Burchard III. (Swabia)

Hadwig and Burchard III. von Swabia as the founder of the St. Georgen monastery on the Hohentwiel in 970, fresco around 1437

Hohentwiel

Burchard III. , Latin Burchardus , Burgardus , (* 906 or 915; † November 11 or 12, 973 ) from the noble family of Burchardinger was Margrave of (Chur-) Raetia , Count in Thurgau and Zurichgau and from 954 to 973 Duke of Swabia .

Life

Burchard was a son of Duke Burchard II of Swabia and his wife Regelinda .

In his early years it is assumed that Burchard was brought to Saxony after the death of his father (926) and was presumably married there to Wieltrud from the Immedinger family in order not to disturb the circles of the new Swabian Duke Hermann I.

From 950 to 954 Liudolf , son of the East Franconian King Otto I and son-in-law of Hermann I , was Duke of Swabia. After an unsuccessful uprising against his father, Liudolf lost his duchy, with which Burchard was enfeoffed in 954 in the imperial assembly of Arnstadt . His kinship with Queen Adelheid of Burgundy may have played a positive role in this enfeoffment.

Burchard belonged to the circle of confidants and companions of Otto I, with whom he fought on August 10, 955 in the battle of the Lechfeld and whom he also accompanied on his Italian campaigns . In 965 he was commissioned to lead Otto's third Italian campaign against King Berengar II of Italy . Burchard's victory in the Battle of the Po on June 25, 965, Otto secured the Lombard duchies in southern Italy and in 972 their incorporation into the Holy Roman Empire .

954 married Burchard Hadwig , a daughter of the Bavarian Duke Henry I and sister of the late Duke of Bavaria Henry II. ; Together they donated in 970 on the Hohentwiel the St. George consecrated Benedictine monastery .

Burchard died in November 973 and was in the - - now defunct Erasmus 's Church Chapel Monastery of Reichenau on the Lake Constance situated island Reichenau buried.

After Burchard's death, King Otto II gave the duchy to Otto I of Swabia , the son of his half-brother Liudolf .

Marriage (s) and offspring

Burchard is said to have been married twice: in the first (historically unprovable) marriage to Wieltraut from the Immedinger family ; This marriage is said to have produced five children:

Bertha

∞ Waldered, from the Immedinger family

Dietrich I. († July 13, 982), possible progenitor of the Wettins
Burchard IV (before 950 - 13 July 982), Count in Liesgau and in Hassegau
Herman
Hamelrich

However, this marriage and its possible children cannot be substantiated with scientific sources.

In the only historically documented marriage, Burchard was married to Hadwig (* 939/940/945; † August 26, 994), daughter of the Bavarian Duke Heinrich I , since 954 ; the marriage presumably remained childless.

literature

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. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich, 1984; ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 .
Herbert Berner (Ed.): Hohentwiel, pictures from the history of the mountain. , Konstanz, 2nd ed., 1957, pp. 114ff.
Casimir Bumiller : Hohentwiel, The history of a castle between everyday fortress life and great politics , Constance, 2nd edit. Ed., 1997, p. 30ff; ISBN 3-7977-0370-8 .
Otto Feger : History of the Lake Constance area. , Vol. 1, Lindau, Konstanz, 1956, p. 196ff; ISBN 3-799550-02-X .
Roland Kessinger and Klaus Michael Peter (eds.): Hohentwiel Buch , Singen, Bonn, 2002, pp. 22–31; ISBN 3-933356-17-2 .
Stefan Pätzold : The early Wettiner: noble family and house tradition until 1221. , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, 1997, p. 9; ISBN 3-412-08697-5 .
Alfons Zettler: History of the Duchy of Swabia , Stuttgart, 2003, p. 150ff; ISBN 3-17-015945-3 .

Individual evidence

↑ Alfons Zettler writes about this in his History of the Duchy of Swabia , p. 150: "But we have neither detailed information on whether Burchard's marriage to Hadwig was his first, nor whether children resulted from it or from a possible earlier marriage."

predecessor	Office	successor
Liudolf	Duke of Swabia 954–973	Otto I.

personal data
SURNAME	Burchard III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Duke Burchard III. from Swabia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Duke of Swabia
DATE OF BIRTH	906 or 915
DATE OF DEATH	November 11, 973 or November 12, 973

[1] Alfons Zettler writes about this in his History of the Duchy of Swabia , p. 150: "But we have neither detailed information on whether Burchard's marriage to Hadwig was his first, nor whether children resulted from it or from a possible earlier marriage."