Empress Agnes Aquitaine GERMANY

   Another name for Agnes was GERMANY Empress.

   Ancestral File Number: 9HM1-Q7. User ID: 302555983.

   General Notes:

Empress of GERMANY.

BOOK
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Macropaedia, Vol VIII, p759, Henry III Emperor: "...Still a childless widower, he married Agnes, the daughter of William V of Aquitaine and Poitou, in 1043. The match must have been intended primarily to cement peace in the west and to assure imperial sovereignty over Burgundy and Italy; and Agnes' total devotion to the church reform advocated by the Cluniac monasteries probably confirmed Henry in his decision to take her for his wife. In Nov 1050 she bore him a son, who later became the emperor Henry IV. There followed another boy, Conrad, and three daughters..."

The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975, p1223, Henry IV: "During his minority the papacy, German nobles, and high ecclesiastics greatly increased their power at the expense of the imperial authority. In 1062, Archbishop Anno of Cologne abducted Henry and assumed the regency, which had been held by Henry's mother Agnes..."

The Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol IV, The Age of Faith, Bk IV, The Dark Ages, Ch XX, The Rise of the North, Sec VI, Germany, p513: "...Henry was four when crowned king at Aachen, six at his father's death. His mother and two archbishops served as regents till 1065..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Macropaedia, Vol VIII, p760, Henry IV Emperor:
"The only surviving son of Emperor Henry III and Agnes of Poitou...The princesof the realm raised no objection when nominal government was handed over to the six-year-old boy, for whom his pious and unworldly mother became regent. Yet the early death of Henry III was the beginning of a fateful change that marked all ofhis son's reign. In his will, the late Emperor had appointed Pope Victor II as counsellor to the Empress, and the Pope solved some of the conflicts between the princes and the imperial court that had endangered peace in the empire.
"AfterVictor's early death (1057), however, the politically inept Empress committed a number of decisive mistakes. On her own, and without the benefit of the advice of a permanent group of counsellors, she readily yielded to various influences. She turned over the duchy of Bavaria, which Henry III had given to his son in 1055, to the Saxon count Otto of Nordheim, thus depriving the king of an important foundation of his power. She gave the duchy of Swabia to Count Rudolf of Rheinfelden- who married her daughter- and the duchy of Carinthia to Count Berthold of Zahringen; both of them eventually became opponents of Henry IV...
"While the German king had so far been known as a supporter of the reformers, the Empress now imprudently entered into an alliance with Italian opponents of church reform and brought about the election of Cadalus, bishop of Parma, as antipope (Hononrius II) against the reigning pope, Alexander II, who had been elected by the reformers. But since she did not give effective support to Honorius, Alexander was able to prevail. Her unwise church policy was matched by an obscurely motivated submissive policy at home, which, by unwarranted cession of holdings of the crown, weakened the material foundations of the king's power and, in addition, encouraged the rapacity of the nobles.Increasing discontent reached a climax in a conspiracy of the princes led by Anno, archbishop of Cologne, in April 1062. During court assembly in Kaiserswerth he kidnapped the young king and had him brought to Cologne by ship. Henry's attempt to escape by jumping into the Rhine failed. Agnes resigned as regent and the government was taken over by Anno, who settled the conflict with the church by recognizing Alexander II (1064)..."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.11 9HM1-Q7 Agnes AQUTIAINE, EBMacro Agnes POITOU.

   Marriage Information:

Agnes married Emperor Henry GERMANY, III, son of Emperor Conrad GERMANY, II and Duchess Gisela SWABIA, on 21 Nov 1043. (Emperor Henry GERMANY, III was born on 28 Oct 1017 in Bodfeld, , Germany and died on 5 Oct 1056 in Bodfeld, , Germany.)