Hermesinde
Overview
Biography
Hermesinde was a sister-in-law of empress Agnes. She had married Agnes's brother Peter William (Guillaume VII of Aquitaine, V of Poitiers) in 1050. When he died in 1058, she vowed not to remarry: “Ermensindisque, amore illius, vovit se viduam et castam permanere usque ad mortem,” Chronique de Saint-Maixent, 751-1146. There were no sons of the marriage, though there may have been daughters. Hermesinde is mentioned in letters from Peter Damian to her sister-in-law (epp.104, 124 Epistolae 130, 131.html) ): “The empress alone with her sister-in-law Hermesinde, equally enflamed by the fervor of the holy Spirit, as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb not to anoint Christ's body, but to wash his feet with their tears, not to seek the living among the dead, but to adore the traces of the resurrected” (ep.104). Hermesinde came to Rome with Agnes but apparently did not remain in the same house, since Peter mentions a visit she made with him to Agnes: “I think, venerable lady, that since we — lord Rainald, bishop of the see of Como and the holy woman Hermesinde, widow of your brother [William Aigret V/VII], and I your servant — came back, your mind has fluctuated and, as if destitute of all solace deplores that it is left alone” (ep.124).