Judith of Bavaria, Empress
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 1.)Judith's father was Welf, a noble Bavarian, her mother Heilwig, a noble Saxon (who became abbess of Chelles after the death of Welf. Judith was married to Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, in 819, after the death of his first wife Ermentrude, with whom he had had three sons. He is said to have selected her at a gathering of noble women at Aachen. Elizabeth Ward suggests that the marriage brought Louis useful support from the east.(1) They had two children, Gisela in 821 and Charles the Bald in 823. Judith died at Tours in 841, Louis died in 840. Judith’s sister Emma was married to Louis the German, a son of Louis the Pious from his first marriage. Her brothers were Conrad and Rudolf of Burgundy, who came to Louis's court with her and were captured, tonsured, and sent as prisoners to her stepson Pepin when Louis's older sons rebelled.(2) Ward notes that Judith and Emma both requested their husbands to patronize Corvey in Saxony, indicating that the siblings shared some purposes. Judith's involvement in patronage is indicated in two letters of Lupus of Ferriere to her son Charles after her death: "Your Highness's father, at the request of your mother of honored memory, the empress Judith, presented the cell of Saint Josse to the monastery of Ferrieres" ep.42; and "Indeed it was through the intercession of your glorious mother that your most honorable father, the Emperor Louis, for the healing of his soul ... had given this subsidiary to our monastery" ep.49.(3) Bishop Aldric also commemorated Judith's generosity to churches in a poem:
Huic regina potens Iudith cognomine dicta Mirifici calicis aurea dona dedit, Obtulit hunc sancti mox salvatoris ad aram Ac sanctae Mariae, martyris et Stephani.(4)
The powerful queen, called Judith by name, gave gold gifts of a wonderful chalice, she offered it now to the altar of the holy savior and of Saint Mary, and the martyr Stephen.
Louis was devoted to Judith who, after the birth of her son, did all she could to assure that Charles would have his share of power after Louis’s death. There were already rivalries among Louis’s other sons, but the birth of Charles complicated matters for him and his mother.(5) In 829 Louis retired Lothar to Italy and endowed Charles with territory based on the Welf family lands in Alemannia; in 830 Lothar, Pepin, and Louis of Bavaria marched against Louis, but failed to force him to abdicate though they succeeded in putting Judith into a monastery (Saint Radegund of Poitiers). Within a year, Louis restored his power, sent Lothar back to Italy and brought Judith back to court, but the rebellions of his sons continued, and Louis was forced to surrender to his sons. He and Charles were imprisoned, but Lothar’s terms were so harsh that in 834 Louis the Bavarian, Pepin and other magnates released both of them and from then on, Louis was recognized as emperor, outside Italy.
In an attempt to rid the king and court of Judith’s influence, her enemies (her stepsons and their lay and clerical supporters) accused her of adultery, incest, and witchcraft with her supposed lover, Count Bernard of Septimania. When Louis resisted the charges, they forcibly placed her in a convent, twice, but Louis rescued her. In 830, however, he was compelled to find her guilty, and she had to promise to enter a monastery since repudiation was now frowned on, but with the help of his supporters he had her swear an oath to her innocence and reinstated her.(6) After Louis’s death, Judith’s enemies persuaded her son Charles of her guilt and he deprived her of her holdings.
While she was empress, various works were dedicated to or complimented Judith: Ermold Nigellus, “In Honorem Ludovici,” and “De ordine palatii”; Walafrid Strabo, “De imagine Tetrici,” and poems; Freculf of Lisieux, the second volume of his world history, Chronicon. Rabanus Maurus dedicated two biblical commentaries of Judith, one on the book of Judith, the other on Esther, “one your equal in name, the other in dignity.” The writers who supported her compared her to Rachel, Miriam, and Bathsheba, as well as Judith and Esther; those who opposed her saw her as another Eve (Paschasius Radbertus, life of Wala), Jezebel, and Delilah (Agobard of Lyons, Two Books in Favor of the Sons and Against Judith the Wife of Louis), see Stafford, 19.
Judith appears in various scenes in Ermoldus’s In Honorem Ludovici: at the baptism of the visiting Harold king of the Danes and his wife, Judith (pulcra induperatrix, “the beautiful empress” l.2240) as her godmother raises the queen from the fount, clothes her and gives her rich gifts.(7) There is a procession in which the empress and her young son shine, and a banquet in which the emperor seats her beside him and she kisses his knees 92354-55). At a hunt the empress appears on horseback beautiful and magnificently arrayed (pulcherrima conjunx Caesaris, ornata comptaque mirifice, 2378-79) and keeps her eager young son from chasing a young deer but not from striking it when it is brought to him. Judith (prudenter) has had a shelter of greens and cloths built for the hunters and has ordered a meal to be served. At the end, the exiled poet asks the emperor and then the empress to have mercy on the exiled poet: Tu quoque, digna sibi conjux, pulcherrima Judith, Quae secum imperii culmina jure tenes, Confer opem lapso, allisum solare misellum, Erige labentem, carcere solve reum, Ut vos Altitonans per plurima tempora saecli Sublimet, salvet, ditet, honoret, amet. (2644-49)
You too, his worthy spouse, most beautiful Judith, who by right holds the heights of empire with him, confer wealth on the fallen one, console the poor damaged one, raise the fallen, loose the guilty from prison, so that the thunderer from on high may for many years exalt, save, enrich, honor, and love you.
Walafrid Strabo also describes Judith in a poem for the court in “De imagine Tetrici,” as a Rachel leading her only son, as a Judith (non frustra nomine Iudith, 192: “not wrongly named Judith”) who saved her people by destroying their enemy and played sweet music, as a learned gifted Sappho and Holda and then he addresses her directly:
Quicquid enim tibimet sexus subtraxit egestas, Reddidit ingeniis culta atque exercita vita. In qua multa simul nobis miranda videmus; Semine stat locuples, apparet dogmate dives, Est ratione potens, est cum pietate pudica, Dulcis amore, valens animo, sermone faceta: Laeta cubans, sit laeta sedens, sit laeta resurgens, Laeteturque poli felix in sede locata, 201-08.(8)
Whatever the deficiency of sex took away from you, an educated and disciplined life gave back to your natural capacity. In which we see many things to be admired by us; opulent in seed, rich in dogma she appears, she is powerful in reason, chaste with piety, sweet in love, valiant in spirit, eloquent in speech: reclining happy, may she be happy sitting, may she be happy rising, and made happy when she is placed in the seat of heaven.
Letters to Judith of Bavaria, Empress
A letter from Einhart (830, March/April)A letter from Freculf, bishop of Lisieux (c.829)
A letter from Frothar, bishop of Toul (826-840?)
A letter from Hrabanus Maurus (c.834)
A letter from Hrabanus Maurus (c.834)
A letter from The church of Sens (828-829)
A letter from Walafrid Strabo ()
A letter from Walafrid Strabo ()