Lothair Udo I (994-7 November 1057), Margrave of Nordmark and

Count of Stade The Counts of Stade were members of the Saxony nobility beginning in the 10th century. Stade had developed since the 8th century as a principal center of trade and communications. The Counts of Stade created their domain between the lower Elbe and ...

(as Lothair Udo II), son of

Siegfried II, Count of Stade Siegfried II (c. 956 – 1037), Count of Stade, was the youngest son of Henry I the Bald, Count of Stade, and his wife Judith von der Wetterau, granddaughter of Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine. He succeeded his brother, Henry as Count of Stade in 1016.< ...

, and Adela of Rhienfelden, daughter of

Gero, Count of Alsleben Gero (died 11 August 979) was a Count of Alsleben, conjectured to be the son of Siegfried and therefore grandson of Gero the Great. If so, his mother was Hedwig, daughter of Wichmann the Elder. Gero was the brother of Tetta, who established a mona ...

. Lothair was the first of the House of Udonids to serve as margrave. Lothair was in conflict with Adelbert,

Bishop of Bremen This list records the bishops of the Roman Catholic diocese of Bremen (), supposedly a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Cologne, then of the bishops of Bremen, who were in personal union archbishops of Hamburg (simply titled Archbishops of Ham ...

, over jurisdiction of the county and, in 1053, killed his cousin Ekbert of Elsdorf-Stade, inheriting his land. In 1044,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

became Margrave of Nordmark, and, as a Saxon leader, was defeated in 1056 by the

Liutizi The Lutici or Liutizi (known by various spelling variants) were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: t ...

at the Battle of Pritziawa. Lothair was appointed margrave later that year. This appointment was opposed by

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants '' Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fr ...

, illegitimate son of Bernard, and Lothair was killed by the Otto’s allies on 26 June 1057 at his home at Neindorf on the Selke. Lothair married Adelheid, Countess of Oeningen, daughter of Count Kuno von Oeningen. Lothair and Adelheid had one son: * Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark Lothair also married Ida von Elstorf (d. 1052), daughter of Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia, son of

Gisela of Swabia Gisela of Swabia ( 990 – 15 February 1043), was queen of Germany from 1024 to 1039 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1039 by her third marriage with Emperor Conrad II. She was the mother of Emperor Henry III. She was regent of ...

, who was half-brother of

Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (, 28 October 1016 – 5 October 1056), called the Black () or the Pious, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1046 until his death in 1056. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was the eldest son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia. Henry was rais ...

. They had two children: * Oda of Stade, married Sviatoslav II Yaroslavich, Grand Prince of Kiev.Bautier 1985, p. 545. Oda is believed to have arranged the marriage of her nephew Henry III the Long, Count of Stade, to Euproxia of Kiev. The son of Oda and Sviatoslav was Yaroslav Sviatoslavich, Prince of Murom * Ekbert, murdered by his half-brother Lothair Udo II in Wickstadt, near Elstorf Lothair Udo was succeeded by his son and namesake as both margrave and count. After Lothair Udo’s death, his son took vengeance on those who participated in his senseless murder, including his half-brother Ekbert. Otto, the instigator of Lothair Udo's murder, was killed in a battle near Hausneindorf in the summer of 1058.

References

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 Leyser, Karl, Medieval Germany and Its Neighbours 900-1250, The Hambledon Press, London, 1982 Bury, J. B. (editor), The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III, Germany and the Western Empire, Cambridge University Press, 1922 Hucke, Richard G., Die Grafen von Stade 900-1144. Genealogie, politische Stellung, Comitat und Allodialbesitz der sächsischen Udonen; Diss. Kiel, Stade mit umfassenden Nachweisen der Quellen und älteren Literatur, 1956 {{Authority control Counts of Stade 994 births 1057 deaths 11th-century German nobility