Gertrude of Bavaria

Gertrude of Bavaria
Queen consort of Denmark
Tenure	1182–1197
Born	1152/55
Died	1 June 1197
Burial	Vä, Skåne
Spouse	Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia ​ ​ (m. 1166; died 1167)​ Canute VI of Denmark ​ ​ (m. 1177)​
House	Welf
Father	Henry the Lion
Mother	Clementia of Zähringen

Gertrude of Bavaria (Danish and German: Gertrud; 1152/55–1197) was Duchess of Swabia as the spouse of Duke Frederick IV, and Queen of Denmark as the spouse of King Canute VI.

Gertrude was born to Henry the Lion of Bavaria and Saxony and Clementia of Zähringen in either 1152 or 1155. She was married to Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, in 1166, and became a widow in 1167. In 1171, she was engaged and in February 1177 married to Canute of Denmark in Lund. The couple lived the first years in Skåne.

On 12 May 1182, they became king and queen. She did not have any children. During her second marriage, she chose to live in chastity and celibacy with her husband. Chronicler Arnold of Lübeck remarked of their marriage that her spouse was: "The most chaste one, living thus his days with his chaste spouse" in eternal chastity.

Sources

• Skovgaard-Petersen, Inge (1998). "Queenship in Medieval Denmark". In Parsons, John Carmi (ed.). Medieval Queenship. St. Martin's Press. pp. 25–43.41
• Loud, Graham A. (2019). The Chronicle of Arnold of Lübeck. Routledge.
• Alf Henrikson: Dansk historia (Danish history) (1989) (Swedish)
• Sven Rosborn (In Swedish): När hände vad i Nordens historia (What happened when in Nordic history) (1997)
• Dansk biografisk Lexikon / VI. Bind. Gerson - H. Hansen (in Danish)