almus ( 820 – 895), was—according to the uniform account of Hungarian chronicles—the first head of the "loose federation" of the Hungarian tribes from around 850. Whether he was the Sacred king, sacred ruler (''k ...

(c. 1068/71-1127, in Byzance), claimant to the throne *Katalin (may also be the daughter of Géza's second wife, Synadene) Only these names survived. In addition to them, two more sons died in infancy, and probably three daughters reached the adulthood. One of them became the mother of

ispán The ispánRady 2000, p. 19.''Stephen Werbőczy: The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts (1517)'', p. 450. or countEngel 2001, p. 40.Curta 2006, p. 355. (, , and ),Kirschbaum 2007, p. 315. deriving from title of župan, ...

Bors, a claimant to the Hungarian throne (exiled to Byzantium), while another daughter became the mother of Iván, a claimant to the Hungarian throne (executed in c. 1130).For Bors, and Iván, the claimants to the throne see: Tamás Kádár: Saul herceg, Bors ispán és Iván úr. In: Századok vol. 151. 2017/4. pp. 787-808.

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Ancestry

References

Bibliography

*Bertényi, I. , Diószegi, I. , Horváth, J. , Kalmár, J., Szabó P. (2004): Királyok Könyve. Magyarország és Erdély királyai, királynői, fejedelmei és kormányzói. Budapest: Helikon Kiadó. *Nógrády, Árpád, Pálffy, Géza, Velkey, Ferenc (2007): Magyar uralkodók. Debrecen: Tóth Könyvkereskedés és Kiadó Kft. p. 14. *Sokop, Brigitte (1993): Stammtafeln europäischer Herrscherhäuser. 3. Aufl. Böhlau, Wien, {{ISBN, 3-205-98096-4. *Magyar Katolikus Lexiko

1040s births 1070s deaths 11th-century Hungarian people 11th-century Hungarian women Queens consort of Hungary Mothers of Hungarian monarchs