Hatheburg of Merseburg

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Hatheburg , also officially called Hatheburch , (* 876 in Merseburg ; † on June 21, after 909 ) was the first wife of the later East Franconian King Heinrich I and after the divorce from him abbess of a monastery.

origin

Hatheburg was the daughter of Erwin von Merseburg, who was wealthy in Hassegau and Gau Friesenfeld, and a woman whose name was unknown, whose sister was called Hildegard. Hildegard was Thietmar's wife , educator and advisor to Heinrich I.

Life

Hatheburg was married for the first time around 890 to a man who was not named in the sources, but quickly became a widow and therefore wore the nun's veil afterwards.

As heir to half of her father's holdings , which were quite large at the time, she became interesting for the Liudolfinger's expansion policy , who sought to expand their sphere of influence as far east as possible. On his return from an unsuccessful campaign against the Daleminzians (in spring 906 at the latest), the Liudolfinger and later King Heinrich wooed the widow, who took this opportunity to part with the veil.

Through his marriage, Heinrich came into possession of the important former Erwin estates located in the far east of what was then the Frankish Empire. The Church's reaction was not long in coming. Bishop Sigimund von Halberstadt called the marriage illegal. The church had not been asked to cancel Hatheburg's nuns' vows, nor to grant dispensation from them. For this reason, the bishop Heinrich and Hatheburg forbade the marital union and threatened to ban the church if it continued. The background was to get hold of the rich goods of the former nun in this way.

In this situation Hatheburg probably gave birth to a son Thankmar (named after Heinrich's brother) in 906 .

On October 5, 908 was in Trebur the barter over the goods of Hatheburg between Henry's father Otto the Illustrious and the authorities responsible for Merseburg Archbishop Hatto I. notarized. Duke Otto decided not to inherit his function as lay abbot of the important Hersfeld monastery . In return, the church no longer denied the legitimacy of Heinrich and Hatheburg's marriage, which meant renouncing senior Erwin's property. Presumably, however, the tacit separation of Heinrich and Hatheburg was also decided, because Hatheburg had to take off the veil again in 909 - this time as abbess. Nevertheless, their goods remained with the Liudolfingers. Henry married the then about 14-year Immedingerin Mathilde , a daughter of Count Dietrich, who by Widukind to be descended. Mathilde was brought up in Herford Monastery . Her grandmother of the same name was abbess there, who also gave permission for this marriage. Thus this time the Liudolfinger received the necessary dispensation for their expansive marriage plans, which now turned to the west of the Duchy of Saxony .

Crossing the Merseburg area to the east was only possible by force of arms - which then took place successively from 928/929 with the conquest of Sorbian lands by Heinrich I. Hatheburg disappeared in a monastery and from historical sources. It was never mentioned in the official annals anyway. She died somewhere on June 21st sometime after 909.

progeny

Her son Thankmar never received his maternal inheritance - neither after the death of Heinrich I in 936 nor after the death of Siegfried von Merseburg in 937, which provoked him to an uprising against his younger half-brother Otto I , which ended on July 28th 938 was killed on the Eresburg . Thankmar left no known offspring.

Aftermath

From the castle settlement of Altenburg and the extensive estates of Erwin, which fell to the Liudolfinger via Hatheburg, an extensive royal estate around Merseburg, surrounded by a wall, arose. A royal palace was built on the cathedral hill and a royal mill on the Saale. With the Johanniskirche the second church in Merseburg was built next to the certainly Franconian Peterskirche. The "Merseburger Schar" (legio Mesaburiorum) served as a border guard against the Sorbs and Hungarians. In 932 there was a comitatus (court) Merseburg when the castle settlement had lost its function as the eastern border of the empire. For 933 the name palatium is evidence of the royal palace in Merseburg, which in 968 was even elevated to a bishopric and margrave seat with a mint.

literature

  • 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. Wilhelm Fink, Munich 1984, p. 350
  • Gerd Althoff: The Ottonians. Royal rule without a state. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 2000.
  • Helmut Beumann : The Ottonians. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1987.
  • Mechthild Black-Veldtrup : Empress Agnes (1043-1077). Source-critical studies. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1995, pp. 160–162.
  • Ernst Dümmler : History of the East Franconian Empire. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1865.
  • Winfrid Glocker: The relatives of the Ottonians and their importance in politics. Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 1989.
  • Robert Holtzmann : History of the Saxon Empire. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1971.
  • Hagen Keller : The Ottonians. CH Beck, Munich 2001, pp. 24-26.
  • Johannes Laudage : Otto the Great. A biography. Pustet, Regensburg 2001.
  • Jörg Plischke: The marriage policy of the Liudolfinger. Bär, Neisse 1909 (also dissertation University of Greifswald 1909).
  • Thietmar von Merseburg: Chronicle. Scientific book club, Darmstadt 1992, p. 34.
  • Georg Waitz : Yearbooks of the German Empire under King Heinrich I. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1963, p. 15. 208.

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Hatheburg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hatheburch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first wife of the later first German king Heinrich I and after divorce from him abbess of a monastery
DATE OF BIRTH 876
PLACE OF BIRTH Merseburg
DATE OF DEATH June 21 after 909