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 county of Stade and Northern March were replaced by the March of Brandenburg by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century. The family of Counts of Stade is referred to as the House of Udonids.
Lothar II (874-929), Count of Stade, son of Lothar I, Count of Stade, and Oda of Saxony, daughter of Liudolf, Duke of Saxony. Lothar was the great-grandfather of Thietmar of Merseburg, and is frequently confused in genealogical sources with Thietmar’s other great-grandfather of the same name who was Count of Walbeck.
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.
After the death of their father, Lothar, in the Battle of Lenzen, Stade was ruled by Wichmann I the Elder and his sons, who controlled a relatively large cavalry force (several hundred horses) on the left bank of the Elbe. By 955, the sons of Wichmann, Wichmann II the Younger and Egbert the One-Eyed, had rebelled against Otto I, then King of Germany, and the countship of Stade reverted to the family of Lothar.
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 I's expansionism to the Elbe.
Wichmann I the Elder was a member of the Saxon House of Billung. He was a brother of Amelung, Bishop of Verden, and Herman, Duke of Saxony.
Wichmann II the Younger was a member of the Saxon House of Billung. He was a son of Count Wichmann the Elder and his wife Frederuna, probably a sister of Queen Matilda. The cousin of Emperor Otto I became known as a fierce enemy of the ruling Ottonian dynasty.
Siegfried and his brother built the castle at Harsefeld which was converted to religious uses for the Archdiocese of Bremen under the rule of Henry's son and then to a Benedictine archabbey in 1104.
Harsefeld is a municipality situated south-west of Hamburg (Germany). Harsefeld has a population of c. 12,500 and belongs to the district of Stade, Lower Saxony.
The only reference to Siegfried as a count is in a charter of Otto dated 23 April 961, and it is possible that Siegfried and his brother were co-rulers at that time. It is not known whether Siegfried was married or had any children. The next known Count of Stade was Henry's son Henry II the Good, who ruled the county until his death in 1016.
Sources
Warner, David A., Ottonian Germany: The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2001
Reuter, Timothy, Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800-1036, London and New York, 1992
Bury, J. B. (editor), The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III, Germany and the Western Empire, Cambridge University Press, 1922
The Northern March or North March was created out of the division of the vast Marca Geronis in 965. It initially comprised the northern third of the Marca and was part of the territorial organisation of areas conquered from the Wends. A Lutician rebellion in 983 reversed German control over the region until the establishment of the March of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 12th century.
Henry V, the Elder of Brunswick, a member of the House of Welf, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1195 until 1213.
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.
Thankmar was the eldest son of Henry I of Germany by his first wife, Hatheburg of Merseburg. His mother had been previously married and widowed, after which she entered a convent. Because she left the convent to marry Henry, her second marriage was considered invalid and the couple split. Thankmar's legitimacy was, therefore, in question.
The Counts of Walbeck ruled a medieval territory with its capital Walbeck northeast of Helmstedt in the present town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen in Saxony-Anhalt. The foundation of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg established the region as firmly in the oversight of Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor. The first Count of Walbeck, Lothar I, was great-grandfather of Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg, chronicler of the Ottonian dynasty of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Two of Thietmar’s great-grandfathers, both named Lothar, were killed in the Battle of Lenzen, pitting the forces of Henry the Fowler against the Slavs. The early Margraves of the Nordmark were descended from the House of Walbeck.
Lothar I (902-929), Count of Walbeck, of unknown parentage. Lothar was the great-grandfather of Thietmar of Merseburg, and is frequently confused in genealogical sources with Thietmar's other great-grandfather of the same name who was Count of Stade.
Henry II the Good (946–1016), 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 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.
Siegfried II (956-1037), Count of Stade, youngest son of Henry I the Bald, Count of Stade, and his wife Judith von der Wetterau, granddaughter of Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine.
Lothar II the Elder, Count of Walbeck, son of Lothar I, Count of Walbeck.
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.
Rudolf I, 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. Rudolf was the brother of his predecessors Henry I the Long and Lothair Udo III.
Siegfried I the Older, Count of Walbeck and Möckerngau, son of Lothar II the Old, Count of Walbeck, and Mathilde von Arneburg. He succeeded his father as Count of Walbeck upon his death.
Friedrick (974-1018), 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.
Gero, Count of Alsleben, conjectured to be the son of Siegfried and therefore grandson of Gero the Great. If so, his mother was Hedwig, daughter of Wichmann the Elder. Gero was the brother of Tetta, who established a monastery at Alsleben in his name. Thietmar of Merseburg, whose Chronicon is the major source of information here, refers to Gero as a Count in Northern Thuringia and Morzani.
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