Maria of Swabia

Maria of Hohenstaufen (3 April 1201 – 29 March 1235) was a member of the powerful Hohenstaufen dynasty of German kings which lasted from 1138 to 1254. She is also known to history as Marie of Swabia.

She was the second daughter of Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina of Byzantium, and her husband was Henry II, Duke of Brabant and Lothier. As she had died six months before her husband succeeded to the dukedom, Maria was never Duchess of Brabant and Lothier.

Maria of Hohenstaufen was born in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy on 3 April 1201. Her paternal grandparents were Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy, and her mother's parents were Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos and his first wife Herina.

Emperor Frederick II was her first cousin.

In 1208, at the age of seven, Maria was left an orphan by the unexpected deaths of her parents. On 21 June, her father was murdered by Otto of Wittelsbach, and two months later her mother died after giving birth to a daughter, who did not live beyond early infancy. Maria had three surviving sisters.

Sometime before 22 August 1215, she married as his first wife Henry II, heir to the Duchy of Brabant (present-day Belgium) and Lothier. They had six children, and through them, Maria is the ancestress of every royal house in Europe:

Maria of Hohenstaufen died on 29 March 1235 in Leuven, Brabant, five days before her thirty-fourth birthday. Less than six months later, her husband succeeded his father as Duke of Brabant and Lothier.