| Ermengard of Italy | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Provence | |
| Tenure | 879 – 887 |
| Died | 896/897 |
| Spouse | Boso of Provence |
| Issue | |
| Dynasty | Carolingian |
| Father | Louis II of Italy |
| Mother | Engelberga |
Ermengard of Italy (died 896/897) was thequeen of Provence as the spouse ofKing Boso. She was the second and only surviving child ofEmperor Louis II. In her early life, she was betrothed toConstantine, the juniorByzantine emperor, but whether the marriage actually occurred or not is still debated among historians. In 871, Ermengard and her family were taken hostage byAdelchis of Benevento but were later freed. In 876, Ermengard married Boso, a nobleman with connections to theCarolingian dynasty, and became queen upon his accession to the throne of Provence in 879. After her husband's death in 887, she ruled the kingdom asregent during the minority of their sonLouis the Blind.
Ermengard was the daughter ofEmperor Louis II, who ruled overItaly, and his wife,Engelberga,.[1] Ermengard's granduncle was EmperorCharles the Bald.[2] In her youth, she was instructed in the scriptures byAnastasius Bibliothecarius, the chief archivist of the papalLateran Palace.[3] In 869, the courts of theCarolingian andByzantine Empires entered into discussions to arrange an alliance against theSaracens in southern Italy. During the negotiations, in addition to a military alliance, a marriage between Ermengard andConstantine, the eldest son of EmperorBasil I,[a] was proposed.[1]
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Ermengard and Constantine were betrothed in 870 or 871.[6][7][8] To this end, an ambassador was sent by Louis to the Byzantine Empire.[8] The Carolingian and FrankishannalsAnnales Bertiniani referred to Ermengard in 879 as "filia imperatoris Italiae et desponsata imperatori Greciae" (lit. 'daughter of the emperor of Italy and engaged to the emperor of Greece'). However, the annals erroneously refer to Ermengard's betrothed as Basil, not Constantine.[1] Whether the marriage actually occurred is still debated among historians. The historiansCharles Previté-Orton andWerner Ohnsorge take the position that they married, but Shaun Tougher argues that there is no evidence of this,[9] considering the arrangement more of a child's engagement than a true marriage, given that Constantine would have been either 13 or 14 at the time and many Byzantine men married at age 15.[6] Louis refused to hand over Ermengard to thepatriarch sent by the Byzantines to bring her to the Byzantine Empire.[3] The alliance between the empires failed to come into fruition, and in theProsopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit (lit. 'Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period'), its authors, including theByzantinistRalph-Johannes Lilie, argue that the marriage of Ermengard and Constantine did not either. Instead, the correspondence between Louis and Basil reveal a feud over the right to the imperial Roman title,[1] Basil refusing to yield the status ofRoman emperor to Louis.[10]
In August 871, Ermengard and her family were held hostage byAdelchis of Benevento.[3] They remained in captivity until September; during that time, rumors circulated that the imperial family were dead. The bishop of Benevento managed to have them freed, and Ermengard is not mentioned by chronicles until her marriage in 876.[3]
In 876, sometime between February and June,[11] with the approval of Charles, Ermengard was married toBoso of Provence, who was a nobleman with close relations to theCarolingian dynasty.[2] Based on her betrothal to Constantine, the medievalistRené Poupardin placed Ermengard somewhere between 17 and 25 years old at the time of her marriage to Boso.[12] In 879, theWest Frankish kingLouis the Stammerer died. Boso intended to have himself elected as the new monarch of West Francia, but ended up as ruler of Provence. His rise to the throne of Provence was aided by Ermengard and her mother Engelberga.[13] The historian Constance Bouchard states that "Ermengard was indeed quoted at the time as saying that she, daughter of the Roman emperor, who had once been affianced to the Greek emperor, would not want to live if she could not make her own husband king".[14] The couple had three surviving children: a son,Louis the Blind, and two daughters,Engelberga and an unnamed child.[15][16]
In 878, Ermengard and her husband welcomedPope John VIII inArles after the pontiff fledRome. The couple made a good impression on John, revealed by his correspondence with Ermengard's mother Engelberga.[17] Boso died in 887, leaving his children under the protection of Ermengard.[16] In May, Ermengard travelled with her son to the court of her cousin EmperorCharles the Fat, and according to theEast FrankishAnnales Fuldenses, she managed to convince Charles to, as Bouchard puts it, "'quasi-adopt' Boso's young son Louis as his own son".[15][18] In 890, Louis was elected to succeed to his father's kingdom of Provence.[15] During the minority of her son, Queen Ermengard ruled Provence asregent.[19]
Ermengard died in 896/897.[20][21] In June 897, Ermengard's son Louis requested prayers for the repose of the souls of both his parents.[11]
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