Flourished 824-843
Noble Mother

A Difficult Life. Dhuoda was the wife of a nobleman, Bernard of Septimania, a retainer and godson of Louis I (the Pious), Holy Roman Emperor and King of France. Bernard was close to Louis and had served as tutor to one of Louis's sons. Bernard's prominent family is frequently mentioned in medieval records; Dhuoda is known only through the survival of a long letter she sent to one of her sons. In it she recorded that she and Bernard were married at the emperor's palace in Aachen on 29 June 824 and that she gave birth to a son, William, on 29 November 826, describing him as her "so longed-for firstborn son." Her marriage was not happy. She suffered from the uprootedness of military life, following her husband as he moved around the kingdom. Moreover, in 830 her husband was accused of an adulterous relationship with Louis's wife...