- Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark
Lothair Udo II (c. 1025 – 1082) was the
Count of Stade andMargrave of the Nordmark from 1057 until his death. He was the only son of Lothair Udo I of theUdonids and Adelaide ofRheinfelden .The power base of his family lay around
Harsefeld andStade , but through advantageous marriages, they had control of almost the eastern third of theDuchy of Saxony in lands and rights.In 1044, William became Margrave of the Nordmark. In 1056, the Saxons were defeated by the
Liutizi at theBattle of Pritzlawa (Havelmündung) and William was killed. That same year, theEmperor Henry III and Lothair Udo I died as well. Lothair Udo II came into a very strong position and was created Margrave the next year.Lothair initially placed himself in opposition to the
Billung family andAdalbert of Bremen . Adalbert had won great influence over the young King Henry IV and he designed to extend the influence of theArchdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen over the various small counties of Saxony, especially between theElbe and theWeser in order to better evangelise theSlavs . In 1063, Adalbert annexed Stade from Lothair. Originally he had supported Lothair in order to provide a counterweight to Billung influence in Saxony, but military conflict soon broke out between the Udonids and the Billungs.After Henry IV came of age in 1065, Lothair recovered his lost territories from the Billung and Adalbert, whose took a serious setback (1066). In 1068, Lothair was granted the
March of Zeitz . In that year, he and Henry attacked the Liutizi along the Elbe, but in 1069 they called the expedition off in failure.In 1071, Lothair was involved in the conspiracy of
Bardowiek . In 1073, he was on the side of the king, but the policy of Adalbert and his successor Liemar put him at odds with the royal party again. In 1075, he fought underOtto of Nordheim at theBattle of Homburg against the king. They were defeated. Lothair immediately made peace with the king to allow his hostage son to go free. The rest of the Saxon nobles went through long negotiations.Lothair was succeeded by his son Henry in 1082. His widow was Oda (born c.1050), daughter of Richenza (daughter of Otto II of Swabia) and Herman III, Count of
Werl .ources
* [http://www.genealogie-mittelalter.de/udonen_grafen_von_stade/lothar_udo_2_markgraf_der_nordmark_1082/lothar_udo_2_markgraf_der_nordmark_+_1082.html Genealogie Mittelalter]
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