Billung
Dynasty
Hermann Billung
Current regionSaxony
Founded9th century
FounderCount Wichmann the Elder
Connected familiesWelf and Ascania dynasties
Estate(s)Billung March
Dissolution12th century
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Billung" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{box-sizing:border-box;width:100%;padding:5px;border:none;font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .hidden-title{font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .hidden-content{text-align:left}@media all and (max-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .hidden-begin{width:auto!important;clear:none!important;float:none!important))You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (March 2016) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,083 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Billunger]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template ((Translated|de|Billunger)) to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The House of Billung was a dynasty of Saxon noblemen in the 9th through 12th centuries.[1]

The first known member of the house was Count Wichmann, mentioned as a Billung in 811. Oda, the wife of Count Liudolf, oldest known member of the Liudolfing House, was also a Billung as was Matilda of Ringelheim.

In the 10th century, the property of the family was centered in the Bardengau around Lüneburg and they controlled the march named after them.[citation needed] In the middle of the 10th century, when the Saxon dukes of the House of Liudolfing had also become German kings, King Otto the Great entrusted more and more of his ducal authority to Hermann Billung. For five generations, the House of Billung ruled the Duchy of Saxony.[2]

The house submerged into the Welf and Ascania dynasties when Duke Magnus died in 1106 without sons; the family's property was divided between his two daughters. His daughter Wulfhilde married Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, a member of the House of Welf; his daughter Eilika married Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, a member of the House of Ascania. As a consequence, for the following decades control of Saxony was contested between the Welfs and Ascanians.

The Billung dukes of Saxony were:

References

  1. ^ Bjork, Robert E., ed. (2010). "Billung dynasty". The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford Reference. ISBN 9780199574834.
  2. ^ a b Arnold, Benjamin (9 June 1997). Medieval Germany, 500–1300: A Political Interpretation. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-349-25677-8.
Categories