Saint Adele of France Round Religious Medal - "EXCLUSIVE"

Adle was the second daughter of Robert II (the Pious), and Constance of Arles.In January 1027 she married Richard III, Duke of Normandy. The marriage was short-lived for on 6 August of that same year Richard III suddenly died.[2] Adela then married Baldwin V, Count of Flanders in 1028. Adle's influence lay mainly through her family connections. On the death of her brother, Henry I of France, the guardianship of his seven-year-old son Philip I fell jointly on his widow, Ann of Kiev, and on his brother-in-law, Adela's husband, so that from 1060 to 1067, they were Regents of France. In 1071, Adela's third son, Robert the Frisian, planned to invade Flanders even though at that time the Count of Flanders was Adela's grandson, Arnulf III. When she heard about Robert's plans, she asked Philip I to stop him. Philip sent soldiers to support Arnulf including a contingent of ten Norman knights led by William FitzOsborn. Robert's forces attacked Arnulf's numerically superior army at Cassel before it could organize, and Arnulf was killed along with William FitzOsborn. Robert's overwhelming victory led to Philip making peace with Robert and investing him as Count of Flanders. A year later, Philip married Robert's stepdaughter, Bertha of Holland, and in 1074, Philip restored the seigneurie of Corbie to the crown. Adle had a strong interest in Baldwin vs church reforms and was behind her husbands founding of several collegiate churches. Directly or indirectly, she was responsible for establishing the Colleges of Aire (1049), Lille (1050) and Harelbeke (1064) as well as the abbeys of Messines (1057) and Ename (1063). After Baldwins death in 1067, she went to Rome, took the nuns veil from the hands of Pope Alexander II and retired to the Benedictine convent of Messines, near Ypres. There she later died and was buried at the convent. Honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, her commemoration day is 8 September.