Giselbert of Lorraine

Giselbert (II.) Of Lorraine (* around 890 ; † October 2, 939 ) was Duke of Lorraine from 928 .

Life

Giselbert's father was Reginar I , who was a son of Giselbert I , the count in Maasgau , and a daughter of Emperor Lothar I who was not known by name , perhaps Ermengarde. The later Counts of Hainaut , Counts of Flanders , Counts of Lions , Dukes of Lower Lorraine or Brabant and the Landgraves of Hesse descended from Giselbert's brother Reginar II . The Giselberts I family is known as the Régniers / Reginare .

His father Reginar I owned extensive property in Hennegau , Hespengau and the Ardennes . From 894/895 he fought against the King of Lorraine Zwentibold , who was an illegitimate son of Arnulf of Carinthia and was appointed and supported by him as King of Lorraine . After the death of Arnulf of Carinthia, the Lorraine opposition under the leadership of Reginar I recognized the underage, East Franconian King Ludwig the child .

In 911, Konrad I , who was unpopular in Lorraine, became King of East Franconia. Reginar I. challenged the West Franconian King Karl III. the simple-minded to come to Lorraine. Charles was elected King of Lorraine soon afterwards and Reginar I, who died in 915, was given the title of marchio . His title and fiefdom were bequeathed to his son Giselbert. However, Charles the Simple set Wigerich as Count Palatine in the Carolingian ancestral land of Lorraine .

Giselbert von Lothringen wanted to keep his father's power for himself. Like him, he was lay abbot of the Abbey of Stablo-Malmedy . He succeeded in rallying followers around him through the generous allocation of church property. From 920 he had the title of princeps of Lorraine and was in an open power struggle with Charles the Simple. The trigger for this power struggle was the dispute over the appointment of a new bishop in Liège . In 922/923 Charles the Simple was overthrown, the Carolingian supporters in Lorraine switched to the East Franconian King Heinrich I. The reason is the hope of more effective protective measures against the Hungarian and Viking raids. Heinrich I managed to win Giselbert von Lothringen for himself. In the years from 923 to 925 Lorraine was conquered by the Eastern Franks and in the years 926 to 928 Eberhard von Franken was Duke of Lorraine.

In 928 Giselbert became Duke of Lorraine and in the same year married Gerberga , the eldest daughter of King Heinrich I and Mathilde . From this marriage came Heinrich and Gerberga. As a minor, Heinrich was Duke of Lorraine from 940 until his death in 944. Giselbert's daughter Gerberga (* probably 935; † after September 7, 978) married in 949 Adalbert I (Albert), the Count of Vermandois , a son of Heribert II.

During the reign of Henry I, Giselbert was loyal. In 939, however, Giselbert wanted to join the new West Franconian King Ludwig IV (Carolingian). He joined the rebellion of Heinrich , Otto I's younger brother , and Eberhards of Franconia. After the battle of Andernach on October 2, 939, Giselbert drowned while fleeing in the Rhine. Ludwig IV reached the battlefield too late and could no longer intervene.

Ludwig IV took Giselbert's widow Gerberga with him on the retreat and married her in 940. From this marriage came the later West Franconian King Lothar and Karl , Duke of Lower Lorraine (an East Franconian / German fiefdom). The Reginare (the descendants of Reginar II.) Lost their influence in Lorraine. Only after the death of the last male Carolingian , Otto von Niederlothringen (Karl's son), in 1012 did they regain their power in Niederlothringen.

Richer, a monk from Saint Remy, characterizes Giselbert of Lorraine as follows: He is bold, inconsistent, wasteful, greedy for foreign goods, and contentious. He speaks ambiguously, he asks apprehensively, he answers ambiguously, he often and gladly causes confusion and resentment.

literature

• Gerd Althoff : The Ottonians. Royal rule without a state . 2nd, expanded edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018597-7 .
• Helmut Beumann ; The Ottonians . 4th edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-17-014802-8
• Ernst Ludwig Dümmler:  Giselbert of Lothringen . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 196-198.
• Eduard Hlawitschka:  Giselbert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 414 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Carl Knetsch, The House of Brabant. Genealogy of the Dukes of Brabant and the Landgraves of Hesse, Darmstadt, vol. 1 , 1917, p. 12
• Rudolf Schieffer ; The Carolingians . 4th revised and expanded edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-019099-7
• Vita Johannis Gorziensis, MGH Scriptores 4, 368
• Genealogy of the 11th century: cf. MGH, Scriptores 2, 314

predecessor	Office	successor
Reginar I. Long Neck	Graf im Maasgau 915-939
Eberhard of Franconia	Duke of Lorraine 928-939	Heinrich of Bavaria