Hadwig (Hathui, Haduwich)
Hadwig (Hathui, Haduwich)Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: 24 December, probably 903.
Place of
death: Unknown.
The necrology of Merseburg gives
24 December as her date of death ["VIIII. k. [Ian.] ...
Hathuuui mat. Heinrici reg." Calend. Merseb., 127].
She was probably the countess Had(a)wih whose 903 death is given
in the Necrological Annals of Fulda ["Hadwih com. / Ob.
Hadawih" Ann. Necr. Fuld., MGH SS 13: 189].
Possible father: Heinrich, d.
28 August 886, marquis of Neustia.
Mother: Unknown.
Although Hadwig's father is not directly
documented, the circumstantial evidence in favor of Heinrich is
good. This is discussed below in the Commentary section, as is
the conjectured origin of her mother.
Spouse: Otto "der Erlauchten", d. 912, duke of Sachsen (Saxony).
["Temporibus quondam regis
Francorum Conradi, dux in tota Germania princeps extiterat nomine
Otto, genere secundum seculi dignitatem nobilissimus, opibus
pullens, et cunctos honore praecellens, quia virtutibus erat
praeditus, cuius coniugium veneranda matrona Haduwich subierat
moribus non dissimilis. His filiae procreantur et tres filii, ...
horum unum nomine Heinricum maiori sustulit excellentia, ..."
Vita Mahthildis reginae antiquior, c. 1, MGH SS 10;
"... extitit in partibus Germaniae dux quidam Otto
nomine, ... Cui Hathuwic, matrona venerabilis, coniugali
copulabatur vinculo. Quibus duo gignebantur filii, ... Maior natu
vocabatur Thancmarus, et alter Heinricus." Vita
Mahthildis reginae, c. 1, MGH SS 4: 284; "Hic
nobilissimo Ottonis et Hathui stemmate editus, ..."
Thietmar, Chron., i, 2, MGH SS 3: 735]
Children:
See the page of Otto
for details.
Thankmar, d. bef. 30 November 912.
Liudolf, d. bef. 30 November 912.
Heinrich I,
d. 2 July 936, king of Germany, 919-936;
m. (1) Hatheburg, (d. 21 June?), daughter of Erwin, count of Merseburg.
m. (2) ca. 909, Mathilde, d. 14 March 968, daughter of
count Dietrich.
Oda, living 30 December 952;
m. (1) 897, after Easter, Zwentibold, d. 13
August 900, king of Lorraine;
m. (2) 900, Gérard/Gerhard, d. 22 June 910,
count.
Possible daughter:
See the page of Otto
for details.
Liutgard, d. 21 January 923, abbess of
Gandersheim, 919-923.
Much has been written about the possible origin of Hadwig. The account given here owes much to the outline of Eduard Hlawitschka [Hlawitschka (2006), 39-52]. The parentage of Hadwig was a matter of speculation from a very early time. As the mother of a king (Heinrich I) who did not have any obvious genealogical claim to the throne, it was inevitable that someone would try to turn her into a Carolingian herself, or at least a descendant of that house. The earliest known attempt in that direction did not even give her the right name:
Falsely attributed
name: Liutgard.
Falsely attributed
father: Arnulf,
d. 8 December 899, emperor.
This claim, repeated often in some of the
older secondary sources, appears in one version of the universal
chronicle of Ekkehard ["Cuonradus rex moriens coram
principibus regni regem designat Heinricum, filium Ottonis
Saxonum ducis ex Luitgarda filia Arnulfi imperatoris."
Ekkehard, Chronicon universale, MGH SS 6: 175; Annales
Magdeburgenses (following Ekkehard), s.a. 919, MGH SS 16:
142]. Even if we ignore the incorrect name of Heinrich's mother,
the claim is chronologically impossible (Arnulf was born ca.
850). It is a transparent attempt to give the Saxon dynasty a
Carolingian ancestry. A more recent variant of this error gives
the correct name but keeps the false parentage [e.g., RFC2, 131
(line 172)].
Although this attempt to find a Carolingian ancestry for Heinrich is false, it is natural to ask what evidence there might be for such a descent. One thing that we can say with reasonable certainty is that Hadwig was not the daughter of a Carolingian king, for there is little chance that such a relationship, if true, would have gone unnoticed in the early sources. So, if Hadwig had a Carolingian connection, it would have to be of a more indirect nature. While there is no early source which unambiguously states that Hadwig was of Carolingian descent, there is one source which can be seen as possibly implying such a descent. In the life of Heinrich's aunt Hathumod, abbess of Gandersheim, the monk Agius states of Hathumod that "frater eius regum neptem in matrimonio habet" [Vita Hathumodae, c. 2, MGH SS 4: 167]. This is less than clear, because Agius does not say which brother of Hathumod married a neptis of kings. Some have thought that the passage refers to Hathumod's elder brother duke Bruno (d. 880) [e.g., the editor of Vita Hathumodae, MGH SS 4: 167 n. 2]. However, more recent opinion has tilted toward Bruno's younger brother duke Otto, due to the fact that Otto's son Heinrich I is called a nepos of the French king Charles the Simple by Thietmar of Merseburg ["Hic [Charles the Simple] Heinrici regis nostri, nepotis autem sui, ..." Thietmar, Chron., i, 13, MGH SS 3: 741].
One early attempt in this direction must be set aside:
Falsely attributed
identification: Heilwig/Hélvide, d. after 894.
Falsely attributed
father: Eberhard, d. 865×6, duke of Friuli.
Falsely attributed
mother: Gisela, d. after August 874, daughter of
Emperor Louis "the Pious".
Originally due to Eckhart in the eighteenth century, this theory
was later revived by others, most notably Krüger [Krüger
(1893)]. Krüger would identify the kings in Agius's statement
"frater eius regum neptem in matrimonio habet"
as Louis/Ludwig the German and Charles the Bald, and would
interpret the word neptis to mean niece in the strict
sense, thus making Hedwig/Hathui a daughter of a sibling of these
two kings [Krüger (1893), 32]. Placing Otto's wife as a daughter
of Eberhard of Friuli and his wife Gisela would satisfy this
restriction, and thus Krüger identifies Hedwig/Hathui with
Eberhard's similarly named daughter Heilwig. However, Hedwig and
Heilwig are not the same name, and the identification has little
to recommend it. Dümmler argued convincingly against it in the
same year that Krüger's article appeared [Dümmler (1893)]. The
identification must in any case be false if Hirsch's convincing
outline of Heilwig's marriages is correct [see the page of Heilwig for more details].
The most convincing attempt to conjecture a father for Hadwig involves a candidate who apparently has no Carolingian descent:
Possible father: Heinrich, d. 28 August 886, marquis in Neustia.
The most direct indication of a relationship between marquis Heinrich and Heinrich I is a passage from Widukind's history ["Nam cum bellum esset Cuonradi regis Cuonrado patri et Adelberto Heinrici ex sorore nepoti, primum interfectus est frater Adelberti; postea in ultionem fratris Cuonradus quoque occisus est ab Adelberto, ..." Widukind, i, 22 (pp. 26-7)]. Here, Heinricus is clearly the German king Heinrich I. The difficulty is how to interpret the words Adelberto Heinrici ex sorore nepoti. In the absence of other information, the most common translation of these words would be "Adalbert nephew of Heinrich through a sister", i.e., Adalbert, son of a sister of Heinrich. Indeed, possibly expanding on the above statement of Widukind, a number of later sources make Adalbert the son of a sister of Heinrich I named Baba [see the page of duke Otto of Saxony for more details].
The problem with this is that Adalbert appears in the records with his two (apparently younger) brothers in 898 in the context of a quarrel with bishop Rudolf (suggesting that they were then adults) [see the page of marquis Heinrich], and a son of a sister of Heinrich I would almost certainly not be an adult by 898. Adalbert was more likely in the generation preceding Heinrich I. Thus, since the word nepos can also have the wider meaning of "relative", it appears that in this case the words Adelberto Heinrici ex sorore nepoti should be translated as "Adalbert relative of Heinrich through a sister". Eckhardt saw nepos as a possible Latin translation of the old German neve, which in those days could also mean "uncle" [Hlawitshcka (1974), 142; Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 40; both cite Eckhardt (1963), 15, not seen by me]. Given that it was Adalbert who was in the earlier generation, the sister in question would probably be a sister of Adalbert rather than of Heinrich.
Further circumstantial evidence comes from several relatives of the German kings who are mentioned in various sources. Henri/Heinrich, bishop of Trèves (956-964), is called a propinquus of Otto the Great by Flodoard ["Episcopatus Trevirensis cuidam Hainrico, regis Othonis propinquo, datur." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 956 (p. 143)]. He was a brother of Poppo (I), bishop of Würzburg (941-61) ["... Heinricus, eximia Francorum Suevorumque prosapia genitus, ... ad Herbipolim, quae a rusticis Wirciburg vocatur, veniret. ... quod frater eius, Poppo nomine, monarchiam illius episcopii tenebat, ..." Othlo, Vita S. Wolfkangi, c. 4, MGH SS 4: 528; "... Heinricus ab Ottone Magno Treverensem suscepit archiepiscopatum, ..." ibid., c. 7, p. 528], who was succeeded by his proximus Poppo (II) in 961 ["... Poppo Wirziburgensis episcopus ... XVI. Kal. Martii diem clausit extremum; cui proximus suus Poppo in episcopatu successit." Regino, Chronicon (continuation), s.a. 961 (p. 170)]. Furthermore, Poppo (II), bishop of Würzburg (961-83), is called a nepos by Otto II [Althoff (1984), 312, citing DD OII #132, #208]. Thus, we have the brothers Henri/Heinrich and Poppo (I) and their near relative Poppo (II) who were all relatives of the Saxon emperors Otto I and Otto II. There is no direct evidence about the ancestry of these three kinsmen, but the coincidence of the two names Heinrich and Poppo suggests that they were descended from one of the ninth century brothers Heinrich, marquis of Neustria, and Poppo, duke of Thuringia [both of whom had sons; see the page of Heinrich]. Another possible relative appears in an act of Heinrich I dated 18 October 927, where the king refers to a count Heinrich as propinquus noster ["... Heinricus divina favente clementa rex. ... quia nos interventu fidelis dilectique comitis ac propinqui nostri Henrici ..." MGH DD H I, 51 (#14)].
To these indications that king Heinrich I might have been closely related to the three "Babenberg" brothers, we can also add the onomastic indication of the name Heinrich, at that time rather rare. This name is not known to appear in the family of duke Otto, father of Heinrich I, and it may therefore be suggested with a high degree of plausibility that the name Heinrich appeared in Hadwig's family. This is made even more likely by the appearance mentioned above of men named Heinrich as relatives of the Saxon rulers. All of this evidence clearly points to marquis Heinrich of Neustria as the possible father of Hadwig. While this paternity for Hadwig remains unproven, no more convincing candidate for her father has emerged.
Conjectures regarding the mother of Hadwig
With Hadwigs father plausibly identified as someone with no likely Carolingian descent, it follows that if she did have any such ancestry, it probably came through her mother. A number of conjectures have been put forward about the possible Carolingian connections of Hadwig's mother.
Conjectured mother (improbable): NN, daughter of
count Adelard, and sister of Adélaïde,
second wife of Louis
II le Bègue, king of France.
Since marquis Heinrich had a son named Adalhard/Adalard, Geldner
conjectures that that name occurred in the family of the wife of
Heinrich, and he places Heinrich's wife as a conjectured daughter
of Adalard, the father-in-law of Louis II le Bègue, king of
France [Geldner (1971), 12]. This Adalard has a conjectured
Carolingian ancestry [see, e.g., Werner (1967), 429-441], which
would in turn give the hypothesized ancestry to Hadwig. This
conjecture is very thinly based and seems very unlikely.
Conjectured mother (unlikely): Engeltrude, b. say 837×840, d. after
2 April 870, daughter of Eberhard, duke of Friuli.
[Eckhardt (1963), 50ff., not seen by me, but outlined by Werner
(1967), 452, n. 25, and by Hlawitschka (2006), 45] This
conjecture is similar to the conjecture of Eckhart and Krüger,
but with an added generation and a different daughter of
Eberhard. In addition to making Hadwig a neptis regum,
there is the onomastic argument that Heinrich had a son Adalhard,
as did Eberhard. Eckhardt pointed out that the confraternity book
of Reichenau contains an entry naming a Heimirichi and
an Engildrud adjacent to one another [MGH Libri
Confrat., 267 (#396, lines 15-16)]. This descent of the German
king Heinrich I from Eberhard of Friuli has been accepted by some
[e.g., Keats-Rohan (1997), 196-7, 201-2; Jackman (2000), 131-2],
but others have objected. Metz pointed out that none of the names
given to children of Eberhard appear among the children of
Heinrich I of Germany. Also, as was pointed out by Werner and
Hlawitschka, there is a good reason to doubt that Engeltrude was
the wife of Heinrich "of Babenberg". On 2 April 870,
Engeltrude's mother Gisela gave donations to Cysoing toward the
burial of her and Engeltrude ["... ea ratione ut a die
presenti idem locus ad quietem meam vel filie mee Ingeltrudis
preparatus, ..." Cart. Cysoing, 8-9 (#4)]. It seems
unlikely that Gisela would have been making arrangements for
Engeltrude's future burial if she were then married to Heinrich
"of Babenberg". It is more likely that Engeltrude was
either unmarried or widowed at the time and living with Gisela
[Werner (1967), 452, n. 5; Hlawitschka (1974), 163, n. 275].
Still, this is not a conclusive argument against the
identification, and if Hadwig's mother was in fact a daughter of
Eberhard, his eldest daughter Ergeltrude seems like the only
chronologically feasible candidate, and even then the chronology
would be very tight (see the remarks below under Judith). The
connection seems unlikely.
Conjectured mother (extremely
improbable):
Judith, d. after 863×4, daughter
of Eberhard, duke of Friuli.
[Decker-Hauff (1955), 292-309] The logic behind this conjecture
is similar to the previous one, but in this case picking the
apparently youngest daughter of Eberhard and Gisela makes the
chronological problem even more severe: Heinrich I of Germany was
born about 876 [he was aged about 60 at his death in 936,
Widukind, i, 41, MGH SS 3: 435-6]. Since Heinrich had two elder
brothers who died young, his parents are unlikely to have been
married after 873, and they were probably married a few years
earlier. Allowing 30 years for two 15-year generations, we see
that it is very unlikely that Heinrich's maternal grandmother was
born later than 843, with a significantly earlier date being much
more probable. Gisela could not have been any older than 24 in
843, and she was probably younger. Since Judith appears to have
been the youngest of at least nine children of Gisela, it is very
improbable that she was born by 843. It is true that in his
outline of the family of Gisela, Decker-Hauff provides estimated
dates which would give Gisela seven children by 840, but he does
this by placing her birth late in 819 (the earliest possible) and
by giving her one child in each of the years 834 through 840.
However, such extremes are far from probable, and Decker-Hauff's
attempt to reshuffle the order of Eberhard's children is not
convincing.
Falsely attributed
mother: Bava/Baba, daughter of Berengario, count of
Spoleto.
Kimpen got the name Baba/Bava from several sources which make
Heinrich's son Adalbert a son of Baba, sister of king Heinrich I
[MGH SS 10: 137; MGH SS 6:
174; MGH SS 6: 28; MGH SS 6: 590; see the page of marquis Heinrich under his falsely attributed wife Baba
for further details]. However, Kimpen
rejected the claimed parents of "Baba" and instead
conjectured that Hadwig's mother was a daughter of count
Berengario of Spoleto by Helletrude, daughter of the emperor
Lothair I [Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 46-7, outlining arguments in
Kimpen, "Abstammung Konrads I. u. Heinrichs I.",
742-759, and Kimpen, "Genealogie d. bayr. Herzoge", 62,
the latter two not seen by me]. There is no good reason to accept
either the name or the conjectured parentage.
Conjectured mother (possible): NN,
granddaughter of count Egbert and St. Ida.
The basis of this conjecture is a passage in the ninth century Translatio
S. Pusinnae, which states that Haduwy (Hathuwig), abbess of
Herford, was related to king Charles [the Bald] in the third and
fourth degrees ["... ad regimen Herifordensis monasterii
venerabilis Haduini ... Erat autem ei aditus facilis ad ipsum,
sive consanguinitatis gratia, cum ei [king Charles]
tertio quartoque cognatione gradu iungeretur, ..." Translatio
S. Pusinnæ, c. 3, Wilmans (1867), 1: 542; see also MGH SS
2: 682]. This gives us two women, Hadwig and Haduwy, with the
same name or variants of the same name, both of whom have
indications of a close relationship to the Carolingians. Thus, it
was suggested by Metz and following him, by Hlawitschka, that the
two women were related and that their Carolingian relationship
had the same source [Metz (1964), 276ff.; Metz (1971), 143;
Hlawitschka (1974), 146ff.; Hlawitschka (2006), 47-52]. However,
they differed in the exact descent conjectured. Metz suggested
that Hadwig's mother was a sister of Haduwy [Metz (1964), 281;
Metz (1971), 143]. Hlawitschka, who had also conjectured that
Haudwy's father was an uncle of Liudolf of Saxony, needed to
avoid making Hadwig a close relative of her husband, and thus
made Hadwig's mother a daughter of count Cobbo (uncle of Haduwy)
or one of his siblings [Hlawitschka (1974), 162; Hlawitschka
(2006), 1.2: 51]. See the page of count Egbert for more details about the relationships of these
individuals. These scenarios seem more plausible than the other
attempts at finding the origin of Hadwig's mother, but they fall
far short of proof. Metz's variation making Hadwig a niece of
Haduwy is a more direct fit for the onomastic evidence of those
two names. As for the supposed Carolingian descent, Metz
suggested that the Carolingian ancestry of Heinrich I came
through an otherwise unknown daughter of either Charlemagne or
Louis the Pious [Metz (1964), 286]. Hlawitschka thought that the
Carolingian ancestry came through St. Ida, whom he placed as a
daughter of king Carloman, brother of Charlemagne [Hlawitschka
(1974), 146-165; Hlawitschka (2006), 1.2: 44-52; see the page of St. Ida for more details].
Althoff (1984) = Gerd Althoff, Adels- und Königsfamilien im Spiegel ihrer Memorialüberlieferung (Munich, 1984).
Calend. Merseb. = Ludwig Hesse, "Calendrium Merseburgense", Zeitschrift für Archivkunde, Diplomatik und Geschichte 1 (1834): 101-150.
Cart. Cysoing = Ignace de Coussemaker, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Cysoing et de ses dépendances (Lille, 1883).
Decker-Hauff (1955) = Hansmartin Decker-Hauff, "Die Ottonen und Schwaben", Zeitschrift für Württemburgische Landesgeschichte 14 (1955), 233-371.
Dümmler (1887-8) = Ernst Dümmler, Geschichte des Ostfränkischen Reiches, 3 vols. (2nd. ed., Leipzig, 1887-8).
Eckhardt (1963) = K. A. Eckhardt, Genealogische Funde zur allgemeinen Geschichte (1963). [I have not seen this work.]
Flodoard, Annales = Ph. Lauer, ed., Les Annales de Flodoard (Paris, 1905).
Geldner (1971) = Ferdinand Geldner, Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte der "Alten Babenberger" (Meisenbach, 1971).
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).
Jackman (2000) = Donald C. Jackman, "Cousins of the German Carolingians", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 117-139.
Keats-Rohan (1997) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Poppa of Bayeux and her Family", The American Genealogist 72 (1997): 187-204. Also available in French as "Poppa 'de Bayeux' et sa famille", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 140-153.
Metz (1964) = Wolfgang Metz, "Die Abstammung König Heinrichs I." Historisches Jahrbuch 84 (1964): 271-287.
Metz (1971) = Wolfgang Metz, "Heinrich 'mit dem goldenen Wagen' ", Blätter für deutsche Landesgescichte 107 (1971): 136-161.
MGH Libri Confrat. = Paul Piper, ed., Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Libri Confraternitatum Sancti Galli Augiensis Fabariensis (Berlin, 1884).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Regino, Chronicon = Friedrich Kurze, ed., Reginonis abbatis Prumiensis Chronicon cum continuatione Treverensi (MGH SRG, Hannover, 1890).
RFC2 = Roderick Stuart, Royalty for Commoners (2nd ed., Baltimore, 1992).
RHF = Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France.
Werner (1967) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation)" (Exkurs II: Königin Adelheid), Karl der Große 4 (1967): 429-441.
Widukind = Georg Waitz & Karl Andreas Kehr, eds., Widukindi monachi Corbeiensis Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres (4th ed., MGH SRG 55, Hannover & Leipzig, 1904).
Wilmans (1867) = Roger Wilmans, Die Kaiserurkunden der Provinz Westfalen 777-1313 (Erster Band: Die Urkunden des Karolingischen Zeitalters 777-900) (Münster, 1867).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 3 April 2011.