Regelinda

Regelinda
Margravine of Meissen
Naumburg Cathedral portrait
Born	c. 989
Died	21 March before 1014
Noble family	Piast
Spouse(s)	Herman I, Margrave of Meissen
Father	Bolesław I Chrobry
Mother	Emnilda of Lusatia

Regelinda (German: Reg(e)lindis; c. 989 - 21 March aft. 1014), a member of the Polish Piast dynasty, was Margravine of Meissen from 1009 until her death by her marriage with Margrave Herman I.

Life

She was the daughter of the Polish Duke Bolesław I Chrobry from his third marriage with Emnilda, daughter of Dobromir, a Slavic prince (according to some modern historians in Lusatia).

Regelinda was married to Herman I shortly after his father Margrave Eckard I of Meissen was killed on April 30, 1002. While Duke Bolesław had occupied the March of Lusatia and the Milceni lands sparking a German–Polish War, the marriage brought the Polish Piasts and the Ekkardiner margraves closer. The new king Henry II of Germany named Herman's uncle Gunzelin Eckard's successor, however, in 1009, deposed him and installed Herman as Margrave of Meissen with Regelinda as his margravine consort. The alliance with the Polish dukes was renewed after the 1018 Peace of Bautzen, when Bolesław married Herman's sister Oda.

The marriage of Herman and Regelinda proved to be childless. The margravine is better known for the 13th century statue erected in Naumburg Cathedral by the Naumburg Master, which shows a "smiling Polish woman" (Polish: śmiejącą się Polkę). It is part of a semicircle of twelve donor portraits in the west choir, among them Herman's brother Margrave Eckard II and his wife Uta, although there is some research which questions her identification.

Her exact year of death is unknown. She died about 1014, but it is also speculated that she could have lived until 1030.

References

• O. Balzer, Genealogia Piastów, Kraków 1895.
• K. Jasiński, Rodowód pierwszych Piastów, Wrocław-Warsaw (1992).