Hodica

Hodica (* after 974; † unknown) was an Abodritic princess and later abbess of the nunnery on the Mecklenburg .

Life

Only the priest Helmold von Bosau reported about Hodica in the 12th century, whose information is historically uncertain.

origin

Thereafter, Hodica was the daughter of the Abodritic ruler ( regulus ) Billug and a sister of Bishop Wago of Oldenburg . In addition to her origins, the mother is said to have distinguished herself through particular beauty. Behind the legendary Prince Billug, the Abodritic velvet ruler Mistiwoj (965/67 to approx. † 995) from the Abodritic rulers of the Naconids is most likely hiding . In 931 they had accepted the Christian faith for political reasons. Belonging to Christianity is also documented for Mistivoj.

abbess

The uncle, Bishop Wago, had Hodica educated in a nunnery, where she was educated religiously and instructed in reading and writing. In her early years, Wago appointed her as the abbess of the nunnery at the Petrikirche on the Mecklenburg. Following the Saxon model, the unmarried daughters of the Abodritic nobles lived here.

Marriage to Prince Boleslaw

Mistivoj's son Mistislaw dissolved the nunnery and, for diplomatic reasons, married his sister Hodica to a prince named Boleslaw , who is said to have been a Hevellian prince. Helmold von Bosau, on the other hand, mentions the future Polish King Bolesław I in this context .

swell

• Helmold von Bosau , Chronicle of the Slavs , II, 13
  • Helmoldi Presbyteri Bozoviensis: Chronica Slavorum . Ed. Bernhard Schmeidler in: MGH SS, Hanover 1937; revised and translated into German by Heinz Stoob . With an addendum by Volker Scior. (= Selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Vol. 19, ISSN  0067-0650 ). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1963 (7th edition, ibid. 2008, ISBN 3-534-00175-3 ).
  • Johann Christian Mauritz Laurent : Helmolds Chronik der Slaven (= historian of the German prehistoric times, 56) Berlin 1852. S. 28-30

literature

• Thomas Hill: Hodica, Abodritic princess daughter, abbess of a nunnery in Mecklenburg around 990. in: Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. , Vol. 1 pp. 125-126.

Web links

• Literature about Hodica in the state bibliography MV

Remarks

1. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze : Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: Herbert Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. W. Schmitz, Gießen 1960, pp. 141-219, here p. 161.
2. ^ Adam of Bremen : Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum . In: Werner Trillmich , Rudolf Buchner (Hrsg.): Sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of the Hamburg Church and the Empire. = Fontes saeculorum noni et undecimi historiam ecclesiae Hammaburgensis necnon imperii illustrantes (= selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Vol. 11). 7th edition, expanded compared to the 6th by a supplement by Volker Scior. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-534-00602-X , pp. 137-499, chap. I, 43.
3. ↑ Bernhard Friedmann: Studies on the history of the Abodritic principality up to the end of the 10th century. (= East European Studies of the State of Hesse. Series 1: Giessen Treatises on Agricultural and Economic Research in Eastern Europe . Vol. 197). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0 , p. 255.
4. ↑ Helmold I, 15.