{{Short description|Mother of Hugh Capet (c. 910 – after 958)}} {{infobox royalty | image = Hedwig of Saxony.jpg | caption= Detail from the ''[[Chronica sancti Pantaleonis]]'', 12th century | house = [[Ottonian dynasty]] (Liudolfings) | father = [[Henry the Fowler]] | mother = [[Matilda of Ringelheim]] | spouse = [[Hugh the Great]] | issue = [[Beatrice of France]]<br>[[Hugh Capet]]<br>[[Emma of Paris, Duchess of Normandy]]<br>[[Otto, Duke of Burgundy]]<br>[[Henry I, Duke of Burgundy]] | birth_date = {{circa|910}} | birth_place = | death_date = after 958 | death_place = }} '''Hedwig of Saxony''' ({{langx|de|Hadwig}}; {{circa|910}} &ndash; after 958-959) was a member of the [[Ottonian dynasty]] and wife of the [[Robertians|Robertian]] duke [[Hugh the Great]]. Upon her husband's death in 956, she ruled the Robertian estates as a [[regent]] during the minority of their son [[Hugh Capet]], the founder of the Elder [[House of Capet]].

==Life== Hedwig was a younger daughter of the [[Duchy of Saxony|Saxon]] duke [[Henry the Fowler]] ({{circa|876}} – 936), elected [[king of East Francia]] in 919, and his second wife, [[Matilda of Ringelheim]] ({{circa|895}} &ndash; 968).{{sfn|Bernhardt|1993|p=Table 1}} Her siblings were [[Otto I]], who succeeded his father as king and was crowned [[Holy Roman Emperor|emperor]] in 962; Duke [[Henry I of Bavaria]]; [[Gerberga of Saxony]], who married King [[Louis IV of France]] in 939; and Archbishop [[Bruno the Great]] of Cologne.

After her brother Otto I came to power in 936, an alliance and marriage was arranged with the [[West Francia|West Frankish]] duke Hugh the Great, who sought support in his struggles with King Louis IV. Hedwig was Hugh's third wife. They married probably in May 937.{{sfn|Bernhardt|1993|p=Table 1}}

When Hedwig's husband died in 956, her son Hugh Capet was still underage. Although Hugh inherited his father's estates, he did not rule independently from the beginning.{{sfn|Riché|1993|p=264}} Along with her brother, Archbishop Bruno, Hedwig acted as Hugh's regent and administrator of the Robertian estates until he came of age. Bruno also held guardianship over his nephew King [[Lothair of France]], son of his sister Gerberga, and temporarily raised to one of the most powerful nobles in West Francia. Hedwig backed her brother in his conflict with Count [[Reginar III, Count of Hainaut|Reginar III of Hainaut]] and arbitrated in the rivalry between her son Hugh Capet and King Lothair.

Hedwig is last mentioned in 958 by the West Frankish chronicler [[Flodoard|Flodoard of Reims]] and may have died soon afterward; a 965 entry by [[Sigebert of Gembloux]] seems doubtful.

==Issue== Hedwig had five children with her husband [[Hugh the Great]]: *[[Beatrice of France]]{{sfn|Wickham|2009|p=450}} married [[Frederick I, Duke of Upper Lorraine]]. *[[Hugh Capet]] (c. 941 – 996), who was crowned King of France in 987.{{sfn|Bernhardt|1993|p=Table 1}} *[[Emma of Paris, Duchess of Normandy|Emma of Paris]] (943–968), who married Duke [[Richard I, Duke of Normandy|Richard I of Normandy]] in 960.{{sfn|Van Houts|2000|p=184}} *[[Otto, Duke of Burgundy]] (945–965).{{sfn|Rosenwein|2009|p=202}} *[[Henry I, Duke of Burgundy]] (946–1002).{{sfn|Rosenwein|2009|p=202}}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *{{cite book |first=John W. |last=Bernhardt |title=Itinerant Kingship & Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936-1075 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1993 }} *{{cite book |first=P. |last=Riché |title=The Carolingians; A Family Who Forged Europe |translator-first=Michael Idomir |translator-last=Allen |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1993 }} *{{cite book|last=Rosenwein|first=Barbara H.|title=A Short History of the Middle Ages|year=2009|publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-0104-8}} *{{cite book |title=The Normans in Europe |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-last=Van Houts |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2000 }} *{{cite book |last=Wickham |first=Chris |title=The Inheritance of Rome |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780670020980 |url-access=registration |publisher=Viking Penguin |year=2009 |isbn=9780670020980 }}

==External links== *[http://www.manfred-hiebl.de/genealogie-mittelalter/liudolfinger_ottonen/koenigliche_linie/hadwig_herzogin_von_franzien_958_liudolfinger_kapetinger/hadwig_von_sachsen_herzogin_von_franzien_+_958.html Hadwig von Sachsen] (in German)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedwig of Saxony}} [[Category:Ottonian dynasty]] [[Category:Countesses of Paris]] [[Category:910s births]] [[Category:Year of birth uncertain]] [[Category:Year of death uncertain]] [[Category:Duchesses of Aquitaine]] [[Category:10th-century women regents]] [[Category:10th-century French women]] [[Category:10th-century French people]] [[Category:10th-century Saxon people]] [[Category:10th-century German women]] [[Category:Daughters of kings]] [[Category:10th-century duchesses consort]] [[Category:10th-century regents]] [[Category:Mothers of French monarchs]] [[Category:Children of Henry the Fowler]]