IDA OF FORMBACH-RATELNBERG

'Ida of Austria' (c.1055 – September 1101), daughter of Rapoto IV of Cham, also known as 'Itha', was the wife of Leopold II of Austria, and the mother of Leopold III. She was known as one of the great beauties of her day.
Ida joined the Crusade of 1101, and in September of that year was among those ambushed at Heraclea Cybistra by the sultan Kilij Arslan I. Ekkehard of Aura reports that Ida was killed in the fighting, but rumors persisted that she survived, and was carried off to a harem. Later legends claimed that she was the mother of the Muslim hero Zengi, but this is quite impossible on chronological grounds.

Contents

See also

External links

Sources

See also

★ Kilij Arslan II - who claimed blood cousinage with Henry the Lion

External links

★ Ida (Itha) von Cham

Sources

★ ''Historia Welforum Weingartensis''

★ Runciman, Steven. ''History of the Crusades, Vol. II''

★ Lechner Karl. ''Die Babenberger. Markgrafen und Herzoge von Österreich 976-1246'', Böhlau Verlag Wien-Köln-Weimar 1992.