Popponids The oldest known ancestor of the Frankish Babenbergs was
Poppo I of Grapfeld (died 839/841), after whom the dynasty is named. He was the grandson of
Count Heimrich of the Upper Rheingau (740–795), a son of
Count Cancor (died 771). This makes Poppo part of an early collateral line of the
Robertians related to the French royal family of the Capetians. Poppo was count in the Grapfeld (
Grabfeld) region from 819 to 839, on the border between modern-day
Bavaria and
Thuringia. Poppo was married to a daughter of the
Hattonid dynasty, bringing in possessions in positions in
Saxony and
Austrasia. A Christian I, Hesso I and II, Burkhard and Liutolf are known to be counts in Grabfeld (and direct relatives thereof), but their affiliation to the Popponids is not proven. Christian I with his wife Heilwig is sometimes placed between Poppo (~770-839/841) and his (grand-)son Henry (~830-886) to explain a time gap between the two, but his name is not repeated in following generations.
Elder Babenberger Poppo's (grand-)sons continued the dynasty. Instead of Popponids, they are increasingly called Babenberger onwards. (1837)
Henry I of Franconia (died 886) is described by the
Annals of Fulda as the "leader of the army" (
princeps militiae) of Louis the Younger in 866 during his rebellion against his father King
Louis the German. During the reign of
Charles the Fat, who favored the family, Henry's career is a succession of battles with
Viking raiders. He was variously called
marchio francorum (Margrave of the Franks) and
dux austrasiorum (Duke of the Austrasians). He was eventually killed in battle during the
Viking Siege of Paris in 886. His death may have enabled his distant cousin
Count Odo to carve out an increasingly important role for his descendants, the
House of Capet. Furthermore, his death and inability to protect his family may have enabled the later Babenberger Feud and the death of his children. Henry's wife may have been Ingeltrude, the daughter of
Eberhard of Friuli. They had at least three sons and one daughter, all of whom died during the
Babenberger Feud; • Henry II (died 906), killed in battle •
Adalbert (c. 854 – 906), captured and executed •
Adalhard (died 903), captured and executed •
Hathui (
Hedwig,
Hadewig) (died 903), married to Duke
Otto I the Illustrious of Saxony, mother of King
Henry the Fowler Henry's brother,
Poppo II (died aft. 906), was
Margrave of Thuringia from about 880. He waged a number of wars against his younger brother, Egino. In 892, after having advised in favor of a failed expedition against the Slavs, he was deposed by Charles' successor King
Arnulf of Carinthia, who put his relatives the
Conradines in charge of Thuringia instead. After Arnulf's death in 899, he was restored to his lands and made Count of the
Bavarian Nordgau (in 903) and of the Volkfeld (in 906). The castle of Babenburg in
Bamberg in Bavaria is first mentioned in relation to the Babenberger Feud in 902 and is likely to have been named after Poppo II (whose name is spelt in various ways, including Babo). Their younger brother
Egino feuded with his brother Poppo in Thuringia in 882 and 883, but was killed in battle with the
Magyars in 886 or 888 along with
Duke Burchard of Thuringia, and
Bishop Rudolf I of Würzburg.
Babenberger Feud The Babenberger Feud would have already started as early as 892, when Arnulf appointed his
Conradine relatives and dismissed Poppo as margrave of Thuringia. It continued after Arnulf's death and his succession by six-years' old
Louis IV the Child in 899. To add to the confusion, from 900 onwards, the
Magyar ravaged Europe and particularly Bavaria and Carinthia. When the Franconian Babenberger incorporated small parts of the
diocese of Würzburg into their domain in 902, the conflict between the Conradine and Babenberger factions eventually led to a full clash. The Castle of Babenburg was besieged by the Conradines (on this occasion we find the first mentioning of the castle), and Adalhard was captured after losing his left eye and was subsequently beheaded by
Gebhard at the
Reichstag of
Forchheim. Both sides clashed again during the battle of
Fritzlar on 27 February 906, where the Conradines won a decisive victory, although their leader
Conrad the Elder fell. On the Babenberger side, Henry II was killed in the battle. The sole survivor of the three Babenberg brothers, Adalbert, was summoned before the royal court by the Regent, Archbishop
Hatto I of Mainz, a partisan of the Conradines. He refused to appear, held his own against the king's forces for some time in his castle at
Theres, but surrendered in 906. In spite of a promise of safe-conduct by Hatto, he was condemned and
beheaded.
Conrad the Younger now became the undisputed Duke of Franconia and later, after the early death of Louis the Child, King of the
East Frankish Kingdom in 911. Adalbert's son,
Henry III of Babenberg, survived the feud. He may have been married to a sister of Margrave
Luitpold and fathered
Berthold of Schweinfurt,
Archbishop Henry of Trier,
Bishop Poppo I of Würzburg and an unknown brother or
Margrave Leopold I directly.
Berthold was the progenitor of the House of Schweinfurt
de]. The Schweinfurter are likely to have been the ancestors of the Counts of Scheyern and hence of the
House of Wittelsbach. In addition, Berthold is known to either have been the brother or the uncle of first Younger Babenberger ruler, Margrave
Leopold I, meaning that either Leopold directly or an unknown person would have been a further son of Henry III. The names of Leopold's children, namely
Henry,
Judith,
Adalbert and
Poppo are strongly suggestive of a link with Henry III, while the names of his other child
Ernest as well as his own name
Leopold point to a link to the
Luitpoldings (possibly in reference to Henry II's Luitpolding wife). Leopold's descendants, the Younger or Austrian
House of Babenberg would govern the
March of Austria from 976 until 1246. Finally, Count Babo I of Regensburg and his descendants, the
Babonids, known to be of Babenberger descent, were an influential family of Bavarian nobility that administered possessions in the
Bavarian Donaugau and
Nordgau from the 10th to the 12th century. Count Babo's origins are unclear, but he could have been another son or grandson of Henry III, or alternatively could have descended from Poppo II.
Other branches During and after the events surrounding the Babenberger Feud, Henri I's Babenberger descendants lost most of their possessions and offices in Franconia and almost disappeared from history. But meanwhile, Poppo II, as uncle of his killed nephews Adalbert, Adalhard, and Henry II, seems to have remained in the royal favor, and was even named count of the
Nordgau in 903 as well as count of the Volkfeld in 906. He probably died around 906, after which his rule over the Nordgau was taken over by the Luitpolding
Duke Arnulf of Bavaria. Poppo II's descendants (including a number of further Poppo's) founded the County of Henneberg and gradually evolved into the
House of Henneberg, around the castles of Struphe and
Henneberg. The diocese of Bamberg was founded in 1007 on the land of the former Babenberg heartland. == Genealogy ==