Ehrenfried, Count of Toxandria

Ehrenfried (Ansfrid) (d. after 966), Count of Toxandria (part of the County of Looz) and possibly numerous others, the eldest son of Ricfried, Count of Betuwe, and Herensinda. The memorial of Ricfried refers to him as Rector Yrimfredus. All of what we know about Ehrenfreid is from information inferred from his more famous nephew, Ansfried, Bishop of Utrecht.

His sister Herwesindis and her husband Lambert, Count of Louvain, were parents of Ansfried, Bishop of Utrecht. Thietmar of Merseburg refers to the "like-named paternal uncle (patruo) of Count Ansfrid" who held fifteen countships. Vanderkindere suggests that Ansfrid, Count of Toxandria, was his maternal, not paternal, uncle, and that he was the same person as Ehrenfried.

In the St. Patrick Catholic Church, May 11 is the Saint’s Day of Ansfrid of Utrecht (Ansfridus) (d. 1010). Count Ansfridus of Brabant was a knight in the service of Emperors Otto III and Henry II. In 992, he built the convent of Thorn for his daughter and wife, and wanted to become a monk himself. His plans were foiled when he was appointed Archbishop of Utrecht. In that role, he founded the Benedictine Abbey of Hohorst (Heiligenberg). It was not until he was afflicted with blindness that he could realize his dream of becoming a monk. He died in the Benedictine Abbey of Heiligenberg.

It is also possible that this Ehrenfried was the same person as Ehrenfried, count in several different counties, who is shown in Europäische Stammtafeln as son of Eberhard Graf im Bonngau and ancestor of the Pfalzgrafen von Lothringen. If this is the case, he was Count of the Zülpichgau (942), of the Bonngau (945), of the Hattuariergau (947), of the Tubalgau (948), of Hubbelrath (950), of Keldachgau (950), and of Mühlgau (966) He was also Count of the Belgian County of Huy, and Reeve of the Stavelot Abbey. This cluster of counties within the Duchy of Lower Lorraine would have made him the rival of the duke (in particular, Otto), but the appointment of Ehrenfried’s nephew Raoul as Count of Verdun implies cooperation between the families. His brother Balderic also had close ties with the Emperor Otto I. This correlation of the two Ehrenfried’s is purely speculative, however intriguing, given the large numbers of countships attributed to them.

There is no record that Ehrenfried was married nor had any children.

Sources

Warner, David A., Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg. Manchester, 2001.

Butler, Alban and Burns, Paul. Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol. 5, A&C Black, 1997

Vanderkindere, Léon, La Formation territoriale des principautés belges au Moyen Âge, Bruxelles, H. Lamertin, 1902

Medieval Lands Project, Holland & Frisia, Graven van Betuwe