Agnes of Babenberg

Agnes of Babenberg (; 1108/13 – 24/25 January 1163) was a scion of the Franconian House of Babenberg and by marriage High Duchess of Poland and Duchess of Silesia. Family and personality Agnes was a daughter of Leopold III, Margrave of Austria, and Agnes, daughter of Emperor Henry IV. Through her mother, Agnes was a descendant of the Salian dynasty, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire since 1024 until her maternal uncle, Emperor Henry V, died without issue in 1125. She was the half-sister of Duke Frederick II of Swabia and King Conrad III of Germany, both born from her mother's first marriage with Duke Frederick I of Swabia. Of her full siblings, one sister, Judith, married Marquess William V of Montferrat, and one brother was Bishop Otto of Freising, a renowned medieval chronicler. According to Wincenty Kadłubek, Polish chronicler and bishop of Kraków (and this opinion is shared by other sources), Agnes was a very ambitious, energetic woman, and proud of her origins. It is no wonder the bishop called her "Tigress" in his Chronica Polonorum.