Aeda
AedaBillung princeps and his wife Aeda are named by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim as the parents of Oda, of Frankish descent ["Cui coniux ergo fuerat praenobilis Oda, / Edita Francorum clara de stirpe potentum, / Filia Billungi, cuiusdam principis almi, / Atque bonae famae generosae scilicet Aedae / ..." Hrotsvitha, Carmen de primordiis coenobii Gandersheimensis, 21-4, MGH SS 4: 306]. Little is known of them beyond their names.
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
The principal chronological
indicator is the birth of her daughter Oda about 806.
Date of death: Unknown.
Place of
death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Billung.
Child:
Oda, d. [17
May?] 913;
m. Liudolf, d. 12 March 865×6, duke of Sachsen (Saxony).
Falsely attributed
father: Egbert, fl. 809-811, count in Saxony.
Falsely attributed
mother: St. Ida.
Falsely attributed
identification:
Adela/Addila, abbess of Herford.
Aeda has been identified with Adela, abbess
of Herford, apparent daughter of count Egbert and St. Ida
[Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 60-2, attributing the theory to several
authors not seen by me]. The identification does not appear
feasible, because Aeda's daughter Oda was said to be of Frankish
descent ["Atque bonae famae generosae scilicet Aedae"
Hrotsvitha, Carmen de primordiis coenobii Gandersheimensis,
24, MGH SS 4: 306; "... mater ex nobilissima aeque
Francorum prosapia descendens, in prole nobilior effulsit."
Agius, Vita Hathumodae, c. 2, MGH SS 4: 167], and Egbert
and Ida were Saxons.
Falsely attributed
children:
The above conjecture that Aeda was
a daughter of count Egbert and his wife St. Ida has led to the
following granchildren of Egbert and Ida being attributed as
children of Billung and Aeda. See the page of Egbert for more details on these individuals.
Haduwy (Hathuwig), abbess of
Herford, 858-887;
m. Amalung.
Cobbo, fl. 890?
Falsely attributed
father: Pippin, d. 8 July 810, king of Italy.
Falsely attributed
identification: Adélaďde,
b. ca. 798 (known daughter of Pippin).
This claim is based on a statement of Fasti
Corbeienses under the year 885, which states that duke
Liudolf's wife Oda was a neptis through a daughter of
Pippin, king of Italy ["Oda comitissa, Pipini regis
Italiae ex filia neptis, Hliudolfi ducis vidua, in Calvve ad
flumen Milde fundat sanctimonialium ecclesiam in honorem S.
Laurentii." Fasti Corbeienses, printed in
Eckhardt (1970), 477ff., not seen by me, passage quoted in
Hlawitschka (1974), 128]. K. A. Eckhardt accepted this
information, and identified Oda's mother Aeda with Pippin's known
daughter Adélaďde [Eckhardt (1970), not seen by me, but
outlined in detail in Hlawitschka (1974), 128-139, and briefly in
Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 62-3]. However, Hlawitschka showed that Fasti
Corbeienses is a fabrication made by Johann Christoph
Harenberg in the 1750's, and he noted that the relationship is
chronologically impossible anyway [Hlawitschka (1974), 128-139,
Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 62-3].
Eckhardt (1970) = K. A. Eckhardt, Studia Corbeiensia, 2 vols. (Bibliotheca rerum histroicarum, 1970). [I have not seen this work.]
Hlawitschka (1974) = Eduard Hlawitschka, "Zur Herkunft der Liudolfinger und zu einigen Corveyer Geschichtsquellen", Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 38 (1974): 92-165.
Hlawitschka (2006) = Eduard Hlawitschka, Die Ahnen de hochmittelalterlichen deutschen Könige, Kaiser und ihrer Gemahlinnen. Ein kommentiertes Tafelwerk. Band I: 911-1137, 2 vols. (MGH Hilfsmittel, 25, Hannover, 2006).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 3 April 2011.