Liudolf (Swabia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liudolf (* around 930 well in Magdeburg , † September 6 957 in Pombia , Lake Maggiore ) from the gender of Liudolfinger was from about February 950-954 Duke of Swabia . The Liudolfin uprising, named after him, between March / April 953 and 954 (finally December 17th at the Reichstag in Arnstadt) plunged Eastern Franconia into an existence-threatening crisis.

Life

Liudolf was the eldest son of the Saxon Duke and East Frankish King Otto the Great and Edgithas of England . As Otto's eldest son, born in wedlock, Liudolf was the first candidate for his successor and received a careful upbringing : Roswitha von Gandersheim described him as "gentle, mild and humble, clever and extremely wise", although these are typical attributes of the ruler's virtues.

Liudolf played a role in Otto's political planning early on: as early as 939 he engaged him to Ida (Ita) , the only child of the Swabian Duke and loyal follower Otto Hermann and his wife Regelinda . Due to her family situation, Ida was the heiress of Hermann, who was not only wealthy in Swabia, but also in the Weser region and in the Lahngau . As Ida's husband, Liudolf would dispose of this rich property after Hermann's death. Swabia, in which the rule of the East Franconian kings was less consolidated than in Franconia or Saxony, should thus belong to the heartlands of the empire.

Liudolf's marriage with Ida was concluded at the turn of the year 947/948 and made known during a tour of the empire . A little later, on December 10th, 949, Hermann von Schwaben died, and Liudolf came into his duchy, property and political relations as heir. Liudolf was now duke and designated heir to his father. Since Queen Edgitha had died in 946 and Otto had not yet remarried, Ida was the most distinguished woman in the empire.

In November 950, King Lothar II of Italy died unexpectedly . Berengar of Ivrea seized the crown and detained the widow of Lothair, Adelaide , a distant relative of Liudolfinger and sister of Otto I. with fellow King of Burgundy . Berengar wanted to prevent Adelheid from making her new husband Lothar's heir through a new marriage. Liudolf's father Otto, a widower for years, had enough reasons to come to Adelheid's aid. It is believed that he was therefore planning an Italian train .

In the early summer of 951, even before his father, Liudolf, apparently without the knowledge of Otto I, moved with an army from Swabia to Northern Italy . Different motives are presumed to be the reason for this unauthorized campaign . Adelheid was through her mother Berta , a half-sister of Liudolf's wife Ida, her niece and thus a relative of the Swabian ducal family, whose head Liudolf had become through his marriage to Ida. Liudolf may have felt obliged to take action in this matter, also through the intervention of Adelheid's relatives. However, Liudolf's move to Italy failed because of the political resistance of his own relatives. Northern Italy had been the area of ​​interest of the Bavarian dukes for decades , and Liudolf's uncle, Duke Heinrich of Bavaria , intrigued against him with Italian aristocrats, so that Liudolf received no support from this side and had to hurry towards his father, who was now approaching. These events prepared the ground for Liudolf's later uprising.

Duke Heinrich had only received his own share of power from Otto after several uprisings against Otto I, but had in the meantime become one of Otto's closest advisers. Liudolf feared that Heinrich would drive him out of the vicinity of the king; He used the Christmas party in 951 to provocatively display his claim to co-rulership by celebrating it with royal pomp in the Palatinate Saalfeld , as Heinrich had done a decade earlier for the same reason . Royal ceremonies belonged to the king alone and Liudolf underscored his claim to his royal rank and succession with his behavior. Liudolf's most important confidante and later co-conspirator was his brother-in-law Konrad the Red , whom Otto had snubbed when in the spring of 952 he refused a contract negotiated with Berengar II on his behalf. An important motive for Liudolf could also have been that his father had meanwhile married Adelheid of Italy, who gave birth to a son in 952/953 who could become a potential rival of Liudolf in the line of succession . Overall, Liudolf saw his influence at court waning through the strong position of Heinrich and now also Adelheid.

Liudolfin uprising

Militarily, the uprising broke out in July 953 with the siege of the city of Mainz, which was occupied by Liudolf . Even before Easter, the preparations for the uprising became apparent when Otto found the Pfalz Ingelheim not prepared accordingly. When he moved on to Mainz, Archbishop Friedrich received him only reluctantly. Liudolf and Konrad assured Otto that their measures were directed against Heinrich and not against the king. A contract negotiated by Friedrich, the content of which has not been passed down, was revoked a little later in Dortmund because, according to his understanding of rulership, he stood out from the crowd of princes and they could therefore not conclude contracts with him as equals. It is believed that the provisions were intended to curtail Heinrich's influence at court. Otto Liudolf and Konrad then besieged Mainz for two months. The uprising expanded during this time: The Bavarians, headed by the Luitpolding relatives of Heinrich's wife under the leadership of their brother, the Bavarian Count Palatine Arnulf II , rebelled against Heinrich, who was unpopular as a stranger. This changed situation led to new negotiations, in which Liudolf and Konrad emphasized that they were not against the king, but only against Heinrich's influence, while Otto was ready to forgive his son and son-in-law, but demanded the surrender of the conspirators. The negotiations failed because of Otto's request.

The following night Liudolf left Mainz, with the Bavarians joining him in Otto's squad, and moved to the important Bavarian residence of Regensburg . The situation became critical for Otto, since of the five duchies of the empire only Franks stood behind him. At the end of 953 Otto finally had to break off Liudolf's siege in Regensburg.

In 954 the Liudolfini uprising began to fail. Konrad the Red met Otto's brother Brun in Lotharingien , who was able to convince him that the uprising was directed against the king ("contra regem"), as the loss of Lotharingien was threatened. In addition, Bishop Ulrich von Augsburg , who was on Otto's side, won a military victory over the Luitpoldinger.

The uprising finally failed due to the invasion of the Hungarians . Both sides of the uprising accused each other of having called the pillaging and pillaging enemies into the country. The fact that Liudolf bought Bavaria free from looting with gifts and Konrad provided the Hungarians with leaders who led them through Lotharingia into western France , caused their supporters to move away from them and suspected them of having made pacts with the enemy. Which party of the uprising the Hungarians actually called, or whether this caused the weakness of the empire to invade, is controversial and can no longer be clarified. The Luitpoldinger, who had friendly contacts with the Hungarians in the past, are primarily suspected. The falling away of their supporters forced Liudolf and Konrad to the negotiating table. Those involved, Liudolf, now without support, the wavering Konrad and Bishop Friedrich von Mainz , who had withdrawn from the rebel camp when the fighting broke out, met King Otto I and Duke Heinrich of Bavaria in Langenzenn on June 16, 954 .

This time Otto renounced the demand that the rebels should hand over their co-conspirators; thus he released Konrad and Friedrich from Liudolf's camp. Liudolf and Konrad accused each other of having called the Hungarians. Liudolf broke off the negotiations. He fled, now politically completely isolated, back to Regensburg, where Heinrich besieged him for several months and finally set fire to the city over his head. On July 22, 954, Count Palatine Arnulf fell in battle with an army commanded by Margrave Gero before Regensburg. Liudolf managed to escape and to get to Suveldun (today's district Thangelstedt of the city of Blankenhain ), where Otto was hunting. There Liudolf threw himself at his father's feet, begging for forgiveness; Otto again took his son in grace. This ended the Liudolfini uprising. As a political consequence, Liudolf and Konrad the Red lost their duchies, but were allowed to keep their allodies .

Liudolf does not appear in the sources for a while after the end of his uprising. He did not take part in the battle on the Lechfeld ; probably he fought in Saxony against the Slavs invading at the same time as the Hungarians. On October 16, 955, he triumphed at the side of his father and Geros in the battle of the Raxa against an anti-Saxon coalition of Abodrites , Wilzen , Tollensanen and Zirzipans under Prince Stoignew . Brun had probably brought about the balance between Liudolf and Otto I. As Otto's adult son, who already had offspring himself, Liudolf was important for the continued existence of the dynasty , as Otto's sons, along with Adelheid, were not of an age at which one could assume that they would grow up. The equalization was also promoted by the fact that Liudolf's adversary Heinrich von Bayern died in 955. In 956 Liudolf was commissioned by Otto to protect Otto's interests in Italy, where Berengar von Ivrea had broken the contract. Liudolf crossed the Alps with an army and quickly received local support, while Berengar dodged south. What plans Otto pursued with the posting of Liudolf remains unclear, since Liudolf died unexpectedly of a fever after about a year in Italy. It is possible that Liudolf should be kept away from politics in the core of Eastern Franconia, but also that Otto, like Heinrich von Bayern, wanted to give the family member, who had been taken back in grace, a separate sphere of power after his uprising. Due to Liudolf's family claims to the Italian crown, it is even considered that a partial kingship was planned for Liudolf.

Liudolf's body was transferred to the German part of the empire. He was probably buried in the St. Alban Abbey near Mainz , but possibly also in the St. Peter and Alexander Abbey in Aschaffenburg , which he founded.

Marriage and offspring

Liudolf's children Otto and daughter Mathilde , email on the Otto-Mathilden-Kreuz in Essen

Liudolf had been married to Ida (Ita) , daughter of Duke Hermann I of Swabia , since 947 , who gave birth to two children who can be assigned to the couple according to sources:

  • Otto I of Swabia and Bavaria (* 954 - 31 October 982), 973 Duke of Swabia, 980 Duke of Bavaria
  • Mathilde (* 949; † November 5, 1011), abbess of Essen Abbey from 971 , inherited Liudolf's allodial goods as well as Idas, with which she had her women's monastery splendidly furnished. With her death in 1011, the Swabian line of the Liudolfinger probably died out.

In the research, the existence and the life data of another daughter are controversially discussed, who bore the name Richlind after Wolf , was married to Kuno von Öhningen (who became in 982 as Konrad I the successor of Otto I in Swabia) and the genealogical connection between represents the Liudolfingern and the Konradinern .

Ida survived her husband by 30 years and died on May 17, 986.

Afterlife

Liudolf's futile and tragic uprising against his father was remembered and, mixed with the events surrounding Ernst II of Swabia , found its way into medieval musicians' poetry in the form of Duke Ernst .

swell

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Annales Sangallenses maiores a. A. 955: Eodem anno Otto rex et filius eius Liutolf in festivitate sancti Galli pugnaverunt cum Abatarenis, et Vulcis, et Zcirizspanis, et Tolonsenis, et victoriam in eis sumpsit, occiso duce illorum nomine Ztoignavo, et fecit illos tributarios.
  2. ↑ Regesta Imerii II 1, 1, pp 157a
  3. ↑ Armin Wolf: Who was Kuno "von Öhningen"? Reflections on the Duchy of Konrad of Swabia († 997) and the election of a king in 1002. In: Deutsches Archiv 36 (1980), pp. 25–83; Armin Wolf: Ancestors of German kings and queens. In: Herold Yearbook. New series, Volume 15 (2010), pp. 77ff. On the opposite position: Eduard Hlawitschka : Who were Kuno and Richlind von Öhningen. Critical considerations for a new identification proposal. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichte des Oberrheins 128 (1980) pages 1-49; Eduard Hlawitschka: The ancestors of the high medieval German kings, emperors and their wives (2006)
predecessor Office successor
Hermann I. Duke of Swabia
950–954 		Burchard III.
personal data
SURNAME Liudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Swabia
DATE OF BIRTH 930 or 931
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 957
Place of death Pombia