Heilwig (Eigilwi, Hegilwich)
Heilwig (Eigilwi, Hegilwich)According to Thegan, Heilwig was of Saxon descent ["Sequentii vero anno accepit filiam Hwelfi ducis sui, qui erat de nobilissima progenie Bawariorum, et nomen virginis Iudith, quae erat ex parte matris, cuius nomen Eigilwi, nobilissimi generis Saxonici eamque reginam constituit." Thegan, Vita Hludowici, c. 26, MGH SS 2: 596]. In 833, she was abbess of Chelles, and had been for eight years ["Anno vigesimo imperante cum magna felicitate Hludowico serenissimo augusto in regno Francorum, venit Kala monasterium, ubi venerabilis abbatissa Hegilwich, genetrix Iudith imperatricis, magno gregi sanctimonialium preerat, ... . ..., predictae Hegilwich abbatissae, quae tunc octavo anno ipsum sanctum locum sub regimine sancto gubernabat, ..." Translatio S. Baltechildis, MGH SS 15.1: 284]. This was presumably after the death of her husband Welf.
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: 5 November, in or after 833.
Place of
death: Unknown.
As noted above, Heilwig was living
in 833, when she was abbess of Chelles. The date of 5 November
appears among some marginal notices in the Martyrology of
Wandalber of Prüm ["Terrens his finis Heilwic Nonis
memoratur." MGH Poet. Lat. 2: 598 (line 719 n.);
Tellenbach (1957), 338 (829)].
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Welf, died before 833, count.
Children:
See the page of Welf
for more details.
Judith, d. 19
April 843;
Louis I (Ludwig I "der
Fromme"), d. 20 June 840, emperor 813-840.
Konrad, d. after 862, [count in
Argengau];
m. Adélaïde, d. 18 August, prob. bef. 862, daughter of Hugues, count
of Tours.
Raoul/Rudolf, d. 6 January 866, count,
abbot of Saint-Riquier and Jumièges;
m. Roduna, still living 31 March 867.
Hemma/Emma, d. 31 January 876;
m. 827, Ludwig II "der Deutsche", d.
Frankfurt, 28 August 876; king of the Eastern Franks, 840×3-876.
Possible son:
Hrodroh/Ruadroh, d. 1 February, year
unknown.
Conjectured relative: Egbert, Saxon
count.
Since Heilwig was a Saxon, and her
daughters Judith and Hemma had connections to the monasteries of
Corvey and Herford, it has been suggested that Heilwig was
connected to the family of Egbert [Metz (1971); Hlawitschka
(2006), 1.2: 24 also cites J. Fleckenstein, Herkunft der
Welfen (not seen by me)]. Others have cited the statement of
Translatio S. Pusinnæ that abbess Haduwy (a
granddaughter of Egbert) and Charles the Bald (grandson of
Heilwig) were related in the third and fourth degree, and have
suggested that this was due to a relationship between Heilwig and
Egbert ["... 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. 2-3, Wilmans (1867), 1: 542;
see also MGH SS 2: 682; Böttger (1865), 56-60]. Some authors
would seek the relationship of Charles and Haduwy elsewhere, but
if it really did involve Heilwig and Egbert, then either Heilwig
would be a niece of Egbert, or Egbert would be a niece of
Heilwig, depending on which side had degree three and which had
degree four. See the page of Egbert for his relatives.
Böttger would make Heilwig a niece of Egbert [Böttger, 60].
Wenskus suggests that Heilwig may have been the sister of
Egbert's mother [Wenskus (1976), 253]. Others would ignore the
third and fourth degree and make Heilwig and Egbert siblings [see
Böttger (1865), 56-60], and some would leave the relationship
vague [e.g., Metz( 1971), 142-3].
Supposed father (doubtful): Isanbard, fl. 774-806, count in
Alemannia.
Falsely attributed
mother: Thiedrada, daughter of Bernard, son of Charles
Martell.
Count Isanbard appears in a number of charters from St. Galle
from August 774 to 29 May 806 [Urk. St. Galle, 1: 61-2 (#62),
69-70 (#71), 76-7 (#80), 82 (#86), 146 (#154), 168 (#178), 180-1
(#190)]. Decker-Hauff mentions the supposed father-daughter
relationship between Isanbard and Heilwig in two genealogical
tables, and states that since Isanbard was married to a daughter
of Bernard (or so he claims) and since Bernard was married to a
Saxon, it is understandable that Isanbard's daughter (as he
claims) Heilwig was called a Saxon [Decker-Hauff (1955), 337, 367
(tables), 364]. Siegwart states this relationship in two
genealogical tables, providing no sources, but evidently basing
his table on Decker-Hauff's work [Siegwart (1958), 156-7]. As
noted by Hlawitschka, it is chronologically impossible for
Thiedrada to have been Heilwig's mother. In the absence of clear
evidence, Isanbard's connection must also be regarded as
doubtful. The unstated reasons for making Heilwig a daughter of
Isanbard are probably related to the theory which makes Welf a
son of Isanbard. For more details, see the page of Welf.
Böttger (1865) = H. Böttger, Die Brunonen, Vorfahren und Nachkommen des Herzogs Ludolf in Sachsen (Hannover, 1865).
Decker-Hauff (1955) = Hansmartin Decker-Hauff, "Die Ottonen und Schwaben", Zeitschrift für Württemburgische Landesgeschichte 14 (1955), 233-371.
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).
Metz (1971) = Wolfgang Metz, "Heinrich 'mit dem goldenen Wagen' ", Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte 107 (1971): 136-161.
MGH Poet. Lat. = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae latini aevi carolini.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Siegwart (1958) = Josef Siegwart, "Zur Frage des alemannischen Herzogsgutes um Zürich", Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 8 (1958), 145-192.
Tellenbach (1957) = Gerd Tellenbach, "Exkurs über die ältesten Welfen im West- und Ostfrankreich", in Gerd Tellenbach, ed., Studien und Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte des großfränkischen und frühdeutschen Adels (Forschungen zur oberrheinischen Landesgeschichte 4, Freiburg, 1957), 335-340, reprinted in Gerd Tellenbach, Ausgewählte Abhandlungen und Aufsätze, 5 vols. (Stuttgart, 1988), 3: 826-832.
Wenskus (1976) = Reinhard Wenskus, Sächsischer Stammesadel und fränkischer Reichsadel (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 1976).
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 16 August 2012.