AGELTRUDE. - Queen and empress, daughter of Adelchi, prince of Benevento, she married Guido, duke of Spoleto and Camerino. An ambitious and unscrupulous woman, she supported and urged her husband in his designs of grandeur and dominion. Having become queen and empress after Guido was proclaimed first king of Italy and then emperor in 891, and being widowed three years later, she continued her role as an energetic adviser alongside her son Lamberto. Following the arrival of Arnolfo, she withdrew with all the Lombard forces to Spoleto, determined to face siege and battle. After the emperor’s sudden departure, she consented, although without taking part in it, to the dreadful trial of Pope Formoso, held in Rome. When Lamberto died in 898, she retired to Spoleto, accepting the gifts and favors granted by Berengario I.
AGELTRUDE
BIBL.: L. Salvatorelli, L'Italia medievale Dalle invasioni barbariche agli inizi del sec. XI, Milan, n.d., passim. M. Schipa, Il mezzogiorno d'Italia anteriormente alla monarchia, Ducato di Napoli e Principato di Salerno, Bari 1923, pp. 91-101; R. Caggese, L'alto Medioevo, Turin 1937, pp. 402-404, 408.
Cite this article
“AGELTRUDE.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 282. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/ageltrude.