Billunger

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The Billunger were a Saxon noble family with the center of power in Lüneburg , who from 936–1106 provided the dukes in Saxony and 933–976 the bishops of Verden for five generations before the ducal line 1106 died out in the male line. The gender name is not contemporary. Modern history derives it from Billung , the alleged father of Hermann Billung , who was mentioned in the chronicle of the Michaeliskloster in Lüneburg in the 13th century . The older research still divided into the older and younger Billunger, whereby a relationship between the members of the two groups cannot be proven.

Occur

The older Billungers are said to have performed as early as the time of Charlemagne . The first Billunger known by name is said to have been a Count Wichmann ( Wychmannus comes ), who was involved in negotiations with the emissaries of the Danish King Hemming in 811 about the Eider as the northern border of the Frankish Empire . Other bearers of the name Wichmann from the Billunger family are Count Wichmann II. Von Hamaland , founder of the Elten Abbey , and Wichmann III. († 1016), who fell victim to the intrigues of his brother-in-law and was buried in Vreden . The family also includes the "princeps" Billung, who through his daughter Oda († 913) became the father-in-law of Count Liudolf († 866) from Saxony .

Ducal line

The Billungers can be proven for the first time in the year 936, when Otto I. entrusted Hermann Billung († 973) with the office of military leader ( "principes militiae" ) for a campaign against the Slavic Redarians . Hermann succeeded Bernhard († 935), probably a relative, because Hermann's older brother Wichmann I also claimed the post and left the army in protest against the king's decision. Simultaneously with the appointment as army commander Otto I. Hermann transferred - probably - also the border protection in northern Saxony. However , Hermann is only documented as a margrave in 953. In the royal documents he is referred to as marchio or comes . The sources do not reveal the area to which the Billunger marrow extended. Castles or even possessions of the Billunger east of the Elbe are not occupied. After 953, Hermann repeatedly represented Otto I in Saxony ( procuratio ), i.e. took over - temporarily (?) - ducal functions, from this time onwards he is also referred to several times in the sources as dux , without this having to be associated with a change in meaning.

The sons of Wichmann I, Wichmann II and Ekbert the One-Eyed , began a feud against their uncle Hermann Billung during the conflict between King Otto I and his son Liudolf († 957), because he had cheated them out of their paternal inheritance, and they allied in their course with the Abodrites .

Hermann Billung succeeded his son Bernhard I as duke , who acquired the land of Hadeln by marrying Hildegard von Stade . From this marriage comes Duke Bernhard II († 1059). His son, Duke Ordulf , ruled until 1072.

The last male Billunger of the duke's line, Ordulf's son from his marriage to Wulfhild of Norway, a daughter of King Olav II. Haraldsson , Duke Magnus (1072–1106), was in opposition to the Salians from 1073 to 1075 , which led to the decline in influence the family at the end of the 11th century. After his death, the property was divided up: The duchy fell to Lothar von Supplinburg (also Süpplingenburg), the later emperor, the family property through the marriages of the duke's daughters to the Ascanians and Guelphs , who thereby established their dominant position in Saxony and Thuringia .

The power base of the Billunger was the family's own property as well as the count's rights to the Elbe , around Lüneburg and on the Oberweser .

research

Scientific research into the rule and duchy of the Billungers began in 1813 with Anton Christian Wedekind's “ Hermann Duke of Saxony. “In 1863, Ernst Steindorff's fundamental dissertation followed with the title“ De ducatu, qui Billingorum dicitur, in Saxoniae origine et progressu ”. Further investigations by Gerd Tellenbach , Albert K. Hömberg and Karl Jordan led to generally accepted results. After that, the rule of the Billunger changed from representing the king to the tribe to representing the tribe to the king, triggered by growing differences between the goals of the Saxon nobility and those of royalty. At the beginning of the 1950s, various papers on special topics followed, which treated the Billunger sex from a different point of view. Hans-Joachim Freytag dealt with the problems of the Billungian property, with their fiefs, estates and offices beyond the ducal dignity. Ruth Bork examined the ducal dynasty primarily in terms of personal history and compiled the sources for all known members of the Billung clan. Finally, Ingrid Pellens' work dealt with the Billung Slav policy. In 1984, Gerd Althoff expanded the source base with an investigation into the Billunger memorial tradition and came to the conclusion that the Billunger genealogy only emerged after 936 according to their perception.

literature

  • Gerd Althoff : The Necrolog from Borghorst. Edition and investigation (= publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia. Vol. 40 = Westphalian commemorative books and necrologies. Vol. 1). Aschendorff, Münster 1978, ISBN 3-402-05998-3 (At the same time: Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 1974).
  • Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonen (= Münster medieval writings. Vol. 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, habilitation paper, 1981), digitized .
  • Gerd Althoff: The Billungers in the Salier era. In: Stefan Weinfurter (Ed.): Salier, Adel und Reichsverfassungs (= The Salier and the Reich. Vol. 1). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, pp. 309-329.
  • Matthias Becher : Rex, Dux and Gens. Investigations into the development of the Saxon duchy in the 9th and 10th centuries (= historical studies. Vol. 444). Matthiesen, Husum 1996, ISBN 3-7868-1444-9 (at the same time: Paderborn, University, habilitation paper, 1994/1995).
  • Ruth Bork: The Billunger. With contributions to the history of the German-Wendish border area in the 10th and 11th centuries. Greifswald 1951 (Greifswald, University, phil. Dissertation, 1951, typewritten).
  • Wolfgang Giese : The Saxon tribe and the empire in Ottonian and Salian times. Studies on the influence of the Saxon tribe on the political history of the German Empire in the 10th and 11th centuries and on their position in the empire structure with an outlook on the 12th and 13th centuries. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1979, ISBN 3-515-02787-4 (At the same time: Munich, University, habilitation paper, 1976/1977).
  • Winfried Glocker: The relatives of the Ottonians and their importance in politics. Studies on family policy and the genealogy of the Saxon imperial family (= dissertations on medieval history. Vol. 5). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1989, ISBN 3-412-12788-4 (also: Munich, university, dissertation, 1986/1987).
  • Hans-Werner Goetz : The Duchy of Billunger - A Saxon Special Way? In: Lower Saxony Yearbook for State History. Vol. 66, 1994, ISSN  0078-0561 , pp. 167-197, digital version (PDF; 103 MB) .
  • Joachim Herrmann (Ed.): The Slavs in Germany. History and culture of the Slavic tribes west of Oder and Neisse from the 6th to 12th centuries. A manual (= publications of the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . Vol. 14). Revision. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1985.
  • Sabine Krüger: Studies on the Saxon county constitution in the 9th century (= studies and preparatory work for the historical atlas of Northern Germany. Issue 19, ISSN  0933-2960 = publications of the historical commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Vol. 2). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1950.
  • Hans Jürgen Rieckenberg, Hans-Joachim Freytag:  Billunger. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 240 ( digitized version ).
  • Volker Tschuschke: The Billunger in the Münsterland. In: Sources and studies on the history of Vredens and its surroundings. A collection of essays (= contributions by the Vreden Heimatverein to regional and folklore. Issue 38). Heimatverein, Vreden 1990, ISBN 3-926627-06-9 , pp. 15–43.
  • Reinhard Wenskus : Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 93). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1976, ISBN 3-525-82368-1 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Johannes Laudage: Otto the Great. A biography. Regensburg 2001, p. 111 f .; 228 f.
  2. ^ Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonians (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 .