Gebhard I Count Of SULZBACH

Family/Spouse: N.N.. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Gebhard II Count Of SULZBACH was born about 1058; died about 1085.

Hermann married Adelaide Duchess Of TURIN in Jan 1037. Adelaide (daughter of Odalrico Manfrido II Margrave Of TURIN and Bertha Of ESTE) was born about 1015; died on 19 Dec 1091. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Adelaide was born around 1015 and was the daughter of Odalrico Manfredo II, Margrave of Turin and Susa, and his wife Bertha of Este. Odalrico died while Adelaide was still a young, unmarried woman, and she inherited most of his vast domains in northern Italy.

Adelaide was a beautiful woman with the soul of a lion. She had learned martial arts as a girl and bore her own arms and armor. she had masculine courage and energy and knew how to rule her inheritance. More than once she waged war on rebels in her own territories, burning Asti, Lodi, and other towns that had risen against her.

Adelaide had three husbands. the first was Hermann, Duke of Swabia, whom she married in January 1037 and who died of plague in 1038. Her second was Henry of Montferrat, whom she married in 1041 and who died in 1045. Her third husband was Otto of Savoy, whom she married in 1046 and who died about twelve years later. It was through her children with Otto that Adelaide became one of the founders of the house of Savoy.

Adelaide's involvement in politics did not stop at her own borders. In the struggle between the German emperors and the papacy, she strongly supported the imperial side. In the quarrel between her son-in-law Emperor Henry IV and pope Gregory VII her advice to Henry saved his crown for him. When Henry went to Canossa to seek forgiveness from Pope, Adelaide went with him.

In her old age, Adelaide brooded over her three marriages. No one today knows what was troubling her. She did decide to seek God's forgiveness by doing works of charity, and she began to give generously to religious institutions.