Conrad I of Burgundy

Conrad I, called the Peaceful (German: Conrad le Pacifique; c. 925 – 19 October 993), a member of the Elder House of Welf, was King of Burgundy (Kingdom of Arles) from 937 until his death.

Life

He was the son of King Rudolph II, the first ruler over the united territories of Upper and Lower Burgundy since 933, and his consort Bertha, a daughter of Duke Burchard II of Swabia. Some sources call him Conrad III, since he was the third Conrad in his family: his great-grandfather was Duke Conrad II, whose father was Count Conrad I.

According the chronicler Ekkehard IV, in a story that is probably apocryphal, when Conrad learned that both the Magyars and the Saracens of Fraxinetum were marching against him, he sent envoys to both armies warning them of the other. The envoys offered Burgundian aid to each invader against the other and then informed them of the other's whereabouts. When the Magyars and Saracens met, the Burgundians held back and only attacked when the opposing forces were spent. In this way, both invading armies were destroyed and the captives sold into slavery.

He married firstly, Adelaide of Bellay. They were parents to at least one daughter:

• Gisela (– 21 July 1006), married Henry II, Duke of Bavaria

He married Matilda by 966, daughter of Louis IV of France and Gerberga of Saxony. They had at least four children:

• Bertha (967 – 16 January 1016), married Odo I, Count of Blois, and then Robert II of France
• Matilda (born 969), possibly married Robert, Count of Geneva
• Rudolph (971 – 6 September 1032)
• Gerberga (born 965), married Herman II, Duke of Swabia

By his concubine, Aldiud, he had a son:

• Burchard, Archbishop of Lyons

• Heinrich Fichtenau, Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders, trans. Patrick J. Geary (University of Chicago Press, 1991), 407.
• Christopher Cope, Phoenix Frustrated: The Lost Kingdom of Burgundy (Constable, 1987), 67.
• ^ Reginald L. Poole, "Burgundian Notes", The English Historical Review, Vol. 26, No. 102 (Apr., 1911), 314–15.
• ^ Constance Brittain Bourchard, "Burgundy and Provence, 879–1032", The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c.900–c.1024, ed. Rosamond McKitterick and Timothy Reuter (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 342.
• C. W. Previté-Orton, Early History of the House of Savoy (Cambridge University Press, 1912), 10.