Birchtilo

Birchtilo († after 1005 ) was from 990 at the latest as a count in the Landgraviate of Breisgau . There is a possibility that among those killed in the Battle of Cotrone in 982 there was a Breisgaugraf with the same name and that this was his father. Since Birchtilo is a nickname of Berthold and this would be Count Berthold I , his presumed son is also referred to as Berthold II .

Around the year 993 Birchtilo founded the St. Cyriak Monastery in Sulzburg . He wanted to be buried in the monastery church of St. Cyriak and gave the monastery for maintenance everything he owned in terms of inherited property in Weiler (near what is now Badenweiler ), Rinken (near Steinenstadt ), Rimsingen , Reuthe , Vörstetten and Buggingen . In another document from 993 it is reported that Birchtilo successfully King Otto III. was able to convince to give up the royal estate in Sulzburg in favor of the monastery.

Eduard Heyck sees a slim chance that it was not Birchtilo who founded the monastery, but a cleric named Becilin. On June 25, 1004, he had Bishop Adalbero II of Basel obtain permission from King Heinrich II to set up a market with customs , market court and market peace protection in Rinken.

Alfons Zettler sees in Becilin Birchtilo, who himself entered the monastery. He had founded the monastery out of fear of the impending end of the world on the occasion of the turn of the millennium and had resigned from the count's office. According to Zettler's interpretation, Becilin / Berchtilo gave the Sulzburg monastery to his brother Gebhard (Gebizo) in the year 1010 to the bishopric of Basel .

Heyck already sees Berchtilo and Gebizo as the heirs of the monastery founder, who have not yet been able to succeed him because of his early death. Heck dates this to "ca 1005", since in the years 1006, 1007 and in the 1010 donation an Adalbero is mentioned in the Count's Office. For Heyck, Adalbero is Berchtilo's brother and thus the uncle of his sons Berchtilo and Gebizo.

In his opinion, the Burgundian Counts Rudolf and Berthold were also present at this donation, and they appeared together several times between 1010 and 1019. Rudolf is the future grandfather of the anti-king Rudolf von Rheinfelden . Berthold considers Heyck to be Bezelin von Villingen , the father of Berthold I († 1078), the first Duke of Zähringen. Wibald von Stablo (1098–1158) mentioned both in a family tree of Friedrich Barbarossa and his first wife Adela von Vohburg .

For Zettler, Bezelin von Villingen is the count in Thurgau mentioned in 998 , who at this time got along with Otto III. went on a journey to Italy and in 999 there for his loyal service, which allegedly also included the capture of the antipope John XVI. counted, received market , coin and customs rights for his possessions in the Baar around Villingen .

Heyck attests these events to Breisgaugrafen Birchtilo, whom he regards as the ancestor of the Zähringers . He refers to the Zähringer genealogy of the monks in the monastery of St. Peter in the Black Forest from around 1300 . According to Zettler, the monks declared Birchtilo and Gebizo (Gebhard) to be the ancestors of the Zähringer monastery founders Berthold II and Gebhard III. von Zähringen in order to increase the importance of their monastery, which was "only" founded in the eleventh century, compared to the older Sulzburg monastery.

literature

• Alfons Zettler: Who was Count Bertold, who was founded in 999 by Emperor Otto III. received the market rights for Villingen? In: Annual booklet of the History and Homeland Association Villingen 23 , 1999/2000, pp. 9-14 ( digitized version )
• Eduard Heyck: History of the dukes of Zähringen. Freiburg im Breisgau 1891-1892, new print Aalen 1980, ISBN 3-511-00945-6 , pp. 3-16. ( Digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sulzburg Benedictine Convent in the database of monasteries in Baden-Württemberg of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives