Dietrich of Ringelheim

Dietrich, also known as Dietrich of Ringelheim, was a Saxon count of the Middle Ages.

Biography

Dietrich, sometimes called Dietrich of Ringelheim in later literature, was a medieval Saxon count in the German region of Westphalia. According to contemporary chronicles, his family stemmed from the House of the Saxon duke Widukind. Dietrich was probably born in the second half of the 9th century, a few decades after the Saxons were brought under the control of Charlemagne's Frankish empire. His date of death is uncertain, but might have been after the 910s according to the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Dietrich was the father of Matilda, who married the Duke of Saxony and later King of East Francia, Henry the Fowler.^[1] Reinhild, his wife and the mother of Matilda, was of "royal Danish and Frisian blood".^[2]

References