Adelaide of Italy, also called Adelaide of Burgundy, was Holy Roman Empress by marriage to Emperor Otto the Great. She was crowned with him by Pope John XII in Rome on 2 February 962. She was the first empress designated consors regni, denoting a “co-bearer of royalty” who shared power with her husband. She was essential as a model for future consorts regarding both status and political influence. She was regent of the Holy Roman Empire as the guardian of her grandson in 991–995.
She became involved from the beginning in the complicated fight to control not only Burgundy but also Lombardy. The battle between her father Rudolf II and Berengar I to control northern Italy ended with Berengar’s death, and Rudolf could claim the throne
Adelaide had constantly devoted herself to the service of the church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she also interested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus a principal agent — almost an embodiment — of the work of the pre-schism Church at the end of the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religious culture of Central Europe. Some of her relics are preserved in a shrine in Hanover. Her feast day, 16 December, is still kept in many German dioceses.
