Bertrada - Paris, France
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Metro2
N 48° 50.850 E 002° 20.286
31U E 451439 N 5410714
Bertrada also known as Bertrada of Laon or Berthe or Bertrade or Bertha Broadfoot was Queen of the Franks. She was the mother of Charlemagne.
Waymark Code: WMD38F
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/13/2011
Views: 20
Located in the Jardin du Luxembourg, this marble sculpture depicts Bertrada wearing a heavy skirt with a belt below the waist. Her midriff is bare and she wears a tight-fitting blouse and a long robe over her back. She wears a crown and is holding a sceptor in her right hand and a small sculpture of a king (presumably her husband) sitting on his throne in her riased left hand. Although the work is signed...the signature has eroded so much that it is unreadable.
Wikipedia (
visit link) has this brief article about her:
"She was born in Laon, in today's Aisne, France, the daughter of Caribert of Laon. She married Pepin the Short, the son of Charles Martel, the Frankish "Mayor of the Palace", in 740, although the union was not canonically sanctioned until several years later. Eleven years later, in 751, Pepin and Bertrada became King and Queen of the Franks, following Pepin's successful coup against the Frankish Merovingian monarchs.
Bertrada and Pepin are known to have had four children, three sons and one daughter: of these, Charles (Charlemagne), Carloman, and Gisela survived to adulthood, whilst Pepin died in infancy. Charlemagne and Carloman would inherit the two halves of their father's kingdom when he died, and Gisela became a nun.
Bertrada lived at the court of her elder son Charles, and according to Einhard their relationship was excellent. She recommended him to marry his first wife, Desiderata, a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, but he soon divorced her. Einhard claims this was the only episode that ever strained relations between mother and son. Bertrada lived with Charlemagne until her death in 783; the king buried her in Saint Denis Basilica with great honors."