Dukes of Saxony
1. Gerberge, Princess of the Germans, Queen of France: Born 913/914, Nordhausen, Saxony, Prussia; Died 5 May 984, Reims, Marne, France; Married Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine. (See Clermont)
2. Henry I "the Fowler", King of the Germans, Duke of the Saxony: Born 876, of Saxony, Germany; Died 2 Jul 936, Membleben; Married about 909; Matilda, Countess of Ringleheim, Queen of the Germans: Born about 878, of Mensleben, Saxony, Germany; Died 14 May 968; (See Counts of Ringleheim). Henry I or Henry the Fowler was King of the Germans from 919 to 936. The first monarch of the Saxon dynasty, he allowed autonomy to the various German duchies and concentrated his resources on defense against the Danes and the Magyars. The son of Otto of Erlauchten, Duke of Saxony, Henry I was a great grandson of Louis the Pious. What education he had was from tutors, and he was trained to succeed his father as Duke of Saxony. In 909 Henry marriedMathinla daughter of Count Deitrich, whose possessions in Westphalia helped to increase the power of the Saxon Duke in that area.
In 912, upon the death of his father, Henry became Duke of Saxony. His relations with King Conrad I were not always peaceful, but the struggle for control of Thuringa, a territory that lay adjacent to Saxony and Franconia (Conrad's Duchy), was settled by the treaty of Grona in 915.
Shortly before his death in 918, Conrad designated Henry as his successor, and Henry was acclaimed King at Fritzlar in May 919. As King, he ruled a federation of duchies which were recognized as autonomous units. Henry concentrated on building up his own power in Saxony and expanding his control in to lower Lorraine. After an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Duke Gislebert of Lorraine, who was aided by the King of the West Franks Charles III the Simple, Henry was recognized as King of the East Franks at the Treaty of Bonn in 921. In 923 Henry again tried to enter Lorraine, only to be driven back by Rudolf, Duke of Burgundy. In 925 he attempted a third campaign and, besieging Giselbert at Zulpich, forced his submission.
Henry then turned eastward to protect Saxony and Thuringia against the incursions of the Danes, the Wends and the Magyars. Henry was able to halt the Danes and Wends and through the capture of a Magyar chieftain, forced peace on the Magyars for nine years, during which time he paid tribute to the Saxon King.
Henry used this period of peace to consolidate power in Saxony. He fortified his major cities, Merseburg, Hersfeld, Goslar, Gandersheim, Quedlinburg, and Pohlde, which were to become centers of trade, justice and social and military activity. The lands that had been taken from the Wend were distributed in the form of fiefs among his followers and servants.
During the years 928-932 Henry pushed eastward into Slavic lands and set up administrative centers at Brandenburg and Meissen. In 929 he entered Bohemia, where he forced King Wenceslas to recognize German soverignty and to pay a yearly tribute. In 933 and 934 Henry concentrated on attacking and defeating in turn the Magyars and the Danes.
Sick with paralysis, Henry designated his eldest son, Otto, as King and called the nobles to Erfurt in early 936 to elect him. On July 2, 936, at Memleben, Henry died and was buried in the Church of St. Peter, which he had founded at Quedlinburg.
The German King Henry I founded the Saxon dynasty. King Conrad I designated Henry as his successor in 918 because Henry, as Duke of Saxony, was the only prince strong enough to give order to the East Frankish territories (Germany). Elected King in 919 by the Saxon and Franconian nobles, Henry quickly forced the tribal duchies of Bavaria and Swabia to acknowledge him. He seized (925) Lotharingia from the West Franks (France) and later also won the submission of Bohemia.
Henry checked the devastating Magyar raids by a truce in 924 and thus gained time to build defenses and train his army. When the Magyars returned in 933 he defeated them at Riade, a battle which marked the beginning of their decline. In 928-29, Henry crossed the Elbe River against the Slavs; he then established fortified marches, or frontier territories, in the areas conquered. He also defeated the Danes in 934 and was planning an Italian expedition at the time of his death. Henry completed Germany's transition from a group of tribal duchies into an autonomous kingdom. His son, Otto I, was to become the first Holy Roman Emperor.
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3. Otto of Erlauchten "the Illustrious", Duke of Saxony, Count in South Thurnigia: Born about 851, of Saxony, Germany; Died 30 November 912; Married Hedwige, Princess of the Holy Roman Empire.
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4. Arnuph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany: Born about 820, of Saxony, Germany; Married Oda of Bavaria: Born about 820, of Bavaria, Germany.
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5. Carloman, King of Bavaria: Born about 800, of Germany; Married Litwinde: Born about 800, of Corinth, Greece.
6. Louis II (Ludwig) "The German", King of the East Franks: Born about 806, of France; Died 28 August 876, Frankfort, Brandenburg, Germany; Buried Lauresheim Abbey, Prussia; Married Emma of Bavaria, Queen of Germany: Born about 810, of Altdorf, Bavaria Died 31 January 876, Careme, Saxony. During the reign of the Carolingian King Louis the German, the separation of Germany from the Frankish state began. One of the sons of Frankish Emperor Louis I, Louis the German was involved in the civil wars of his father's reign, which culminated in the Treaty of Verdun (843). This agreement divided the Carolingian state into three parts: Louis received the lands of the German-speaking peoples; his half brother, Charles the Bald, the French-speaking areas; and his brother Emperor Lothair I, a middle kingdom comprising Italy and the area later called Lotharingia. Much of Louis's reign was devoted to gaining control of the lands assigned to his brothers. In 860 he was promised Alsace, and in 870 he and Charles partitioned the remainder of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Mersen. Louis exercised some limited authority over the Slav tribes east of the Elbe River and protected Bishop Ansgar of Hamburg-Bremen's mission to convert Sweden. In his last years Louis worked in vain to acquire the imperial crown and Italy for his son Carloman.
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7. Louis I "the Pious" or "the Fair", Holy Roman Emperor: Born August 778, Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, France; Died 20 June 840, near Ingelheim, Rhinehessen, Hesse; (See Holy Roman Emperors #2) Married 798, France; Ermengarde, Princess of Hesbaye, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire: Born about 778, of Hesbaye, Liege, Belgium; Died 3 October 818, Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France.