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Berthe de Savoie
(1051–87)

Biographical

At the age of four, Bertha was betrothed to the five-year-old Henry (Emperor Henry IV) in 1055. In less than a year after the death of his father, Henry IV married Bertha in 1066, but the young Emperor in the meantime had fallen into bad hands, and suspected everybody. He supposed his wife to be a tool of his enemies, and, notwithstanding her beauty and amiability, he lived apart from her. In 1069 he declared his intention of divorcing Bertha, although he made no accusation against her. This resolution was, however, overruled, and when almost under compulsion he brought her to court, he grew closer to her, and they continued to be devotedly attached to each other as long as Bertha lived.

Place of death: Mainz
Place of burial: Speyer Cathedral

Daughter of Oddon I de Savoie and Adélaïde of Turin. She married Emperor Heinrich IV in 1066, and had issue.

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