Ricfried, Count of Betuwe

Ricfried (845–950) was Count of Betuwe and head of the dynasty of Counts of Looz, the first of which was his descendent Giselbert. Nothing is known about his ancestry.

Life

He was granted the title of Count of Betuwe by Zwentibold, King of Lotharingia, in 897, and was also known as Count Dodo (comitatu Dodonis). The memorial of Ricfried names presul Baldricus…preses Rodolphus…rector Yrimfredus pariterque comes Nevelongus [prelate Balderic, governor Rudolph, rector Ehrenfried and count Nebelung] as his children. Virtually all that we know abour Ricfried is from his children and their spouses and children.

Balderic’s biography states that “he was the son of Count Ricfried in the Betuwe, who expelled the Vikings from Utrecht, after which Balderic, who like his immediate predecessors had resided in Deventer, was able to move the bishopric back to Utrecht.” Balderic is also identified as a cousin of Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine, and uncle of Baldrick, Bishop of Liège.

Family

Ricfried married Herensinda, from an unknown family. They had five children:

Herwesindis and Lambert 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 believed that Ansfrid, Count of Toxandria, was his maternal, not paternal, uncle, and that he was the same person as Ehrenfried.

Ricfried was succeeded by his son Nibelung as Count of Betuwe upon his death.

Sources

Weigle, Fritz, Balderich, Neue Deutsche Biographie, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1953

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

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

Medieval Lands Project, Graven van Betuwe

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