The Northern March or North March (German: Nordmark) was created out of the division of the vast Marca Geronis in 965.[1] It initially comprised the northern third of the Marca (roughly corresponding to the modern state of Brandenburg) and was part of the territorial organisation of areas conquered from the Wends. A Lutician rebellion in 983 reversed German control over the region[2] until the establishment of the March of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 12th century.[3]
Tribes in the Northern and Billung marches at the time of the Lutici uprising of 983
During the Migration Period, many Germanic peoples began migrating towards the Roman frontier. In the northeast they were replaced primarily by Slavic peoples (Veleti, later Lutici). The first Slavs were certainly in the Brandenburg area by 720, after the arrival of the Avars in Europe. These Slavs had come via Moravia, where they had arrived in the mid-seventh century. The remnants of the Germanic Semnoni were absorbed into these Slavic groups.[citation needed]
The group of people who settled at the Spree river became known as Sprevani. They settled east of the line formed by the Havel and Nuthe rivers, in the current Barnim and Teltow regions. They built their main fortification at the confluence of the Spree and the Dahme rivers at Köpenick. The Hevelli lived west of that line, in the current Havelland and Zauche regions. They were named Habelli for the ancient Germanic name of the river "Habula" (Havel). The name for themselves was the Stodoranie. They built their main fortification at "Brenna" (modern Brandenburg). The Hevelli also built a large outpost at the current site of Spandau Citadel in Berlin. The Sprevani and Hevelli waged war against not only their German neighbors, but also their Slavic neighbours.[4][5]
Henry I of Germany conquered Brandenburg in 928–929 and imposed tribute upon the tribes up to the Oder. By 948 his son Otto I had established German control over the many remaining pagans, who were collectively referred to as Slavs or Wends by contemporaries. Slavic settlements such as Brenna, Budišin (Bautzen), and Chotebuž (Cottbus) came under German control through the installation of margraves.[citation needed] The main function of the margravial office was to defend and protect the marches (frontier districts) of the Kingdom of Germany. After the death of the margrave Gero the Great in 965, the vast collection of marches (a "super-march") was divided by Otto into five smaller commands. The Northern March was one of these. The others were the Eastern March, the March of Merseburg, the March of Meissen, and the March of Zeitz.
The rebellion of 983, initiated by the Lutici, led to a factual disestablishment of the Northern and Billung marches as well as the corresponding bishoprics, though titular margraves and bishops were still appointed. Until the collapse of the Liutizi alliance in the middle of the 11th century, the German expansion in the direction of the Northern March remained at a standstill and the Wends east of the Elbe remained independent for approximately 150 years.[6][7][8][5]
In the beginning of the 12th century, the German kings re-established control over the mixed Slav-inhabited lands on the eastern borders of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1134, in the wake of the Wendish Crusade of 1147, the German magnate Albert the Bear was granted the Northern March by Emperor Lothair III. The Slavs were subsequently assimilated by German settlers during the Ostsiedlung. The church under Albert established dioceses, which with their walled towns protected the townspeople from attack. With the arrival of monks and bishops begins anew the recorded history of the town of Brandenburg, from which would develop the eponymous margraviate.
Albert's control of the region was nominal for several decades, but he engaged in a variety of military and diplomatic actions against the Wends, and saw his control become more real by the middle of the century. In 1150, Albert formally inherited Brandenburg from its last Hevelli ruler, the Christian Pribislav. Albert and his Ascanian descendants made considerable progress in Christianising the captured lands.[8]
List of margraves
The Margraves of the Nordmark were closely related to both the Counts of Stade, many holding dual titles, and the Counts of Walbeck. The early counts and margraves were discussed by Thietmar of Merseburg, a descendant of the original rulers.
Under Albert, the march was expanded with the acquisition of Slavic lands around Brandenburg in 1157. The expanded march became a hereditary possession of Albert's house, the Ascanians, and was called the March of Brandenburg.
Albert the Bear was the first margrave of Brandenburg from 1157 to his death and was briefly duke of Saxony between 1138 and 1142.
Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two of Thietmar's great-grandfathers, both referred to as Liuthar, were the Saxon nobles Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Lothar I, Count of Walbeck. They were both killed fighting the Slavs at the Battle of Lenzen.
The Saxon Eastern March was a march of the Holy Roman Empire from the 10th until the 12th century. The term "eastern march" stems from the Latin term marchia Orientalis and originally could refer to either a march created on the eastern frontier of the East Frankish duchy of Saxony or another on the eastern border of the Duchy of Bavaria: the Bavarian marchia Orientalis, corresponding to later Austria.
Dietrichof Haldensleben was a count in the Schwabengau, later also in the Nordthüringgau and the Derlingau, who was the first Margrave of the Northern March from 965 until the Great Slav Rising of 983. He also bore the title of a dux (duke) in contemporary sources.
The March or Margraviate of Lusatia was an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis. Ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was finally incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367.
Lothair I was Margrave of the Nordmark from about 983 until his death. He was also a member of Saxon nobility as Count of Derlingau and of Nordthüringgau.
Lothair Udo II was Margrave of the Nordmark from 1057 until his death and also Count of Stade. He was the only son of Lothair Udo I of the Udonids and Adelaide of Rheinfelden.
Walbeck is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen.
Dedo I, Count of Wettin, also known as Dedo I of Wettin, was a son of Theodoric I of Wettin and Jutta of Merseburg.
In the Slavic revolt of 983, Polabian Slavs, Wends, Lutici and Obotrite tribes, that lived east of the Elbe River in modern north-east Germany overthrew an assumed Ottonian rule over the Slavic lands and rejected Christianization under Emperor Otto I.
The Battle of Lenzen was a land battle between a Saxon army of the Kingdom of Germany and the armies of the Slavic Redarii and Linonen peoples, that took place on 4 September 929 near the fortified Linonen stronghold of Lenzen in Brandenburg, Germany. The Saxon army, commanded by Saxon magnate Bernhard, destroyed a Slavic Redarii army. It marked the failure of Slavic attempts to resist German king Henry the Fowler's expansionism to the Elbe.
The Counts of Stade were members of the Saxony nobility beginning in the 10th century. Stade had developed since the 8th century as a principal center of trade and communications. The Counts of Stade created their domain between the lower Elbe and Weser rivers. They extended their power northwards with the acquisition of Dithmarschen in the 11th century. They became the Margraves of the Nordmark in 1056. There is also a close political and familial relationship between the Counts of Stade and the Counts of Walbeck. The Northern March was replaced with the March of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 12th century. The family of Counts of Stade is referred to as the House of Udonids.
Henry I the Bald was Count of Stade. He was son of Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Swanhild of Saxony. Henry is recorded as a cousin of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, but their exact relationship remains a mystery. Henry was also appointed Count of Heilangau, the ancient capital of Stade, in 959.
Lothair Udo I, Count of Stade, son of Henry I the Bald, Count of Stade, and his wife Judith von der Wetterau, granddaughter of Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine. Lothair is frequently confused with his nephew Lothair Udo II, son of his brother Siegfried II, who was Margrave of Nordmark as Lothair Udo I.
Lothair Udo I, Margrave of Nordmark and Count of Stade, son of Siegfried II, Count of Stade, and Adela of Rhienfelden, daughter of Gero, Count of Alsleben. Lothair was the first of the House of Udonids to serve as margrave.
Lothair Udo III (1070-1106), Margrave of the Nordmark and Count of Stade, son of Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark, and Oda of Werl, daughter of Herman III, Count of Werl, and Richenza of Swabia. Brother of his predecessor Henry I the Long.
Henry II, Margrave of the Nordmark, also Count of Stade, son of Lothair Udo III, Margrave of the Nordmark, and Irmgard, daughter of Dietrich, Count of Plötzkau, and Mathilde von Walbeck.
Siegfried I the Elder, Count of Walbeck and Möckerngau, son of Lothar II the Old, Count of Walbeck, and Mathilde von Arneburg.
Friedrick, Count of Walbeck and Viscount (Burggraf) of Magdeburg, son of Siegfried I the Older, Count of Walbeck, and Kunigunde von Stade daughter of Henry I the Bald, Count of Stade. He was brother to Thietmar of Merseburg, whose Chronicon was the main source of information on him, and his predecessor Henry, Count of Walbeck.
The Udonids (Udonen) were a German noble family, ruling as both the Counts of Stade and Margraves of the Nordmark, or Northern March, from the 9th to the 12th century. The first formal member of this family was Henry I the Bald, who took his seat in Harsefeld, part of the Duchy of Franconia, where he built a castle in 965. He was the grandson of the first Count of Stade, Lothar I, who was killed by the Great Heathen Army in the Battle of Ebstorf, and was recognized as one of the Martyrs of Ebsdorf by the Catholic Church.
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