Eberhard of Alsace

Eberhard von Elsass , also Ebrohard or Hebrohardus (* around 702 , † 747 in Remiremont ), was a Franconian nobleman and under the rule of the Merovingians and the Carolingian Count in Alsace . Eberhard belonged to the Alsatian ducal family of the Etichones named after his grandfather .

Eberhard's grave in Murbach Monastery

Live and act

origin

Eberhard was born as the second son of the Alsatian Duke Adalbert . His grandfather Eticho , who came from the Burgundian people, was wealthy and influential as Dux in the Pagus Attoriensis , the area between Dijon and Langres , before he was granted the ducal dignity of Alsace. On the paternal side there was a direct relationship with the Burgundian noble family, which in the late phase of the Merovingian rule and under the following Carolingians, as a clan of the Waltriche, was to become one of the most influential families in the Franconian Empire. His mother Gerlindis was a daughter of the Duke Eudo of Aquitaine . His older brother Liutfrid succeeded his father as a duke after his death. His two sisters Attala and Gundlinda were abbesses of influential Alsatian monasteries and, like their common aunt Odilia , are venerated as saints of the Catholic Church .

Domesticus, inheritance and rule as comes

The first documentary mention of Eberhard can be found in a deed of donation from Honau Abbey from December 11, 723, in which he is referred to as Domesticus . As court master of his father, Duke Adalbert, he was responsible for the management of the ducal palace as well as the administration of the etichonischen family estates, which were mainly in the region around the Odilienberg in Sundgau . According to the etichonic rule of succession, after the death of the father, the ducal dignity passed to the eldest son Liutfrid and Eberhard was consequently raised to the new Comes des Sundgau.

But as early as the years between 723 and 731, the independence of the Alsatian dukes from the Franconian Empire, which had been established by Eticho up to that point, was shaken. The end of the Pippinid-Carolingian succession crisis and the appointment of Karl Martell as caretaker of the entire Franconian empire in 718 eliminated the weakness of the royal central power in the late phase of the Merovingian rule and forced the independent ducats under Carolingian rule in the following years.

The brothers therefore decided in the year 727 to adopt an, the etichonic family understanding of an unusual division of the paternal inheritance. Liutfrid still nominally exercised the ducal rule over the entire Alsace, but from then on concentrated exclusively on the northern area of ​​the country between Hohenburg and Strasbourg , while Eberhard de facto ruled the southern area alone up to the Burgundian Gate . Due to the fact that from this year both brothers no longer recorded their documents together and therefore went their separate ways, research concludes that Eberhard agreed with the interests of Karl Martell at an early stage and that he can therefore be identified as a member of the Dux Francorum , Through which the Etichones succeeded in joining the rising Carolingians.

This also explains the fact that Eberhard turned to St. Pirmin , who was a confidante of Karl Martell and was sponsored by Eberhard with the wish to found a monastery - with the support of the Carolingians, the Murbach monastery developed into the most important in the following period Founding of the Etichonen monastery.

Murbach Monastery

St.-Leodegar Abbey Church in Murbach

At the foot of the Großer Belchen , next to the Murbach, Eberhard and Pirmin founded a monastery in 727 that was given the name Vivarius Peregrinorum ( Latin monastery of the wandering monks ) and was later named after the adjacent brook. The research agrees that the establishment of Eberhard was conceived from the beginning as an own monastery and served to protect the extensive property of the Etichonen in Sundgau from the access of the royal authority and here especially from the Carolingians. With the founding donation, the monastery already had extensive lands, at the latest with extensive donations by Eberhard and his wife on February 1, 731/732, March 23, 735 and June 19, 737, the abbey rose to become the largest landowner in Alsace. This picture also includes the granting of a far- reaching privilege by the Strasbourg bishop Widegern on May 13, 728, in which the monastery was assured of so-called great freedom , i.e. property, the free election of abbots and self-administration and waived duties to the diocese has been. The granting of the Widegern privilege took place under the testimony of an unusual number of secular and clerical greats - including Eberhard's brother Liutfrid as Duke of Alsace and St. Willibrord . This strengthening of the legal position of Eberhard, who as the founder had an extensive say in the organization of the internal affairs of the monastery, probably led to a rift between the Count and Pirmin around 730 - research generally assumes that the founding abbot attached the monastery to this Eberhard had to leave the time under pressure because, as a confidante of Karl Martell, he could not approve of Murbach's development into a purely etichonic monastery.

Around the year 735, the Counts of Sundgau suffered two severe blows of fate. His only child, a son, died at a young age and Eberhard lost his eyesight and became blind. He then withdrew from worldly life, renounced the office of count and entered a monastery as a monk, according to sources presumably the Remiremont Abbey . It remains unclear whether the withdrawal from the office of Comes took place under pressure from the sons and successors of Karl Martell, Karlmann and Pippin , who reintegrated Alsace into the Franconian Empire after Liutfrid's death in 743. What is certain, however, is that Eberhard, despite his renunciation of secular rule, continued to rule over the possessions and fate of the Murbach monastery in the following years - for example, in the last years of his life, the noticeable rededication of the patronage of the Murbach Abbey. Originally, when the monastery was founded, it was consecrated to Saint Mauritius , whose veneration was widespread throughout the Franconian Empire. With the award of the Leodegar patronage, which probably took place at the instigation of Eberhard, a family member of the Etichonen was able to find cultic veneration during the lifetime of the monastery founder, as St. Leodegar von Autun was the uncle of Eberhard's grandmother Bertswinda.

Eberhard died as a monk in 747, presumably in the Abbey of Remiremont, and was buried in his monastery in Murbach. He was commemorated there until the 12th century and the day of remembrance was celebrated by the monks in August. Eberhard's tomb in the Romanesque Church of St. Leodegar , which is still preserved today, dates from the same period - the inscription, lost today, read: [...] and so the noble man avoided divine vengeance, you live forever in the kingdom of heaven now more than rich [ ...] .

Marriage and offspring

Eberhard was married to Hemelctrudis; from this marriage came the son Anifrid.

literature

• Horst Ebeling: Prosopography of the officials of the Merovingian Empire from Chlotar II. (613) to Karl Martell (741). In: Supplements of Francia. Volume 2, Munich 1974, pp. 129-131.
• Karl Weber: The formation of Alsace in the Regnum Francorum. In: archeology and history. Volume 19, Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-7369-6 .
• Wilhelm Levison: Small contributions to sources of Franconian history. In: New archive of the society for older German history for the promotion of a complete edition of the source writings of the German history of the Middle Ages. Volume 27, Hahn'sche Buchhandlung, Hanover and Leipzig 1902, pp. 368-399.
• AM Burg: The Alsatian Duchy - an overview , in: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine Volume 117.Braun, Karlsruhe 1969.
• Nicole Hammer: The foundations of the Etichonen monasteries in Alsace. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2003, ISBN 3-8288-8509-8 .
• Eva Maria Butz: The withdrawal of the etichons (735/742) as reflected in their followers. In: Heinz Krieg, Alfons Zettler (ed.): Festschrift for Thomas Zotz on his 60th birthday. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-7080-2 .
• Hans J. Hummer: Politics and Power in Early Medieval Europe - Alsace and the Frankish Realm, 600–1000. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-521-85441-5 , pp. 157-165.
• Eugen Ewig : The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire. 4th, supplemented edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-017044-9 , p. 200.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Daniel Schöpflin: Alsatia ... diplomatica; Volume I, Typographia académica. Mannheim 1772, Dipl. V
2. ^ Karl Weber: The formation of Alsace in the Regnum Francorum. In: archeology and history. Volume 19, Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-7369-6 , pp. 123-124.
3. ↑ Nicole Hammer: The foundations of the monasteries of the Etichonen in Alsace. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2003, ISBN 3-8288-8509-8 , pp. 81-84.
4. ^ Karl Weber: The formation of Alsace in the Regnum Francorum. In: archeology and history. Volume 19, Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-7369-6 , pp. 126–128.
5. ^ Heinrich Büttner: History of Alsace, Volume 1 . Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4119-5 , p. 84.