Plectrudis

Tomb slab of the Plectrudis in St. Mary in the Capitol

Plektrudis (Bliktrud) (* before 660, † after 717, probably August 10, 725 in Cologne ) was the wife of the Carolingian housekeeper Pippin the Middle .

Life

Plectrudis came from the most distinguished Austrasian nobility , probably from the Hugobert Irmina clan . She was probably the daughter of Irmina von Oeren and the (Count Palatine) Hugobert , and thus the sister of Abbess Adela von Pfalzel near Trier .

She had been married to Pippin the Middle since about 670/675. With him she made numerous donations to churches and monasteries. It seems historically probable that the goods she brought into the marriage helped Pippin to overcome the crisis of the Arnulfingian house . This is probably one of the reasons why Plektrudis was involved in all of Pippin's legal transactions. Her sons Drogo and Grimoald the Younger were given important offices by Pippin.

Shortly before Pippin's death, she tried to defend the rights of her grandchildren (her sons had already died) against the claims of Pippin's Friedelsohn Karl Martell . Pippin agreed that an illegitimate son of Grimoald, the only seven-year-old Theudoald , should inherit him. Karl was first imprisoned by Plektrudis in Cologne . However, he was able to flee and with the help of a force he set up finally force Plectrudis in 717 to recognize his rights. According to tradition, she died in Cologne in 725. After her death, she was venerated as a saint.

Plektrudis is the founder of St. Maria in the Capitol in Cologne, where she was buried. A valuable sarcophagus was found during excavations. Their bones were lost after the Second World War .

literature

• Ulrich Nonn :  Plectrudis. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 23, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017535-5 , pp. 205-206. ( online )
• Silvia Konecny: The women of the Carolingian royal family: The political significance of marriage and the position of women in the Franconian ruling family from the 7th to the 10th century (= University of Vienna : Dissertations of the University of Vienna. Volume 132). Association of Austrian Scientific Societies, Vienna 1976 DNB 800239261 (Dissertation University of Vienna 1976, 261 pages).
• Rudolf Schieffer : The Carolingians. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-019099-7 .
• Rudolf Schieffer:  Plectrum. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 527 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Plectrudis . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 19.
• Matthias Werner : Noble families around the early Carolingians (= Constance working group for medieval history : lectures and research. Special volume 28, ISSN  0933-4467 ). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1982, ISBN 3-7995-6688-0 ( full text online PDF, free of charge, 347 pages, 240 MB).

Web links

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