Ida of Formbach-Ratelnberg

Ida of Austria (c. 1055 – September 1101) was a Margravine of Austria by marriage to Leopold II of Austria. She was a crusader, participating in the Crusade of 1101 with her own army.^[1]

Family

She was the daughter of Rapoto IV of Cham and Mathilde. She is also known as Itha. She married Leopold II of Austria and bore him a son, Leopold III, and daughter called Ida, spoused to Luitpold, Duke of Moravia. She was known as one of the great beauties of her day.

Life

In 1101, Ida, alongside Thiemo of Salzburg and the dukes Welf IV of Bavaria and William IX of Bavaria, joined the Crusade of 1101,^[2] and raised and led her own army toward Jerusalem.

In September of that year, she and her army were among those ambushed at Heraclea Cybistra by the sultan Kilij Arslan I. Ekkehard of Aura reports that Ida was killed in the fighting, but rumors persisted that she survived, and was carried off to a harem. Later legends claimed that she was the mother of the Muslim hero Zengi, but this is impossible on chronological grounds.

In fiction

Ida's fate is depicted in Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne (2011).

See also

• Kilij Arslan II – who claimed blood cousinage with Henry the Lion

Family tree

References

Sources

• Historia Welforum Weingartensis
• Runciman, Steven. History of the Crusades, Vol. II
• Lechner Karl. Die Babenberger. Markgrafen und Herzoge von Österreich 976–1246, Böhlau Verlag Wien-Köln-Weimar 1992.