Bertha von Sulzbach ¹

  General Notes:

Bertha of Sulzbach was the first wife and Empress of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus.

Bertha was the daughter of Berengar II of Sulzbach, and a sister of Gertrude, who married Emperor Conrad III of Germany. Emissaries of the Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus arrived in Germany, seeking an alliance against Roger I of Sicily. To seal the alliance, the emissaries requested that Conrad send a princess of his family to be married to the emperor's son, Manuel. Instead, Conrad selected his sister-in-law, Bertha, and sent her to Greece escorted by Emicho von Leiningen, the Bishop of Würzburg. By the time Bertha arrived at the Imperial court in Constantinople, the emperor John was dead, and his son Manuel was now the reigning emperor. Manuel delayed marrying her for three years, until shortly after Epiphany 1146, at which point she became empress and was renamed "Eirene".

Bertha-Eirene was noted for shunning the frivolity of the luxurious Byzantine court; Basil of Ochrid, the archbishop of Thessalonica, praised her for her modesty and piety. The patriarch of Constantinople, Cosmas II Atticus, who had been accused of heresy, allegedly cursed Bertha-Eirene's womb in 1147 to prevent her bearing a son. She and Manuel had two daughters:
Maria Comnena (1152-1182), not to be confused with the Queen of Jerusalem by that name who was a relative.
Anna Comnena (1154-1158)

Bertha-Eirene died in late 1159. Her husband Manuel was described as "roaring like a lion" in grief at her death. He remarried, in 1161, to Maria of Antioch.

Bertha married Manuel I Comnenus, son of Johannes II Komnenos and Piriska of Hungary, in 1146. (Manuel I Comnenus was born on 28 Nov 1128 and died on 24 Sep 1180.)