Gisela of Swabia

Gisela of Swabia ( 990 – 15 February 1043), was queen of Germany from 1024 to 1039 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1039 by her third marriage with Emperor Conrad II. She was the mother of Emperor Henry III. She was regent of Swabia for her minor son Duke Ernest II of Swabia in 1015, although it seems at that time her husband Conrad was the one who held the reins of government, leading to the enmity between stepfather and stepson. She was an active empress, exemplifying a tradition in which, up to the period of the Hohenstaufens, as the consors regni (ruling partner to the king or emperor), the queen and empress held a substantive role in the government, often intervening in the drafting of documents or even issuing documents in her own name. She reigned as regent for her absent husband in 1037. Early life Gisela was the daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia and Gerberga of Burgundy, daughter of King Conrad the Peaceful. Both her parents were descendants of Charlemagne. According to a plate found when her tomb was unearthed, she was born on 11 November 999, but that date cannot be reconciled with the records of her marriages. Gisela first married the Saxon count Brun I of Brunswick, about 1002. Upon Brun's death, her second marriage was ca. 1012 with the Babenberg scion Ernest, who had been enfeoffed with the Duchy of Swabia by King Henry II of Germany at the death of Gisela's brother, Duke Herman III and aimed at legitimising himself as his heir. After Ernest's early death in 1015, Gisela became regent for their minor son Duke Ernest II of Swabia.