Tugumir

Tugumir (* before 929 † May 25 after 940 ) was a prince of the Heveller with seat on the Brandenburg .

Life

Tugumir was a son of the ruling Heveller prince in Brandenburg. Its name has not been passed down, possibly it was the Basqlābiǧ mentioned by the Arab scholar al-Masʿūdī .

Widukind von Corvey reported about Tugumir in his Saxon Chronicle around the year 967 that he had been captured by Henry I and taken prisoner in Saxony. It is generally assumed that Tugumir came into Saxon custody in 929 when Heinrich I took the Brandenburg, possibly as a noble hostage. The Slavic, unknown by name, who had an illegitimate relationship with the heir to the throne and later Emperor Otto I , could have been Tugumir's sister. The future Archbishop Wilhelm von Mainz emerged from this relationship . It is believed that Tugumir and his sister only converted to Christianity during their imprisonment. In contrast, in the early 1970s Herbert Ludat still represented the view of a Christian ruling dynasty of the Heveller Empire.

Around the year 940 Tugumir returned to Brandenburg in consultation with King Otto I. His nephew ruled there independently of Saxon suzerainty. Tugumir was installed as the rightful ruler there, took his nephew prisoner and killed him. He then recognized the suzerainty of Otto I and placed the castle and territory under him. According to Widukind, who describes Tugumir's actions as a betrayal of his people, Tugumir had received a large sum of money and even greater promises from Otto I, probably political concessions. Because of Tugumir's submission, all other Slavic tribes "up to the Oder" are said to have submitted to the king in a similar way and henceforth paid tribute. Tugumir's further fate can only be inferred in the absence of further news. Thereafter he is said to have ruled over the Heveller territory until his death.

Tugumir's year of death is unknown. He is no longer mentioned in the founding document of the Diocese of Brandenburg, which supposedly dates back to 948. The day of his death is given in the necrology of the Möllenbeck nunnery near Corvey as May 25th. The entry could be due to the fact that his sister lived there as a nun after separating from Otto I.

Descendants are not known.

Tugumir was the first Elbe Slavic prince to be mentioned by name in East Franconian sources since 862 . Research today assumes that his release was related to Otto I's interests in his new rulership center in Magdeburg and that the appointment of a Christian prince had a politically stabilizing effect for the Christianization of the East Elbe areas from above. Already under the Carolingians , the targeted appointment and support of princes had been used as a means of controlling rulership in the Elbe Slavic territories because there was a lack of troops and financial means for direct rule. In contrast, Tugumir's installation was not related to the murder of 30 Elbe Slavic princes by Margrave Gero , about which Widukind von Corvey reported immediately before the Tugumir episode. The massacre of the Slavic princes occurred around three years earlier.

Fiction

Under the name Tugomir, he is one of the main characters in the historical novel The Head of the World by Rebecca Gablé .

literature

Tugumir . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Volume VIII. Munich, Zurich 1997. Sp. 1050.
Herbert Ludat : On the Elbe and the Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian Empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0
Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak: Książę stodorański Tęgomir - próba rehabilitacji . In: Echa Przeszłości . T. 11. 2010. pp. 7-17. ( pdf ), with some hypothetical formulations

Remarks

↑ ^a ^b ^c Herbert Ludat : An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 , p. 12.
^ Widukind by Corvey II, 20.
^ RI II, 1 n.23b, in: Regesta Imperii Online (accessed November 9, 2014).
^ Gerd Althoff: Saxony and the same slavs in the tenth century. In: The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. III. Cambridge 1999, p. 283.
^ RI II, 1 n.78e, in: Regesta Imperii Online (accessed November 9, 2014).
↑ It is unclear whether the family continued into the 12th century, as Herbert Ludat considers possible. See also Wolfgang H. Fritze: Early days between the Baltic Sea and the Danube. Berlin 1982, p. 446.
↑ Christian Hanewinkel: The political importance of the Elbe Slavs with regard to the changes in rule in the East Franconian Empire and in Saxony from 887–936. Political sketches of the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries. Münster 2004, p. 183, online (PDF; 5 MB) .

personal data
SURNAME	Tugumir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Prince the Heveller
DATE OF BIRTH	9th century or 10th century
DATE OF DEATH	10th century

[HL12-1] Herbert Ludat : An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers in Central Europe. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-412-07271-0 , p. 12.

[2] Widukind by Corvey II, 20.

[3] RI II, 1 n.23b, in: Regesta Imperii Online (accessed November 9, 2014).

[4] Gerd Althoff: Saxony and the same slavs in the tenth century. In: The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. III. Cambridge 1999, p. 283.

[5] RI II, 1 n.78e, in: Regesta Imperii Online (accessed November 9, 2014).

[6] It is unclear whether the family continued into the 12th century, as Herbert Ludat considers possible. See also Wolfgang H. Fritze: Early days between the Baltic Sea and the Danube. Berlin 1982, p. 446.

[7] Christian Hanewinkel: The political importance of the Elbe Slavs with regard to the changes in rule in the East Franconian Empire and in Saxony from 887–936. Political sketches of the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries. Münster 2004, p. 183, online (PDF; 5 MB) .