Eckard was of noble east
Thuringian stock, the eldest son of Margrave
Gunther of Merseburg (d. 982). He followed his father into exile from 976 to 979 and took part in the 982
Battle of Stilo against the
Emirate of Sicily, where Gunther was killed. Back in Germany, Eckard upon the death of Emperor
Otto II in 983 supported his minor son King
Otto III of Germany. At the
Hoftag diet of
Rohr in June 984, he together with Archbishop
Willigis of Mainz and several German princes enforced the release of the four-year-old king by his rivaling cousin Duke
Henry II of Bavaria. In 985 Otto III appointed him to succeed Margrave
Rikdag in Meissen, following severe
Saxon setbacks against the Slavic
Lutici tribes during the
Great Slav Rising. Eckard remained a vital support for the king and his mother Empress
Theophanu. His military responsibilities consisted primarily of securing the
Milceni lands as well as the containment of the neighbouring
Polish and
Bohemia duchies. Duke
Boleslaus II of Bohemia had allied with Duke Henry and had taken the occasion to occupy the
Albrechtsburg residence, he nevertheless had to withdraw by 987, after Eckard's forces had prevailed. According to the chronicles of
Thietmar of Merseburg, he was later elected
Duke of Thuringia by the magnates of the region, an event which has been taken as evidence of the principle of tribal ducal election. When Boleslaus II allied with the Lutici and entered into war with
Mieszko I of Poland in 990, Margrave Eckard led the united German-Polish forces against Bohemia. Margrave Eckard had to restore
Thiadric, Bishop of Prague to his see after his expulsion by Boleslaus II of Bohemia. In 996 he accompanied Otto III on his campaign to
Rome, where the king was crowned
Holy Roman Emperor by
Pope Gregory V. Two years later, Eckard's forces helped to suppress the revolt of
Crescentius the Younger in 998 by storming
Castel Sant'Angelo. Eckard was high in the favour of Otto III, who rewarded him handsomely by converting many of his
benefices (fiefs) into
proprietas (allods). When in January 1002 Otto III died without issue and the German princes met at Frohse (today part of
Schönebeck) to elect a new king, Eckard even aimed at the German crown, because the late emperor's
Ottonian relative
Henry of Bavaria, son of rebellious Duke Henry II, who was the preeminent candidate, met with strong opposition. Eckard was at that time the most obvious Saxon candidate, but the nobles were opposed to him. They only agreed to meet again at the
Kaiserpfalz of
Werla and to support no candidate before then. The Werla meeting took place in April and Henry, through his cousins, Abbess
Sophia I of Gandersheim and
Adelheid I of Quedlinburg, the sisters of deceased Otto III, succeeded in having his election confirmed, at least in part by hereditary right. Nevertheless, Eckard received enough support to commandeer the closing banquet of the Werla assembly and dine in state with Duke
Bernard I of Saxony and Bishop
Arnulf of Halberstadt. He was subsequently honoured as royalty by Bishop
Bernward when he arrived at
Hildesheim. Within days, however, he had been assassinated by agents of his Saxon opposition in
Pöhlde. Among these rivals were Count Henry III of
Stade, his brother Udo, and Count Siegfried II of
Northeim. Eckard was initially buried at his family's castle in Kleinjena near
Naumburg, but his remains were transferred to the Benedictine monastery of Saint George in Naumburg in 1028. He was remembered by Bishop
Thietmar of Merseburg as
decus regni, solatium patriae, comes suis, terror inimicis et per omnia perfectissimus. Meissen fell into dispute on his death. Duke
Bolesław I Chrobry of the
Polans, who had supported Eckard for the throne, laid claim to it as his relative by marriage. Henry, now king, allotted to Bolesław the
March of Lusatia (which had been attached to Meissen), but Meissen itself was granted to
Gunzelin, Eckard's younger brother. ==Marriage and children==