The Duchy of Saxony was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Saxony was one of the five German stem duchies of East Francia; Duke Henry the Fowler was elected German king in 919.
Eberhard III, a member of the Conradine dynasty, was Duke of Franconia, succeeding his elder brother, King Conrad I, in December 918. From 926 to 928, he also acted as ruler of Lotharingia.
The Unstrut is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale.
Rudolf of Rheinfelden was Duke of Swabia from 1057 to 1079. Initially a follower of his brother-in-law, the Salian emperor Henry IV, his election as German anti-king in 1077 marked the outbreak of the Great Saxon Revolt and the first phase of open conflict in the Investiture Controversy between Emperor and Papacy. After a series of armed conflicts, Rudolf succumbed to his injuries after his forces defeated Henry's in the Battle on the Elster.
Magnus was the duke of Saxony from 1072 to 1106. Eldest son and successor of Ordulf and Wulfhild of Norway, he was the last member of the House of Billung.
Otto of Nordheim was Duke of Bavaria from 1061 until 1070. He was one of the leaders of the Saxon revolt of 1073–1075 and the Saxon revolt of 1077–1088 against King Henry IV of Germany.
Bad Harzburg is a spa town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.
The Harzburg, also called Große Harzburg, is a former imperial castle, situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range overlooking the spa resort of Bad Harzburg in Goslar District in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It was erected from 1065 to 1068 at the behest of King Henry IV of Germany, slighted during the Saxon Rebellion in 1073-75, and a century later rebuilt under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his Welf successor Otto IV, who died here in 1218.
The Battle of Welfesholz was fought on 11 February 1115 between the Imperial army of the Emperor Henry V and a rebellious Saxon force.
Egbert II was Count of Brunswick and Margrave of Meissen. He was the eldest son of the Margrave Egbert I of the Brunonen family.
The history of Saxony began with a small tribe living on the North Sea between the Elbe and Eider River in what is now Holstein. The name of this tribe, the Saxons, was first mentioned by the Greek author Ptolemy. The name Saxons is derived from the Seax, a knife used by the tribe as a weapon.
Herman(n) of Salm, also known as Herman(n) of Luxembourg, the progenitor of the House of Salm, was Count of Salm and elected German anti-king from 1081 until his death.
Adalbert II of Ballenstedt, an early member of the House of Ascania, was Graf (count) in Saxony and Vogt of Nienburg Abbey.
Burchard of Veltheim was a German cleric and Bishop of Halberstadt from 1059 until his death.
Benno II was Bishop of Osnabrück from 1068 until his death. He served as a close advisor and architect of Emperor Henry IV. In 1080 he founded the Benedictine abbey of Iburg Castle.
The Kaiser Way, literally "Emperor Way", is a thematic long distance footpath in the Harz mountains of Germany, which is about 110 km long and crosses both the Harz and the Kyffhäuser hills. From Goslar and Bad Harzburg on the northern edge of the Harz it runs across the Harz to Walkenried in the south; and then via Nordhausen to Tilleda on the Kyffhäuser.
Henry IV was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the Salian dynasty—and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the "liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065.
The Treaty of Gerstungen was concluded on 2 February 1074 in Gerstungen Castle on the River Werra in what is now Germany. It required King Henry IV to restore Duke Otto of Northeim to the Duchy of Bavaria. In 1073 the latter had successfully headed the rebellion of the Saxons. King Henry had to escape from the siege of the Harzburg castle and, under the requirements of the treaty, to accede to the slighting of his castles in the Harz mountains, including for example, the Sachsenburg at Bad Sachsa and only built in 1070.
The Saxon revolt refers to the struggle between the Salian dynasty ruling the Holy Roman Empire and the rebel Saxons during the reign of Henry IV. The conflict reached its climax in the period from summer 1073 until the end of 1075, in a rebellion that involved several clashes of arms.
Sophia of Hungary, a member of the royal Árpád dynasty, was a Margravine of Istria and Carniola from about 1062 until 1070, by her first marriage with Margrave Ulric I, as well as Duchess of Saxony from 1072 until her death, by her second marriage with Duke Magnus Billung.
