Richilde of Provence

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Richilde of Provence
Bivinids
FatherBivin of Gorze

Richilde of Provence (c. 845 – 2 June 910, Kingdom of Lower Burgundy) (also Richildis)[1] was the second wife of the Frankish emperor Charles the Bald.[2] By her marriage, she became queen and later empress. She ruled as regent in 877.

Life

Richilde was the daughter of

Lothar II of Lotharingia.[2] Her marriage to Charles the Bald, in 870 after the death of his first wife, Ermentrude of Orléans, was intended to secure his rule in Lotharingia through her powerful family and her connection to Theutberga, the previous queen.[6] Richilde bore Charles five children, but only the eldest daughter, Rothilde, survived to adulthood.[7]

Whenever Charles went to war, Richilde managed the realm. She may have briefly ruled as regent after the death of Charles in 877.

Richilde attempted to assume a position of authority upon the death of Louis III in 882, and of Carloman II in 884; however, the empire was agitated and under threat by the Normans, and the grandees of the realm forced her to withdraw to Provence, then the realm of her nephew Louis the Blind, where she died on 2 June 910.[14]

References

Royal titles
Preceded by
Carolingian empress

875–877
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Queen consort of Western Francia

870–877
Succeeded by