Alpaida

{{Short description|Frankish noblewoman}}

{{about||the saint of this name|Alpaïs of Cudot|the spider genus|Alpaida (spider)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Alpaida

| image = File:Auguste_Chauvin_-_Le_banquet_de_Jupille_après_restauration_en_1996.jpg

| caption = Banquet of Jupille (1861) by Auguste Chauvin depicting Saint Lambert addressing Alpaida

| birth_date = {{c.}} 654

| death_date = {{Death year and age|714|654}}

| nationality = Franks

| citizenship = Francia

| spouse = Pepin of Herstal

| children = {{unbulleted list|Charles Martel|Childebrand I (disputed)}}

}}

Alpaida (also Alpaïde, Alpaide, Alphaida, Alpoïde, Elphide, Elfide, Alféïde, Chalpaida; {{c.}} 654 – c. 714) was a Frankish noblewoman who hailed from the Liège area.{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Ian|author-link=Ian S. Wood|editor=Leslie Brubaker|others=Julia M. H. Smith|title=Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzM1kCuCpDAC&pg=PA244|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge UP|isbn=9780521013277|page=244ff|chapter=Genealogy defined by women: the Pippinids}}{{cite book|last=Theuws|first=Frans|editor=Frans Theuws|others=Mayke B. de Jong, Carine van Rhijn|title=Topographies of Power in the Early Middle Ages|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QIWJZ7mAMJQC&pg=PA190|access-date=13 October 2015|date=2001|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004117341|pages=190–91|chapter=Maastricht as a centre of power}} She became the second wife, concubine or mistress of Pepin of Herstal and mother to his son Charles Martel and possibly another, Childebrand I.{{cite book|editor1-last=Commire|editor1-first=Anne|title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=Yorkin Publications|location=Waterford, Connecticut|isbn=0-7876-4074-3|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591300322.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924170313/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591300322.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-09-24|chapter=Alphaida (c. 654–c. 714)|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book|last=Fouracre|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etkYDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Alpaida%22&pg=PT53|title=The Age of Charles Martel|date=2016-09-17|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-89848-1|language=en|orig-year=2000}}{{Cite journal|last=Beckmann|first=Gustav Adolf|year=2008|title=The Two Alpaidas and Epic Place-Names (Avroy-) Auridon-Oridon-Dordon(e).|url=https://www.cairn-int.info/revue-le-moyen-age-2008-1-page-55.htm|journal=Le Moyen Âge|issue=1|pages=55–66|doi=10.3917/rma.141.0055|doi-access=free}}{{Cite book|last=Settipani|first=Christian|author-link=Christian Settipani|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/29856008|title=La préhistoire des Capétiens, 481-987|publisher=P. Van Kerrebrouck|others=Kerrebrouck, Patrick van.|year=1993|isbn=2-9501509-3-4|location=Villeneuve d'Ascq|language=fr|oclc=29856008}}McDougall, Sara."Chapter Two: The Carolingian Example: The Sons of Concubines." Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230. First Edition. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016. Page 82. {{ISBN|978-0-19-182763-1}} {{doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785828.001.0001}}, March 2024. McDougall makes it clear that the modern-day concepts of 'concubines' or 'second wives' are not the same as in the Medieval era.{{Cite journal |last=Bouchard |first=Constance B. |date=2013 |title=Childeric III and the Emperors Drogo Magnus and Pippin the Pious |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946900 |journal=Medieval Prosopography |volume=28 |pages=1–16 |issn=0198-9405}}

In the Liber Historiae Francorum and the Continuations of Fredegar she is referred to as Pepin's wife.[https://books.google.com/books?id=UJrKcQoFri0C&dq=Alpaida&pg=PA23 Fouracre, Paul. "Writings about Charles Martel"], Law, Laity and Solidarities (Susan Reynolds, ed.), Manchester University Press, 2001, {{ISBN|9780719058363}}, p. 23

Saint Lambert of Maastricht was a vocal critic of the relationship between Pepin and Alpaida.{{Cite web|last=Albers|first=Petrus Henricus|title=The Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Lambert|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08757a.htm|access-date=2020-09-25|website=www.newadvent.org|publisher=Robert Appleton Company}} A tradition would eventually develop that, Pepin's domesticus (manager of state domains) Dodon, whose troops would murder Lambert, was in fact the brother of Alpaida; however, the historical accuracy of Dodon being her brother has been questioned.