Biography
Adelaide was the daughter of Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy, and niece of Pope Callixtus II, who once visited her court in France. Her father died in 1103, and her mother married Renier I of Montferrat as a second husband.
She became the second wife of Louis VI of France (1081–1137), whom she married on 3 August 1115. They had eight children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens consort. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris. She was reputed to be "ugly," but attentive and pious.
Read more about this topic: Adelaide Of Maurienne
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“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)