Richenza of Poland was a headstrong and courageous woman, whose influence was felt in several different governments in twelfth-century Europe. She was in charge of the government during her infant daughter's brief reign. Richenza was daughter of Duke Wladislaw II of Poland and Agnes von Babenburg of Austria. She first married to king Alfonso VII of Castille, Leon, and Galicia and was the mother of two children by him. After his death in 1157 she went to the court of Raimondo Berenger IV's court in Barcelona, whose son, Alfonso II of Aragon had been engaged to her daughter. In 1161 she married Raymond Berenger III of Provence and after his death in five years later, she married Count Albrecht II. von Everstein (d. 1197), an ally of her mother's cousin Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.