Cobbo the elder

Cobbo the Elder , also Cobbo , Choppo or Kobbo (mentioned in 842 and 845) was a Frankish great from the Ekbertine dynasty . The medieval studies suspected to be the center of power in Old Saxony , namely in the Westphalian Gau Trecwiti in Osnabrück . The older researchers therefore considered him a member of the Saxon tribe .

During the Carolingian Brethren War of 841–843, Cobbo, along with his brother Warin and Count Bardo, was one of the few supporters of Ludwig II the German in Old Saxony. Cobbo's closeness to the king is expressed in several embassies. In 842 he negotiated on behalf of Ludwig II with Lothar I about the division of the Frankish Empire . In 845 Ludwig II sent Cobbo to the court of the Danish ruler Horik I to arrange an end to the Norman raids on Eastern Franconia .

Cobbo's son Liudolf could be Liudolf , the progenitor of the Liudolfinger family . Cobbo himself is to be distinguished from his grandson Cobbo the younger († after 889).

Origin and family

Cobbo is considered the eldest son of Count Ekbert and the Franconian noblewoman Ida von Herzfeld . Ekbert was a confidante of Charlemagne . The Annales regni Francorum mention Ekbert for the year 809 in connection with the fortification of Esesfeld Castle north of the Elbe. His ancestors are unknown. It is also unclear whether he was of Saxon or Franconian origin. His marriage to Ida can be found in the report written in Corvey between 862 and 875 about the translation of the relics of Saint Pusinna to Herford . There it is also mentioned that the couple had a daughter and several sons, of whom, however, only the later Abbot Warin from Corvey is named. This Warin is in a complaint attributed to the Osnabrück Bishop Egilmar to Pope Stephan VI. , the so-called Querimonia , referred to as Cobbo's brother. There are no other sources about the ancestry of Cobbos. This is problematic insofar as Egilmar's Querimonia could represent a forgery from the 11th century according to the more recent view. In an entry about a donation to the Corvey monastery, another brother of Cobbos, Liudolf, is mentioned. Liudolf was probably married to a sister of Count Bardo . In contrast, Johannes Fried considers this " germanus Cobbo " Liudolf to be an uncle. Again in the Querimonia Egilmar there is a reference that Cobbo's sister was abbess of Herford Abbey . She is called Addila in two imperial documents forged in the High Middle Ages . However, due to the dubious sources, the assignment is controversial. Johannes Fried also assumes the existence of another Hathui sister.

The name Cobbo is a short form of Godabert or Godebert . Donald C. Jackman recognizes this as a pet form of Ekbert .

An entry in the fraternity book of Reichenau Abbey gives the names of Cobbo's wife Eila (ie Heilwig) and the children Ekbert, Liudolf, Brun, Ida, Heilwig and Hathumod. Because of this name, it is generally assumed that Cobbos are related to the Liudolfingers , "one does not want to declare the" Kobbonen "to be" Liudolfingers "" (Johannes Fried). In fact, Georg Waitz and Albert K. Hömberg - without knowing the Reichenau memorial entry with the name Liudolf - assumed that the progenitor of the Liudolfinger family, Liudolf , was a grandson of Ida and Ekbert.

Carolingian Brethren War

Cobbo was one of the supporters of Ludwig II of Germany during the Carolingian Brethren War of 841–843. After the death of Emperor Ludwig the Pious in 840, a dispute arose among his sons about the nature and extent of their share in the rule. While the majority of the Saxon nobility followed the eldest son Lothar I , Cobbo and his brother Warin and Cobbo's alleged brother-in-law, Count Bardo Ludwig the German, joined. The annals of St. Bertin report that Ludwig II was able to win over the nobility on the right bank of the Rhine to his cause either through violence, threats, promises or for other reasons. Ludwig II seems to have secured the support of the Cobbos family by granting extensive privileges. As early as December 840, he issued three documents for the Corvey monastery, headed by Cobbo's brother Warin as abbot. In it he confirmed the monastery free election of abbots, immunity and protection of kings as well as its extensive possessions. For the first time Cobbo, Warin and Bardo fought with their extensive troop contingents in April 841 on the side of Ludwig II on the Rhine near Worms. There they suffered a severe defeat against the army led by Lothar and his most important ally, Adalbert von Metz . At about the same time, the Stellinga uprising broke out in Saxony , which was directed against the two Saxon aristocratic factions allied with the Carolingians. On May 13, 841 Cobbo fought again at the side of Ludwig II in the battle of the Ries . After the victory he moved with the army across the Rhine to western France, where they joined Lothar I's army on June 25, 841 in the battle of Fontenoy nearly destroyed. Thereupon Lothar I turned to the rebellious Stellinga and offered them the prospect of a return to their old beliefs and a life according to their customs.

After the Stellinga uprising had seized all of Saxony, Lothar I offered negotiations. In the summer of 842 Cobbo belonged with Konrad , the brother of the Empress Judith , and Adalhard , the Seneschal of Neustria , to the members of a high-ranking embassy that was to negotiate with Lothar I about the partition of the Frankish Empire . The early medieval historian Nithard describes the course of these negotiations in his work Historiae from around 845 . Then the delegation around Cobbo traveled with a controversial proposal in their own camp for a division of the empire to Lothar I near Mâcon , while Ludwig the Pious and Charles stayed in Mussy-sur-Seine to await Lothar I's answer. The latter received the negotiators respectfully, but rejected the proposal for division. Instead of leaving, the ambassadors then made their own proposal in which they made concessions to Lothar I at Karl's expense. The negotiators went so far that they guaranteed Lothar I the confirmation of their own proposal by his brothers without reinsurance by bindingly swearing the newly negotiated partition plan for Ludwig and Karl. It remains unclear whether they were authorized to do so, exceeded existing powers or acted under their own authority. After the return of their ambassadors, the brothers seem to have accepted the partition plan negotiated by Cobbo and his companions, because on June 16, 842 the warring brothers made a provisional peace on an island in the Saône .

The arbitrariness of Cobbo and his companions had already moved Nithard. He was not aware of the tricks by which Lothar I had succeeded in deceiving the ambassadors and making them accept his conditions. In the middle of the 19th century, Ernst Dümmler believed that bribery was possible. In contrast, Meyer von Knonau took the position in 1866 that Cobbo and the other greats of the empire had the power and the will to end the fratricidal war in case of doubt arbitrarily and against the resistance of the rulers. That kept Gerd Tellenbach 1944 unthinkable. The negotiators would not have been able to surrender "such a large, valuable country" without appropriate powers. In contrast, in the opinion of Janet L. Nelson , Cobbo and the other greats of the empire were under considerable pressure to succeed. The expectations of their followers were so great that if the peace negotiations failed they would have had to expect their supporters to turn away.

Envoy to the court of Horik I.

In the summer of 845 to Cobbo the Danish ruler held at the court Horik I. on. He had gone there on behalf of Ludwig the German to negotiate with Horik I about the end of the Norman raids on Eastern Franconia. Horik I last sailed up the Elbe in the spring of 845 with a huge fleet - according to the Annales Bertiniani , supposedly 600 ships. The local Saxon greats managed to raise an army. Then they are said to have defeated the Normans "with God's help" and forced them to repent. But Horik's I power seems to have remained unbroken due to the defeat. While the Annales Bertiniani continues to say that the Normans destroyed a Slavic fortress on their way back, the Annales Fuldenses and later Rimbert report that the returning Norman fleet encircled, besieged and completely destroyed the Hammaburg . Normans had invaded Friesland in winter and killed a large number of people there. Ludwig the German tried to master the unstable situation in the north through a combination of diplomacy and military strength. A progressive decline in power on the periphery, which was already remote from the king, threatened to result in a loss of loyalty from the local greats. In the report of the Translatio sancti Germani Parisiensis anno 846 , written around 851, it is expressly stated that Cobbo was Ludwig's ambassador at Horik I's court. Nothing is known about the course of the negotiations, but they appear to have been successful. On Ludwig's court day in Paderborn in the autumn of 845, Horik I's embassy appeared. The negotiators proposed the conclusion of a peace treaty and promised to release prisoners and return the looted treasures as far as possible. Until the death of Ludwig II there were no more attacks by the Normans on Eastern Franconia.

During his stay at Horik I's court, Cobbo witnessed the return of the Norman leader Reginheri , possibly a model for the figure of the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok . Reginheri had sailed up the Seine with his ships at the beginning of 845, attacked Paris and, among other things, robbed the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés . He and his men had contracted an unknown disease from which they eventually died. Years later, Cobbo reported to the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés about his experiences, which they recorded in the Translatio sancti Germani Parisiensis of 846 . The report in De miraculis sancti Germani Parisiensis episcopi , written after the year 885, also goes back to the Cobbo news.

Power center

Although Cobbo had extensive free float throughout Saxony, its center of power is said to have been in Gau Trecwiti near Osnabrück. The decisive factor for this assumption is a message about Cobbo's role in the replacement of the Diocese of Osnabrück. The Querimonia Egilmars from the year 890 reports that Cobbo had a decisive influence on the filling of the vacant bishopric. He then gave a part of the church tithe to the Herford and Corvey monasteries outside the diocese , which his siblings Addila and Warin presided over as abbess and abbot respectively . This donation was illegal. Because when the Diocese of Osnabrück was founded, Charlemagne determined that the church tithing in the entire diocese belonged exclusively to the bishop. After the Osnabrück Bishop Goswin sided with Lothar II in the dispute between Emperor Ludwig the Pious and his sons, he went into exile in Fulda around 835 after Ludwig the Pious returned . At Cobbo's suggestion, Ludwig II the German is said to have filled the position of bishop with Gauzbert in 845 or 847 . This Gauzbert had been on a mission in Birka, Sweden until 845 . While Cobbo was staying at Horik's court, Gauzbert had to break off his Christian missionary work “after an attack by a Norman band of robbers” and returned to Eastern Franconia. Edeltraud Balzer considers it possible, due to the alleged identity of names ( Cobbo as short form of Gauzbert ), that Gauzbert was a relative of Cobbo and that he therefore campaigned for him. Conversely, he is said to have exploited Gauzbert's moral dependence.

swell

• Georg Heinrich Pertz (Ed.): Nithardus, Historiarum libri quattuor (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores. 2.). Hahn, Hanover 1829 ( digitized version )
• Anonymous : Translatio sancti Germani Parisiensis anno 846 in: Analecta Bollandiana Vol. 2, (1883), pp. 69-98

literature

• Franz Josef Jakobi: On the question of the descendants of St. Ida and the reorientation of the Saxon nobility in the Carolingian era . In: Géza Jászai (ed.): Saint Ida von Herzfeld 980–1980. Festschrift for the millennial return of the canonization of St. Ida von Herzfeld . Municipality of Lippetal-Herzfeld / Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Herzfeld / Münster 1980, pp. 53–63.
• Donald C. Jackman : King Konrad, the last Carolingians and their Saxon relatives. In: Hans-Werner Goetz (Ed.): Konrad I. - On the way to the “German Reich”? Winkler, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-89911-065-X , pp. 77–92, here p. 90. ( Review and PDF ).
• Hedwig Röckelein : Reliquary translations to Saxony in the 9th century. About communication, mobility and the public in the early Middle Ages (= Francia. Supplements of Francia. Vol. 48). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-7442-5 (also: Hamburg, University, habilitation paper, 1997/1998), digitized version (PDF; 19.28 MB) .

Remarks

1. ↑ Johannes Fried : The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here pp. 120 and 123; Hedwig Röckelein : Reliquary translations to Saxony in the 9th century. About communication, mobility and the public in the early Middle Ages (= Francia. Supplements of Francia. Vol. 48). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-7442-5 , p. 59.
2. ^ Annales regni Francorum a. A. 809
3. ↑ On the different research results Johannes Fried: The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here p. 119.
4. ↑ Translatio s. Pusinnae, c. 2 (MGH SS II, p. 683 )
5. ↑ Querimonia Egilmari episcopi (MGH Epistolae 7, p. 360 )
6. ^ Franz Staab: The roots of the Cistercian tithe privilege. At the same time: On the question of authenticity of the 'Querimonia Egilmari episcopi' and the 'Responsio Stephani V papae in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters Vol. 40 (1984), pp. 21–54, here in particular pp. 22–24.
7. ↑ Corveyer Traditions F126 / W350 / H 140.
8. ^ Helmut Müller: The dioceses of the church province of Cologne. The diocese of Münster 5. The canon monastery and Benedictine monastery Liesborn. DeGruyter. Berlin, New York 1987, ISBN 978-3-11-011002-9 (Germania sacra NF Vol. 23) p. 66.
9. ↑ Johannes Fried: The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here p. 123.
10. ↑ In a document from Ludwig the Pious and a document from Ludwig the German, the latter recorded as D LdDt No. 178 (MGH DD Dt. Karol. I, p. 256 )
11. ↑ On the dispute by Hedwig Röckelein: Reliquary translations to Saxony in the 9th century. About communication, mobility and the public in the early Middle Ages (= Francia. Supplements of Francia. Vol. 48). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7995-7442-5 , p. 64 note 100.
12. ↑ Johannes Fried: The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here p. 123.
13. ^ Edeltraud Balzer: Early mission, noble donors and the beginnings of the bishopric in Münster (Part II). In: Westfälische Zeitschrift 161, 2011 pp. 9–59, here p. 12, note 21.
14. ↑ Dieter Geuenich : The personal names of the monastery community of Fulda in the early Middle Ages. Fink, Munich 1976, p. 53.
15. ↑ Donald C. Jackman : King Konrad, the last Carolingians and their Saxon relatives. In: Hans-Werner Goetz (Ed.): Konrad I. - On the way to the “German Reich”? Winkler, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-89911-065-X , pp. 77-92 here p. 89.
16. ↑ Reichenauer Fraternization Book p. 107 C3 : choppo, eila, egpert, liudolt, ita, heiluuih, hadamuat (MGH Libri mem. NS)
17. ↑ Johannes Fried: The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here p. 120.
18. ↑ On this Eduard Hlawitschka : On the origin of the Liudolfinger and on some Corveyer historical sources . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter , Jg. 38 (1974), pp. 92-165, especially pp. 151-160.
19. ↑ Johannes Fried: The long shadow of a weak ruler. Ludwig the Pious, the Empress Judith, Pseudoisidor and other people in the perspective of new questions, methods and findings. In: Historical magazine. Vol. 284, 2007, pp. 103-138, here p. 123.
20. ^ Georg Waitz : Yearbooks of the German Empire under King Heinrich I. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1863, also in 1963 in the reprint of the 1885 edition, p. 192.
21. ^ Albert K. Hömberg : History of the comités of the Werler count house. in: Westfälische Zeitschrift, magazine for patriotic history and antiquity, 100, 1950 pp. 9–134, here p. 122
22. ^ Wilfried Hartmann : Ludwig the German. Primus, Darmstadt 2002, ISBN 3-89678-452-8 , p. 98; Eric Joseph Goldberg: Popular revolt, dynastic politics, and aristocratic factionalism in the early Middle Ages. The Saxon Stellinga reconsidered. In: Speculum , Vol. 70 (1995), pp. 467-501, here p. 488.
23. ^ Gerd Tellenbach : The spiritual and political foundations of the Carolingian succession to the throne. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Vol. 13 (1979) pp. 184-302, here p. 254.
24. ↑ Eric Joseph Goldberg: Popular revolt, dynastic politics, and aristocratic factionalism in the early Middle Ages. The Saxon Stellinga reconsidered. In: Speculum , Vol. 70 (1995), pp. 467-501, here pp. 487 f.
25. ↑ Annales Bertiniani aA 841: Hludowicus autem et Karolus, alter ultra, alter citra Rhenum, partim vi partim minis partim honoribus partim quibusdam conditionibus omnes partium suarum sibi vel subdunt vel conciliant.
26. ^ Wilfried Hartmann: Ludwig the German. Primus, Darmstadt 2002, ISBN 3-89678-452-8 , p. 98.
27. ^ Nithard , Historiae, Liber IV, cap. 3 (MGH SS 2, p. 669 ).
28. ^ Nithard, Historiae, Liber IV, cap. 3 (MGH SS 2, p. 669 ): Quamobrem ignoro, qua fraude decepti ...
29. ↑ Ernst Dümmler : History of the East Franconian Empire: Ludwig the German. Vol. I. Berlin, Duncker and Humblot 1862, p. 176.
30. ↑ Meyer von Knonau : About Nithards four books stories: The fratricidal war of the sons of Ludwig the Pious and his historian. Leipzig 1866, p. 46.
31. ^ Gerd Tellenbach: The spiritual and political foundations of the Carolingian succession to the throne. In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Vol. 13 (1979) pp. 184-302, here p. 255.
32. ↑ Janet L. Nelson : The search for peace in a time of war: the Carolingian Brothers War, 840-843. in: Johannes Fried (Ed.): Carriers and instruments of peace in the high and late Middle Ages. , Sigmaringen 1996, pp. 87-114, here p. 111 f.
33. ↑ Eric J. Goldberg: Struggle for Empire. Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German. 817-876. Cornell University Press, Ithaca et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-8014-3890-X p. 134 considers the figure to be unrealistic.
34. ↑ Eric J. Goldberg: Struggle for Empire. Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German. 817-876. Cornell University Press, Ithaca et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-8014-3890-X , p. 134.
35. ^ Ernst Schubert : Westphalia, Ungern, Ostfalen: The three tribal groups of the Saxons. In: Hans Patze (founder): History of Lower Saxony. Volume 2, Part 1: Ernst Schubert (Ed.): Politics, Constitution, Economy from the 9th to the end of the 15th century (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony, Bremen and the former states of Hanover, Oldenburg, Braunschweig and Schaumburg-Lippe . 36). Hahn, Hannover 1997, ISBN 3-7752-5900-7 , pp. 22-27, here p. 26.