Founder of the House of Zähringen

Berthold II, Duke of Carinthia, also known as Berthold I of Zähringen, was the founder of the Swabian House of Zähringen. From 1061 until 1077, he was the Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona.

Life

Berthold quickly rose to be one of the most powerful counts in Swabia, and the Salian emperor Henry III even promised his party-follower the title of Duke of Swabia, then held by Otto of Schweinfurt. However, upon Otto's death in 1057, Henry's widow Agnes of Poitou gave the Duchy of Swabia in fief to Count Rudolf of Rheinfelden. Berthold received, as compensation for the abandonment of his claim, the Duchy of Carinthia and the March of Verona, after the death of the Ezzonid duke Conrad III in 1061.

Berthold was the only Carinthian duke from the Zähringer dynasty. Both in Carinthia and Verona, like his Ezzonid predecessor, he was considered a foreign ruler and was never really accepted by the local nobles. According to a contemporary chronicler, Lambert of Hersfeld, he was even temporarily declared deposed in 1072/1073.

Moreover, Berthold had a falling out with King Henry IV during the fierce Investiture Controversy when, together with Duke Welf I of Bavaria, he supported the election of his former rival Rudolf of Rheinfelden as anti-king, after King Henry's Walk to Canossa in 1077. In turn, the king convened the Imperial Diet at Ulm, where he seized the duchy and gave Carinthia to Liutold of Eppenstein, whose grandfather Adalbero had held it until 1035.

Berthold then retired to his Swabian home territory, where he had to ward off constant attacks by King Henry's forces. He died in 1078 at Limburg Castle and was buried in Hirsau Abbey, where he had backed the construction of the monastery church under Abbot William.

Marriages and children

Berthold and his first wife, Richwara, had the following children:

1. Herman I (c. 1040 - 1074), who used the Veronese margravial title and founded the line of the margraves of Baden
2. Berthold II (c. 1050 - 1111), who was Duke of Swabia in opposition to Frederick of Hohenstaufen from 1092 to 1098, then Duke of Zähringen
3. Gebhard (c. 1050 - 1110), who was Bishop of Constance from 1084
4. Liutgard (d. about 1119), who married the Nordgau margrave Diepold of Vohburg
5. Richinza, who married Count Rudolf of Frickingen, then secondly married Louis of Sigmaringen, a relative of the House of Helfenstein

In his second marriage, Berthold was married to Beatrice of Montbéliard, a daughter of Count Louis of Montbéliard and his wife Sophie, Countess of Bar.