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Adela of Champagne

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Adela of Champagne
Adela with Louis VII and Philip II
Queen consort of Franks
Tenure1164–1180
Coronation1164
BornC. 1140
Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France
Died4 June 1206 (aged 65–66)
Paris, Île-de-France, France
SpouseLouis VII of France
IssuePhilip II of France
Agnes, Byzantine Empress[1]
HouseHouse of Blois
FatherTheobald II, Count of Champagne
MotherMatilda of Carinthia
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Adela of Champagne (Template:Lang-fr; c. 1140 – 4 June 1206), also known as Adelaide and Alix, was Queen of France as the third wife of Louis VII. She was the daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Matilda of Carinthia, and was named after her grandmother, Adela of Normandy.

Louis and Adela married on 18 October 1160, five weeks after his previous wife, Constance of Castile, died in childbirth. Queen Adèle was the mother of Louis VII's only son, Philip II, and of the Byzantine empress Agnes.[2]

Adela was active in the political life of the kingdom, along with her brothers Henry I, Theobald V, and Guillaume aux Blanches Mains. Henry and Theobald were married to daughters of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine.[3] Adela and her brothers felt their position threatened when the heiress of Artois, Isabella of Hainault, married Adèle's son Philip. Adèle formed an alliance with Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy, and Philip of Flanders, and even tried to interest Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. War broke out in 1181, and relations became so bad that Philip attempted to divorce Isabella in 1184.

Although her power decreased after the accession of Philip in 1180, Queen Adela acted as regent in 1190 while Philip was away on the Third Crusade. She returned to the shadows when he returned in 1192 but participated in the founding of many abbeys.

Queen Adela died on 4 June 1206 in Paris, Île-de-France, France, and was buried in the church of Pontigny Abbey near Auxerre.

Family tree

16. Odo II, Count of Blois
8. Theobald III, Count of Blois
17. Ermengarde of Auvergne
4. Stephen II, Count of Blois
18. Herbert I, Count of Maine
9. Gersende of Maine
2. Theobald II, Count of Champagne
20. Robert I, Duke of Normandy
10. William the Conqueror
21. Herleva
5. Adela of Normandy
22. Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
11. Matilda of Flanders
23. Adela of France
1. Adèle of Champagne
24. Siegfried of Sponheim
12. Egelbert I of Sponheim
25. Richgard
6. Engelbert, Duke of Carinthia
13. Hedwig of Eppenstein
3. Matilda of Carinthia
28. Count Rapotos IV
14. Ulrich I, Count of Passau
29. Matilda
7. Utta of Passau
30. Kuno of Lechsgemünd
15. Adelaide of Frontenhausen
31. Matilda of Horburg

Sources

  1. ^ Garland, Lynda. Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204. London, Routledge, 1999.
  2. ^ Gislebert of Mons' Chronicon
  3. ^ Women's Biography: Alix/Adela of Champagne, queen of France
French royalty
Preceded by Queen of France
1164–1180 		Succeeded by
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