Bertha of Savoy also called Bertha of Turin, was the first wife of Emperor Henry IV

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...

, and was German Queen and Holy Roman Empress. She is buried in the cathedral of Speyer.

Life

Bertha of Savoy was a daughter of Otto of Savoy

Otto of Savoy

Otto was Count of Savoy from 1051 until his death. He was son of Humbert I, the first Count of Savoy, and his wife Ancilla, and ascended the throne after the death of his elder brother, Amadeus I of Savoy.Otto substantially enlarged his lands through his marriage with Adelaide of Susa,...

 (also called Eudes and Odo) and Adelaide of Susa

Adelaide of Susa

Adelaide of Susa was the Marchioness of Turin from 1034 to her death. She moved the seat of the march from Turin to Susa and settled the itinerant court there...

. Her maternal grandparents were Ulric Manfred II of Turin

Ulric Manfred II of Turin

Ulric Manfred II was the Margrave of Turin and Susa in the early 11th century.- Biography:...

 and Bertha of the Obertenghi

Obertenghi

The Obertenghi were a family of Italian nobility descended from Count Obert I of Luni, the first margrave of Milan and Eastern Liguria, a march called the marca Januensis, marca Obertenga or march of Genoa....

.

As children, during the lifetime of Emperor Henry III

Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors...

, Bertha and Henry IV were betrothed on 25 December 1055 in Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

. The wedding took place on 13 July 1066 in Trebur

Trebur

Trebur is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany. It is 13 km southeast of Mainz, and 8 km south of Rüsselsheim.-Location:Trebur is located in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region...

. While Bertha was apparently in love with Henry from the outset, Henry initially viewed his wife with aversion. Although she was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno, an avowed opponent of Henry IV, reported on the Emperor's continual unfaithfulness: "He had two or three Kebsweiber (concubines

Concubinage

Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...

) 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."

In 1069, Henry began procedures for a divorce, supplying what was for the time an unusually honest reason for the divorce: "The king explained publicly (before the princes), that his relationship with his wife was not good; for a long time he had deceived others, but now he did not want to do so any longer. He could not accuse her of anything that justified a divorce, but he was not capable of carrying out conjugal relations with her any longer. He asked them for the sake of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 to remove him from the bonds of a marriage closed under bad signs ... so that the way to a luckier marriage might be opened. And nobody knowing any objection to raise, and his wife being an obstacle to a second marriage ceremony, he then swore that she was as he received her, unstained and her virginity intact." (Bruno of Merseburg)

The German episcopacy dared not submit to the King's demands, and called on Pope Alexander II

Pope Alexander II

Pope Alexander II , born Anselmo da Baggio, was Pope from 1061 to 1073.He was born in Milan. As bishop of Lucca he had been an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand of Sovana in endeavouring to suppress simony, and to enforce the celibacy of the clergy...

 for assistance. He sent Petrus Damiani as his Legate to the Synod in Frankfurt, and rejected the divorce. Henry then apparently submitted to his fate, his first daughter by Bertha being born in the year after the divorce attempt.

Bertha also accompanied her husband on his dangerous journey to Canossa

Canossa

Canossa is a comune and castle town in Emilia-Romagna, famous as the site where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077, standing three days bare-headed in the snow, in order to reverse his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII...

, carrying her three-year-old son Conrad. She remained with her husband between 25 January and 28 January 1077 in freezing cold weather before the walls of the castle, in order to reach the solution to Henry's dispute with the Pope. Together with Henry, Bertha later also journeyed to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, and on 31 March 1084 was crowned Empress.

On 27 December 1087, Bertha died in Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

.

Children

From her marriage with Henry there were eventually five children:

• Adelheid (1070 – 4 June 1079)
• Henry (1071 – 2 August 1071)
• Agnes of Germany
  Agnes of Germany
  Agnes of Germany was the daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bertha of Savoy. Her maternal grandparents were Otto, Count of Savoy, Aosta and Moriana and Adelaide, Marchioness of Turin and Susa....
  
   (1072/73 – 24 September 1143)
• Conrad (12 February 1074 – 27 July 1101), later Roman-German King and King of Italy
• Henry V
  Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
  Henry V was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor , the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. Henry's reign coincided with the final phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had pitted pope against emperor...
  
  (8 January 1086 – 23 May 1125), later Roman-German King and Holy Roman Emperor