Lutgard of Salzwedel


Lutgard of Salzwedel or Liutgard/Luitgard of Stade, was Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Eric III.

Life

Lutgard was born to Richardis, Countess of Sponheim-Lavanttal, and Count Rudolf I of Stade and Ditmarsh, Margrave of the Northern March, seated in Salzwedel. Lutgard's paternal grandfather was Margrave Lothair Udo II. After the death of her father she lived at her mother's estates near Jerichow. Married to her uncle Frederick II, Count of Sommerschenburg, Count Palatine of Saxony as Frederick VI, she had four children with him, but was forced to divorce him - on the grounds of prohibited degree of relation - by 1142.
Her brother Hartwig, Count of Stade, provost at Bremen Cathedral since 1143, married her to Eric of Denmark in 1143 or 1144. With the death of her elder, childless brother Count Rudolf II of Stade and Freckleben in 1144, Lutgard and her children became the eventual heirs of the County of Stade, since her younger, inheriting brother, Hartwig, was childless too. However, in 1148 Hartwig stipulated with the cathedral chapter his election as Archbishop of Bremen in return for his bequest of the county to the archdiocese on his death, thus disinheriting Lutgard's children. As queen, she was criticized for being promiscuous and for influencing her spouse to waste money. She separated from her spouse after she was accused of adultery and exiled to the Holy Roman Empire.
As a widow, she became the second wife of the widowed Count Herman II of Winzenburg-Northeim in 1148, and had three more daughters with him. Ministeriales of Bernard of Rothenburg, Bishop of Hildesheim, eventually at his instigation, murdered Count Herman, who was violent and ambitious to seize further territories, and the pregnant Lutgard in Winzenburg in the night between 29 and 30 January 1152. The murderers further robbed their treasury of 6,000 pound in silver.

Issue

With Frederick II of Sommerschenburg she had four children:
With Hermann II of Winzenburg-Northeim she had the following three daughters: