Guilla of Provence or of Burgundy (died before 924) was an early medieval Frankish queen in the Rhone valley.

It is certain that she was firstly consort of king Rudolf I of Upper Burgundy (who was proclaimed king in 888 and died on 25 October 911) and then since 912 consort of Hugh of Arles, border count of Provence, who in 926 became king of Northern Italy.

Everything else in her genealogy is more or less uncertain. She is believed to have been a daughter of king Boso of Lower Burgundy (Provence), and she is presumed to have been the mother of king Rudolf II of Upper Burgundy and Italy. These two kinships enjoy some indicative support from near-contemporary sources. The first-mentioned kinship would make her a sibling, at least half-sister, of king Louis III of Italy. The second would mean she were an ancestress of the last independent Burgundian royal house, and through it ancestress of last Ottonian emperors, of the last Carolingian king of France, of a number of dukes of Swabia, of the later Guelph dynasty, and of the Salian Imperial House, as well as of practically all European royal families since High Middle Ages.

Furthermore, genealogies that are regarded mostly as wishful thinking by critical research, have for centuries claimed that

Guilla's mother were Ermengarde of Italy, one of the heiresses of last Carolingians, who was daughter of Emperor Louis II, king of Italy, and became the last of the wives of king Boso of Lower Burgundy. This however is fairly unlikely, as Ermengarde's marriage with king Boso took place in 978, a date when Guilla was likely already born.

Guilla were the only wife of king Rudolf I of Upper Burgundy. This is not certain, as she possibly was yet in age of being capable of child-bearing at her marriage in 912 with the count Hugh, the future Italian king; and her first husband, the king Rudolf I, is mentioned of having several children already in 888 (who thus could have been born of an earlier, to us unknown, wife of Rudolf).

Queen Guilla's date of death, after 912 but before 924, is between those years because of a charter (expressing her be dead) dated in the latter year. After her death, in 926, her widower, count Hugh, took over the kingdom of Italy from Rudolf II of Burgundy (who was either stepson or own son of Guilla).

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http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BURGUNDY%20KINGS.htm

WILLA, daughter of --- (-before 924). (wife of Rudolph I King of Upper Burgundy) She is named "Willa regina" in the grant to Cluny by "Adeleydis comitissa soror Rodulfi" dated 14 Jun 929[112]. Her marriage date is estimated from King Rudolf being recorded as having children in 888[113], although the primary source on which this is based has not been identified and in any case it is not certain that Willa was the mother of those children. Her origin is unknown. Chaume[114] and Hlawitschka[115] suggest that she was Willa, daughter of Boson King [of Provence], the former considering that she was the daughter of King Boson's second marriage while the latter prefers his first wife as her mother. Settipani considers that, if Willa was the daughter of King Boson, it is likely that she was the daughter of his first marriage because of the existence of King Rudolf´s children in 888[116], although as noted above this argument is of little use if Willa was not their mother. Willa's suggested Burgundian origin appears based mainly on the fact that Conrad I King of Burgundy called Charles-Constantin Comte de Vienne "consanguineus noster" in two charters dated 28 Mar 943 and 18 May 943[117], the relationship being explained if Willa's suggested Burgundian origin was correct. However, such a relationship would also be confirmed if the Comte de Vienne was the son of King Louis [de Provence] by Adelais, whose Burgundian origin is suspected but not certain (see above), rather than the Byzantine princess about whose marriage with King Louis there is much uncertainty (see the document PROVENCE). As suggested above, a completely different possibility is that Willa was King Rudolf's second wife (which Chaume assumes), the king's children having been born from an unrecorded earlier marriage. This would be more consistent with Willa's second marriage in 912, when her second husband would have been about 30 years old, while Willa would have been over 50 if her first children had been born in the early 880s. In conclusion, there is too much uncertainty to speculate sensibly on Willa´s origin. Willa married secondly (912) as his first wife, Hugues d'Arles Comte de Vienne, who later succeeded as Ugo I King of Italy. "Hugo comes et marchio" names "patris mei Teutbaldi et matris meæ Berthe…et uxoris quondam meæ Willæ…et præsentis conjugis meæ Hildæ atque fratrum et sororum mearum" in a donation by charter dated 924[118]. Her date of death is fixed by this charter dated 924.

Sources

• [112] Cluny, Tome I, 379, p. 358.
• [113] Settipani (1993), p. 374.
• [114] Chaume, M. (1925) Les origines du duché de Bourgogne (Dijon), Vol 1, p. 382 note 3, cited in Settipani (1993), p. 374.
• [115] Hlawitschka, E. (1976) 'Die verwandschaftlichen Verbindungen zwischen dem hochburgundischen und dem niederburgundischen Köningshaus. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Burgunds in der 1. Hälfte des 10. Jahrhunderts', Festschrift für Peter Acht (Munich), pp. 28-57.
• [116] Settipani (1993), p. 374.
• [117] Cluny, Tome I, 622, p. 579, and I.631, p. 588.
• [118] Diplomata Hugonis Comitis Provinciæ et Regis Italiæ I, RHGF IX, p. 689.

Sources

• Leo Van De Pas, Guille|Wille de Provence at genealogics.org.
• Norman Davies, "Forgotten Kingdoms" (2011), p.111
• King of Italy 926-947 (Marchese of Tuscany, Comtes d'Arles); Kings of Provence, Bosonid Family 879-928; and Kings of Upper Burgundy 888-1032 (Welf) at MedLands.
• Guilla of Provence at English wikipedia.org
• Willa de Provence at French wikipedia.org.
• Rudolf I. (Burgund) at German wikipedia.org.
• Willa (-before 924). See Kings of Upper Burgundy 888-1032 (Welf) at MedLands, visited Aug. 3, 2013.
• eli Guillan syntyperä on epäselvä. Hänen oletetaan olleen kuningas Boson tytär, mutta äidistä on epäselvyyttä. Ylä-Burgundian kuninkaan Rudolf I:n puoliso, myöhemmin Hugh Arlesin puoliso.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilla_of_Provence
• http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00020436&tree=LEO
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Guilla

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