• Married:
• Died: Sep 1101, Asia Minor

  Research Notes:

The parentage of Markgräfin Ida is uncertain. According to Europäische Stammtafeln, she was Ida von Ratelberg, daughter of Thiemo [II] Graf [Formbach] & his wife ---, although the primary source on which this is based has not yet been identified. Wegener quotes a 12th century document concerning travel tolls at Schärding dated [1060/70] which names "filios Tiemonis Ekkebertum et Henricum et dominam Itam" as participating in the foundation of Suben monastery but he does not make the connection between this Ita and the Margräfin of Austria. The chronology is not favourable for Ida having been the daughter of Graf Thiemo [II], whose death is recorded in 1040. If this paternity was correct, Ida would therefore have been about twenty years older than her husband, and at least in her early to mid-forties when she gave birth to her son Liutpold, which seems improbable. The primary source which confirms her name "von Ratelberg" has not yet been identified. The Auctarium Mariaecellense in 1100 records that "Ita marchionisse Austrie, Liupoldi marchionis relicta" left for Jerusalem. Albert of Aix records that "Willelmus comes et princeps Pictaviensium, de sanguine et origine Henrici tertii imperatoris Romanorum" crossed Hungary peacefully with "duce Bawariorum Welfone et…comitssa…Ida de marchia Osterrich", entered the territory of the Bulgars in which "duce Bulgarorum Guz" refused their passage into Adrianople, but that Guillaume captured "ducem Bulgarorum" who was forced to allow the pilgrims to continue, undated but in a passage adjacent to text which records events in 1101. The army was scattered after being defeated by the Turks near Tarsus in Asia Minor in [Sep] 1101. It is not known what happened to Markgräfin Ida, but she was presumably killed. Albert of Aix says that the fate of Ida is completely unknown, but adding that "some say that she was taken into permanent exile in the kingdom of Khorazan among the thousand women who were taken". According to later legend, she ended her days in a harem where she gave birth to the Muslim hero Zengi (which is chronologically impossible): the Historia Welforum records that "Itam comitissam, matrem Leopaldi marchionis orientalis" was kidnapped by "unus de principibus Sarracenorum…ex eaque Sanguinem illum sceleratissumum, ut aiunt, progenuit". ¹