Adelaide of Paris - Life

Life

Adelaide was the daughter of the count palatine Adalard of Paris. Her great-grandfather was Bégon, Count of Paris. Her great-grandmother, Alpaïs, wife of Bégon, was the illegitimate daughter of Louis the Pious by an unnamed mistress.

Adelaide was chosen by Charles the Bald, King of Western Francia, to marry his son and heir, Louis the Stammerer, despite the fact that Louis had secretly married Ansgarde of Burgundy against the wishes of his father. Although Louis and Ansgarde already had two children, Louis and Carloman, Charles prevailed upon Pope John VIII, to dissolve the union. This accomplished, Charles married his son to Adelaide in February 875.

However, the marriage was called into question because of the close blood-kinship of the pair. When on 7 September 878 the pope crowned Louis (who had succeeded his father in the previous year), the pope refused to crown Adelaide.

When Louis the Stammerer died in Compiegne on 10 April 879, he had no heirs by Adelaide; she was, however, pregnant, giving birth on 17 September 879, to Charles the Simple. The birth of this child led to a dispute between Adelaide and her deceased husband's repudiated wife, Ansgarde. Ansgarde and her sons accused Adelaide of adultery; Adelaide in turn disputed the right of Ansgarde's sons to inherit. Eventually, Adelaide succeeded in winning the case; but despite this, Ansgarde's sons Louis and Carloman remained kings until their deaths without heirs in 882 and 884 respectively, with the crown then being contested between Odo, Count of Paris and Charles the Fat.

Charles the Simple eventually succeeded to his father's throne in 898; his mother assisted in crowning him.

Adelais of Paris died in Laon on 10 November 901. She was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Corneille, Compiègne, Picardy, France.