Historical context After the last
Agilolfing Tassilo III was deposed as ruler of Bavaria in 788,
Charlemagne and his
successors placed Bavaria under the rule of non-hereditary governors and civil servants. But by the late 9th century, Frankish direct power in the region had waned due to
recurring attacks by the Hungarians, and local rulers had been able to grab greater independence.
Luitpold,
Margrave of Carinthia and Upper
Pannonia, set himself up as the most prominent of Bavaria's aristocracy and thereby laid the foundations of the renewed
stem duchy. In 911, his son
Arnulf the Bad assumed the
title of Duke of Bavaria, centered around his possessions around
Regensburg and in the adjacent
March of the Nordgau. Luitpold's descendants, the
Luitpoldings, would remain dukes until 947, when the king ceded the Bavarian duchy to his own brother
Henry I. After the Luitpoldings, one leading Bavarian nobleman was
Burkhard, who held the newly created title of the
Margraviate of Austria (
marcha orientalis) and was furthermore appointed as the first
Praefectus Ratisbonensis (
Burgrave of
Regensburg, the capital of Bavaria at the time) in 970. But Burkhard was deposed at the
Reichstag of Regensburg in 976, after he had joined in the uprising of Duke
Henry II of Bavaria against Emperor
Otto II in the
War of the Three Henries (976–978). As Margrave of Austria, he was replaced by
Leopold I, the progenitor of the Younger
Babenberger dynasty. As Burgrave of Regensburg, he was replaced by a relative of the Babenberger, a certain
Babo; he would become the progenitor of the Babonids, who would hold to this title for the next two centuries.
Origins of the Babonids The ancestry of Count Babo I is disputed. He is usually recognized as descending from the
Popponids (also called the Elder or Franconian Babenberger) and related to the Younger (Austrian)
Babenberger, but the precise linkage is unclear. His parents and grandparents would have been directly impacted by the fall of the Babenberger after the
Babenberg Feud. Like the Popponids and several other related and unrelated nearby dynasties, the
leading name Babo (Poppo) characterized the earlier Babonids generations. Count Babo I could have been a son or grandson of the Babenberger Count Poppo IV an der Paar († 975), a grandson of
Duke Poppo of Thuringia († c. 906), and Willibirg von Ebersberg
de] († 980, explaining Babo's secondary title as Count of Abensberg). Alternatively, he could have been a son or grandson of the Babenberger Henry III (c. 875 – 935) and Kunigunde of the Sualafeldgau (c. 885 – aft. 934, a sister of Margrave Luitpold), making him a brother or cousin of
Margrave Leopold I and
Berthold of Schweinfurt. Babo is furthermore also said to be related to both the
Luitpoldings and the Counts of Kühbach
de]. The link to the Luitpoldings can be explained if Babo was a (grand)son of Henry III and Kunigonde, as the latter was likely a sister of Margrave Luitpold. A relation to the Counts of Kühbach was suggested by Elisabeth Gäde (2020), in which she dismisses a hypothetical Babo von Kühbach (who is sometimes referenced in older literature) and instead postulates a dynastic bond between Babo I's daughter Hiltegart and Count Adalbero of Kühbach. He was known as
Vogt of
Freising prior to his elevation to Burgrave of Regensburg around 983. He also had a tenure as Count of the Western Donaugau from 976 to 983 and as
Margrave of the Nordgau in roughly the same period. Babo married at least two times. His first wife may have been Ida of Swabia (about 933 – 17 May 986), a daughter of the
Conradine Hermann I († 949) and
Regelinda of Zürich († 958). His last wife was Matilda von Schweinachgau († about 1000), daughter There has been confusion as to which Babo and which Emperor Henry he refers to.
Babo I († 1001/1002) is the candidate proposed relatively early by
Aventinus – he is also reported to have a relatively large number of children – but no Emperor Henry is at hand so early.
Babo II († bef. 1049) is often assumed instead, as he was a contemporary of
Emperor Henry II (reigning from 1014 to 1024). A number of later Bavarian and Austrian noble families claim their descent from one of the sons of this legendary Count Babo. But the lack of sources from this period make it difficult to verify such claims; while some are unlikely, most can simply not be verified. At least it can be said that some noble houses at some stage in their history identified themselves with the Babonids' legacy. The following list includes individuals and families that claim to trace their fatherly descent to Count Babo, some more convincingly than others. Some of these families included the typical Babonid rose(s) in their coats of arms. •
St. Leoprig of Schwandorf († 1061), either
saint or
beatified •
Henry of Ebrantshausen de] (c. 1120 – c. 1185), beatified •
Alowinus → Hartwig I of Bogen (
fl. 11th century) → Counts of Bogen
de] •
Berthold I of Prunn (
fl. 1080, 1095) → Lords of Prunn, Laber and Breitenegg
de] •
Wolfram of Abinberg and Rohr Finally, Burgrave Otto I was also a co-founder of the
Scots or St. Jakob Monastery in
Regensburg. Under the sons of Otto I, the estates were divided into two lines; Henry III and his successors were henceforth known as the Burgraves of Regensburg, Otto II and his sons as the Landgraves of Stefling. Under Henry III, the family's possessions were considerably extended, as he received estates from his wife Bertha that stretched from the
Mühlviertel to
Lower Austria. Henry sold part of the
Beinwald forest to Otto von Machland
de], who transferred this property to
Waldhausen Abbey.
Final period The two Babonid branches both became extinguished in the male line by the end of the 12th century; the burgraviate line with Henry IV in 1185 and the landgraviate line with Otto VI in 1196. The fiefs belonging to the
Bishops of Regensburg fell back to them. Duke Louis' claims were settled in his favor after warlike disputes around 1203-1204 against the
Bishop of Regensburg (
Conrad III of Laichling) and
Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (Eberhard of Regensburg), and the holdings of Haidau, Riedenburg, Nittenau and Regenstauf were formed from this inheritance. The Landgraviate of Stefling passed to the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg through Duke Ludwig.
Descendant branches In addition to the variety of families that claim to descend from one of Count Babo's legendary 30 or 32 sons, a number of other families also trace their descent to the Babonids: • Lords and Counts of
Roning → Lords of
Moosburg de] and Lords of
Stein /
Altmannstein • Lords of
Traun and of
Abensberg (likely matrilineally, namely through Babo's granddaughter who married with Graf Wolfram I im Dungau) •
House of Wittelsbach (matrilineally) Finally, the Wolfsteiner, Sulzbürger, Hilpoltsteiner, Heidecker, and Holnsteiner are said to be Babonid descendants, as well as the Julbach, Wald and Uttendorf in Inn and Salzach. == Coat of Arms ==