ADELAIDE of Turin. – Daughter of Oddo (Oderico) Manfredi, margrave of Turin, and Berta of the Obertenghi house, born c. 1020, died in 1091.
Since Oddo Manfredi’s only son had died young, Adelaide, together with her sisters Immilla and Berta, shared in the division of their father’s domains. As the eldest, however, she succeeded him in representing the Adalrician dynasty of Turin when Oddo Manfredi died in 1035.
Emperor Conrad II of Salian stock then granted the march of Turin to his stepson, Herman, duke of Swabia, who married the young Adelaide, while her sister Immilla was given in marriage to another German prince, Otto of Schweinfurt. After Herman’s death (1038), Adelaide wed an Aleramici lord of Montferrat, Henry, but this union too proved short-lived. In 1045 Marquis Henry died, and Emperor Henry III, who had come down to Italy in 1046, assigned the march of Turin to Otto, son of Humbert of Savoy (called Biancamano); to secure a firm patrimonial base within the march, the new margrave also married Adelaide of Turin. The three marriages of Adelaide have given rise to much scholarly debate, and some have argued that they involved two princesses of the same name living at the same time rather than the single daughter of Oddo Manfredi. The duplication, however, is arbitrary, since it rests on no probative evidence. In favor of the princess’s unity is the letter of St. Peter Damian to Adelaide, urging her to persevere in the moral reform of the Church; in it the saint refers to the “many-times-married” who may still hope for the kingdom of heaven: “and this I say not to give boldness to future many-times-married women, but lest I take away the medicine of hope and penance from those who find themselves in such a condition.” The allusion is clear.
Adelaide’s third marriage bore fruit: Peter, Amadeus, Otto, Bertha, and the younger Adelaide were born.
About 1057–58, after Otto of Savoy’s death, Adelaide assumed the regency of the march of Turin on behalf of her son Peter, who obtained recognition of the march from the empress Agnes, regent for Henry IV. Adelaide governed with uncommon wisdom and earned the praise of contemporary sources, whether papal or imperial.
Her policy naturally aligned closely with the imperial cause. Already by about 1055 her daughter Bertha had been betrothed to the young Henry IV, while Adelaide herself was destined to wed Rudolf of Rheinfelden, rector of Burgundy. As the conflict between imperialists and reformers took shape, Adelaide pursued a difficult policy of balance between the two sides. Tied closely to the imperial house and eager to preserve control over the bishops and abbeys of her lands, she could not, however, favor the imperialist clergy with their concubines and simoniacal practices. Her stance seems to reveal a measure of independence, for while seeking to reconcile the two parties she remained bound to neither. Thus, when in 1061, against Pope Alexander II of the reform movement, an imperialist, Honorius II, was elected at Basel by many Italian and German bishops, Countess Adelaide had to recognize him but did not sever her ties with Alexander. The praises heaped on Adelaide by St. Peter Damian and others for her respect for ecclesiastical property and protection of monasteries do not mean that she tied the fate of the churches in her territories to the complete ascendancy of the papacy. At Asti about 1070 she supported Bishop Ingone, consecrated by Guido, archbishop of Milan, in disregard of the pope; Adelaide incurred sharp reproof from Alexander II and seems to have gone to Rome to humble herself before the pope, from whom she obtained absolution. Soon afterward at Turin she backed the imperialist Bishop Cunibert in opposition to the new abbot of St. Michael della Chiusa, who was supported by Alexander II. On the other hand, her relations with the imperial court were not always cordial: when in 1069 Henry IV seemed determined to repudiate Bertha of Savoy, Countess Adelaide managed to force the emperor to abandon his intentions, with the support of St. Peter Damian.
Her policy of balance between papacy and empire led Adelaide to intervene at Canossa in 1077 between Henry IV and Gregory VII, together with Countess Matilda; in the years that followed she remained loyal to the imperial side even as she took up the defense of Countess Matilda and the pope. After her son Peter I died in 1078, the march of Turin passed to her son-in-law Frederick of Montbéliard, but Adelaide continued to govern it until her death. She is said to have died at Canischino on 29 June 1091.