Duke of Saxony Liudolf

Duke of Saxony Liudolf

Male 0805 - 866  (~ 60 years)

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  • Name Liudolf  
    Prefix Duke of Saxony 
    Born 0805 
    Gender Male 
    Died 12 Mar 0864/0866 
    Buried Brunshausen Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I11745  Young Kent Ancestors
    Last Modified 1 Oct 2011 

    Family Oda 
    Married Bef 0830 
    Children 
     1. Otto I, Duke of Saxony,   b. 0851,   d. 30 Nov 0912  (Age ~ 61 years)
    Last Modified 20 Mar 2022 
    Family ID F3488  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Liudolf (born about 805, died 12 March 864 or 866) was a Saxon count, son of one count (Graf) Brun (Brunhart)[1] and his wife Gisla von Verla[2] ; later authors called him duke of the Eastern Saxons (dux orientalis Saxonum, probably since 850) and count of Eastphalia. Liudolf had extended possessions in eastern Saxony, and was a leader (dux) in the wars of King Louis the German against Normans and Slavs. The ruling Liudolfing House, also known as the Ottonian dynasty, is named after him; he is its oldest verified member.

      Before 830 Liudolf married Oda, daughter of a Frankish princeps named Billung and his wife Aeda. Oda died on 17 May 913, supposedly at the age of 107.[3]

      They had six children:[4]

      Brun
      Otto the Illustrious, father of Henry the Fowler
      Liutgard married King Louis the Younger in 874.[5]
      Hathumoda, became an abbess
      Gerberga, became an abbess
      Christina, became an abbess[6]
      By marrying a Frankish nobleman's daughter, Liudolf followed suggestions set forth by Charlemagne about ensuring the integrity of the Frankish Empire in the aftermath of the Saxon Wars through marriage.

      In 845/846, Liudolf and his wife traveled to Rome in order to ask Pope Sergius II for permission to found a house of secular canonesses, duly established at their proprietary church in Brunshausen around 852, and moved in 881 to form Gandersheim Abbey. Liudolf's minor daughter Hathumod became the first abbess.

      Liudolf is buried in Brunshausen.

      Notes:
      1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol 24, Ed. Hugh Chisholm, (1911), 268.
      2. de:Liudolf (Sachsen)
      3. Saint Odilo (Abbot of Cluny), Queenship and sanctity: The lives of Mathilda and The epitaph of Adelheid, translated by Sean Gilsdorf, (Catholic University of America Press, 2004), 24.
      4. Althoff, Gerd, Christopher Carroll, Family, friends and followers: political and social bonds in medieval Europe, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 38.
      5. The rise of the medieval world, 500-1300: a biographical dictionary, Ed. Jana K. Schulman , (Greenwood Press, 2002), 271.
      6. The rise of the medieval world, 500-1300: a biographical dictionary, 271.