Agnes of Aquitaine

Agnes of Aquitaine , Agnes of Poitiers , or Went of Poitiers, born in 1025 and dead the December 14th 1077 with Rome.
Girl of Guillaume V of Poitiers, duke of Aquitaine and its third wife, Agnes de Mâcon. In 1043, it marries Henri III known as Henri III the Black , emperor Germanic. Become widowed in 1056, it assumes the regency of the Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire as of the death of her husband until the majority of his son Henri IV '' Large the '' in 1062.

In 1061, after the death of the pope Nicolas II and contrary with the habit, the Sacré College does not make confirm the election of Alexandre II by the Holy roman Empire. The aristocracy of Rome disputes the election and fact call to Agnès, who makes elect with Basle the Antipape Honorius II. The Schisme lasts little, since Honorius is repudiated by all in 1064, but encourages papacy in its reform, which leads to the Querelle of the Nominations.

During regency, the lords of the kingdom of Germanic revolt and go until removing in 1062 his/her son Henri, king of the Romans.

After a voyage in France, it is withdrawn with the Abbaye of Fruttuaria (to 20 km in the north of Turin in Italy), from where one calls it in 1072 to reconcile the duke of Souabe Rodolphe de Rheinfelden with his son. After having avoided the Civil war, it is withdrawn again and died in Rome where it is buried in the Holy-Pétronille Chapelle of Rome (French territory of the Vatican)

Woman érudite (what appears in one of its letters), it translated to the works of Constantin the African, monk doctor of the Abbaye of the Mount-Cassin.

Saint Pierre Damien, cardinal of Ostie, is one of the independent sources on his life.

Introduction

Agnes of Aquitaine is a very discussed historical character. Although woman, it directed one of the greatest European empires, during almost ten years, but its regency was one period of ecclesiastical reforms and the occasion for the throne of Saint-Pierre to begin with émanciper Germanic monarchy, emancipation in which it plays a part. Agnes was it really the weak, crystallized regent in devotion, completely exceeded by the loads which her husband had left him while dying: businesses of the government and the education of their son, the heir to the throne Henri IV? Thus historiography often presents it. What is necessary to think of the political problems which it had to face and of its retirement in a convent at the evening of its life? Did it have the choice when it acted?

State of research

For a long time there was no doubt: Agnes had been a too weak regent. Thus Marie-Louise Buhlst-Thiele estimates that “the fact of entering the orders at the end of her life, considered for the empress, like a weakness”. Wilhelm von Giesbrecht goes until describing Agnès as being of an undecided nature and an apprehensive nature. In its Histoire of the German Empire it sees in her only one weak regent, marries powerful emperor Henri III.

However in the twenty last years the opinion of the researchers on Agnès of Aquitaine strongly changed. This evolution is especially the work of two historians who studied in-depth subject. Tilmann Struve first of all, which shows inter alia the entry with the convent of the empress should not be regarded as a direct consequence of the coup d'etat de Kaiserswerth, but date of the voyage of Agnes in Rome in 1065. That gives rise to think that the empress neither abdicated nor fled her responsibilities, but on the contrary which it held as a long time as that was possible to him its legitimate place of regent.

Moreover Mechthild Black-Veldtrup wrote a historical criticism of the sources in connection with Agnès of Aquitaine, in which it summarizes the many news knowledge on the empress and which modifies its image.

Tilmann Struve and Mechthild Black-Veldtrup succeeded, with new methods of dating and of a critical work on the sources, to call in question the opinions of the researchers and to correct them about points which are by no means secondary. However research on Agnès of Aquitaine is far from being exhausted, it remains to be cleared up many points of its life, such as for example this takeover by force of Kaiserswerth, close to Düsseldorf, always obscure…

The marriage of Agnes with Henri III

Agnes, girl of Guillaume duke of Aquitaine and count de Poitou, were crowned queen with Mainz in 1043 and, in November of the same year, she married Henri III with Ingelheim. Both were crowned emperor and empress on December 25th, 1046 in Rome. Henri had chosen Agnès like marries after his first wife, Gunhild, had died of the Paludisme. This marriage especially had for him political advantages by strengthening its capacity. An alliance with the French dynasty which was perhaps most powerful reinforced the pressure on the French royalty and was likely to improve the position of Henri in Burgundy, since there too the family of Agnes had rich person possessions. Agnes, on this date, was at most 18 years old, and it was to be a tender young girl, educated and full with a deep piety. Thus the monastery of Cluny was a foundation of its family and Hugo, his abbot, was to be later the godfather of the heir to the throne, the future Henri IV, and to become the intimate confidant of the imperial family.

The life of merry court and the feasts hardly liked the royal couple which had a very clear concept of its religious duties. Thus ménestrels and jugglers, who normally did not miss with any festival the Middle Ages, did not have the authorization to come to the marriage to show their talents. All that surrounded the sovereigns was to be impresses the serious one and of dignity. Henri was filled with enthusiasm for the idea of the Truce of God ( Treuga Dei ) who had appeared in France and he endeavoured to put an end to the right of most extremely and private revenges. He encountered resistances but he was too powerful so that its adversaries could act effectively against him. However its widow was to encounter the same problems later. One can believe that Agnès encouraged Henri in her religious design of the authority, that it supported and even inspired her action in her policy of religious reform; the alive one of her husband, despite everything, it did not on any occasion to intervene actively in the policy. Its functions were especially representative: the wife and the mother occupied the first rank.

After the death of her husband, of which it had been very near perhaps (what did not characterize the medieval behavior), it was in Agnès who returned the care to ensure regency that the late king had entrusted to him on his bed of died in the name of their son Henri IV, who was still minor. It tried well at the beginning to continue the policy of her husband, but encountered considerable resistances in the Empire, particularly in Saxony; the situation having changed, one could not follow any more the same principles, it was necessary to adapt, find a means to keep the heritage of Henri III with their son and the dynasty salienne.

Died of Henri III and maintenance with the capacity

After the death of Henri III on October 5th 1056, Agnès took regency in the name of Henri IV, minor, but already crowned. At the beginning, it continued the policy of her husband while resting especially on Hugues of Cluny and the pope Victor II. The latter, as a bishop of Eichstätt and administrator of the Empire, did all that it could to maintain the capacity of Franconiens, resulting from Conrad Salic the. The empress, like her husband Henri III, was as regards reformer of the church clunisienne, while Hugues of Cluny, the godfather of her son, who was the abbot of Cluny, centers reform, followed a policy of balance and peace. The pope Victor II, who owed the tiara in Henri III, played the good officess between the crown, the nobility and the episcopate. In this way regency of the empress, woman without political experiment, was accepted, even if a honesty supplements were far from being guaranteed side of large of the Empire. Regency seemed not to have anything to fear.

However, the capacity in the Empire escaped the hands more and more from the house salienne, since Agnès had not succeeded in yet asserting itself politically. In the Empire, goods and rights passed with the hands of the nobility in those of the imperial Church, which weakened the capacity of Brunonen and Billunger and created serious problems in Saxony. “With truth, one does not speak after 1057 about serious disorders or revolts, but on the essential political questions, regency was satisfied to react instead of directing the events. The danger grew that large Empire were accustomed to do without a king. ”

The empress was well forced to act. As its authority was not as large as that of Henri III, it started soon to stick the noble ones in their conceding in strongholds of the duchies, which was not possible without their granting direct seigneuriaux rights. As of Christmas 1056 it already allotted to Ezzon Konrad the Duché of Carinthie, which during one year had remained vacant. In 1057 Rudolf von Rheinfelden was provided with the Souabe and was to also govern Burgundy. Berthold de Zähringen, which had recalled its right on the next vacant duchy, felt injured and accepted in 1061 Carinthie, after the death of the duke Konrad. Frutolf de Michelsberg, a chronicler of the time, learns to us in his Chronique from the World that Rudolf von Rheinfelden had extorted the attribution of Souabe by removing Mathilde, the girl of the emperor which was only 12 years old, and while marrying two years later with it. Mathilde was a pledge which weighed more than promise of Souabe made by Henri III, since Berthold von Zähringen could now support it on an alliance with the emperor.

In 1061 the difficulties of the foreign policy, inter alia the disagreement with Hungary, forced the empress to be also deprived of the Bavaria, which was the last duchy raising still directly of the royal house and most important of Germany of the South. It appointed duke the Saxon count Otto von Northeim, war leader experienced. It is with him that from now on the defense of the south-east of the Empire would fall.

Obviously were the dukes thus created intended to become thereafter the worst enemies of Henri IV, but how to reproach it Agnès? It had well to do something to alleviate the opposition of the nobility to its person. The historians however continue to reproach him that by decreasing the power of Saliens and while distributing to very arm the duchies it strongly decreased the capacities of the royalty.

For the moment Otto von Northeim acted exactly like had wanted it the house salienne. As had wished it Agnès, it effectively protected the empire against the external threats, and made good match with Hungary, which Henri III had not made a success of during his life. The historians describe it like a man of action.

The example of Bavaria confirms that, when it distributed the duchies, Agnès did not have the choice. The Eastern neighbors, in very first place Hungary, represented for the empire a danger which one could not underestimate, and for Agnès, the regent in fact, it was not legally possible for him to lead forwardings. She needed at her sides for powerful dukes, as it was the case in Bavaria with Otto von Northeim. Surely, Agnès could have prevented Zähringer, Rheinfelder and Northeimer to give to be able such a strong base to them, but the rise in these three young men, pertaining to young dynasties, was perhaps on this date a less evil, a calculated risk.

The beginning of the the Sixties: the political situation worsens

In an empire guaranteed for the moment with-inside as with the outside, Agnès seemed respected. The concessions which it had made had beautiful being enormous, one ensured to him by oath that, if the throne became vacant, i.e. in the event of untimely death of Henri IV whose brother, Konrad, were already deceased in 1055, it would have the right to indicate itself its successor, i.e. the Voters would be obliged to accept the name which it would propose.

Such an obligation by Serment (principal engagement between people with the Middle Ages) watch that Agnès from now on was regarded by all the parties in the Empire as the sovereign legitimate one. Without his assent, no new king could be proclaimed by the princes. The serious one of such an oath was highlighted by the scruples of the princes at the time of the election of a antiroi against Henri IV, in 1076.

The death of the pope Victor II, his adviser and his friend, in 1057, was revolving for the poor regent. Agnes lost the contact with those which wanted to reform the Church. Its interests and their started not to be more the same ones. The era of the Emperors faithful to the Pope ended.

Beatrix, daughter-in-law of Agnes, which sponsored the rich person Abbaye of Gandersheim in Saxony was seen reproaching by the chapter noble ladies, which was recruited mainly in the nobility saxonne, for giving up with ministerial the goods of the foundation and for thus compromising the subsistence of the chanoinesses. Victor II had still sliced in favor of Beatrix. The legate of the new pope Etienne IX re-studied the business and decided in favor of the chapter. It was a blow for the prestige and the capacity of Saliens in Saxony. Etienne IX had already been elected in 1057 without the regent being consulted and it had spent time to recognize it; after its death, on March 29th, 1058, the Roman aristocracy felt that it was likely to influence the election of the new pope and, as of on April 5th, 1058, made elect Benoît X. It is only after the return of the papal legate, Hildebrandt, which at this time was not in Italy, that with the assent of the empress the Gerard bishop of Florence was elected pope with His under the name of Nicolas II.

It was indeed the Schisme and Nicolas II was constrained to open by the weapons the road of Rome; but the fight turned in its favor.

The great political decisions out of the Empire, such as for example the election of the pope Etienne IX, were done more and more without Saliens having anything to say. Thus in 1059 the pope Nicolas II promulgated the decree concerning the election of the popes without to have consulted the empress. By this decree, the election of the pope was entrusted to the cardinals. Measure directed as much against the empire as against the Roman aristocracy. In the Empire even the political intrigues and the fights for the capacity were always with the day order. “Each one wanted to rise even higher or at least thought of it. ” Agnes was literally quartered between the political constraints and her own interests.

Certain advisers of the empress started to think initially of their own interests, which encouraged it to trust always more with the people belonging to the royal services, i.e. with the ministerial ones. Thus, it charged ministerial Kuno with the education of her son at the same time as Otnand, already in favor faithful of Henri III, rose in the foreground of the policy.

And it is precisely their zeal to serve the interests of the crown which caused an opposition against the empress who gave her confidence to “people resulting from nothing”. One went until insulting Otnand by calling it “Orcus ille”, dog of hell.

That the young person Henri IV was raised by characters of also low condition appeared with the most scandalous point with the nobility and the clergy. Plunged in a dilemma, Agnès took the Heinrich bishop of Augsburg like her personal adviser.

A new problem arose when the empress was suspected of illicit love with Heinrich of Augsburg, because it was generally thought that it could not put in him such a confidence without it having something between them there. The researchers paint us the atmosphere of the court to the beginning of the year sixty of the 11th century like particularly agitated and bubbling of intrigues, hostilities, jealousies and low blows. But the processes which were to finally plunge the empire in a crisis and to lead Agnès to want to be withdrawn from the policy were not engaged yet.

Conflict for the election of the pope

In 1060 Agnes asked the Pallium (distinguished of dignity archiépiscopale) for the bishop, Siegfried I {{er}} of Mainz. Nicolas II refused. Then, joined together in a Synod, the bishops of the Empire stated invalid all the provisions of Nicolas II to show their dissatisfaction.

After the death of Nicolas II on July 19th 1061, the cardinals used of their new prerogative and on September 30th, 1061 they chose like pope the reforming bishop Anselme of Lucca, which took the name of Alexandre II. Agnes then refused to recognize it, and opposed to him its own candidate, the bishop of Parma Cadalus. It was a new level in the conflict which brooded already under Nicolas II between the court and reforming papacy.

The election of Cadalus, become the antipape Honorius II on October 28th, 1061 with Basle, was thus only “the logical continuation of the Roman policy of Henri III. ”

As of the election however, the small number of those which had taken part in it had clearly shown with the empress that it could not hope in the Empire on an unconditional support to make triumph her candidate. It could try well to impose Honorius towards and against all, it realized well that to cling to the decision which it had made not only a mortal blow would carry to the policy of reform started with Henri III, but still that one went to the schism, a schism which was to last two years and half.

The German court thus found adversary of reforming papacy and the empress took the responsibility in division for the Church. The business took a turn which was absolutely not in the intentions of Agnes.

This election of Basle marks a break in the regency of the empress. In the government of the Empire the bar seemed to escape to him with the hands. In particular the fact that Honorius II had not known to be essential on Rome and had had at the end of the day to return in its évêché of Parma was for Agnès a serious political failure. For the first time, a pope named by the court of Germany had not been able to assert himself.

She enjoyed of course the support of the adversaries of the reform, but it was there what was during all its life to fill it of a feeling of guilt and to badly put it at ease. However one could not reproach him, by personal weakness, for having adopted a contrary ecclesiastical policy with that of her husband. It is that times had changed. By its reforms papacy had émancipée court of Germany against the interests of which it acted from now on. Put at the foot of the wall, Agnès decided against her personal conviction, it acts as was to do it a regent: she took the party of the Empire and her dignitaries. It seems that she did not see any other choice for her but to withdraw herself from the policy to leave with others the possibility of beginning again to zero the question of papacy without taking account of her own decisions. It is directly in relation to the conflict on the choice of the pope that, according to Mr. Black-Veldtrup, must be considered the taking the veil of Agnes with Spire, which as logical consequence led to the installation as vice-regent of the Heinrich bishop of Augsburg in which it had confidence. Consequently not only the retirement of Agnes can be explained because it was tired to control or too weak, but one must place it in his context: it was the consequence of its errors of appreciation in its policy with respect to Rome.

The coup d'etat de Kaiserswerth

The decision of Agnes to withdraw itself from the policy is, in a very probable way, an awakening of its personal liabilities in this crisis about the election of the pope. The empress wanted to leave the free track for a final payment of the question with the participation of the Court.

But nothing of that occurred owing to the fact that Henri of Augsburg, the vice-regent set up by Agnès, was not accepted by the majority of the princes. Perhaps its nomination at such a station constituted the second serious error of appreciation of the empress, especially because of the connection that one had charged to them (see higher).

This attempt at Agnes to limit the damage definitively at the end of the day precipitated the empire in the crisis. At the beginning of April 1062, a group of spiritual and temporal lords, under the direction of Annon, the archbishop of Cologne, succeeds in removing the young king Henri IV with Kaiserswerth: this event was to remain in the books of history like the Coup d'etat de Kaiserswerth.
The reasons for this action are still discussed, of the fact especially that the sources are contradicted much on top. The opinion of the Chronique the USSR of the time is divided. Thus, the chronicle of Lampert seems still relatively objective when he writes that the kidnappers, and before any Annon, aspired “ to withdraw the son from the influence of his mother, and to take in hands the administration of the empire. ” Lampert does not venture any speculation on the reasons which made act the conspirators. It indicates only the possibility that they could have been thorough by “political resentment”, but it is as possible as they could believe to act for the good of the Empire.

Bruno more or less makes fall down on Henri the responsibility for his own removal: infatué of pride to be a king, the Henri young person would have listened to only one ear more the warning statements of his mother. “Sizeable” the Annon after removal makes it educate with the greatest care. According to Bruno, Agnès would absolutely not have had the authority necessary, and it would have been shown too weak to educate the young king correctly and to ensure regency, while Bruno congratulates Annon for his policy. This criticism towards Henri IV is explained by the fact that Bruno was not to approve thereafter the personal policy of his sovereign, so that it sticks to find negative character traits to him as of its youth. It is manifest that, politically, it was not either as regards Agnes.

Although the sources do not give us anything sure as for the reasons which made act the kidnappers, current research leaves owing to the fact that the fight for the capacity (in particular at Annon of Cologne) but also the concern of the education of Henri IV that one considered abandoned were decisive elements. Agnes saw private capacity to control, makes some it could not more anything. The archbishop Annon of Cologne and the archbishop Adalbert of Bremen shared the responsibility for the businesses. Although the young king had sat on the throne, it is with them that from now on the destiny of the Empire belonged.

Annon and Adalbert well quickly became irreconcilable adversaries, but the archbishop of Bremen had hastened to draw up reports/ratios of confidence with the young king, while Annon felt above all politically related to the party of the religious reform and quickly succeeded in getting along with Rome since it was able to make recognize by the Empire the reforming pope Alexandre II.

At the bottom, Annon had thus arrived at this payment of the pontifical question that Agnès had hoped. It is supposed in general that Agnès, released now of the responsibility for the businesses, was not long in giving up the fashionable life completely to devote itself to the hello of her heart.

This opinion comes from already old searchs for Meier-Kronau, Giesebrecht and Buhlst-Thiele. However, Tillmann Struve is based on the fact that they are only three years after Kaiserswerth which she undertook her voyage to Rome and withdrew itself from the world. There would thus have been political reasons. What would refute this vision of the empress withdrawing world timidly tortured by its scruples.

Agnes after Kaiserswerth

A long time the researchers accepted the idea that Agnès had withdrawn itself from the world immediately after Kaiserswerth; there is no there what to be astonished since it is what many contemporary chroniclers transmitted to us. It is what tells inter alia since 1056 Frutolf de Michelsberg in its Chronique of the world , by thus summarizing the events: the empress would have gone directly to Fruttuaria after his son had been taken to him and would have died later in Rome.

It seems however that such an opinion was revised meanwhile. Tillmann Struve established in a clear and scientifically correct way that Agnès undertook her voyage to Rome, which meant that it withdrew world, not in 1062/63, but only in 1065, i.e. 3 years after the coup d'etat de Kaiserswerth. For this chronology Struve uses especially the reports/ratios of Petrus Damiani, faithful of Agnes who in her writings spoke inter alia her arrival in Rome.

Like Damiani, either, does not provide him any exact dating, Struve compares all the known sources, which enables him to establish with which date as well Petrus Damiani as the Agnès empress stopped in Rome. Thereafter Struve compares the moon eclipses which Damiani reports, which puts them in relation to the emperor Henri III and the pope Victor II, and a total eclipse which, always according to Damiani, would have corresponded to the Schisme of Cadalus, the dates of all these eclipses being scientifically verifiable. Struve comes then to the conclusion that the voyage to Rome of the empress can have taken place only in May or in November 1065. It is true Agnes, immediately after Kaiserswerth, wrote with the abbot of the monastery of Fruttuaria to ask him to be accommodated in the monastic community, but Lampert d' Hersfeld teaches us, in a concordant way, that Agnès was convinced by her advisers to remain for the moment in the Empire.

From a political point of view, the Agnès fact remained in the Empire was necessary although it had lost regency: until the majority of Henri IV, it was it the chief of the house salienne. It is only while on the spot remaining that it could maintain it for her son and thus to ensure the Empire to him. If the situation were such, the relation of Lampert appears in its legal context and gains in authenticity: Agnes thus, would have pushed by her advisers, given up her idea to withdraw itself in a cloister. As soon as Henri IV had become major on March 29th, 1065, by the ceremony where one made him gird the sword, Agnès could obey her long desire to finish her life in piety. After being themselves discharged of its political duties until the majority of its son and having guaranteed to him to succeed her father, it made the decision to serve the reform of the papacy which it had harmed while making elect a antipape against her own religious convictions.

Assessment

Even if the end of the regency of Agnes were looked during centuries like a bankruptcy (and it is it still), such a judgment is perhaps not absolutely sure. To judge the unit, the policy of the empress must be regarded approximately as succeeded, and its retirement was maturely selected according to the political situation of the Empire. Thus even of the contemporaries recognize that she always endeavoured to obtain a political balance. It succeeded in ensuring the stability of the Empire and especially providing the foundations of the capacity of Henri IV.

The quarrels of Henri III against the Saxon ones were not taken again by Agnès. She rather sought to arrange herself with them, which confirms the fact that to 1057 until the end of the regency of Agnes one does not belong to disorders in Saxony. In the same way it avoided a confrontation with Hungary. The attribution of duchies taken with the royal field got a political stability inside to him, which allowed by-effect the reinforcement of the Empire outside. Thus, it is only as from the Sixties that one knows concrete examples of dissatisfaction against his government; until there it had thus nevertheless been able, at the beginning with the assistance of the pope Victor II, to control in an almost uncontested way. One reproaches him a long quarrel for personal reasons with the bishop Gunther de Bamberg, the preference which it gave to the Henri bishop of Augsburg, his insufficiencies in the education of her son and his too great reserve in the control of the businesses, but all that is explained by the conscience why it had to be responsible for the schism caused by the choice of the antipape Cadalus. Recognizing its responsibilities to have badly considered the political situation and to have created dissensions between the partisans of the reform of the Church and the Empire it had decided to take the veil. The coup d'etat de Kaiserswerth followed shortly after.

The rise in Henri of Augsburg at the post of vice-regent had only not very affected the position of Agnes. Anno of Cologne had replaced in the final analysis only his/her colleague of Augsburg as a regent and an effective teacher of the young king. During her administration, that of Anno of Cologne and that of Adalbert of Bremen, Agnès could devote itself to the restitution of the alienated goods and the nomination of the bishops. Its departure of Germany in May or in November 1065 is not due to Kaiserswerth, but in the final analysis only with this conflict of 1061 on the election of the pope, who is at the origin of all the other events.

Agnes of Aquitaine was a remarkable woman, who exerted with skill the task that had left him her husband manage and to maintain the Empire for their Henri son. As a woman it could be neither a chief of army nor a judge, which would have been a man in his situation, it did not act less about it by knowing than it wanted, with energy and skill. Whereas it did not have political experience, it preserved bases of the capacity for her son and tried to especially adapt the policy of the dynasty salienne to these conditions which were not any more the same ones in a time or all changed, with regard to the ecclesiastical policy. Agnes had to fill her task without there to be prepared and under the pressure of the circumstances. She was to take account of a great number of factors and it was inevitable that she agreed many compromise. All its decisions were not happy, that one thinks of the problems that Henri IV will meet thereafter, but it probably acted as any conscience for the good of the Empire. It filled the task which was assigned to him, neither more nor less. Firmness that it showed there is however remarkable.

See too

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