Maria of Swabia (1199/1200 – 29 March 1235) was a member of the powerful Hohenstaufen dynasty of German kings.

Maria of Hohenstaufen
Born1199/1200
Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Died29 March 1235 (aged 35-36)
Leuven, Brabant
Noble familyHohenstaufen
Spouse(s)Henry II, Duke of Brabant and Lothier
IssueMatilda, Countess of Artois
Beatrice, Countess of Flanders
Maria, Duchess of Bavaria
Margaret of Brabant
Henry III, Duke of Brabant
Philip of Brabant
FatherPhilip of Swabia
MotherIrene Angelina of Byzantium

Family edit

Maria of Hohenstaufen was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy around 1199/1200. She was the second daughter of Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina of Byzantium.[1] In 1208, at the age of seven, Maria was left an orphan by the unexpected deaths of her parents. On 21 June, her father was murdered by Otto of Wittelsbach, and two months later her mother died after giving birth to a daughter, who did not live beyond early infancy.

Marriage and issue edit

Sometime before 22 August 1215, she married Henry II, heir to the Duchy of Brabant (present-day Belgium) and Lothier.[2] They had:

Death edit

Maria of Hohenstaufen died on 29 March 1235 in Leuven, Brabant, five days before her thirty-fourth birthday. Less than six months later, her husband succeeded his father as Duke of Brabant and Lothier.

Ancestry edit

References edit

  1. ^ Baldwin 2014, p. 27.
  2. ^ a b c d e Dunbabin 2011, p. xiv.
  3. ^ a b Bumke 1991, p. 392.

Sources edit

  • Baldwin, Philip B. (2014). Pope Gregory X and the Crusades. The Boydell Press.
  • Bumke, Joachim (1991). Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas. University of California Press.
  • Dunbabin, Jean (2011). The French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 1266–1305. Cambridge University Press.