ADELAIDE di TORINO. – Daughter of Olderico Manfredi, marquis of Turin, and of Berta of the Obertenghi family, b. ca. 1020, d. in 1091.
Since Olderico Manfredi’s only male child had died young, A., together with her sisters Immilla and Berta, had to divide their father’s dominions. As the eldest, however, she succeeded her father as representative of the Arduinid dynasty of Turin when Olderico Manfredi died in 1035.
The emperor Conrad II the Salian then assigned the march of Turin to his stepson, Herman, duke of Swabia, who married the young A., while her sister Immilla married another German prince, Otto of Schweinfurt. After Herman’s death (1038), A. married an Aleramici of Monferrato, Henry, but this marriage too was short-lived. In 1045 the marquis Henry had died, and the emperor Henry III, having come down to Italy in 1046, assigned the march of Turin to Otto, son of Humbert, count of Savoy (called Biancamano); the new marquis too, in order to secure a solid patrimonial base in the march, married A. di Torino. A.’s three marriages have given rise to much discussion among scholars, and some have claimed that there were two contemporary princesses of the same name, rather than Olderico Manfredi’s single daughter. This division into two persons, however, is arbitrary, since it is not based on probative arguments. In favor of the princess’s uniqueness is the letter of St. Peter Damian to A., exhorting her to take care of the Church’s moral reform; in it the saint refers to the « multivirae » who may hope for the Kingdom of Heaven: « and I say this not to give audacity to future multivirae, but so as not to take away the medicine of hope and penance from those who find themselves in such a condition ». The allusion is evident.
A.’s third marriage was fruitful: Pietro, Amedeo, Oddone, Berta, and Adelaide juniore were born.
Around 1057–58, when Otto of Savoy died, the government of the march of Turin fell to A. on behalf of her son Pietro, who was able to obtain recognition of the march from the empress Agnes, regent for Henry IV. A. knew how to govern it with uncommon wisdom, earning the praise of contemporary sources, both papal and imperial.
A.’s policy naturally adhered closely to imperial policy. As early as around 1055, her daughter Berta had been betrothed to the young Henry IV, while Adelaide was destined to marry the rector of Burgundy, Rudolf of Rheinfelden. Once the conflict between the imperialists and the reformers had taken shape, A. had to pursue a difficult policy of balance between the two sides. Closely connected to the imperial house and desirous of preserving predominance over the bishoprics and abbeys of her states, she could not, however, favor the imperialist, concubinarius and simoniacal clergy. Her conduct seems to reveal a policy of some independence, since, while seeking to promote reconciliation between the two sides, she remained attached to neither. Thus, when in 1061 the imperialist Honorius II was elected at Basel by many Italian and German bishops against Alexander II, the pope of the reform movement, Countess A. had to recognize him, but did not sever her ties with the latter. The praise bestowed on A. by St. Peter Damian and others for her respect for ecclesiastical property and her protection of monasteries does not mean that she tied the fate of the churches in her territories to the complete triumph of the papacy. At Asti, around 1070, she supported Bishop Ingone, consecrated by the Milanese metropolitan Guido in opposition to the Pope: A. received vigorous reprimands from Alexander II and apparently went to Rome to humble herself before the Pope, from whom she obtained absolution. Shortly thereafter at Turin, A. supported the imperialist bishop Cumberto in opposition to the new abbot of S. Michele della Chiusa, who was supported by Alexander II. On the other hand, she did not always have cordial relations with the imperial court: when in 1069 Henry IV seemed determined to repudiate Berta di Savoia, Countess A. managed to force the emperor to abandon his intentions, with the support of St. Peter Damian.
The policy of equilibrium between papacy and empire led A. to intervene at Canossa in 1077 between Henry IV and Gregory VII, together with Countess Matilda; in the following years too, A. remained faithful to the imperial side, but in such a way as to undertake the defense of Countess Matilda and the Pope. When her son Pietro I died in 1078, the march of Turin passed to Pietro’s son-in-law, Frederick of Montbéliard, but A. continued to govern it until her death. She is thought to have died at Canischio on 29 June 1091.