| Adèle of Champagne (c. 1140 – 4 June 1206), also known as Adelaide and Alix, was the third wife of Louis VII of France and the mother of his only male heir, the future Philip II. She was also the daughter of Theobald II of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia. She was active in the political life of the kingdom, along with her brothers Henry I of Champagne, Theobald V of Blois, and Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, archbishop of Reims. Henry and Theobald were married to daughters of Louis VII and his first wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. She and her brothers felt their position threatened when the heiress of Artois, Isabelle of Hainaut, married Adèle's son, Philippe. Adèle formed an alliance with Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy and Count Philip of Flanders, and even tried to interest Frederick Barbarossa. War broke out in 1181, and relations became so bad that Philippe attempted to divorce Isabelle in 1184. |