– THE EZZONEN –

If the Ezzonen were far and away the most powerful counts on the lower Rhine during the second half of the tenth century, one must qualify that judgment by observing the limited opportunities they had to distribute their counties to younger sons. For during this time the Ezzonen do not appear to produce many sons. Most of the counties arrived to Count Erenfried (Ezzo, fl. 943–65) in 945 as a result of a broad retreat of the Konradiner from left-bank Ripuaria, the apparent purpose of which was to accommodate the desire of Duke Konrad of Lotharingia – a Konradiner relative and son-in-law of King Otto – to establish a more perfect command of his duchy. Erenfried held all of left-bank Ripuaria, including Hattuaria, with the exception of a central strip composed of Jülichgau, Kölngau and Sunderscas, held chiefly by the Matfridinger. He also held Ruhrgau, the most northerly right-bank pagus, while the Konradiner persevered in the other right-bank pagi of Avelgau and (probably) Deutzgau. His successor Hermann (fl. 963-96), who is documented as count palatine, added Avelgau to the Ezzoner sphere, and Deutzgau arrived either then or in the next generation.

Before 945 Erenfried need only have held the Zülpich- and Eifelgau county, which had probably passed from his father, no doubt Count Adalhard (fl. 922-7), and from Count Alfwin (fl. 896-908), his likely grandfather. Alfwin was presumably a brother of Count Adalhard of Moselgau who is believed to found the main line of the Matfridinger. These affiliations are inferred, as is the evident relationship of Count Palatine Hermann I as Erenfried’s son. Certain other persons can be projected into the family with a reasonable degree of probablility. Siblings of Hermann should include Bishop Poppo II of Würzburg (961-83) and Richwara wife of Margrave Leopold I of Austria. A sister of Erenfried presumably married Count Ernst (IV) of Sualafeld.

The only affiliation explicitly documented, however, is Hermann’s relationship as son of a Richwara, who should belong to the Swabian Welf family. This alliance – and it is likely that Hermann’s marriage was also instrumental – kept the Ezzonen in line to consolidate inheritance in eastern Franconia as heirs of the Popponen. The Gerbhardine Konradiner background of Erenfried’s mother provided an initial foundation of power in that region, for she too appears to be a lineal descendant of one of the Popponer counts of Grabfeld.

Documented sons of Count Palatine Hermann I are Ezzo and Hezilo: these names are the diminutive forms of Erenfried and Henry. The form Hezilo is occasionally encountered as a diminutive for Hermann, but that usage was comparatively rare. Attempts to view this Hezilo as a Hermann seek refuge in the necrology of St. Gereon Cologne, a religious house associated with a notorious forgery concerning Hezilo. To the contrary, a third brother can be inferred as Count Hermann (II) of Ruhrgau, and descendants reasonably assigned to him are quite different from those of Hezilo.

The family of Count Palatine Ezzo and Princess Mathilde is known in considerable detail through the Brunwilarensis monasterii fundatorum actus, a history of the Ezzonen and their foundation of the monastery of Brauweiler south of Cologne. In addition to three sons – Liudolf († 1031), Archbishop Hermann II of Cologne (1036–56), and Duke Otto of Swabia († 1047) – there were seven daughters – all of whom became abbesses except the eldest, Richeza (full form Richwara), who married King Mieszko of Poland, her childhood betrothed.

Liudolf predeceased his father, but left two sons, Konrad and Henry, and at least one daughter, Adelheid, from whom the early counts of Zutphen descended. Konrad became duke of Bavaria in 1049 and was deposed in 1053, dying two years later while attempting to assassinate the emperor and seize the throne. Henry died somewhat earlier. Konrad was passed over in the palatine succession of 1045 when Otto relinquished that office to become duke of Swabia. In all likelihood, however, Konrad was granted the expectancy to Bavaria in that year.

Otto left the palatine office to his cousin Henry, son of Hezilo, no doubt at the behest of the monarch, who valued the Salian lineage that Henry received from his mother. But this action also speaks for amicable relations and legalistic bonds between cousins as mirrored elsewhere. Ezzo and Hezilo, for example, cooperated in granting forest lands to the ecclesiastical institutions of Brauweiler and Kornelimünster. Count Palatine Henry acted as advocate for Queen Richeza of Poland on at least one occasion, and in 1056 he received from her the Mosellan castle of Cochem – Richeza’s explicit intention was that this castle should pass among Henry’s descendants, which perhaps reflects her outrage and shame at the coup attempted by her Ezzoner nephew Konrad in 1053-5.

Of Hezilo, little more than the comital office in Zülpichgau is known. His Salian marriage cannot be doubted. His son, Count Palatine Henry I, retired to a monastery in 1060 leaving a young son in the care of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne: this was the later Count Palatine Hermann II. The mother, Mathilde, whom Henry felled with an axe in a fit of rage, was a daughter of Duke Gozelo of Lower Lorraine, and she had previously been married to Sigibodo, a count in upper Lorraine who died in or shortly after 1038. Thus Henry cannot have married until around 1040, which accords with a birthdate around 1020. This suggests that Henry’s mother was a daughter, rather than a sister, of Duke Konrad I of Carinthia. After a betrothal to Rudolf of Rheinfelden’s daughter was ruptured by the imperial schism, Count Palatine Hermann II married the Saxon heiress Adelheid of Weimar; but their children died young. Hermann, who died in 1085, is the last expressly documented Ezzoner.

A further explicit affiliation is that of Duke Konrad III of Carinthia (1057-60) as Count Palatine Henry I ’s brother. Many other persons can affiliate implicitly with the Ezzonen, however. One is Count Palatine Henry II (of Laach), who died in 1095 and whose inheritance was distributed among a wide variety of heirs: he identifies readily as his predecessor’s first cousin. Yet in addition to the senior line of Ezzo and the junior line of Hezilo, there appears to be a third and more prolific line, passed over in the palatine succession because unlike the other lines it was not closely related with the Salian emperors in common descent from previous emperors.

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