Ceadrag

Ceadrag , son of Drasco , was the sole ruler of the Abodrites from 819 and was a vassal of the Franks under Louis the Pious until his apostasy .

Succession

Ceadrag came into Danish custody in 808 as part of the peace treaty between his father Drasco and the Danish king Göttrik as a distinguished hostage. He grew up as a guarantor for compliance with the peace conditions at Göttrik's court in Haithabu . When Drasco was assassinated in 810, Ceadrag was not available as a successor due to his age or his absence. Charlemagne therefore appointed Drasco's brother Sclaomir in Verden in 810 as the new velvet ruler of the Abodritic tribal association. The situation changed in 816. Either when he entered manhood or due to his return, Ceadrag asserted his ancestral claims to the velvet rule, and in the autumn of 816 an embassy of Abodritic nobles presented Ceadrag's request to the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious in Compiègne . This recognized the dynastic rights of Ceadrag and made him co-ruler next to his uncle Sclaomir in 817. Sclaomir, humiliated in this way, resigned his allegiance to the Frankish emperor and turned to the Danes, with whose support he waged war against the Saxons in northern Franconia . Thereupon the emperor had him arrested, deposed and appointed Ceadrag in 819 as the sole velvet ruler of the Abodrites.

Velvet ruler

Ceadrag succeeded in consolidating his position as velvet ruler in the Abodritic tribal association by securing the support of the lower nobility ( meliores ac praestantiores ). Although 821 was accused of being unfaithful to the Franks by Abodritic princes through an alliance with the sons of Göttrik, which even led the emperor to attempt to reinstate Sclaomir, he could afford to stay away from the Reichstag. So Ceadrag was sued at the Reichstag in 823 that he was not exactly loyal to the Franks and had long neglected to pay homage to the emperor. He sent a delegation, which Ceadrag sent back to the emperor with some greats of his people with the promise to appear before him next winter. Ceadrag kept this promise and visited the Reichstag in Compiègne in November 823, where he justified himself in an acceptable manner to the emperor because of his long absence. Although he appeared guilty in some respects, out of consideration for the merits of his ancestors, he was not only exempt from punishment, but was also allowed to return to his country with rich gifts.

On the occasion of a renewed indictment at the Reichstag in Ingelheim 826, Ceadrag escaped dismissal only because the lower nobility, questioned by a Frankish commission in the Abodriten country, spoke out in favor of retaining him as ruler. Ceadrag had to take hostages as guarantor for his future good behavior and was able to return as the velvet ruler of the Abodrites. The procedure was similar to that against apostate imperial vassals, whose fiefs were withdrawn or left by imperial grace.

The sources do not tell whether Ceadrag was still the holder of the dignity of velvet rulers when Ludwig the Pious sent Frankish counts with an army against the Abodrites in 838/839. In any case, this conflict marks the end of the alliance between the Franks and the Abodrites from the year 780.

During the reign of Ceadrag, the first construction of the Abodritic castle in Alt-Lübeck ( dendrodata from 817 to 819) and as a reaction to this, the construction of the Franconian fort Delbende on the Elbe in 822.

swell

• Friedrich Kurz (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separately in editi 6: Annales regni Francorum inde from a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores et Einhardi. Hanover 1895 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )

literature

• Wolfgang Herrmann Fritze: Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. in: H. Ludat, (Ed.) Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. , W. Schmitz, Giessen 1960, pp. 141-219
• Bernhard Friedmann, studies on the history of the Abodritic Principality up to the end of the 10th century. , (= East European Studies of the State of Hesse. Series 1: Giessen Treatises on Agricultural and Economic Research in Eastern Europe. 197), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0

Remarks

1. ^ Annales regni Francorum 817: Ceadrago filio Thrasconis
2. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 816: legatos Abodritorum ... suscepit
3. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 817: Sclaomir ... cum Ceadrago filio Thrasconis partiri iubebatur
4. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 819: Slaomir Abodritorum rex ... exilio condempnatus est et regnum Ceadrago Thrasconis filio datum.
5. ^ Bernhard Friedmann, Studies on the History of the Abodritic Principality up to the End of the 10th Century. , (= Eastern European Studies of the State of Hesse. Series 1: Giessener Treatments on Agricultural and Economic Research in Eastern Europe. 197), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0 , p. 67 f.
6. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 821: Ceadragus perfidiae et cuiusdam cum filiis Godofridi factae societatis notabatur.
7. ↑ Accusatus est Ceadragus ...
8. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 823: ... tamen propter merita parentum suorum non solum inpunitus, verum muneribus donatus ad regnum redire permissus est.
9. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 826: meliores ac praestantiores quosque de illius receptione concordare, acceptis ab eo, quos imperavit, obsidibus in regnum suum eum fecit restitui.
10. ↑ Annales Bertiniani : imperatore ... Adalgarius et Egilo comites ad Abodritos directi.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sclaomir	Velvet ruler of the Abodrites from 819	Goztomuizli  ?