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Wichmann I the Elder (also spelled ''Wigmann'' or ''Wichman'') (died 23 April 944) was a member of the Saxon
House of Billung The House of Billung was a dynasty of Saxon noblemen in the 9th through 12th centuries. The first known member of the house was Count Wichmann, mentioned as a Billung in 811. Oda, the wife of Count Liudolf, oldest known member of the Liudolf ...
. He was a brother of Amelung,
Bishop of Verden This is a list of bishops, prince-bishops, and administrators of Verden. The Catholic Diocese of Verden (german: link=no, Bistum Verden), was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mainz. From the 12th century, the Bishop of Verden was also, '' ex off ...
, and Herman, Duke of Saxony.


Biography

In 938, Wichmann rebelled because his younger brother Herman had been given military command of the northern reaches of the
Duchy of Saxony The Duchy of Saxony ( nds, Hartogdom Sassen, german: Herzogtum Sachsen) was originally the area settlement geography, settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and in ...
. He believed that he had a better claim to the office by virtue of his seniority and his ''Königsnähe'' (closeness to the king), because he was related by marriage to the queen dowager Matilda. He was joined by
Eberhard of Franconia Eberhard III (c. 885 – 2 October 939), a member of the Conradine dynasty, was Duke of Franconia, succeeding his elder brother, King Conrad I, in December 918. From 926 to 928, he also acted as ruler of Lotharingia. Life Eberhard was the sec ...
, and Thankmar, the half-brother of King Otto I. The revolt was soon suppressed. Thankmar died the same year he and Eberhard came to terms. Wichmann allied with some Slavs and made war against his former compatriots.Thompson, 599–600, records that
Widukind of Corvey Widukind of Corvey (c. 925after 973) was a medieval Saxon chronicler. His three-volume '' Res gestae Saxonicae sive annalium libri tres'' is an important chronicle of 10th-century Germany during the rule of the Ottonian dynasty. Life In view of ...
was condoning of Wichmann's behaviour.
He reconciled to Otto in 941.


Personal life

Wichmann married Frederuna (or Fridaruna), niece of Queen Matilda. She became a nun after her husband's death and died on 18 January 971. She left him at least three sons and a daughter: * Wichmann II *
Bruno, Bishop of Verden Bruno (920 – 26 January 976), son of Wichmann the Elder and his wife Frederuna, niece of Queen Matilda, wife of Henry the Fowler, served as a Bishop of Verden. Bruno was appointed to succeed Bishop Amelung, brother of Hermann Billung, in 962. ...
* Egbert the One-Eyed * Hathui, married Siegfried, son of Gero the Great, possibly mother of Gero, Count of Alsleben. Wichmann and Frederuna may have been the parents of Dietrich, Margrave of the Nordmark.


Sources

* * Thompson, James Westfall. ''Feudal Germany, Volume II''. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1928. *Bernhardt, John W. ''Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.


Notes

944 deaths Dukes of Saxony House of Billung Year of birth unknown Counts of Stade 10th-century Saxon people {{Germany-noble-stub