Mathilde
MathildeMathilde appears as the mother of Dietrich and grandmother of queen Mathilde (wife of Heinrich I, king of Germany) in the biographies of queen Mathilde ["Hanc eandem, ut diximus, virginem, Herevordensi quae inerat monasterio, non inter sanctimoniales numeranda, sed ad quaeque utilia libris operibusque nutrienda cum sui matre genitoris, quae in viduitate bonis eo usque profecerat actibus, ut princeps et abbatissa constitueretur sanctimonialium, nobilitas simul et probitatis favor prodidit." Vita Mahthildis reginae antiquior, c. 2, MGH SS 10: 576; "Cum ergo illustris parvula [Mathilde, daughter of Dietrich] esset ablactata, desideravit abbatissa Mahthild, mater Thietrici comitis, quae in Herivordinense sedem possedit abbatiae, praefatam puellam nutriendam suscipere." Vitae Mahthildis reginae, c. 2, MGH SS 4: 285].
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: After ca. 909.
Mathilde was still living at the
time of the marriage of her granddaughter Mathilde to Heinrich
I ca. 909 ["... ceteris
parentum ignorantibus, sola ava eius conscia, quae ibi erat
abbatissa, ..." Vita Mahthildis reginae antiquior,
c. 3, MGH SS 10: 576].
Place of death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: NN, probable
descendant of Widukind, dux of the
Saxons.
Mathilde's sons were descendants of Widukind ["Et hi
erant stirpis magni ducis Widukindi ..." Widukind, i,
31 (p. 38, see below)]. A descent of Mathilde's husband from
Widukind seems more likely than the descent coming through
Mathilde. See the Commentary section for more discussion.
Children:
["Erat namque ipsa domina
regina filia Thiadrici, cuius fratres erant Widukind, Immed et
Reginbern. Reginbern autem ipse erat, qui pugnavit contra Danos
multo tempore Saxoniam vastantes, vicitque eos, liberans patriam
ab illorum incursionibus usque in hodiernum diem. Et hi erant
stirpis magni ducis Widukindi, qui bellum potens gessit contra
magnum Karolum per triginta ferme annos." Widukind, i,
31 (p. 38)]
Dietrich, d.
after 929, count in Westfalen;
m. Reinhild, d. after 931×2.
Widukind, perhaps living 929.
There was a Widukind living in 929 who
appears in a memorial list between Dietrich and Reinhild ["...
Theotirih, Uuitechind, Reginhilt, ..." Schmid (1960),
187, plate 2]. This was probably Dietrich's brother of that name.
Immed.
Reginbern, fought against the Danes.
Wilmans (and many others):
Falsely
attributed husband:
NN/Immed/Sigebert, son of count Waltbert,
son of Wikbert, son of Widukind.
Wilmans postulated that Mathilde's husband was an unnamed
son of Waltbert [Wilmans (1867), 436-8; see Hlawitschka (2006),
72-4, for a list of references which have followed Wilmans,
usually without giving Mathilde's husband a name, but sometimes
with a name conjectured (e.g., Immed, Sigebert)] As the only
descendants of Widukind whose exact line of descent is clearly
documented, Wikbert, bishop of Verden, his father Waltbert, and
Waltbert's father Wikbert (son of Widukind) make natural
candidates to whom previous researchers have tried to connect
those descendants whose exact line of descent is not known.
However, as Schmid has shown, the documents of Wildeshausen have
enough information about bishop Wikbert to show that Mathilde's
husband was not a brother of Wikbert or a descendant of Waltbert
[Schmid (1964), 14]. Whatever the relationship was between
Dietrich and bishop Wikbert, Dietrich was not Wikbert's nephew.
Wenskus:
Falsely
attributed husband (existence uncertain): Waltbert, son or
grandson of Abbo, son-in-law of Widukind.
[Hlawitschka (2006), 73 cites Wenskus (1976), 131ff. (not seen by
me) for this hypothesis.] The theory is based on the separation
of Waltbert, the founder of Wildeshausen and Vreden, into two
different people. [See Hlawitschka (2006), 73-4]
Falsely attributed
father: Egbert, fl. 809, 811, count.
Falsely
attributed mother: St. Ida.
[RFC2 239 (line 338)] This claim is not
chronologically believable [see Hlawitschka (2006), 76].
Falsely attributed
father: Waltbert, son of Wikbert, son of Widukind.
The alternative in which Mathilde is a daughter of Waltbert is
also highly improbable [see Schmid (1964), 14-5].
Falsely attributed
daughter: Altburg,
m. Liudolf, count.
Altburg and Liudolf were the parents of
count Gottschalk and of Liudolf, bishop of Osnabrück (968-978).
Altburg was evidently a close relative of bishop Wikbert of
Verden, son of count Waltbert (see above) [Schmid (1964), 8-9].
Thus, placing Mathilde's husband as a son of Waltbert has led
some to conjecture that Altburg was a daughter of Mathilde [see,
e.g., Schmid (1964), 13, 16, n. 63]. There is no reason to accept
this [Schmid(1964), 13-4].
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.
RFC2 = Roderick Stuart, Royalty for Commoners (2nd ed., Baltimore, 1992).
Schmid (1960) = Karl Schmid, "Neue Quellen zum Verständnis des Adels im 10. Jahrhundert", Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 108 (1960): 185-232.
Schmid (1964) = Karl Schmid, "Die Nachfahren Widukinds", Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 20 (1964): 1-47.
Wenskus (1976) = Reinhard Wenskus, Sächsischer Stammesadel und fränkischer Reichsadel (Göttingen, 1976). [I have not seen this work]
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 (I: Die Urkunden des Karolingischen Zeitalters 777-900) (Münster, 1867).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 3 April 2011.