• Born: Abt 1020, Switzerland
• Married:

  Research Notes:

Guichenon names Gisela as the first wife of Géraud Comte de Genève. The primary source which confirms her marriage has not yet been identified. A family relationship is indicated between Rudolf von Rheinfelden King of Germany and Géraud Comte de Genève: a continuation of the Annales of St Gallen records that in 1064 “Rudolfus dux” attacked “Burgundiones” and expelled “sui sororini...rebellis Geroldi” from Geneva. The term “sororinus” is rarely encountered in medieval documents. Ducange provides three possible definitions: “sororis maritus”, “uxoris frater”, and “filiolus sororis”. The second of these can be excluded in the context of the Rheinfelden family given our knowledge about the families of Rudolf’s wives, as well as the third given the chronology of the lives of Géraud and Rudolf which suggests that the former was born earlier than the latter. “Sister’s husband” is therefore the most likely possibility, with which Hlawitschka agrees: if that is correct, Géraud married --- von Rheinfelden, daughter of Kuno Graf von Rheinfelden & his wife ---. This is consistent with “sororinus” being derived from “soror” and maybe being a variation of “sororius”. As shown here, Géraud is recorded with two possible wives. Given the likely dating of his [second] marriage, it is difficult to assess whether, in this scenario, his [first wife] Gisela or his [second] wife Tetberga would have been the daughter of Kuno Graf von Rheinfelden. It should be noted that Armin Wolf, linking the etymology of “sororinus” with “sobrinus” and by extension “consobrinus”, suggests that Géraud and Rudolf were first cousins, sons of two sisters. However, this interpretation requires reading “sororini” as “consororini”, which stretches the natural interpretation of the passage. If Géraud’s wife was Rudolf’s sister, presumably she could have been the same person as Kuno’s daughter... in which case she would be identified as Géraud’s [first wife] Gisela. ¹