Heinrich von Stade

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Foundations of the later monastery on the site of Harsefeld Castle built by Heinrich around 969

Heinrich von Stade , also Heinrich I von Stade or the Bald († on May 9 or 10, 975 or 976) from the Udonen family was a count on the Lower Elbe .

Heinrich probably came soon after 944 from the eastern Harz foreland at the request of his relative, Emperor Otto I, to the north of Saxony , far from the king , in order to counterbalance the increasingly powerful Hermann Billung on the Lower Elbe . Heinrich took his seat in Harsefeld . The common title of Count von Stade dates back to the 12th century.

The Medieval Studies exhausted in the presentation of Henry as the founder of the noble family of Udonen and adversaries Hermann Billungs. The dissertation Richard Huckes from 1956 marks the state of research today.

Life

Origin and family

Heinrich was the son of one of the Counts Liuthar and the Schwanhild who fell in the battle of Lenzen . With Siegfried, Gerburg and the Corveyer Abbot Thietmar he probably had three siblings. His marriage to Judith from the Konradine family came from Heinrich († October 2, 1016), Lothar-Udo († June 23, 994), Siegfried († January 6, 1037), Gerburg, Hathui († 1013) and Kunigunde († 13 July 997). Kunigunde is the mother of Thietmar von Merseburg . After Judith's death on October 26, 973, Heinrich married Hildegard and had a daughter of the same name with her, who later became the wife of the Billung duke Bernhard I.

According to a remark by his grandson Thietmar von Merseburg, Heinrich was a blood relative ( consanguineus ) of Emperor Otto I. A more detailed determination of the degree of relationship is not possible. However, similarities in the names of the Liudolfinger and Udonen indicate a great closeness. Otto I's father was also called Heinrich . His daughter, in turn, was named Gerberga and his mother's name was Hathui. Heinrich's daughter Hathui, in turn, was the godchild of Otto I, at whose instigation she was appointed abbess of the Heeslingen monastery in 973 .

Heinrich's ancestors probably did not come from there, despite the addition of "von Stade" to their name. The proximity to the Liudolfingern instead suggests an origin from Eastern Saxony. However, in addition to property in the Magdeburg area , the Udonen also owned goods on the Middle Rhine . The suffix “von Stade” appears for the first time in the first half of the 12th century in the Annalista Saxo and is probably due to the fact that Heinrich's descendants moved there at the beginning of the 11th century. The addition to the name “the bald” ( calvus ), which can also be found in the Annalista Saxo, indicates a stay in a monastery that cannot be limited in time. Heinrich took his seat about 20 km west of today's city of Stade in Harsefeld, where he built a castle in 969.

Count in the north

In a document issued by Otto I on July 2, 959 in Magdeburg, Heinrich is referred to as a count who exercised a legation in addition to count rights on the Lower Elbe . For Ernst Schubert , this designation proves Heinrich's previous posting to the Lower Elbe, with which King Otto I wanted to create a counterweight to the overpowering Hermann Billung. The north of Saxony was altogether an area remote from the king. Otto I never entered it during his entire reign. Power was in the hands of local aristocratic associations. With Count Wichmann , the head of what was by far the most influential and distinguished group of relatives in northern Saxony died in 944. Otto I. had split this aristocratic association in 936 by giving Wichmann's younger brother Hermann Billung high royal honors. With Wichmann's death, the huge property and the political importance of the relatives now threatened to unite in the hands of Hermann Billung. Heinrich was therefore supposed to manage the inheritance of Wichmann's underage sons Bruno , Wichmann II and Ekbert vom Ambergau for the king . As the closest male relative, Otto I. felt that he was primarily called to do this. Wichmann had been married to a sister of Queen Mathilde , so the Wichmann sons were Otto's cousins. Since paternity was not yet verifiable, in the Middle Ages the mother's brothers were considered the closest male relatives, in the absence of these the sister's husbands and their descendants. With Heinrich, his entire family association seems to have settled in the area around Harsefeld. Widukind von Corvey reports in connection with the disputes between Hermann Billung and his nephews Wichmann II and Ekbert in the spring of 955 that Heinrich and his brother Siegfried had particularly distinguished themselves in the battles over the capture of Suethleiscranne Castle. The way they are mentioned by Widukind makes it clear that Heinrich and his followers did not take part in the campaign on the orders of Hermann Billung, but proceeded independently and in their own right. Heinrich's brother Siegfried openly opposed Hermann Billung's decision to give up Cocarescemier Castle.

After Wichmann II's death in 967, some of his possessions could have passed to Heinrich without such a transfer being passed down. However, there is evidence of the construction of a castle in 969 by Heinrich in Harsefeld. Accordingly, from this point in time at the latest, the center of Heinrich's rule was in the Lower Elbe region. There he participated in the autumn of 974 on the side of Emperor Otto II and the Billunger Duke Bernhard I in a campaign against the Danish ruler Harald Blauzahn , who had invaded northern Albingia in the summer and devastated the country with fire and sword.

Confidante of the king

During Emperor Otto I's second stay in Italy 966–973, Heinrich represented Otto I's position when the increasingly idiosyncratic acting royal deputy Hermann Billung behaved like a king at a tribal meeting in Magdeburg in March 972. Hermann had his relative, the Archbishop of Magdeburg , Adalbert , lead him into the brightly lit church in a procession to the ringing of bells and, after the service, demonstratively took the place of the emperor at the table in front of the religious and secular leaders present. Afterwards he even stayed in his house, where he slept in the emperor's bed. Heinrich was outraged by this arrogance of the royal ceremony, whereupon Hermann tried to take him prisoner. The arrest failed because Heinrich had surrounded himself with a large number of armed followers and Hermann did not want to risk a bloody confrontation among the Saxon greats. Instead, Hermann Heinrich is said to have given the order to move to Rome to see the emperor and report to him about the incidents. Heinrich obeyed this order, crossed the Alps, threw himself on the ground in Rome in front of the emperor and asked his forgiveness. The unsuspecting emperor picked him up and asked in astonishment what he was asking for forgiveness for. Heinrich then reported to the emperor about the usurpation of the royal ceremonial. Thereupon the emperor did not punish Hermann Billung, but the Magdeburg Archbishop Adalbert.

Heinrich probably died in 975 or 976. The necrology of the Church of St. Michael in Lüneburg records the date of death of Count Heinrich for May 9, the Merseburg Book of the Dead for May 10. The Annalista Saxo reports for the year 969 that Heinrich and his wife were buried in the monastery of Heeslingen.

swell

literature

  • Heinz-Joachim Schulze: The Counts of Stade and the Archbishops of Bremen-Hamburg from the end of the 10th to the middle of the 12th century. In: Hans-Eckhard Dannenberg, Heinz-Joachim Schulze (Hrsg.): History of the country between the Elbe and Weser. Vol. 2: Middle Ages (= series of publications of the regional association of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden. Vol. 8). Landscape Association of the Former Duchies of Bremen and Verden, Stade 1995, ISBN 3-9801919-8-2 , pp. 43-104.
  • Richard Georg Hucke: The Counts of Stade 900–1144. Genealogy, political position, comitat and allodial possession of the Saxon Udonen (= individual writings of the Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein / Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein. Vol. 8). Self-published by the Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein, Stade 1956.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Presentation of the family relationships with 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 , p. 397. ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ Thietmar II, 28.
  3. ↑ Ernst Schubert : The Udonen, the "Counts of Stade". 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. 165–167, here p. 167.
  4. ↑ Heinz-Joachim Schulze: The Counts of Stade and the Archbishops of Bremen-Hamburg from the end of the 10th to the middle of the 12th century. in: Hans-Eckhard Dannenberg, Heinz-Joachim Schulze (eds.): History of the land between Elbe and Weser, vol. 2. (= series of publications of the regional association of the former duchies of Bremen and Verden, vol. 8 ) Stade 1995, p. 43– 104, here pp. 43 and 45 f.
  5. ↑ Thietmar II, 42.
  6. ↑ Ernst Schubert: The Udonen, the "Counts of Stade". 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. 165–167, here p. 167.
  7. ↑ Annalista Saxo a. A. 969: Heinricum de Stadhe.
  8. ↑ Annalista Saxo a. A. 1032: Heinrich Calvi de Stadhen
  9. ^ DO I, 205.
  10. ↑ Ernst Schubert: The Billunger. 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. 155–164, here p. 159
  11. ^ 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 , p. 73.
  12. ↑ On this Charlotte Warnke : The Kanonissenstift St. Cyriacus zu Gernrode in the field of tension between high nobility, emperor, bishop and pope from its foundation in 961 to the end of the investiture dispute in 1122. In: Irene Crusius (ed.): Studies on Kanonissenstift (= publications by Max -Planck Institute for History. Vol. 167 = Studies on Germania Sacra. Vol. 24). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-35326-X , pp. 201–274, here p. 211. According to Widukind III, 50, Otto I is said to have even adopted the sons ( loco filiorum eum assumpserit ).
  13. ↑ Widukind III, 51.
  14. ↑ Widukind III, 52.
  15. ↑ Thietmar III, 6; on this Gunter Müller: Harald Gormssons King's fate in pagan and Christian interpretation. in: Early Medieval Studies. Vol. 7 (1973), pp. 118-142, here p. 124.
  16. ↑ Thietmar II, 28; in detail Gerd Althoff: The King's Bed in Magdeburg. On Thietmar II, 28. In: Helmut Maurer, Hans Patze (ed.): Festschrift for Berent Schwineköper. For his seventieth birthday. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1982, ISBN 3-7995-7020-9 , pp. 141-153.
  17. ↑ Thietmar II, 28.
  18. ^ Richard Georg Hucke: The Counts of Stade 900–1144. Genealogy, political position, comitat and allodial possession of the Saxon Udonen (= individual writings of the Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein / Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein. Vol. 8). Self-published by the Stader Geschichts- und Heimatverein, Stade 1956, p. 12
  19. ^ 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 , p. 397.
personal data
SURNAME Heinrich von Stade
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heinrich I of Stade; Henry I the Bald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count in Harsefeld
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century
DATE OF DEATH around 975