Ageltrude

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Ageltrude

| succession = Queen consort of Italy

| reign = 889 - 12 December 894

| birth_date = c. 860

| death_date = 27 August 923

| consort = yes

| spouse = Guy III of Spoleto

| issue = Lambert of Italy

| father = Adelchis of Benevento

| mother = Adeltrude

| succession1 = Holy Roman Empress

| reign1 = 891 - 12 December 894

}}

Ageltrude or Agiltrude (around 860 – 27 August 923) was the Empress and Queen of Italy as the wife of Guy (reigned 891–894).{{cite book|last=Bury|first=John Bagnell|title=The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 3|year=1922|publisher=Macmillan}}{{cite book|last=Mann|first=Horace|title=The Lives of Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891-999|year=1925|publisher=London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner}} She was the regent for her son Lambert (reigned 894–898) and actively encouraged him in opposing the Carolingians, and in influencing papal elections in their favour.{{Cite book |last=Kleinhenz |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzArDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ageltrude+guy+Albert&pg=PP1 |title=Routledge Revivals: Medieval Italy (2004): An Encyclopedia - Volume II |date=2017-07-05 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-66443-1 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Manarini |first=Edoardo |date=2021-12-22 |title=Sex, Denigration and Violence: A Representation of Political Competition between Two Aristocratic Families in Ninth Century Italy |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9789048536207.008 |journal=Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154 |pages=205–242 |doi=10.1017/9789048536207.008|isbn=978-90-485-3620-7 |url-access=subscription }}

Life

Ageltrude was the daughter of Prince Adelchis of Benevento and Adeltrude. She married Guy of Spoleto circa 875, when he was the duke and margrave of Spoleto and Camerino. Guy of Spoleto defeated Berengar to became King of Italy in 889, and then, in 891, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, making Ageltrude empress. Guy's reign was short, and in 894, Guy died, leaving Ageltrude a widow. As their son, Lambert, was a minor, she became regent.{{Cite journal |last=Karlin-Hayter |first=P. |date=January 1967 |title='When Military Affairs were in Leo's Hands' A Note on Byzantine Foreign Policy (886–912) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/traditio/article/abs/when-military-affairs-were-in-leos-hands-a-note-on-byzantine-foreign-policy-886912/A1D79EEB5672A2466B2D2D3453DCEEEF |journal=Traditio |language=en |volume=23 |pages=15–40 |doi=10.1017/S0362152900008722 |s2cid=152098357 |issn=0362-1529|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |last=Kleinhenz |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzArDwAAQBAJ&dq=info:e7pOh4q8-ywJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PP1 |title=Routledge Revivals: Medieval Italy (2004): An Encyclopedia - Volume II |date=2017-07-05 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-351-66443-1 |language=en}}

In 894, Ageltrude accompanied her 14-year-old son, Lambert, to Rome to be confirmed as emperor by Pope Formosus, who supported the Carolingian claimant Arnulf of Carinthia.{{cite book|last=Partner|first=Peter|title=The lands of St. Peter: the papal state in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance|year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley [u.a.]|isbn=0520021819|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/landsofstpeterpa0000part}} In 896, she and her son fled from Rome to Spoleto when Arnulf marched into Rome and was crowned in opposition to Lambert. This loss was only temporary, however, as Pope Formosus died a mere month after crowning Arnulf, and Arnulf himself was soon paralysed by a stroke.{{Cite book |last=Duckett |first=Eleanor Shipley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLkmSBuUxeoC&dq=Agiltrude+regent&pg=PA3 |title=Death and Life in the Tenth Century |date=1967 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-06172-3 |language=en}}

Ageltrude, in a position of such power, took the opportunity to assert her authority in Rome and, after the very brief two-week papal reign of Boniface VI, she worked to have her preferred candidate elected as Pope Stephen VI. At her and Lambert's request, the body of Pope Formosus was disinterred, given a full trial on accusations of transferring one see to another, convicted, and his corpse was hurled into the Tiber, in an event that came to be known as the Cadaver Synod.{{Cite web |title=Stephen VI (or VII) {{!}} Biography, Reign & Exhumation {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-VI-or-VII |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Limjoco |first=Uriel R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcouEAAAQBAJ&dq=Ageltrude+cadaver+synod&pg=PT79 |title=The Popes: A Brief Synopsis (from Peter to Francis) |date=2021-04-26 |publisher=Covenant Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-63630-743-5 |language=en}} Lambert became Lambert II of Spoleto.

In 898, her son died. She retired from politics after the death of her son and settled in the convent of Camerino and later in the convent of Salsomaggiore.

Ageltrude

Life

References

Further reading