Judith of Babenberg

She was a daughter of Margrave Leopold III of Austria (1073–1136), from his second marriage with Agnes (1072–1143), the only daughter of the Salian emperor Henry IV. She thereby was a niece of Emperor Henry V, the chronicler Otto of Freising was one of her older brothers. King Conrad III of Germany was her half-brother from her mother's first marriage with the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick I of Swabia; Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was her nephew.

By his marriage, Judith's father Leopold had climbed into the first row of Imperial princes. In 1125 he even was one of the possible candidates in the election as King of the Romans, he nevertheless forwent in favour of his stepson Duke Frederick II of Swabia.

About 1133, Judith married the Aleramici marquess William V of Montferrat (d. 1191), by whom she bore at least eight children. The Aleramici were among the leading dynasties in the Crusades; William accompanied his nephew King Louis VII of France on the Second Crusade of 1147. Of Judith's five sons, four became prominent in the affairs of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and of Byzantium:

• William Longsword (d. 1177), Count of Jaffa and Ascalon; father of Baldwin V of Jerusalem.
• Conrad of Montferrat (d. 1192), King of Jerusalem
• Boniface of Montferrat (d. 1207); his successor to Montferrat and founder of the Kingdom of Thessalonica.
• Frederick of Montferrat, Bishop of Alba
• Renier of Montferrat (d. 1183); married into the Byzantine imperial family.

The marriage also produced three daughters:

• Agnes of Montferrat (1202); married Count Guido Guerra III Guidi of Modigliana.[1] The marriage was annulled on grounds of childlessness before 1180, when Guido remarried, and Agnes entered the convent of Santa Maria di Rocca delle Donne.
• Adelasia (Azalaïs) of Montferrat (d. 1232); married Manfred II, Marquess of Saluzzo, c. 1182, and was regent for her grandson, Manfred III.
• An unidentified daughter, who married Albert, Marquess of Malaspina.

William V was a loyal supporter of Judith's nephew Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, their matrimony aided to Frederick's betrothal with Countess Beatrice I of Burgundy, a relative of William's mother Gisela, in 1156. Judith was still living in 1168, but seems to have died before her husband went to the Kingdom of Jerusalem after their grandson Baldwin's coronation as King of Jerusalem in the 1180s.