Herbert of Wetterau (c. 930 – 992) was the son of
Odo of Wetterau
Odo of Wetterau (c. 895 – 2 December 949) was a prominent German nobleman of the 10th century.
In 914, Odo was appointed Count of Wetterau and founded St. Mary's Church in Wetzlar. The Wetterau had been one of the counties of his father G ...
and a daughter (presumably named Cunigunde) of
Herbert I, Count of Vermandois
Herbert I (c. 848/850 – 907) or Heribertus I, Count of Vermandois, Count of Meaux, Count of Soissons, and lay abbot of Saint Quentin. He was a Carolingian aristocrat who played a significant role in Francia.
Herbert was the son of Pepin of ...
and Bertha de Morvis. Herbert was an important nobleman in central Germany and leader of the
Conradines
The Conradines or Conradiner were a dynasty of Franconian counts and dukes in the 8th to 11th Century, named after Duke Conrad the Elder and his son King Conrad I of Germany.
History
The family is first mentioned in 832, with Count Gebhard in ...
.
After the death of his father Odo of Wetterau in 949, Herbert became count of Kinziggau, Engersgau, and Wetterau. He also inherited the castle of Gleiberg, perched on basalt in the modern-day
Giessen
Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...
. In 976 Herbert got the count's rights for Gleiberg and vicinity: the county Gleiberg. Herbert also acquired the title of
count palatine
A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an ord ...
. In 981 he followed Emperor
Otto II
Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. ...
to Italy, and in 982, he took part in the disastrous
Battle of Stilo
The Battle of Stilo (also known as Cape Colonna and Crotone) was fought on 13 or 14 July 982 near Crotone in Calabria between the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and his Italo-Lombard allies and those of the Kalbid emir of Sicily, Ab ...
against the
Saracens
file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens
Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...
.
Marriage and children
He married Irmtrud of Avalgau (957 – 1020), daughter of
Megingoz and
Gerberga (daughter of
Godfrey, Count Palatine of Lotharingia and Ermentrude, daughter of
Charles the Simple
Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...
and granddaughter of
Otto I of Saxony
Otto ( – 30 November 912), called the Illustrious (german: Otto der Erlauchte) by later authors, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Saxony from 880 to his death.
Family
Otto was a younger son of the Saxon count Liudolf (d. 866), t ...
). They had the following children:
*
Otto of Hammerstein
* Gebhard (d. 8 Nov 1016)
*
Gerberga of Gleiberg
Gerberga of Gleiberg (c. 970 – aft. 1036) was a daughter of Herbert of Wetterau and Irmtrud of Avalgau (957 – 1020).
She married Henry of Schweinfurt and had the following children:
*Otto III, Duke of Swabia
*Eilika of Schweinfurt (c. ...
(c. 970 – aft. 1036), married
Henry of Schweinfurt
Henry of Schweinfurt (''de Suinvorde''; – 18 September 1017) was the Margrave of the Nordgau from 994 until 1004. He was called the "glory of eastern Franconia" by his own cousin, the chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg.
Henry was the son of ...
* Irmtrud (c. 978 – c. 1020), married
Frederick of Luxembourg
Frederick of Luxembourg (965 – 6 October 1019), Count of Moselgau, was a son of Siegfried of Luxembourg and Hedwig of Nordgau.
Frederick married Irmtrud, daughter of Count Herbert of Wetterau. They had issue:
* Henry VII (d. 1047), Count of Lu ...
Ahnentafel
References
930s births
992 deaths
{{Germany-noble-stub