Agnès of Méranie ¹

  General Notes:

Agnes Maria of Andechs-Meran (died 1201), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV (died 1251), who was independent Count of Andechs, a castle and territory near Ammersee, Bavaria and from 1183 Duke of Meran in Tirol, which has derived its name from his castle Tyrol, above the valley of Meran. The count held his fiefs directly from the Emperor, so he was independent of the great territorial dukes of Germany. Bertold IV was made Archbishop of Kalocsa (in Hungary) and in 1218 he was made Patriarch of Aquileia.

She is called Marie by some of the French chroniclers. In June 1196 she married Philip Augustus (Philip II), king of France, who had repudiated his first wife Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. Pope Innocent III espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, 9 months after interdict had been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. She died in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the church of St. Corentin, near Nantes. Her two children by Philip II, Philip, count of Clermont (d. 1234), and Mary, who married Philip, count of Namur, were legitimized by the pope in 1201 at the request of the king. Little is known of the personality of Agnes, beyond the remarkable influence which she seems to have exercised over Philip II. She has been made the heroine of a tragedy by François Ponsard, Agnès de Méranie.

Her sister Hedwig of Andechs married Henry I, duke of Silesia and was canonized as Saint Hedwig in 1267. Another sister, Gertrude was Queen of Hungary.

Agnès married Philip II Augustus of France Capet, son of Louis VII the Younger of France Capet and Adele de Blois de Champagne, on 7 May 1196. (Philip II Augustus of France Capet was born on 21 Aug 1165 in Gonesse, Val-d'Oise, France, died on 14 Jul 1223 in Mantes, France and was buried in Saint Denis Basilica, near Paris, France.)