Billung March
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The Billung March (German: Billunger Mark) or March of the Billungs (Mark der Billunger) was a frontier region of the far northeastern Duchy of Saxony in the 10th and 11th centuries. It was named after the family which held it, the Billungs.
The march lay between the Elbe River and the Baltic Sea and between the Limes Saxoniae and the Peene River, roughly the territory of present-day eastern Holstein, Mecklenburg, and parts of Vorpommern. German expansion into the region of the Billung March was "natural" and the settlement "true colonisation."[1] This can be contrasted with the military occupation of the Marca Geronis, the great march of Gero to the south of the Billungs.
The Billung March was formed in 936, when King Otto I made Hermann Billung princeps militiae, granting him control of the border with rule over the Redarii, Obodrites, Warnabi, Wagrians, and Danes.[2] The Slavs of this region were often mutually hostile and so no organised resistance was met.[3] The Liutizi and Hevelli lay beyond the frontier. Hermann was given a great deal of autonomy in his march and he is sometimes called the "Duke of Saxony", a title which was actually held by Otto, because of the great deal of authority the king delegated to him within Saxony. The disjointedness of the Germanisation of the eastern marches led to many centuries of warfare; the Roman Catholic Church, however, "more foresighted than the crown ... made use of the tithe in the colonial lands from the very beginning."[4]
The march was incorporated into Saxony following the revolt of the Slavs in 983.
[edit] Sources
- Thompson, James Westfall. Feudal Germany, Volume II: New East Frontier Colonial Germany. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1928.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Thompson, 479.
- ^ Ibid, 487. This event is recalled by the Annales Corbeienses, Widukind of Corvey, Thietmar of Merseburg, and Adam of Bremen.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid. Ecclesiastical policy led to earlier and longer-lasting Christianisation than Germanisation.
