– THE EZZONEN –

(continued)

Let us now consider the documentation of pagi. In the southern sector of left-bank Ripuaria, south of Jülichgau-Sunderscas and Kölngau, there were four pagi, but under the Ezzonen they constituted only two counties: Bonn- and Ahrgau, and Zülpich- and Eifelgau. Nevertheless, under the Konradiner who preceded the Ezzonen, Bonngau was separate from Ahrgau, and there are reasons for believing that in the later twelfth century they separated again. Probably Zülpichgau and Eifelgau were also separated in the same period, although this development cannot be observed so clearly.

The pagi of the northern sector of left-bank Ripuaria all belonged to Hattuaria: from north to south they were Düffel, Keldagau, and Mühlgau. At least part of this region belonged to a ducatus Ripoariorum prior to the division of the Carolingian empire, but virtually nothing is known of that constitutional entity. Another complicating factor is the artificial nature of the Rhine as border between Lotharingia and the East kingdom. In northern Hattuaria many right-bank localities belonged more naturally to the Lotharingian pagus of Hattuaria than to the Eastern pagus of Ruhrgau, and one can hardly guess how affairs were arranged after Hattuaria was reunited. The comital documentations do not light our way out of this obscurity. Localizations in a general Hattuarian pagus are not many, but they actually exceed the number of localizations in the sub-pagi.

Thanks to a documentation from 1073, we at least know that Keldagau preserved a constitutional identity, at that time under a Count Unroch. We very likely have a documentation there from 947 for Count Erenfried, although the location (Mündelheim) is right-bank (possibly left-bank according to the course of the Rhine at that time). Under the Konradiner we have documentations from 904 and 910: Konrad the Younger succeeded Eberhard, presumably because the latter was installed as margrave of Thuringia. More northerly locations are localized in Hattuaria, only once in Düffel, under Count Erenfried in 947. Mühlgau was a county separate from the rest of Hattuaria in the mid-ninth century. It is heard of once more, in 966 under Erenfried.

A tabulation of comital documentions follows. In Column A are listed counts of the main Ezzoner line who are documented holding jurisdiction in a particular pagus. These include Erenfried, Hermann, and Ezzo, but also Gottschalk, who held by virtue of his wife’s being Ezzo’s granddaughter. In Column B are listed the successor counts, all of whom can be placed in a ‘non-imperial’ line of Ezzonen. This exercise will be restricted to left-bank pagi. However, Gottschalk actually documents for a right-bank Hattuarian location – the Esserden ferry – which belonged more naturally to Düffel than to Ruhrgau. And Gerhard Flamens documents a few years later for Styrum, a location on the lower Ruhr, at a time when Ruhrgau was dominated by the counts palatine. Styrum might have been immunized from the Ruhrgau administration and placed under Gerhard. In any event, for the sake of this exercise we shall fare best if we regard Gerhard as successor in Gottschalk’s Hattuarian county.

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