Adelheid of Meissen

Adelaide of Meissen (, ; – 2 February 1211), a member of the House of Wettin, was Queen of Bohemia from 1198 to 1199 as the first wife of King Ottokar I. When her husband declared their marriage null and void, she began a longstanding legal dispute that involved numerous religious and secular dignitaries of her time. Life and Marriage Adelaide was born about 1160 as the daughter of Margrave Otto II of Meissen (1125–1190) and his wife Hedwig of Brandenburg (d. 1203), a daughter of the Ascanian margrave Albert the Bear. She met her future husband in the 1170s, in the time of his exile during internal struggles within the Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty. The couple married in 1178 without attendance and consent from their families. It is possible that the marriage was forced on the grounds of her pregnancy. Adelaide gave birth to a son, Vratislaus, soon after. Shortly after the marriage, the couple could return to Bohemia, when Ottokar's brother Frederick (Bedřich) 'assumed the reins' and made Ottokar one of the leaders of his armed forces in the Moravian lands. In 1192 Ottokar himself ascended the Prague throne and even achieved his recognition by the Hohenstaufen emperor Henry VI; however, he lost support and was deposed soon after. He again had to leave Bohemia, together with his wife and four children. Adelaide came to Meissen at the court of her brother Margrave Albert the Proud. Meanwhile, Ottokar became a mercenary of German princes to profit from the German throne dispute between Emperor Henry's brother Philip of Swabia and the Welf duke Otto of Brunswick. At this time the couple got estranged. Ottokar decided to solve the problem in a way exclusive to all dynastic principles.