Oda (Billunger)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oda , also Ode , († March 15 after 973 ) was the first wife of the Saxon margrave Hermann Billung . As ancestral mother of the ducal line of the Billunger family, she is one of the ancestors of almost all European royal and princely houses.

Historical evidence

There is no document mentioning Oda, but only three, possibly four necrological documents. Since the chronicle in the necrology of the church of St. Michael in Lüneburg from the 13th century mentions a marriage between Hermann Billung and Hildegard , Oda was overlooked by research for centuries. The Billunger diptych of 1071/85 also contained in the codex begins with Hermannus dux and Ode com. ( comitissa ). But it was not until 1951 that Ruth Bork raised the question of whether Oda should not be Hermann Billung's wife.

In the Lüneburg necrology there are three entries of a Countess Ode or Oda. None of them are marked with a cross, as is usual for the members of the ducal family and the abbots of the monastery. The first entry on March 15 is: O. Ode com. In 1984 Gerd Althoff referred to the necrology of Xanten , where ode as the wife of a Duke Hermann is documented for the same day .

Marriage and offspring

In the diptych, Countess Oda is followed by a Hildesuith com. Therefore, the latter is assumed either as the second wife of Hermann Billungs or as the wife of his son Duke Bernhard I who died early . Since no Hildesuith is known among Hermann Billung's granddaughters and, unlike Oda, the name does not appear in the Lüneburg necrology, Hildesuith should not be considered as Hermann Billung's second wife. This is supported by the fact that Schwanhilde, the (presumably second) daughter of Hermann Billung, named one of her two daughters from her second marriage to Margrave Ekkehard I of Meißen, Oda , who became Queen of Poland in 1018 as the wife of Bolesław I Chrobry .

Herrmann Billung and Oda had the following children:

  • Count Liudger († 1011)
  • Mathilde († 1008)
∞ Count Balduin III. of Flanders
∞ Count Gottfried the Prisoner of Verdun
  • Schwanhilde († 1014)
∞ Margrave Thietmar von Meißen
∞ Margrave Ekkehard I of Meissen

literature

  • Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition, studies on the commemoration of the dead of Billunger and Ottonen . Munich 1984, pp. 48-50, H 6, G 27, G 45
  • Edeltraud Balzer: Nobility Church Foundation. Studies on the history of the Münster diocese in the 11th century , dissertation Münster, Münster 2006, excursus I: On the origin of Odas, the wife of Hermann Billung , pp. 434–449
  • Ruth Bork: Die Billunger, with contributions to the history of the German-Wendish border area in the 10th and 11th century. Dissertation, Greifswald 1951
  • Richard G. Hucke: The Counts of Stade 900-1144, genealogy, political position, comitat and allodial possession of the Saxon Udonen , dissertation Kiel, Stade 1956
  • Dieter Riemer: Harsefeld in the Middle Ages (Harsefelder Regesten) . In: Geschichte und Gegenwart 2005 , pp. 38–55 [p. 38/39]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nekrologium monasterii S. Michaelis , ed. by Anton Christian Wedekind: Notes on some historians of the German Middle Ages , Third Volume, Ninth Book, Note V, p. 20, Hamburg 1836
personal data
SURNAME Oda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oda of Saxony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ancestor of the ducal line of the Billunger
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century or 10th century
DATE OF DEATH March 15 after 973