Gertrude was the only child of
Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of
Saxony, and his wife
Richenza of Northeim. After the death of the last
Salian emperor
Henry V, her father, backed by Archbishop
Adalbert of Mainz was elected
King of the Romans in 1125, and ruled as
Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 to 1137.
First marriage Gertrude was married to
Henry the Proud, Duke of
Bavaria, a dynastic arrangement meant to strengthen ties to the
Welf dynasty. The lavish wedding ceremony was held on 29 May 1127 on the
Lech fields near
Augsburg. Indeed, Duke Henry became a loyal supporter in Lothair's struggle with the rivalling
House of Hohenstaufen. The marriage also marked a significant increase of the Welf power: in 1136 Lothair vested Henry with the Italian
March of Tuscany and, after the death of his father-in-law in 1137, Henry also succeeded him as Duke of Saxony. He furthermore inherited extended Saxon
allodial lands around
Süpplingenburg,
Brunswick and
Northeim. According to the contemporary chronicler
Otto of Freising he ruled over a realm that stretched "from
Denmark to
Sicily". Henry and Gertrude had one son,
Henry the Lion, born in 1129, who later became Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Gertrude's husband had received the
Imperial Regalia from his father-in-law, however, as much powerful as arrogant, he failed to succeed Lothair as King of the Romans, when he was defeated by his Hohenstaufen rival
Conrad III in the
imperial election of 1138. Refusing to pay tribute, he was
banned and stripped off his Bavarian and Saxon duchies, which Conrad gave to his rivals Margrave
Leopold of Austria and the
Ascanian margrave
Albert the Bear respectively. While defending his rights in Saxony, Henry suddenly died at
Quedlinburg 1139, leaving Gertrude alone with their ten-year-old son.
Regent Acting as Saxon regent, Gertrude with the aid of her mother Empress Richenza was able to secure the inheritance rights of her son by reaching a consent with the Hohenstaufen King Conrad III. In 1142 Henry the Lion was finally vested with the Duchy of Saxony by King Conrad III, after Albert the Bear renounced his rights. Henry the Lion himself in turn renounced his succession in the Duchy of Bavaria, which Conrad ceded to the
Babenberg margrave
Henry II Jasomirgott of Austria.
Second marriage Gertrude and Henry II married on 1 May 1142 in Brunswick. They had: • Richenza (b. 1143 - d. 1200), married Landgrave Heinrich V of Steffling. The marriage produced no male heirs, as Gertrude died in childbirth at
Klosterneuburg Monastery in Austria on 18 April 1143, which was her 28th birthday. She was buried at
Schottenstift, Vienna. Henry Jasomirgott later married his second wife,
Theodora Komnene, a niece of the Byzantine Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos. In 1152 King Conrad was succeeded by his nephew
Frederick Barbarossa, who vested Gertrude's son Henry the Lion with the Duchy of Bavaria in 1156. ==Ancestry==