Matilda of Germany, Countess Palatine of Lotharingia
Mathilde ( * Summer 979; † November 4, 1025 at Gut Aeccheze ( Echtz ) ) was the third daughter of Emperor Otto II and Empress Theophano.
Mathilde was passed shortly after her birth in the then very significant Essen Abbey, where her about 30 years older cousin Mathilde presided as abbess for education. Presumably it was believed not to find a spouse evenly matched high descent for her and wanted her to allow the succession as Abbess of. Even older sisters Mathilde Adelheid and Sophia were educated in Quedlinburg or Gander home and there later abbesses. Also Mathilde's governess, the Essenes Abbess Mathilde, had been brought up in the nunnery, where she presided as abbess.
Enigmatic appears, therefore, that the emperor's daughter Mathilde took a completely different path in life and as a member of the first family of the realm married a seemingly lower- nobles, the Count Palatine Ezzo of Lorraine. After specifying the historian Thietmar of Merseburg this marriage aroused the displeasure of many, Mathilde's brother Otto III. the family had to make sure by large gifts only to adequate standard of living. The year of the wedding is not possible to identify clearly discussed 991 and 993 The reasons for the unstandesgemäßen wedding is puzzled even more. The annals of the monastery brewing hamlet of Mathilde and her husband founded the Family Foundation Ezzonen, report the anecdote, the young Otto III. Ezzo had promised the fulfillment of a wish, if it hit him in chess, what Ezzo have expressed a desire to marry Mathilde. The Empress Theophano had agreed to the marriage, as the bystanders had seen an ordeal in the victory at court. Ezzo was then brought Mathilde of Essen pin whose Abbess Mathilde had refused vain to surrender the girl. Later romantic embellishments even claim Ezzo had earlier secretly in love with the young Mathilde or have they even brought by force of arms from the monastery, which was only legalized retrospectively by the game of chess.
The story about the won game of chess is invented with security, apply to only the fact that Theophanu agreed to the wedding, and the reluctance of the Essenes Abbess Mathilde married to see since the Essen Abbey lost the designated successor of the imperial house with her. Without the consent Theophanus the marriage would not happen with certainty, it is even likely that this marriage a means of their policies to safeguard the power of Otto III. had. So niederrangig as it appears, was Ezzo or more precisely, its the time of the marriage still living father, not. The family had extensive estates in the Lower Rhine and the lower Mosel, maybe they had already been to the times of the Carolingian Empire nobility. Ezzos mother came from the family of the Swabian duke family. On wealth and followers stood Ezzos family a duke same, and their areas were also on the western boundary of the empire. Through the marriage of Mathilde with Ezzo tape Theophanu this powerful family. Their policy and the gender of the Ottos
Although the beautiful stories are invented by the legalized by the game of chess love marriage, marriage between Mathilde and twenty years her senior Ezzo was probably happy. In any case, it was extremely fertile with ten children:
- Ludolf von Brauweiler and Waldenburg († 1031 )
- Otto ( † 1047), Count Palatine of Lorraine from 1035 to 1045 and Duke of Swabia 1045-1047.
- Herman II († 1056 ), Archbishop of Cologne ( 1036-1056 ).
- Richeza (around 994 - † 1063 ) - 1013 married Mieszko II Lambert, King of Poland († 1034).
- Theophanu, Abbess of Essen and pen Gerresheim.
- Sophia / Sophie ( † before 1031 )
- Matilda, Abbess of Dietkirchen and Vilich.
- Adelheid, pin lady, possibly abbess in Nijvel ( Nivelles ).
- Ida, Abbess of Maria in the Capitol in Cologne and Gander home.
- Heylwig / Heilwig, Abbess of Neuss, Dietkirchen and Villich.
The dowry which Matilda of her brother Otto III. received, was unjustified drafted after his death of Henry II, his successor, which is not clear whether this related to the fact that Mathilde's sons by blood closer to Otto III. used were as Henry II. , this wrongful act of Henry drove Mathilde man in a ten-year opposition against Henry, which ended only after Ezzo had been sent to Fair by Heinrich army in 1012 defeated at home or in battle. In addition, the reconciliation promoted that Henry wanted to protect his Ostpolitik by a befitting marriage of a princess with the Polish king. Since he was childless, however, he needed to a daughter of his former opponent. Among the goods that received the Ezzonen in this reconciliation, among Duisburg, Kaiserwerth and Saalfeld.
Mathilde apparently died unexpectedly during a visit to Ezzos brother Hermann, while Ezzo in Aachen held a meeting of the Lorraine nobility, and was at the convent Brauweiler that she and Ezzo had donated buried.