How old was this child when she
died? She was quite young, but not an
infant. A miniature illumination from a manuscript of the four gospels,¹ shows a girl-child of about nine/ten years old. When did she die? The Frankish record states that in 781, Hroudtrude, (Rotrude) was entrusted to the care of Byzantine officers in order to learn Greek and the customs of the Byzantine court ². However, she lived to a ripe old age. Adelaide was the one who died very young.

The story that I discovered through a code (or cipher). . . . was about a fiesty child who found that she was being mistreated and sent word to her father the king for help. This child was not Hroudtrude, (Rotrude).

The group in the miniature apparently represents, Paul, the Deacon, Charlemagne, his current wife, and Adelaide. Rotrude stands in the background. It was Rotrude who was the counter offer to the Emperor Constantine, but she was rejected. But it was Adelaide of the Lombards, from the Byzantine area in Italy, who had been bargained for, and it was Adelaide who had died.

The story of Adelaide is one of horror. It was written that she was dressed in the clothing of a Byzantine princess, stripped, insulted, and walled into a cell. However, she was able to contact her father, even though he did not arrive in time to save her life. Codes of the Middle Ages tell us this story in detail. Aude (Adelaide) was to be remembered forever.