Bertha of Savoy

Bertha of Savoy (21 September 1051 – 27 December 1087), also called Bertha of Turin, was Queen of Germany from 1066 and Holy Roman Empress from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of Emperor Henry IV. Life Bertha of Savoy was a daughter of Otto, Count of Savoy (also called Eudes or Odo; c. 1023 – c. 1057/1060), and his wife Adelaide of Susa (c. 1014/1020 – 1091) from the Arduinici noble family, and as such a member of the Burgundian House of Savoy. She was the sister of Peter I, Count of Savoy (d. 1078); Amadeus II, Count of Savoy (d. 1080); and Adelaide (d. 1079), consort of the German anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden. Marriage Still during the lifetime of Emperor Henry III, Bertha at the age of four was betrothed to Henry III's son, Henry IV (aged five) on 25 December 1055 in Zürich. Bertha was raised in Germany thereafter. When she was fifteen, Bertha was crowned queen in Würzburg in June 1066 and married Henry on 13 July 1066 at the Königspfalz of Trebur. Although they had grown up together and Bertha was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno of Merseburg, an avowed opponent of Henry IV, reported on Henry's continual unfaithfulness: "He had two or three concubines at the same time, in addition [to his wife], yet he was not content. If he heard that someone had a young and pretty daughter or wife, he instructed that she be supplied to him by force. (...) His beautiful and noble wife Bertha (...) was in such a manner hated by him that he never saw her after the wedding any more than necessary, since he had not celebrated the wedding out of free will."