Siegfried I (b. before 929, d. after 961),
Count of Stade, son of
Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Swanhild of Saxony, brother of
Henry I the Bald, Count of Stade Henry I the Bald (died 11 May 976) was Count of Stade. He was son of Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Swanhild of Saxony. Henry is recorded as a cousin of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, but their exact relationship remains a mystery. Henry was also ap ...
.
After the death of their father, Lothar, in the
Battle of Lenzen
The Battle of Lenzen was a land battle between a Saxon army of the Kingdom of Germany and the armies of the Slavic Redarii and Linonen peoples, that took place on 4 September 929 near the fortified Linonen stronghold of Lenzen in Brandenburg, ...
, Stade was ruled by
Wichmann I the Elder and his sons, who controlled a relatively large cavalry force (several hundred horses) on the left bank of the Elbe. By 955, the sons of Wichmann,
Wichmann II the Younger and
Egbert the One-Eyed, had rebelled against
Otto I
Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of He ...
, then King of Germany, and the countship of Stade reverted to the family of Lothar.
Siegfried and his brother built the castle at
Harsefeld
Harsefeld (in High German, in Low Saxon: Harsfeld; literally in ''horse field'') is a municipality situated south-west of Hamburg (Germany). Harsefeld has a population of c. 12,500 and belongs to the district of Stade, Lower Saxony.
Harsefeld ...
which was converted to religious uses for the
Archdiocese of Bremen
The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (german: Fürsterzbistum Bremen) — not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994 — was an ecclesiastical principality (787–1566/1648) of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic ...
under the rule of Henry's son and then to a Benedictine archabbey in 1104.
The only reference to Siegfried as a count is in a charter of Otto dated 23 April 961, and it is possible that Siegfried and his brother were co-rulers at that time. It is not known whether Siegfried was married or had any children. The next known Count of Stade was Henry's son Henry II the Good, who ruled the county until his death in 1016.
Sources
* Warner, David A., ''Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg'', Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2001
* Reuter, Timothy, ''Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800-1036'', London and New York, 1992
* Bury, J. B. (editor), ''The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III, Germany and the Western Empire'', Cambridge University Press, 1922
Medieval Lands Project, Grafen von Stade (family of Lothar){{Reflist
10th-century Saxon people
Counts of Stade