The Deeds of Wiprecht
Components
Remarriage
In the year of the Lord 1110. After this, the lord Wiprecht, having finally received consolation concerning his wife's death, considered it necessary—although reluctantly and with difficulty—to make preparations for another wife, a mother of sorts for his household. Thus he decided to marry the widow of lord Kuno, the most noble prince of Beichlingen, by the name of Kunigunde. Because she was still turning over in her mind the subject of widowhood, at first she hesitated to assent to his request. But afterwards, having considered sounder counsel with her men, since she was not then able to withstand the many powerful invaders of her estates—of which her husband had left her an abundance—she consented to the requested union of marriage, even if not out of desire but necessity. For she was gravely harassed by the insolence of the same men, by whose deceitfulness her most noble husband (who suspected nothing evil from them since they were his own men) had been secretly killed, contrary to justice and divine law ; one of them was called Elger of Ilfeld, the other Christian of Rothenburg . Therefore, when he obtained her consent, the lord Wiprecht was quite cheered. Not only did he arrange his own happy union, but indeed he persuaded her to betrothe to his own eldest son, namely Wiprecht, her daughter by the name Kunigunde, the most elegant and renowned compared with her other four daughters. After he had achieved this, together as one they—that is the father with the son and both mother and daughter—performed the wedding ceremonies generously (beyond what might be able to be said now). And they betrothed the rest of the four sisters to the most noble princes of Saxony and Thuringia. Finally, the marriage pact was strengthened by this reciprocity and by an oath from the aforesaid matron that if this countess should submit to nature first, the lord Wiprecht and his heirs would obtain her patrimony.