Gertrude of Saxony

For the daughter of Henry the Lion, see Gertrude of Bavaria. For the Duchess consort of Saxony, see Gertrude of Süpplingenburg.
Gertrude of Saxony

Gertrude of Saxony
Spouse(s) Floris I, Count of Holland
Robert I, Count of Flanders
Noble family House of Billung
Father Bernard II, Duke of Saxony
Mother Eilika of Schweinfurt
Born c. 1030
Died 4 August 1113(1113-08-04)

Gertrude of Saxony (c. 1030 – August 4, 1113), also known as Gertrude Billung, was a countess consort of Holland, and a countess consort of Flanders by marriage. She was regent of Holland during the minority of her son.

Biography

Countess of Holland

She was the daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony[1] and Eilika of Schweinfurt. She married Floris I, Count of Holland (c. 1017 – June 28, 1061) c. 1050, and upon his death, her son Dirk V became Count of Holland. Since he was still young, she became regent.

When Dirk V came into power, William I, Bishop of Utrecht, took advantage of the situation, occupying territory that he had claimed in Holland. Gertrude and her son withdrew to the islands of Frisia (Zeeland), leaving William to occupy the disputed lands.

Countess of Flanders

In 1063 Gertrude married Robert of Flanders (Robert the Frisian), the second son of Baldwin V of Flanders. This act gave Dirk the Imperial Flanders as an appanage – including the islands of Frisia west of the Frisian Scheldt. She and her husband then acted as co-regents for the young count.

Family and children

She had a total of seven children with Floris I:

  1. Albert (b. c. 1051), a canon in Liege.
  2. Dirk V (c. 1052, Vlaardingen–17 June 1091).
  3. Peter (b. c. 1053), a canon in Liége.
  4. Bertha (c. 1055–1094, Montreuil-sur-Mer), who married Philip I of France in 1072.
  5. Floris (b. c. 1055), a canon in Liége.
  6. Matilda (b. c. 1057)
  7. Adela (b. c. 1061), who married Count Baudouin I of Guînes.

From her second marriage to Robert I she had five children:

  1. Robert II of Flanders (c. 1065 – October 5, 1111).
  2. Adela (d. 1115), who first married king Canute IV of Denmark, and was the mother of Charles the Good, later count of Flanders. She then married Roger Borsa, duke of Apulia.
  3. Gertrude, who married Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine, and was the mother of Thierry of Alsace, also later count of Flanders.
  4. Philip of Loo, whose illegitimate son William of Ypres was also a claimant to the county of Flanders.
  5. Ogiva, abbess of Messines.

References

  1. Vice, Tyranny, Violence, and the Usurpation of Flanders (1071) in Flemish Historiography from 1093 to 1294, Jeff Rider, Violence and the Writing of History in the Medieval Francophone World, ed.Noah D. Guynn, Zrinka Stahuljak, (Boydell & Brewer, 2013), 65.

External links

Vacant
Title last held by
Othelhilde
Countess consort of Holland
1049–1061
Vacant
Title next held by
Othelhilde
Vacant
Title last held by
Richilde, Countess of Hainaut
Countess consort of Flanders
1071–1093
Vacant
Title next held by
Clementia of Burgundy
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