Loretta of Sponheim

Loretta of Sponheim (born 1300; died 1346) was a countess of the noble house of Sponheim-Starkenburg.

Loretta was born in the Vosges ca. 1300 to John I of (Upper) Salm and Jeanne of Joinville, the daughter of the Seigneur Geoffrey de Geneville, and was raised speaking both German and French. In 1315 Loretta was betrothed to Henry II, Count of Sponheim-Starkenburg. In the course of their eight-year-long marriage she gave birth to three sons. After the death of her husband of an illness in 1323, she changed her residence from Wolfstein on the River Lauter to Starkenburg on the Moselle. Her father-in-law, John II, died in 1324, so that the young widow thenceforward had to direct the destinies of the county as regent for her son John throughout an exceedingly difficult time, both politically and economically.

Widespread poverty and the scarcity of currency set great problems for the young widow in a period marked by territorial conflicts, crop failures, and desertion to the cities by the peasantry. In this unpromising position Loretta was forced to engage in a trial of strength with one of the most powerful and influential princes of her time, the Elector Baldwin of Luxembourg, Archbishop of Trier (1285–1354), the brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII.

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