Hessengau

The Hessengau ( pagus Hassorum ) was the largest east of the Rhine Franconian Gaugrafschaft in the Middle Ages. It stretched between Beverungen and Mars mountain in the north and in the south of Bad Hersfeld, and was divided into two tribes:

• The Frankish Hessengau was to Fritzlar and Kassel
• The Saxon Hessengau ( Pagus Hessian Saxonicus ), both sides of the Diemel in East Westphalia and southern Lower Saxony

The division was created when in the 7th century the Saxons pushed the Hesse south and conquered this land populated even without changing the name. The border between the two parts is approximately on the line Hann. Munden - Korbach and was thus only a small piece north of Kassel.

The Hessengau was in the 9th century, one of the tribe land of Conradines, but was after the rebellion of the Duke Eberhard of Franconia and possibly his death 939 drawn into the battle of Andernach of King Otto I and faithful as a fief. The Saxon part finally came, after the death of Count Dodiko, 1020/1021 to the Bishop of Paderborn. The Frankish part was administered by the Counts deteriorate Werner and Giso from 1027 as an imperial fief, and finally came by inheritance in the 12th century to the Ludowinger and thus to Thuringia. After the extinction of Ludowinger 1247 and the subsequent Thuringian- Hessian War of Succession the Gau was the heartland of the country county of Hesse and thus the nucleus of today's state of Hesse.

Count in Hessengau

Count in Hessengau were:

From the family of Esikonen:

• Hiddi ( Hildebold ), 813 testified, Count of the Saxon Hessengaus
• Asig ( ESIKO ), 839 and 842 testified, Count of the Saxon Hessengaus
• Cobbo the Younger, 890 testified, Count of the Saxon Hessengaus

Middle of the last decade of the 9th century the earldom fell in Saxon Hessengau for unknown reasons temporarily to the Conradines:

• Berengar, 860 testified † after 879, 876 Count in Saxon Hessengau
• Conrad the Elder, † February 27 906 at Fritzlar, his nephew, 886 Count in Oberlahngau, 897 Count in the Frankish and Saxon Hessengau, 903 Count in Gotzfeldgau, 905 Count in the Wetterau, Count of Wormsgau, 892 to 903 before margrave in Thuringia, Nepos of King Arnulf of Carinthia, buried in the church of St. Martin in Weilburg
• Conrad the Younger, † December 23 918, whose son, 908 Count in the Frankish and Saxon Hessengau, 910 Count in Keldachgau and Dux ( Duke of Bavaria), 7./10. November 911 as Konrad I. East Frankish king donates 912 St. Walpurgis in Weilburg, buried in Fulda; ∞ 913 Cunegonde, sister of Count Erchanger and Berthold ( Ahalolfinger ), widow of Margrave Luitpold of Bavaria ( Luitpoldinger ) buried in the monastery of Lorsch
• Eberhard, † October 23 939 in Andernach, whose brother, " Duke of Franconia", 909 lay abbot of St. Maximin in Trier, 913 Count in the Frankish and Saxon Hessengau and Perfgau, 913 and 928 count in Oberlahngau, 914 Margrave, 936 Steward, 938 Count Palatine

After the death of Eberhard's and the advent of his estates and fiefs by King Otto I first received

• Liudolf, Otto's son, the Hessengau ( comitatus Hassonum )

From the family of Esikonen:

• Elli I. ( Allo ), † after 965, Count of Saxony Hessengau from 942, Count of Leinegau to 950

For other families:

• Athelbero ( Berno ) ( † 982 ), 965-966 Count Palatine of Saxony, Count of Saxony Hessengau and Liesgau
• Dodiko, 1011 Count in Saxon Hessengau, in Ittergau and Nethegau
• Tammo / Thankmar († 1037 ), Steward of Emperor Otto III. , Grandson of the Count Palatine Athelbero, Count in Astfala and since 994 in the Saxon Hessengau

After Dodikos death of King Henry II was (1002-1024) a portion of its property to the Bishop of Paderborn, the rest of Thammo. King Conrad II (1024-1039) moved the Paderborn resist a part and granted it to the Archbishop of Mainz. After Conrad's death, this area fell again to Paderborn. Another part was Konrad 1027 to his henchman and banner carrier Werner von Winterthur, as Count of maggots managed henceforth the heart of the Franconian Hessengaus.

Gaugrafen of the family of Werner, which also owned the county Ruchesloh in Lahngau at Marburg, were:

• Werner I., 1027-1040
• Werner II, 1040-1053
• Werner III. , 1053-1065
• Werner IV, 1065-1121

After Werner IV had died without heirs, Gaugrafen went the county, which he had shortly before his death to the archbishopric of Mainz plotted as a fief and receive back from Mainz as such, to Giso IV of the House of Gisonen were. :

• Giso IV, 1121
• Giso V., 1121-1137 ( his mother Gwendolyn Bilstein regency until his coming of age )

After the death of Giso V inherited Landgrave Louis I of Hungary, the county on the basis of his marriage to GISOS sister Hedwig of Gudensberg.

In the northeastern part of the Hessengaus Siegfried III was. of Boyneburg (~ 1050-1107 ) from the House of Northeim 1083-1107 Count of Boyneburg, Count of Hessengau, Nethegau and Ittergau.