Ageltrude

Who was Ageltrude?

Ageltrude was the Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Italy as wife and mother respectively of Guy and Lambert. She was the regent for her son and actively encouraged him in opposing her archenemies, the Carolingians, and in influencing papal elections in their favour.

She was the daughter of Prince Adelchis of Benevento and Adeltrude. She married Guy in the early 880s, when he was still just the duke and margrave of Spoleto and Camerino.

In 894, she accompanied her young son to Rome to be confirmed as emperor by Pope Formosus, who supported the Carolingian claimant Arnulf of Carinthia. In 896, she and her son were holed up in Spoleto when Arnulf marched into Rome and was crowned in opposition to Lambert. Arnulf was soon paralysed by a stroke and Formosus died. Ageltrude quickly interfered to assert her authority in Rome and have elected her candidate as Pope Stephen VI. At her and Lambert's request, the body of Formosus was disinterred and tried, convicted and hurled into the Tiber in the Cadaver Synod.