Almodis of La Marche

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File:Barcelona Cathedral Interior - Sepulchres of Almodis de la Marche.jpg
Tomb of Almodis de la Marche.

Almodis de la Marche (c.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 1020 – 16 October 1071) was a French noble famed for her marriages. She and her third husband, Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona, with whom she committed double bigamy in 1053, were excommunicated by the Pope. Almodis played an active political role during her marriage to Ramon Berenguer I, acting as his co-ruler in legal and diplomatic affairs. She co-authored the Usages of Barcelona (c. 1068), the first comprehensive legal code for the County of Barcelona, where she is explicitly named as "consors et auctrix".[1][2]

Life

Almodis was the daughter of Count Bernard I of Marche and wife Amélie.Template:Sfn She married Hugh V of Lusignan around 1038 and they had two sons and one daughter. Almodis and Hugh of Lusignan divorced due to consanguinity.Template:Sfn She later, with Hugh's assistance, married Count Pons of Toulouse in 1040.Template:Sfn Almodis was still Pons' wife in April 1053, when she was abducted by Count Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona.Template:Sfn He kidnapped her from Narbonne with the aid of a fleet sent north by his ally, the Muslim emir of Tortosa.Template:Sfn They married immediately (despite the fact both of her previous husbands were still alive) and they appear with their twin sons in a charter the next year. Pope Victor II excommunicated Almodis and Ramon for this illegal marriage until 1056.Template:Sfn During her time as countess, she led or participated in diplomatic missions, such as negotiations with Muslim taifas like that of Dénia, and helped strengthen alliances beyond the Pyrenees. She also presided over judicial sessions during her husband's military absences, acting as a regent.[3][4]

Almodis maintained contact with her former husbands and many children, and in 1066/1067 she traveled to Toulouse for her daughter's wedding. A few years before, in 1060, Hugh V of Lusignan had revolted against his lord, Duke William VIII of Aquitaine, in support of Almodis' son William IV of Toulouse.Template:Sfn Her sons supported one another in military campaigns; Hugh VI of Lusignan, Raymond IV of Toulouse, and Berenguer Ramon II of Barcelona all took the Cross.

Her third husband Ramon was married to her niece, Isabela Trencavel, the daughter of Rangearde de la Marche. Their son, Peter Raymundi, was Ramon's original heir. Peter Raymundi resented Almodis' influence and was concerned she was trying to replace him with her own two sons, his consanguineous nephews, both who had claims through their father, Count La Marche. He murdered her in October 1071.Template:Sfn William of Malmesbury reflected that she was, "sad, [of] unbridled lewdness".Template:Sfn

Pere-Ramon was disinherited and exiled for his crime and fled the country. When his father died in 1076, Barcelona was split between Almodis' sons, Berenguer Ramon and Ramon Berenguer. The family history of murder did not end with Pere-Ramon, as Berenguer Ramon earned his nickname "The Fratricide" when he killed his own twin brother.

Family

She married Hugh V of LusignanTemplate:Sfn around 1038 and they had two sons and one daughter:

  • Hugh VI of Lusignan (c. 1039–1101)Template:Sfn
  • Jordan de Lusignan
  • Mélisende de Lusignan (b. bef. 1055), married before 1074 to Simon I "l'Archevêque", Vidame de Parthenay

Almodis and Hugh of Lusignan divorced due to consanguinity, and Hugh arranged for her to marry Count Pons of Toulouse in 1040.Template:Sfn Together they produced several children, including:

In 1053, she married Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona.Template:Sfn Together they produced four children:

Her daughter Agnes from her first marriage married Guigues II of Albon, thereby reinforcing ties between the Catalan counts and the lords of the Dauphiné.[5]

In literature

Almodis is the subject of the historical novel Almodis the Peaceweaver by Tracey Warr.[6]

Notes

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  1. ↑ Agnès Rotger, "La gran dama del tron català", Sàpiens, núm. 121 (octubre 2012).
  2. ↑ Cathy Babal, Medieval Catalan Law and Justice, University of Barcelona Press, 2010.
  3. ↑ Esteve Busquets i Molas, Història de Capellades, 1972, p. 142.
  4. ↑ José Enrique Ruiz-Domènec, Quan els vescomtes de Barcelona eren Història, Ed. 62, 2006, p. 89.
  5. ↑ Kathryn Ringrose, Medieval Women of Power, Routledge, 2003.
  6. ↑ Tracey Warr, Almodis the Peaceweaver, Meanda Books, 2023. Template:ISBN

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Sources

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