1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Agnes of Meran

AGNES OF MERAN (d. 1201), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV., duke of Meran in Tirol. She is called Marie by some of the chroniclers. In June 1196 she married Philip II., king of France, who had repudiated Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. The pope espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, interdict having been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. She died in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the church of St Corentin, near Nantes. Her two children by Philip II., Philip, count of Clermont (d. 1234), and Mary, who married Philip, count of Namur, were legitimized by Innocent III. in 1201 on the demand of the king. Little is known of the personality of Agnes, beyond the remarkable influence which she exercised over Philip II. She has been made the heroine of a tragedy by François Ponsard, Agnes de Méranie.

See The notes of Robert Davidsohn in Philipp II. August von Frankreich und Ingeborg (Stuttgart, 1888). A genealogical notice is furnished by the Chronicon of the monk Alberic (Aubry) of Trois-Fontaines, (Albericus Trium Fontium) in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. xxiii. pp. 872 f., and by the Genealogia Wettinensis, ibid. p. 229.