Agnes of Germany

Agnes of Germany (1072 – September 24, 1143) was the daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bertha of Savoy. Her maternal grandparents were Otto, Count of Savoy, Aosta and Moriana and Adelaide, Marchioness of Turin and Susa.

Agnes married firstly, in 1089, Frederick I, Duke of Swabia. They had several children:

• Heilica (1088–1110), wife of Friedrich von Lengenfeld (died 1119)
• Bertha (1089–1120), wife of Adalbert von Elchingen, Count von Ravenstein (1075–1120)
• Frederick II of Swabia
• Hildegard
• Conrad III of Germany
• Gisela
• Henry (1096–1105)
• Beatrix (1098–1130)
• Kunigunde (1100–1120/1126), wife of Henry of Bavaria (1100–1139)
• Richilde wife of Hugh de Roucy
• Gertrude wife of Hermann von Stahleck

Following Frederick's death in 1105, Agnes married Leopold III (born 1073; died 15 Nov. 1136) the Margrave of Austria (1095 till 1136). Leopold was the son of Margrave Leopold II and Ida of Formbach-Ratelnberg. According to legend, a veil lost by Agnes and found by Leopold years later while hunting instigated him to found the monastery of Klosterneuburg.

Their children were:

• Leopold IV
• Henry II Jasomirgott.
• Berta (d.9 Apr 1150), bur St Emmeran), m. Henry III, Burggraf of Regensburg (d.27 Nov [1174], bur St Emmeran), and had issue.
• Agnes, m. 1125 Władysław II the Exile, High Duke of Poland. Agnes is said to have been "one of the most famous beauties of her time".
• Ernst.
• Uta (died 1154), wife of Liutpold von Plain.
• Otto of Freising, bishop and biographer of his nephew Frederick I "Barbarossa".
• Conrad, Bishop of Passau, and Archbishop of Salzburg.
• Elizabeth, m. Hermann II of Winzenburg.
• Judith, m. c. 1133 William V of Montferrat. Their children formed an important Crusading dynasty.
• Gertrude, m. King Vladislaus II of Bohemia.

According to the Continuation of the Chronicles of Klosterneuburg, there may have been up to seven others (possibly from multiple births) stillborn or died in infancy.

In 1125, Agnes' brother, Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, deceased childless, leaving Agnes and her children as heirs of the Salian dynasty's immense allodial estates, including Waiblingen.

In 1127, Agnes' eldest surviving son, Konrad III, was elected by opposition as rival king of Germany against Saxon party's Lothar III. When Lothar died in 1137, Konrad won the position.

Sources and Further Reading

• Karl Lechner, Die Babenberger, 1992.
• Brigitte Vacha & Walter Pohl, Die Welt der Babenberger: Schleier, Kreuz und Schwert, Graz, 1995.
• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 45-24