Billung
BillungBillung 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 him beyond his name. He is perhaps the Billung who appears as a witness in three Fulda donations of 12 August 837 [Codex Fuld., 220-1 (#499-501)]. There is also a Billung who appears in two Fulda donations of 863 [ibid., 261-2 (#581-2)], when Billung the father of Oda (b. ca. 806) would have been at least in his upper 70's if still alive.
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
The principal chronological
indicator is the birth of his daughter Oda about 806.
Date of death: Unknown.
Place of
death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse: Aeda.
Child:
Oda, d. [17
May?] 913;
m. Liudolf, d. 12 March 865×6, duke of Sachsen (Saxony).
Conjectured father (evidence
weak): Bernhard,
count.
Conjectured mother (evidence
weak): Christina.
Count Bernhard and his wife Christina are
mentioned in two Fulda traditions, one by his brother Adalhard
["Adalhart trad. sco Bon. pro anima fratris sui
Bernhardi comitis omnem hereditatem illius et uxoris eius
Christine ..." Trad. Fuld., 98 (#41.61);
"Eberkar trad. deo et sco Bon. quicquid ei Bernhart
comes trad. in memoriam sui et uxoris sue christinae."
ibid., 99 (#41.62)]. Hlawitschka attributes the theory that this
couple were parents of Billung to Wenskus [Hlawitschka (2006),
1.2: 60, citing R. Wenskus, Sächs. Stammesadel, 195ff.,
the latter not seen by me]. It is an onomastic argument based on
the fact that Oda had a daughter named Christina.
Falsely attributed
children:
A conjecture that Billung's wife
Aeda was a daughter of count Egbert and his wife St. Ida has led
to the following grandchildren of Egbert and Ida being attributed
as children of Billung and Aeda. See the pages of Aeda
and Egbert for more details on these individuals.
Haduwy (Hathuwig), abbess of
Herford, 858-887;
m. Amalung.
Cobbo, fl. 890?
Codex Fuld. = Ernst Friedrich Johann Dronke, ed., Codex diplomaticus Fuldensis (Cassel, 1850).
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.
Trad. Fuld. = Ernst Friedrich Johann Dronke, ed., Traditiones et antiquitates Fuldenses (Fulda, 1844).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 3 April 2011.