Eckard II (; – 24 January 1046) was Margrave of Lusatia (as Eckard I) from 1034 and

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 1038 until his death. He was the last of his dynasty, with his death the line of Ekkeharding margraves descending from Eckard I of Meissen (d. 1002) became extinct.

Life

He was a younger son of Margrave Eckard I of Meissen and his wife Swanehilde. Eckard was a count in the '' Gau'' Chutizi east of

Merseburg Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...

as well as in the

burgward A burgward or castellanyArnold, Benjamin (1991). ''Princes and territories in medieval Germany'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 165. . was a form of settlement used for the organisation of the Marca Geronis, northeastern ma ...

of Teuchern. Upon the assassination of his father in 1002, Eckard II and his elder brother Herman I ruled over the Ekkeharding

allod Allod, deriving from Frankish language, Frankish ''alōd'' meaning "full ownership" (from ''al'' "full, whole" and ''ōd'' "property, possession"; Medieval Latin ''allod'' or ''allodium''), also known as allodial land or proprietary property, was ...

ial lands, while the Meissen margravial title first passed to their uncle Gunzelin feuding with his nephews until his deposition in 1009. During the German–Polish War around the Lusatian and Milceni lands, the brothers were able to maintain the rule over the Meissen lands until fighting ended with the 1018

Peace of Bautzen The Peace of Bautzen (; ; ) was a treaty concluded on 30 January 1018, between Holy Roman Emperor Henry II and Bolesław I of Poland which ended a series of Polish-German wars over the control of Lusatia and Upper Lusatia (''Milzenerland'' or ...

. About 1026, Eckard married Uta von Ballenstedt, sister of the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

count Esico of Ballenstedt, progenitor of the noble

House of Ascania The House of Ascania () was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Principality of Anhalt, Anhalt. The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as ' ...

. The marriage remained childless. With the consent of Emperor Conrad II, he and his brother Herman had the seat of the Bishopric of Zeitz relocated to Naumburg Cathedral in 1028–29. In 1034 Eckard II became Margrave of Lusatia (

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 ...

) after his followers had slain the Wettin margrave Theoderic II, husband of Eckard's sister Matilda. Four years later he succeeded his brother Herman as Margrave of

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

. As guardian of the German eastern frontiers against

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

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

, he was often serving Emperor Conrad II and his successor King Henry III against these menaces, including the "Bohemian Achilles", Duke Bretislaus I. In 1039 Bretislaus, allied with King Peter of Hungary, who was at the same time raiding the Bavarian Avar March, made great gains in Poland, plundering

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

and

Gniezno Gniezno (; ; ) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The city is the administrative seat of Gniezno County (''powiat'') ...

, where he took along the relics of Saint Adalbert of Prague. In turn, King Henry III launched a campaign against him, together with his loyalest and most trusted allies, Archbishop Bardo of Mainz and Margrave Eckard. The

forces led by the Meissen margrave took part in both of the king's expedition's, in 1040 and 1041: the first unsuccessful, the latter a victory which forced Duke Bretislaus to submit and conclude a peace treaty. Margrave Eckard remained one of Henry's closest advisors until his death during a Saxon

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...

of 1046. He bequeathed his exceptional wealth and his margravial titles and lands to King Henry, who bestowed the margraviate on the Thuringian count William IV of Weimar. He and his wife Uta von Ballenstedt were immortalized by their famous

donor portrait A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. ''Donor portrait'' usually refers to the portr ...

s by the Naumburg Master in the Naumburg Cathedral.

Sources

* Gwatkin, H.M., Whitney, J. P. (ed) et al. ''The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1926. {{Authority control 1046 deaths Margraves of Meissen 11th-century counts in Europe 980s births House of Ekkehardiner