Alberada of Buonalbergo

Who was Alberada of Buonalbergo?

Alberada of Buonalbergo was the first wife of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, whom she married in 1051 or 1052, when he was still just a robber baron in Calabria. Alberada was the daughter of Reginald I, Count of Burgundy who wanted the support of the rising Guiscard at that moment. As her dowry, she brought Robert Guiscard, two hundred knights. She bore Guiscard two children: a daughter, Emma, mother of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, and a son, Prince Bohemond I of Antioch. In 1058, after Pope Nicholas II strengthened existing canon law against consanguinity and on that basis, Guiscard repudiated Alberada in favour of a then-more advantageous marriage to Sichelgaita, the sister of Prince Gisulf II of Salerno. Nevertheless, the split was amicable and Alberada showed no later ill will.

She was alive at the death of Bohemond in March 1111 and died very old, probably in July 1122 or thereabouts. She was buried near the Hauteville family mausoleum in the Abbey of Holy Trinity at Venosa. Her tomb is the only one remaining intact today.