Gisela of Swabia (c. 990 – 15 February 1043),[1] was queen of Germany from 1024 to 1039 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1039 by her third marriage with Emperor Conrad II.

[6] According to a plate found when her tomb was unearthed, she was born on 11 November 999, but that date cannot be reconciled with the records of her marriages.

Gisela's third marriage, which took place before January 1017, was to Conrad II, who was elected king of Germany in 1024 and became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1027.

[6] According to Thietmar of Merseburg, Archbishop Aribo of Mainz refused to crown her as queen because Gisela and Conrad were too closely related, the couple both descending from King Henry the Fowler.

The Liber Generationum (a text about generations from the Creation to Jesus Christ) was read—a ritual of great importance, symbolizing the birth of a new dynasty.

In 1027, she mediated between Conrad and King Rudolph III of Burgundy, her uncle, leading to a peace agreement in Mutten, near Basel.

All her efforts broke down though, when in 1030, Ernest refused to act against his friend and vassal Werner of Kyburg and impose peace.

[14] She was a long-time donor and patron of the Speyer Cathedral, paying close attention to the development of her family's memorial culture there.

[19][20] Gisela's tomb in Speyer was opened in 1900 and her mummified body was found to be 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) tall, with long blond hair.

[15] The chronicler Wipo of Burgundy praised Gisela as embodying both feminine and manly qualities, as well as piety and political abilities both innate and nurtured by experience.

According to Wipo, she attained her coronation thanks to her "manly probity", which won the support of the princes, the people and the emperor.

As imperatrix augusta and consors regni, she was considered co-ruler by her contemporaries (although in documents, the latter title was only used sporadically, and almost exclusively in diplomata granted to Italians—the reason for this rare use was that the previous empress, Cunigunde of Luxembourg, had failed to assert herself in the Chancellery of her husband, Henry II.

[39] While her role in religious matters was essential, Wolfram writes that it would be wrong to assume that Conrad neglected ecclesiastical affairs leaving Gisela as the sole originator of policies, because the medieval government was not a modern one "with Gisela functioning as the medieval equivalent of a politically appointed cabinet minister for religion and education aided by a state secretary—in this case, Poppo of Stavelot—drawn from the career civil service".

Her power in ecclesiastical politics showed in the fact that she could appoint personally related candidates to the offices of bishop.

In a 2017 exhibition Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, it was argued that the jewels were found in a field near Wiesbaden, with some pieces being nineteenth-century forgeries created to persuade Emperor Wilhelm II to buy them for an excessive price.

Charles T. Little from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, relying on the date identified as late tenth century by Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen and Hermann Fillitz as well as Byzantine influence, linked the treasure to Theophanu.

[53] Gisela is one of the five empresses (together with Adelaide of Italy, Theophanu, Cunigunde of Luxembourg and Agnes of Poitou), presented as Säulen der Macht (pillars of power), commemorated by the city of Ingelheim am Rhein.