Wichmann I.

Entry of Wichmann as Uuihnman in a group entry of the Ottonian royal family and their most important helpers from 929 in the Reichenau Fraternization Book , Zurich, Central Library, Rh. Hist. 27, p. 63.

Wichmann I the Elder (* around 900; † April 23, 944 ?) Was Count in Bardengau .

Wichmann came from the most influential and distinguished group of relatives in northern Saxony by far. He was the older brother of Hermann Billungs , the progenitor of the noble family of Billung . Wichmann had another brother, Amelung , Bishop of Verden . The marriage to a sister of Queen Mathilde from the Widukind family is likely to have increased Wichmann's reputation even further. Whether it is Bia, Fridarun or Peretheid is controversial. According to the prevailing opinion, it was Bia.

As the king's brother-in-law, Wichmann could also have belonged to Henry I's close confidante. After Heinrich I's death, his son King Otto I did not appoint Wichmann, but his younger brother Hermann Billung as the “princeps militae” in East Saxony. Perhaps he wanted to avoid a further increase in Wichmann's reputation, which would have stood in the way of an expansion of the royal claim to rule. Perhaps Wichmann had been closer to Mathilde's favorite son, Heinrich, than Otto. In any case, after this defeat, Wichmann left the army offended - as a precautionary measure - and joined the uprising of Otto I. Thankmar's half-brother, who had also been passed over . As the defeat of Thankmar and his allies began to emerge, he was reconciled with the king. The Quedlinburg Annals from around the year report on the year 939, while the Magdeburg Annals from around 1200 assign the event to the year 941. Common to both, however, is the reference to a humble submission by Wichmann, which preceded the reconciliation.

After Wichmann even named Wichmannsburg , a former moated castle at Wichmannsburg in the village Bienenbüttel seems to have been his favorite residence.

Wichmann had six children. His sons Wichmann II and Ekbert the One-Eyed, who were brought up at the royal court, felt that their uncle Hermann Billung had robbed them of their inheritance after his death in 944 and, in their fight against the uncle and the king, became rebels of the Ottonian era. The daughters Frideruna and Imma von founded the Kemnade monastery on the Weser near the town of Bodenwerder . The presumed son Brun I. von Verden was bishop of Verden and founded the nunnery in Oldenstadt near Uelzen . The daughter Hadwig was the wife of the knight Siegfrid von Merseburg, the son of Margrave Gero .

Remarks

1. ↑ Identification according to Donald C. Jackman : King Konrad, the last Carolingians and their Saxon relatives. in: Hans-Werner Goetz : Konrad I. - on the way to the 'German Reich'?. Winkler, Bochum 2006, p. 84 Note 29.
2. ^ Gerd Althoff : Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonians. (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 , p. 73.
3. ^ Gerd Althoff: Noble and royal families in the mirror of their memorial tradition. Studies on the commemoration of the dead of the Billunger and Ottonians. (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 47). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2267-2 , pp. 73f.
4. ^ Eduard Hlawitschka : Controversy from the environment of King Heinrich I's wife Mathilde. in: Ernst-Dieter Hehl, Hubertus Seibert , Franz Staab (eds.): Deus qui mutat tempora. People and Institutions through the Middle Ages. Festschrift for Alfons Becker on his sixty-fifth birthday. Thorbeke, Sigmaringen 1987 pp. 33–54, here pp. 50–54 with a detailed examination of the arguments put forward by Gerd Althoff.
5. ↑ Karl Kayser: Chronicle of the Wichmannsburg parish in the Hanoverian office of Medingen . Meyer, Hanover December 31, 1878, p. 14 .
6. ^ Karl Kayser: Chronicle of the Wichmannsburg parish in the Hanoverian office of Medingen . Meyer, Hanover December 31, 1878, p. 14 .
7. ↑ The information on the year and day of death remains questionable. For the entry in the Fulda memorial tradition, which is supposed to ensure the year of death 944, cf. Karl Schmid : The monastery community of Fulda in the early Middle Ages, vol. 1–3. Fink, Münster 1978, here vol. 1, p. 330 (on 944 no. 12), Wichmann's entry was changed from "L." (= Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium. Vol. 1–3. Foerster, Hannover 1707–1711, here Vol. 3, p. 763: "DCCCCXLIV. Wigmann Comes"; cf. Georg Waitz in: Annales necrologi Fuldenses. In : MGH Scriptores vol. 16. Hahn, Hannover 1881, pp. 161–218, here p. 197), the edition of which has since lost the leaves of the divided Fulda manuscript (Rome, Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana, Ottobonianus lat. 2531 and Fulda, Hessische Landesbibl., Ms B 1, earlier Sc.3.e34, cf. Waitz ibid. P. 165; Otto Gerhard Oexle: The tradition of the Fulda tales of the dead. In Karl Schmid: Die Klostergemeinschaft von Fulda, Vol. 2, 2, p 447–504, here pp. 449–453) of a Fulda Necrolog. Wichmann is missing in the excerpts from the Codex Leiden, Ms. Scaliger 49 (ibid. Pp. 233-270) and is therefore not listed in the register ibid. Vol. 2,1, p. 212 (the two monks of the same name do not come into consideration). Also with Ernst Dümmler : From a Fulda manuscript (sc. Codex Leiden, Ms. Scaliger 49). In: Research on German History ( Wikisource: Research on German History ) 16, 1876, pp. 168–177, here pp. 171–177 there is only one Wigmannus presbyter et monachus on January 12, which is not identical to Count Wichmann can be. For the entry in the Necrolog of St. Michael zu Lüneburg, which is supposed to provide the day of death, cf. MGH Libri memoriales et necrologia nova series II The books of the dead from Merseburg, Magdeburg and Lüneburg, ed. by Gerd Althoff, Joachim Wollasch, Hanover 1883, p. 25, where a Wichmannus comes is entered on April 23. The assignment on April 23 is uncertain, however, as an otherwise unknown count of this name is also entered in the Lüneburg Necrolog on May 12th.
8. ↑ Karl Kayser: Chronicle of the Wichmannsburg parish in the Hanoverian office of Medingen . Meyer, Hanover December 31, 1878, p. 14 .

literature

• Johannes Laudage : Otto the Great. A biography. Pustet, Regensburg 2001, p. 111f .; 228
• Gerd Althoff : Wichmann I., II. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 9, 1998, Col. 60.
• Matthias Becher : Rex, Dux and Gens. Investigations into the origin of the Saxon duchy. Matthisen, Husum 1996, p. 237.
• Hans K. Schulze : Hegemonic Empire. Ottonen and Salier. Siedler, 2nd edition Berlin 1994, pp. 179f.
• Rudolf Köpke , Ernst Dümmler : Emperor Otto the Great (Yearbooks of German History). Duncker and Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 57, p. 72-74; P. 579.