Meissen, March of

Gero, called the Great, had ruled an initially modest march centered on Merseburg, created probably for Thietmar (in the 920s) and passed to his two sons consecutively: Siegfried and Gero, who has expanded it into a vast territory named after him the marca Geronis.

During the mid-tenth century, he has been the leader of the Saxon Drang nach Osten, participating in general Saxon campaigns against the Slavs in 957, 959, and 960, as well as campaigning against the Wends and forcing Mieszko I of the Polans to pay tribute, grant land lien, and recognize German sovereignty during Otto's absence in Italy (962–963).

Lusatia, according to Widukind, had been subjected "to the last degree of servitude."

Gero is responsible for subjecting the Liutizi and Milzini (or Milciani) and extending German suzerainty over the whole territory between the Elbe and the Bober, reducing the native Slavic populace to serfdom and converting "tribute-paying peoples" into "census-paying peasants."

After his death in May, 965, the huge territory he had conquered is divided by the Emperor Otto into several different marches: the Northern March (under Dietrich of Haldensleben), the Eastern March (under Odo I), the March of Meissen (under Wigbert), the March of Merseburg (under Günther) and the March of Zeitz (under Wigger I).

Later, the Northern March will be subdivided into the marches of Landsberg, Lusatia, and Brandenburg.

Imperial authority in Slavic territory around the year 982 had extended as far east as the Lusatian Neisse River and as far south as the Ore Mountains.

Following Otto II's defeat at Stilo in 983, the Lutici Federation of Polabian Slavs revolt against their German overlords, sparking a great revolt known as the Slawenaufstand.

The Polabian Slavs destroy the bishoprics of Havelberg and …

…Brandenburg.

According the German chronicler Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, the decades-long forced Germanization and Christianization of the Slavs associated with these two churches was the reason for their destruction.

Thietmar blames the uprising on maltreatment of the Slavs by the Germans: "Warriors, who used to be our servants, now free as a consequence of our injustices."

In the Obotrite territories along the Elbe River, the Luticians initiate a revolt aiming at the abolishment of feudal rule and Christianity, drawing on considerable support by the Obodrite populace and their leader Mstivoj.

In part, the Obrodite revolt is successful: the princely family, though in part remaining Christian, dissolves Christian institutions.

Soldiers from the Northern March, the March of Meissen, the March of Lusatia, as well as from the Bishop of Halberstadt and the Archbishop of Magdeburg, join forces to defeat the Slavs near Stendal.

Nevertheless, the Empire is forced to withdraw to the western banks of the Elbe river.

The successes of the Empire's Christianization policy towards the Slavs are nullified, and the political control over the Billung March and the Northern March (territories east of the Elbe) is lost.

Otto I's life work of converting the Slavs is thus undone a decade after his death.

The Slavic territories east of the Elbe will remain pagan for over a century before further missionary work resumes: it will not be until the twelfth century that the churches of Havelberg and Brandenburg will be reestablished.

The Danes, taking advantage of the Slavic revolt, invade the March of Schleswig along the Empire's northern border while the Sorbian Slavs invade and conquer the March of Zeitz, wresting it from Saxon control.

Silesia had come within the sphere of influence of two other neighbors, the German Empire and Poland, at the end of the ninth century.

In order to proselytize Silesia to Christianity, Emperor Otto I in 971 had donated the tithe of the Dedosize area to the Diocese of Meissen, and in 996 Otto III defines the Oder up to the spring as the border of the Margraviate of Meissen.

All this, however, is without practical consequences as the expanding Polish state of Mieszko I had conquered Silesia at the same time.

The Dedosize area had already been incorporated around 970.

In 990, Mieszko had annexed Middle Silesia and its main township Niemcza with the help of the German Empire, which had supported Poland in order to weaken Bohemia.

In the ensuing years, Mieszko’s successor, Bolesław I, has integrated the area of the Opolane and Golensize into his realm.

Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, is of noble east Thuringian stock, the eldest son of Margrave Gunther of Merseburg.

In 985, the young King Otto III of Germany had appointed him to succeed Margrave Rikdag in Meissen, following severe Saxon setbacks against the Slavic Lutici tribes.

He was later elected Duke of Thuringia by the magnates of the region, an event which has been taken as evidence of the principle of tribal ducal election.

Eckard is high in the favor of the Emperor Otto III, who has rewarded him handsomely by converting many of his benefices (fiefs) into proprietas (allods).

In Otto's conflict with his rival cousin Duke Henry II of Bavaria, Eckard's military responsibilities as holder of the Meissen march consists primarily of containment of the neighboring Polish and Bohemian duchies.

Duke Boleslaus II of Bohemia had allied with Duke Henry and had taken the occasion to occupy the Albrechtsburg in 984; he nevertheless had had to withdraw the next year, after Otto III had prevailed.

Margrave Eckard had had to restore Thiadric, Bishop of Prague to his see after his expulsion by Boleslaus II of Bohemia.

When in January 1002 Otto III dies without issue and the German princes meet at Frohse (today part of Schönebeck) to elect a new king, Eckard even aims at the German crown, because the late emperor's Ottonian relative Henry of Bavaria, son of Duke Henry II, who is the preeminent candidate, meets with strong opposition.

Eckard is at this time the most obvious Saxon candidate, but the nobles are opposed to him.

They only agree to meet again at the Kaiserpfalz of Werla and to support no candidate before then.

Otto III is only twenty-one at the time of his unexpected death in January 1002, leaving no children and no instructions for the Imperial succession.

The emperor, dealing with a revolt against his reign in Italy in 1001, had sent word for Duke Henry of Bavaria to join him with reinforcements from Germany. 

In the Ottonian dynasty, succession to the throne has been drawn from the Saxon branch, not the Bavarian line of which Henry is a member.

As the funeral procession moves through the Duchy of Bavaria in February 1002, Henry meets the procession in Polling, just north of the Alps.

To legitimize his claims, Henry demands Archbishop Heribert of Cologne give him the imperial regalia, chief among them being the Holy Lance.

Heribert, however, had sent these ahead of the procession, possibility out of distrust of Henry and possibly because he favors the succession of his relative Duke Herman II of Swabia as the next king.

In order to force Herman II to relinquish the Holy Lance to him, Henry imprisons the Archbishop and his brother the Bishop of Wurzburg.

With neither the symbols of imperial authority, the crown jewels, nor the cooperation of Heribert, Henry is unable to persuade the nobles attending Otto III's funeral procession to elect him as king.

The Werla meeting takes place in April and Henry, through his cousins, Abbess Sophia I of Gandersheim and Adelheid I of Quedlinburg, the sisters of deceased Otto III, succeed in having his election confirmed, at least in part by hereditary right.

Nevertheless, Eckard receives enough support to commandeer the closing banquet of the Werla assembly and dine in state with Duke Bernard I of Saxony and Bishop Arnulf of Halberstadt.

Eckard is subsequently honored as royalty by Bishop Bernward when he arrives at Hildesheim.

Within days, however, he his assassinated by agents of his Saxon opposition in Pöhlde.

Among these rivals are Count Henry III of Stade, his brother Udo, and Count Siegfried II of Northeim.