Azalaïs of Montferrat (also Adelasia or Alasia) (1150–1232) was Marchioness consort of Saluzzo by marriage to Manfred II of Saluzzo, and regent for her grandson, Manfred III of Saluzzo from 1215 to 1218.
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Biography
Azalaïs was one of at least three daughters of William V of Montferrat and his wife Judith of Babenberg. Her brothers included William of Montferrat, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon, Conrad I of Jerusalem, and Boniface of Montferrat.
She married Marquis Manfred II of Saluzzo before 1182, in which year she received lands in Saluzzo, Racconigi, Villa, Centallo and Quaranta, in case her marriage (like that of her sister Agnes) should need to be annulled for reasons of sterility.
Like her brother Boniface, Azalaïs was a patron of troubadours. She is mentioned in Peire Vidal's song, Estat ai gran sazo:
Dieus sal l'onrat marques
E sa bella seror...
(God save the honoured marquis
And his beautiful sister)
and is the dedicatee of his Bon' aventura don Dieus als Pizas.
Around 1192, she had built the church of San Lorenzo, which she granted to the canons of San Lorenzo in Oulx; her eldest son, Boniface, named after her brother, is mentioned for the first time in the donation. However, Boniface died in 1212, and with the death of her husband in February 1215, Azalaïs became regent of Saluzzo for her grandson, Manfred III.