Hiddi (Hildebold)

Hiddi (short and nickname of Hildebold; * around 750/756; † around 813) was a Saxon nobleman and count in the Saxon Hessengau , possibly a son of Count Liutolf, who died as a monk in Fulda on March 19, 785 .

In the period from 779 to 781, a grueling guerrilla war began in what was then Saxony, today's Westphalia, which was also directed against the Frank-friendly nobles. As a baptized and supporter of Charlemagne , Hiddi was driven from his ancestral home by rebellious Saxons after Charlemagne's first campaign against the Engern near Warburg . Thereupon, Emperor Karl set him up on Franconian territory near Wolfsanger (today a district of Kassel ) with count rights in the Saxon Hessengau created on the middle Diemel . In Wolfsanger, the settlement of Saxon refugees created a Franconian-Saxon double settlement with an old Franconian baptistery, which was consecrated to John the Baptist .

Hiddi then had clearing settlements set up in the Kaufunger Forest (in the "silva Buchonia") , in the area that was in the middle of the possessions of Count Gerhao . After Gerhao died without an heir (probably around or before 811), his goods were confiscated by Charles's royal messengers . The Kaufunger Wald was reforested, but the clearing of Hiddis and the Billings Amelung I. were excluded. Karl confirmed to the sons of the two, Asig (Esiko) (813) and Bennit I (Bennicho) (811), the ownership of their deceased fathers in the Kaufunger Wald, where the place names Escherode and Benterode still remember them today .

Hiddi married Schwanhild (Suanhild), perhaps a daughter of Duke Brun (730–775). He had three sons who owned extensive estates in Leinegau , in Saxony's Hessengau and in Tilithigau :

• Asig (Esiko) (also Asico, Esicho, short form of Adalrich), as Hiddi's successor Count in the Saxon Hessengau, where he is attested in 839 and 843
• Folcbold (Folkbold)
• Adalbold (Adalbald)

Esiko, who was the son-in-law of Count Ekbert and St. Ida von Herzfeld due to his second marriage to Ida the Younger , gave his name to the Esikonen family .

Web links

• Brigitte Merta: Law and Propaganda in Narrationes of Carolingian Rulers' Deeds . In: Anton Scharer, Georg Scheibelreiter (Hrsg.): Historiography in the early Middle Ages . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Vienna, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-64832-2 , p. 146 .
• Walther Kienast , Peter Herde: The Franconian vassalage: from the housewares to Ludwig the child and Karl the simple-minded (=  Frankfurt scientific contributions: cultural studies series . Volume 18 ). V. Klostermann, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-465-01847-8 , p. 182 ( limited preview in Google Book search).