Mathilde (Lorraine)

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Mathilde

Mathilde (* summer 979 ; † November 4, 1025 on Gut Aeccheze ( Echtz )) was the third daughter of Emperor Otto II and Empress Theophanu .

Shortly after her birth, Mathilde was handed over to the Essen Abbey , which was very important at the time and headed by her cousin Mathilde , who was about 30 years older as the abbess, for education. Presumably it was believed that she could not find a worthy spouse of high descent and wanted to enable her to succeed as abbess of the monastery. Mathilde's older sisters Adelheid and Sophia were also brought up in Quedlinburg and Gandersheim and later abbesses there. Mathilde's governess, the Essen abbess Mathilde, had also been brought up in the women's monastery, which she headed as abbess.

It therefore seems puzzling that the imperial daughter Mathilde took a completely different life and, as a member of the first family of the empire, married an apparently low-ranking nobleman, the Count Palatine Ezzo of Lorraine . According to the historian Thietmar von Merseburg , this marriage aroused the displeasure of many, Mathilde's brother Otto III. first had to guarantee the family an adequate standard of living through extensive donations. The year of the wedding cannot be precisely determined, 991 and 993 are discussed. The reasons for the improper wedding are still more puzzled. The annals of the Brauweiler monastery , the family foundation of the Ezzonen founded by Mathilde's husband and her , report the anecdote that the young Otto III. Ezzo had promised the fulfillment of a wish if he beat him in chess , whereupon Ezzo expressed the wish to be able to marry Mathilde. The Empress Theophanu had agreed to the marriage because those standing around at court saw the victory as a divine judgment . Ezzo then fetched Mathilde from the Essen monastery, whose abbess Mathilde refused in vain to hand over the girl. Later romantic embellishments even claim that Ezzo had previously secretly fallen in love with the young Mathilde or even fetched her from the monastery by force of arms, which was only later legalized by playing chess.

The story about the game of chess that was won is certainly made up, only the fact that Theophanu agreed to the wedding and the reluctance of the Essen abbess to see Mathilde married will be true, since the Essen monastery lost with her the designated successor from the imperial family. Without the consent of Theophanus, the marriage would certainly not have happened; it can even be assumed that this marriage was a means of their policy to secure the power of Otto III. was. Ezzo, or more precisely his father who was still alive at the time of the marriage, was not as low-ranking as it appears. The family had extensive estates on the Lower Rhine and the Lower Moselle, possibly they had already been in the times of the Carolingian imperial nobility. Ezzo's mother came from the family of the Swabian ducal family. In terms of wealth and followers, Ezzo's family was equal to a duke, and their territories lay on the western border of the empire. By marrying Mathilde and Ezzo, Theophanu tied this powerful family to their politics and to the Otton family.

Even if the beautiful stories of the love marriage legalized by the game of chess are made up, the marriage between Mathilde and Ezzo, who is twenty years her senior, was probably a happy one. In any case, she was decidedly fertile with ten children:

The dowry that Mathilde received from her brother Otto III. received, was unjustifiably drafted after his death by Heinrich II. , his successor, although it is unclear whether this is related to the fact that Mathilde's sons are closer in blood to Otto III. were related to Heinrich II. This unlawful act of Heinrich drove Mathilde's husband into a ten-year opposition to Heinrich, which only ended after Ezzo had defeated an army sent by Heinrich in 1012 in the battle of Odernheim . In addition, the reconciliation promoted the fact that Heinrich wanted to secure his Ostpolitik by a befitting marriage of a princess to the Polish king. However, since he himself was childless, he needed a daughter of his previous opponent. The goods that the Ezzone received at this reconciliation included Duisburg , Kaiserswerth and Saalfeld .

Mathilde apparently died unexpectedly during a visit to Ezzo's brother Hermann, while Ezzo was holding a meeting of the Lorraine nobility in Aachen, and was buried in the Brauweiler monastery, which she and Ezzo had founded.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ According to Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln Volume I.1 (2005) Table 10 and Volume I.2 (1999), Table 201. The identification of Aeccheze with Esch an der Sauer , as it is done in genealogie-medieval , must be wrong: Mathilde died on the 4th of the month and was buried on the 7th (Trillmich) - the distance between Esch an der Sauer and Brauweiler is around 180 kilometers, which at that time could not be covered within three days; the distance from Düren-Echtz to Brauweiler is 40 kilometers. Echtz also fits better than Esch an der Sauer to Mathilde's brother-in-law Hermann, the count in the Zülpichgau . The Lexicon of the Middle Ages , Eduard Hlawitschka , Werner Trillmich and Emil Kimpen keep the point open by merely equating Aeccheze with Esch, but not saying which Esch they mean.
personal data
SURNAME Mathilde
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter of Otto II, married the Count Palatine Ezzo
DATE OF BIRTH 979
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1025
Place of death Real