Ida of Austria ( 1055 – September 1101) was a Margravine of Austria by marriage to Leopold II of Austria. She was a crusader, participating in the Crusade of 1101 with her own army.Steven Runciman: Geschichte der Kreuzzüge ('A History of the Crusades'). München 1978 (Sonderausgabe), p. 341.

Life Ida was the daughter of Rapoto IV of Cham and Mathilde. She is also known as Itha. She married Leopold II of Austria and had a son, Leopold III. She was known as one of the great beauties of her day.

In 1101, Ida, alongside Thiemo of Salzburg and the Bavarian duke Welf IV and the French duke William IX of Aquitaine, joined the Crusade of 1101, and raised and led her own army toward Jerusalem.

In September of that year, Ida and her army were 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, according to Albert von Aachen. Later legends claimed that she was the mother of the Muslim hero Zengi, as in Historia Welforum, but this is impossible on chronological grounds. However, Ekkehard of Aura's is probably the most likely version, as he is the only one who can rely on eyewitnesses who were survivors of the Battle of Heraclea Cybistra, whom Ekkehard met a few weeks later in Jaffa, while Albert von Aachen and the author of the Historia Welforum reported only after hearsay.

In fiction Ida's fate is depicted in Beloved Pilgrim (2011) by Christopher Hawthorne.

Issue Leopold III (1073–1136), who succeeded his father as Austrian margrave Adelaide (d. after 1120), married Count Theoderic II of Formbach Elizabeth (d. 1107), married Margrave Ottokar II of Styria Gerberga (d. 1142), married Duke Bořivoj II of Bohemia Ida, married the Přemyslid prince Luitpold of Znojmo Euphemia, married Count Conrad I of Peilstein Sophia (d. 1154), married Henry of Eppenstein, Duke of Carinthia from 1090 to 1122, and, secondly, Count Sieghard X of Burghausen Judith

See also Kilij Arslan II – who claimed blood cousinage with Henry the Lion.

References

Sources

Historia Welforum Weingartensis Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Vol. II Lechner Karl. Die Babenberger. Markgrafen und Herzoge von Österreich 976–1246, Böhlau Verlag Wien-Köln-Weimar 1992.