Conrad I ( – 5 February 1157), called the Great (), a member of the
House of Wettin
The House of Wettin () was a dynasty which included Saxon monarch, kings, Prince Elector, prince-electors, dukes, and counts, who once ruled territories in the present-day German federated states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynas ...
, was
Margrave of Meissen
This article lists the margraves of Margraviate of Meissen, Meissen, a March (territorial entity), march and territorial state on the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire.
History
King Henry the Fowler, on his 928–29 campaign against the S ...
from 1123 and
Margrave of Lusatia from 1136 until his retirement in 1156. Initially a
Saxon count, he became the ruler over large Imperial estates in the
Eastern March and progenitor of the
Saxon electors and
kings.
Life
Conrad was the son of the
Saxon count
Thimo of Wettin and his wife Ida, a daughter of Count
Otto of Nordheim. Both his father and maternal grandfather had been involved in the
Saxon Rebellion against the
Salian king
Henry IV in 1073–75. Thimo was the first to call himself a Count of
Wettin after the ancestral seat on the
Saale
The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...
river, while his elder brother
Dedi ruled in the Saxon March of Lusatia (
Eastern March). His son
Henry the Elder also became the first Wettin margrave in
Meissen in 1089.
Upon the early death of his father, Conrad succeeded him as Count of Wettin and
Brehna. When his cousin Henry the Elder died in 1103, he hoped to be enfeoffed with the Lusatian and Meissen marches by Emperor Henry IV. However, his expectations proved to be false, when Henry's widow
Gertrude of Brunswick gave birth to a posthumous son,
Henry II. When Henry II attained his majority in 1121, he campaigned against his uncle and had him arrested. Conrad faced an end in prison, but avoided this fate when Henry II died in 1123 at the age of twenty, presumably poisoned.
[
Now head of the Wettin dynasty, Conrad saw his aspirations fulfilled. He succeeded Henry II as Count of Eilenburg and also claimed Lusatia and Meissen. However, that same year, Emperor Henry V enfeoffed Count Wiprecht of Groitzsch with both marches. Furious Conrad forged an alliance with the Saxon duke Lothair of Supplinburg and with the support of several local nobles expelled Wiprecht. Duke Lothair ignored the Imperial bestowal and appointed Conrad Margrave of Meissen; he also named the Ascanian count ]Albert the Bear
Albert the Bear (; 1100 – 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142.
Life
Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika of Sa ...
Margrave of Lusatia. As Wiprecht was unable to hold his own against his two opponents, Conrad was securely in power in Meissen by Wiprecht's death in May 1124.[
In 1136, upon the death Wiprecht's son Henry of Groitzsch, Lothair, then emperor (as Lothair II), appointed Conrad to Lusatia as well. He also ruled the Milceni lands around Bautzen (later known as ]Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...
), which had been re-acquired from Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and remained a part of Meissen, while the March of Lusatia was reduced to Lower Lusatia
Lower Lusatia (; ; ; ; ) is a historical region in Central Europe, stretching from the southeast of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg to the southwest of Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland. Like adjacent Upper Lusatia in the south, Lower Lusa ...
alone. Obtaining the status of an Imperial Prince, Margrave Conrad had the Polabian territories colonised by Flemish settlers in the course of the '' Ostsiedlung'' migration and laid the foundations for the development of the Wettin dominions in Upper Saxony.[
In 1143, Conrad also became Count of Groitzsch and ]Rochlitz
Rochlitz (; , ) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members being the mu ...
and '' Vogt'' (bailiff) in Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...
and Naumburg. He eased the tensions with the neighbouring Kingdom of Poland by marrying his son Theodoric
Theodoric is a Germanic given name. First attested as a Gothic name in the 5th century, it became widespread in the Germanic-speaking world, not least due to its most famous bearer, Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.
Overview
The name w ...
to Dobroniega Ludgarda, a daughter of the Polish duke Bolesław III Wrymouth
Bolesław III Wrymouth (; 20 August 1086 – 28 October 1138), also known as Boleslaus the Wry-mouthed, was the duke of Lesser Poland, Silesia and Sandomierz between 1102 and 1107 and over the whole of Poland between 1107 and 1138. He was the onl ...
. He also married his eldest son Otto II to Hedwig of Brandenburg, a daughter of Margrave Albert the Bear.[
In 1147, while the ]Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...
king Conrad III of Germany was on the Second Crusade, Conrad joined the Welf duke Henry the Lion, Albert the Bear
Albert the Bear (; 1100 – 18 November 1170) was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142.
Life
Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika of Sa ...
, the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Bremen on the Wendish Crusade against the Slavic Obodrites and Wagri tribes. In August, Conrad, Albert, the bishops of Magdeburg, Havelburg, and Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
deployed their forces at Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river.
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...
. The Dubin and Dimin fortresses of Obodrite prince Niklot were besieged. Both he and Pribislav, another Obodrite prince, were forced to adopt Christianity.[
In his later years, Conrad founded the Lauterberg monastery (later Petersberg Abbey) north of Halle, to which he retired after he had officially renounced all secular rights in favour of his son Otto II on 30 November 1156. There he died the following year and was buried next to his wife, Luitgard (Lucarda; d. 1146), daughter of the Swabian count Adalbert of Elchingen-Ravenstein and his wife Bertha of Boll, possibly a daughter of Duke Frederick of Swabia and the Salian princess Agnes of Waiblingen.][
]
Marriage and issue
His wife Luitgard of Elchingen-Ravenstein (–1146), whom he had married before 1119, had blessed him with many children. His eldest surviving son, Otto II, succeeded him in Meissen in 1156, while his second surviving son, Theodoric
Theodoric is a Germanic given name. First attested as a Gothic name in the 5th century, it became widespread in the Germanic-speaking world, not least due to its most famous bearer, Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.
Overview
The name w ...
, succeeded in Lusatia. His son Count Henry of Wettin married Sophia of Sommerschenburg, Countess Palatine of Saxony, daughter of Count Frederick VI, Count Palatine of Saxony of Sommerschenburg and Countess Liutgard of Stade, queen dowager of Denmark.[
His issue were:
* Henry, died young
* Otto II, Margrave of Meissen (–1190)
* Theodoric I, Margrave of Lusatia (Dietrich; –1185)
* Dedi III, Margrave of Lusatia (Dedo V of Wettin; –1190)
* Henry I, Count of Wettin (d. 1181), married (1) Sophia of Sommerschenburg (d. 1189 or 1190), daughter of Count Frederick VI, Count Palatine of Saxony of Sommerschenburg, Count Palatine of Saxony and his wife Countess Liutgard of Stade (later queen of Denmark).
* Frederick I of Brehna (–1182)
* Gertrud (d. ), married Count Gunther II of Schwarzburg
* Oda (d. ), Abbess of Gerbstedt
* Adela of Meissen (d. 1181), married King ]Sweyn III of Denmark
Sweyn III GratheFor the significance of the epithet, see (; – 23 October 1157) was the king of Denmark between 1146 and 1157, in shifting alliances with Canute V and his own cousin Valdemar I of Denmark, Valdemar I. In 1157, the three agreed ...
(d. 1157), secondly married to Count Adalbert of Ballenstedt (d. 1171)
* Bertha, Abbess of Gerbstedt
* Sophia (d. 1190), married Count Gebhard I of Burghausen
* Agnes II, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (d. 1203)[
]
References
Bibliography
*
* Thompson, James Westfall: ''Feudal Germany, Volume II''. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1928.
* Janos Stekovics: Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. Halle (Saale): ''Konrad von Wettin und seine Zeit.'' Protocol of the conference on the 900th birthday of Conrad of Wettin at the Burggymnasium Wettin, 18/19th July 1998. .
* Lobeck, Immanuel L. O.: ''Markgraf Konrad von Meissen.'' Leipzig 1878, (Leipzig, Universität, Dissertation, 1878
Digitalisat
.
* Manfred Orlick: ''Stammvater des sächsischen Königshauses''. in ''Wahre Geschichten um die Straße der Romanik'', p. 42–52, 2016, .
* Gerlinde Schlenker, Axel Voigt: ''Konrad I, Markgraf von Meißen und der sächsischen Ostmark.'' 2007, .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad of Meissen, Margrave
House of Wettin
Margraves of Meissen
Christians of the Wendish Crusade
1090s births
1157 deaths
Year of birth uncertain