Gertrude of Northeim

Gertrude of Northeim (also Gertrude of Nordheim) (c. 1090 – after 1154/before 1169), was the daughter of Henry, Margrave of Frisia. Gertrude was heiress of Bentheim and Rheineck. She married first Siegfried I of Weimar-Orlamünde and then Otto I, Count of Salm.

Gertrude of Northeim
Bornc. 1090
Diedafter 1154-before 1169
Spouse(s)Siegfried of Ballenstedt
Otto of Salm
Issue
Siegfried II of Weimar-Orlamünde
Adela of Weimar-Orlamünde
William of Weimar-Orlamünde
Otto II of Salm
Sophia of Rheineck
Beatrice of Salm
FatherHenry, Margrave of Frisia
MotherGertrude of Brunswick

Life

Gertrude was born around 1090. She was the daughter of Henry, Margrave of Frisia and Gertrude of Brunswick, daughter of Egbert I of Meissen.[1] Gertrude had two full siblings: Otto III of Northeim, who succeeded her father, and Richenza, who married the future Emperor Lothair II.[2] From her mother’s second marriage, to Henry I, Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark, Gertude also had a half-brother, Henry II, Margrave of Meissen.

First Marriage

Gertrude’s first husband was Siegfried of Ballenstedt. Though marriage to Siegfried, Gertrude was countess palatine of the Rhineland, and countess of Weimar-Orlamünde. Gertrude had three children with Siegfried:[3]

  • Siegfried II of Weimar-Orlamünde (1107-1124)
  • Adela of Weimar-Orlamünde, married Conrad I of Peilstein
  • William of Weimar-Orlamünde (1112-1140)

Second Marriage

After Siegfried’s death in 1113, Gertrude married again. Her second husband was Otto I, Count of Salm, son of the German anti-king Hermann of Salm.[4] Part of the reason Gertrude married Otto was to secure a male protector for her underage sons, Siegfried II and William.[5] With Otto, Gertrude had several children, including:

  • Otto II (c. 1115 – 1148/1149), fought against Herman of Stahleck to recapture the County Palatine of the Rhine and was taken prisoner in 1148. He was later strangled at Schönburg Castle, near Oberwesel in 1148 or 1149
  • Sophia, married Dirk VI, Count of Holland (d. 6 August 1157)
  • Beatrix, married Wilbrand I, Count of Loccum-Hallermund

After the deaths of her son, Otto II, in 1148, and her husband, Otto I, in 1050, Gertrude ruled the county of Bentheim herself, and ensured that her daughter, Sophia, retained possession of Rheineck.[6]

References
  • O. Engels, Stauferstudien (Jan Thorbecke Verlag Sigmaringen 1996).
  • L. Fenske, Adelsopposition und kirchliche Reformbewegung im östlichen Sachsen
  • M. Schaab, Geschichte der Kurpfalz (Kohlhammer Verlag 1988).
  • R. Hildebrand, Herzog Lothar von Sachsen (Verlag August Lax Hildesheim 1986).
  • J. Dendorfer, ‘Si(e)gfrid (Graf von Ballenstedt, Pfalzgraf von Lothringen),’ in Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol 24 (Berlin, 2010), ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0, pp. 345f.
  • A. Thiele, Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte" Band I, Teilband 1 Deutsche Kaiser-, Königs-, Herzogs- und Grafenhäuser I
  • L. Partenheimer, Albrecht der Bär. Gründer der Mark Brandenburg und des Fürstentums Anhalt

Notes
  1. Thiele, Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln, table 171.
  2. Fenske, Adelsopposition, p. 343; Engels, Stauferstudien, p. 167.
  3. Dendorfer, 'Si(e)gfrid,' p. 345.
  4. Schaab, Geschichte der Kurpfalz, p. 30.
  5. Hildebrand, Herzog Lothar von Sachsen, pp. 9, 63f.
  6. Hildebrand, Herzog Lothar von Sachsen, p. 63.
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