Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Adelaide of Italy Saint
Adelaide of Italy (931-999) was the daughter of Rudolf II of
Burgundy, King of Italy. Her first marriage was to Lothar , King
of Italy, and was part of a political settlement designed to
conclude a peace between her father, Rudolf II, and Hugh of
Provence, the father of Lothar. The Calendar of Saints states
that her first husband was poisoned by his successor, Berengar
of Ivrea , who attempted to cement his political power by
forcing her to marry his son; when she refused, she was
imprisioned for four months, and escaped to Canossa, where she
threw herself on the mercy of King Otto I the Great; they
subsequently married in 951 . They had four children: Henry,
born in 952; Bruno, born 953; Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg ,
born about 954; and Otto II, later Holy Roman Emperor, born 955.
When her husband Otto I died in 973 he was succeeded by their
son Otto II, and Adelaide for some years exercised a powerful
influence at court. Later, however, her daught