Christian (Serimunt)

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Christian († June 15, 950 ) was a Saxon count with rulership rights in northern Thuringia and neighboring Schwabengau . In 945 he is mentioned as a margrave in the Gau Serimunt , which had been in Sorbian until then .

Nothing is known about Christian's origins. With Hidda , the sister of Margrave Gero , he had at least two sons: Thietmar , from 965 Margrave of the Margrave of Meissen , and Gero , from 969 to 976 Archbishop of Cologne .

Christian is first mentioned in documents of King Otto I in 937 as one of several counts in Northern Thuringia and in Swabia. In 945, King Otto I gave him estates of Steno and Kühnau in the Serimunt Gau as a gift, a privilege that at that time was reserved exclusively for members of the royal family. The Gau Serimunt, located to the right of the Saale , was originally Sorbian territory and only came under Saxon rule a few years earlier. In the deed of gift of May 1st, 945, Christian is referred to as our margrave in this Gau. It is unclear whether this was associated with a higher position. On June 11, 945 Otto I gave the brothers Folkmar and Richbert four villages located on the Fuhne in the county of Count Christian. The title of Margrave is not explicitly repeated here, perhaps also because Christian was not the recipient. In addition, the narrative sources do not know any Margrave Christian. Only the Annalista Saxo used the margrave title for Christian in the 12th century in 945. A very early mention of Christian could be the eponymous Vogt of the Hersfeld Monastery in a royal document from the year 933.

Research assumes that Christian died in 950 at the latest. Because in the following year his son Thietmar already exercised the count's rights in Serimunt. However, a Christian for Hidda ( per Hiddone ) transfers in the second part of the Corveyer traditions and thus after 963 ownership in Balahornem near Halberstadt to the Corvey monastery . June 15th is certainly known as the anniversary of Christian's death. First of all, the necrology of the Church of St. Michael in Lüneburg records the death of a "Christin com.", Ie a Count Christian, for June 15 and November 5, albeit without a year. In the Reichenau fraternity book there is a parallel document for June 15, which clearly concerns Christian. Christian's sons Thietmar and Gero von Köln founded the Thankmarsfelde monastery in memory of their father in 970 , which was soon moved to Nienburg (Saale) on the western edge of the Serimunt, where it became the Nienburg monastery for the burial of a clan who referred to Christian as the progenitor has been.

Almost 70 years after Christian's death, Thietmar von Merseburg reports that Otto the Great had "the proven Count" Christian and other confidants buried next to the Magdeburg Cathedral, in which the king himself wished to prepare the grave during his lifetime. From this and from Christian's close relationship to Margrave Gero, research suggests that Christian's origins and political significance went far beyond what can be inferred directly from the few sources. Today the opinion is no longer held that Christian was under the military command of Margrave Gero. On the one hand, there is a lack of evidence for this, on the other hand, long-term hierarchical structures within the Saxon nobility are considered dubious as early as the first half of the 10th century based on current knowledge.

swell

  • Theodor Sickel (Ed.): Diplomata 12: The documents Konrad I., Heinrich I. and Otto I. (Conradi I., Heinrici I. et Ottonis I. Diplomata). Hanover 1879 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  • Robert Holtzmann (Ed.): Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi chronicon. = The chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg and its Korveier revision (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 6: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum. Nova Series Vol. 9). Weidmann, Berlin 1935, ( digitized version ).

literature

  • Ruth Schölkopf: The Saxon Counts 919-1024. (= Studies and preliminary work for the Historical Atlas of Lower Saxony, Vol. 22). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1957, p. 45.

Remarks

  1. DO I, 14 and 16.
  2. ^ DO I, 17.
  3. ^ Gertraud Eva Schrage: On the settlement policy of the Ottonians. Studies on the integration of the areas east of the Saale in the 10th century. In: sheets for German national history. Vol. 135, 1999, pp. 189-268, here pp. 218, 264.
  4. ^ DO I, 64 : nostro marchioni nomine Christan [B, C; Christian A] in pago Serimunti , cf. also RI II, 1 n.122, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/0945-05-01_1_0_2_1_1_260_122 (accessed on October 23, 2018).
  5. ^ DO I, 69 : in comitatu Christiani comitis , cf. also RI II, 1 n.126, in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/0945-06-11_1_0_2_1_1_265_126 (accessed on October 23, 2018).
  6. ^ Daniel Rentschler: Brands and Margraves in the Early and High Medieval Empire. A comparative study mainly on the basis of royal documents and other "official sources". Stuttgart 2013, p. 689.
  7. ^ DO I, 134: in pago Serimunt in comitatu Thetmari comitis.
  8. Klemens Honselmann (ed.): The old monk lists and the traditions of Corvey . Bonifatius, Paderborn 1982, ISBN 3-87088-326-X , p. 138 (H 352, F 312, W 51).
  9. ^ 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 , pp. 24-29 and 401f. ( Digitized version )
  10. Thietmar II, 17.
  11. ^ Daniel Rentschler: Brands and Margraves in the Early and High Medieval Empire. A comparative study mainly on the basis of royal documents and other "official sources". Stuttgart 2013, p. 689.