Berthe D'ARLES

Souvent dite "d'Italie". Premier mariage douteux.

Liutprand of Cremona recounted that she inherited the great wealth of

her paternal uncle Hugo of Vienne, king of Italy, describing her at the

time of his death in April 947 as "widow of Boso, count of Arles". Soon

afterwards she was married to Raimond, count of Rouergue and marquis of

Gothia, who was reputedly so ugly as to be an unworthy husband for her.

This at least implies that she was still in the prime of her beauty in

the late 940s, perhaps young enough to be a bride for the first time.

She lived until the second decade of the following century, when she

reportedly made a sceptical comment after a miracle performed by St Foy

during a synod convened by Arnald, bishop of Rodez. It is not certain

when this occurred - Arnald was next-but-one successor to the bishop in

1004 and he is first recorded in that capacity with a secure date in the

1020s. However, the account of St Foy's miracles was written from ca

1013, and since Berta was of marriageable age by 947 she was presumably

around 80+ years old by ca 1010/12 when the synod may have taken place.

The description of Berta as "widow of Boso, count of Arles" in 947 has

led to an elaborate speculation that she was first married to Boso of

Burgundy, a brother of King Raoul. George de Manteyer laboriously

eliminated seven other Bosos to conclude he must be the man in question,

and this had been accepted by most historians since. However, Boso was

killed in September 935, and identifying him as Berta's alleged first

husband raises problems that Manteyer did not adequately address.

Berta would have remained a widow for eleven and a half years after

Boso's death before she married Raimond. Then, despite the advantage of

her uncle's immense fortune, she was apparently unable to sustain her

purportedly inherited rights in Arles for much longer. Manteyer

identified her as countess there in September 948, when he thought she

subscribed a charter of her first cousin Manasses, archbishop of Arles,

for Cluny; however, this was probably transacted in Macon and subscribed

as countess by Berta, the second wife of Leutald of Salins who was count

of Macon at the time.

Manteyer's conclusion would entail that Berta of Arles managed to cut

out her three sisters and inherit rights to at least some of her father

Boso's possessions (despite his dying as a prisoner in Italy after

plotting against his brother Hugo), and that she transmitted these

rights to a first husband who was an alien in Provence though evidently

not to a second husband who was already established in the region as

marquis of Gothia, or to their descendants.

Jean-Pierre Poly rejected the conclusion of Manteyer and instead

identified Berta's purported first husband with Boso, ancestor of the

later counts of Provence, who was count of Arles in the 950s/960s. Poly

explained away Liutprand's description of Berta as his "widow" in 947 by

speculating that he had repudiated her, so that she was his relict in

the sense of being an abandoned wife. However, this stretches

Liutprand's language beyond the breaking point of plausibility (and Poly

was in compound error anyway with the supporting example he offered of

such a usage).

Liutprand is the only source for Berta's alleged first marriage to

someone named Boso. The relevant passage in the primary manuscript was

probably copied under the author's supervison and corrected by his hand

• but if so he was apparently nodding at the time, since he omitted to

correct "ingresus" to "ingressus" immediately before Berta's name. The

likely explanation of his calling her "widow of Boso, count of Arles"

after her name seems to me that he meant "daughter of Boso, count of

Arles" (i.e. "uidue" was mistakenly substituted for "filie" and

overlooked in the revision). It would be an odd co-incidence for the

daughter of one count Boso of Arles to be married to another count Boso

of Arles. Elsewhere Liutprand clearly disapproved of Berta's father

being made marquis of Tuscany, though he did use this title for him ina

parallel context, recounting the marriage of Berta's sister Willa.

Peter Stewart

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