Judith of Babenberg

Judith of Babenberg
Marchioness of Montferrat
An imaginary portrait of Judith of Babenberg, painted by Hans Part in 1490, as part of the Genealogy of the Babenberg Ladies at Klosterneuburg Abbey, founded by her parents. The inscription misnames her husband as "Renier".
Born	c. late 1110s/1120
Died	After 1168
Noble family	House of Babenberg
Spouse(s)	William V of Montferrat
Issue	William, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon Conrad I of Jerusalem Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat Frederick, Bishop of Alba Renier, Caesar of the Byzantine Empire Agnes, Countess of Modigliana Azalaïs, Marchioness of Saluzzo
Father	Leopold III, Margrave of Austria
Mother	Agnes of Germany

Judith (or Jutta, sometimes called Julitta or Ita in Latin sources; c. 1115/1120 – after 1168), a member of the House of Babenberg, was Marchioness of Montferrat from 1135 until her death, by her marriage with Marquess William V.

Life

Judith was a daughter of Margrave Leopold III of Austria (1073–1136) and his second wife, Agnes (1072–1143),^[1] the only daughter of the Salian emperor Henry IV.

During 1133, Judith married the Aleramici marquess William V of Montferrat.^[1] 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.^[2]

Marriage and issue

Judith and William had:

• William Longsword (d. 1177), Count of Jaffa and Ascalon; father of Baldwin V of Jerusalem^[3]
• Conrad of Montferrat (d. 1192),^[1] King of Jerusalem
• Boniface of Montferrat (d. 1207);^[4] his successor to Montferrat and founder of the Kingdom of Thessalonica.
• Frederick of Montferrat, Bishop of Alba
• Renier of Montferrat (d. 1183)^[5] married into the Byzantine imperial family.

The marriage also produced three daughters:

• Agnes of Montferrat (1202); married Count Guido Guerra III Guidi of Modigliana.^[6] 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.

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.

References

1. Freed 2016, p. xiv.
2. Riley-Smith 1992, p. 102.
3. McDougall 2017, p. xiii.
4. Theotokis 2019, p. 140.
5. Kosi 2021, p. 275.
6. Marco Bicchierai, Tegrimo Guidi, in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, 61 (2004).

Sources

• Freed, John (2016). Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth. Yale University Press.
• Kosi, Miha (2021). "The Babenberg Dukes of Austria - crusaders "par excellence"". In Bronstein, Judith; Fishhof, Gil; Shotten-Hallel, Vardit (eds.). Settlement and Crusade in the Thirteenth Century: Multidisciplinary Studies of the Latin East. Routledge. pp. 270–284.
• McDougall, Sara (2017). Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230. Oxford University Press.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1992). "Family traditions and Participation in the Second Crusade". In Gervers, M. (ed.). The Second Crusade and the Cistercians. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 101–108.
• Theotokis, George (2019). Twenty Battles That Shaped Medieval Europe. Crowood.