Alberada of Buonalbergo

Alberada of Buonalbergo (also Aubrey of Buonalbergo;^[1] c. 1035 – c. 1120), was a duchess of Apulia as the first wife of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia (1059–1085).^[2]

She married Guiscard in 1051 or 1052, when he was still just a robber baron in Calabria. As her dowry, she brought Robert Guiscard 200 knights under command of her nephew Girard of Buonalbergo.^[3] She had two children with Guiscard: a daughter, Emma, mother of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, and a son, Prince Bohemond I of Antioch. ^[2]In 1058, after Pope Nicholas II strengthened existing canon law against consanguinity, Guiscard repudiated Alberada on that basis, in order to make a then-more advantageous marriage to Sichelgaita, the sister of Prince Gisulf II of Salerno.^[2][4] This new marriage would hopefully serve to ally the Lombard and Normans; with Alberada and Guiscard's children simply too young to feasibly be married off, Guiscard may have determined to use himself.^[5] Nevertheless, the split was amicable and Alberada showed no later ill will.

Grave of Aberada/Alberada, Abbey of Holy Trinity, Venosa.

She was alive at the death of Bohemond in March 1111 and died very old, probably in July 1122 or thereabouts.^[4][6][7] She was buried near the Hauteville family mausoleum in the Abbey of Holy Trinity at Venosa. Her tomb is the only one remaining intact today.^[7]

References

1. Commire, Anne, ed. (2002). "Aubrey of Buonalbergo (fl. 1000s)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. p. 612. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3.
2. Paul, Nicholas L. (July 2010). "A Warlord's Wisdom: Literacy and Propaganda at the Time of the First Crusade". Speculum. 85 (3): 534–566. doi:10.1017/S0038713410001284. ISSN 0038-7134. S2CID 162752723.
3. Wolf, Kenneth Baxter (2016-11-11). Making History: The Normans and Their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-0901-5.
4. Morton, Nicholas (2021-09-02). "Bohemond of Taranto: Crusader and Conqueror; Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean". Al-Masāq. 33 (3): 358–360. doi:10.1080/09503110.2021.1997321. ISSN 0950-3110. S2CID 244023458.
5. Ring, Trudy; Watson, Noelle; Schellinger, Paul (2013-11-05). Southern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-25958-8.
6. Gadolin, A. R. (1982). "Prince Bohemund's Death and Apotheosis in the Church of San Sabino, Canosa Di Puglia". Byzantion. 52: 124–153. ISSN 0378-2506. JSTOR 44170754.
7. Vernon, Clare (2023-01-26). From Byzantine to Norman Italy: Mediterranean Art and Architecture in Medieval Bari. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7556-3574-0.

Sources

• Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.