Billung March
The Billung(er) March or March of (the) Billung(s) (also called a mark) was a frontier region of the far northeast of the Duchy of Saxony in the 10th and 11th centuries. It was named after the family which held it, the Billungs.
It lay between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea and between the Trave and the Peene, essentially in the west of the later Duchy of Mecklenburg. German expansion into the region of the Billunger march was "natural" and the settlement "true colonisation."[1] This can be contrasted with the very unnatural military occupation of the marca Geronis, the great march to the south of the Billungs.
The Billunger march was formed in 936, when Otto I made Herman Billung princeps militiae controlling the border with rule over the Redarii, Obodrites, Wagrians, and Danes.[2] The Slavs of this region were often mutually hostile and so no organised resistance was met.[3] The Liutizi, Hevelli, and Polabians lay beyond the frontier. Herman was given a great deal of liberty in his march and he is sometimes called the "Duke of Saxony" (a title which was actually held by Otto) because of the great deal of authority the king delegated to him within Saxony. The disjointedness of the Germanisation of the eastern marches led to many centuries of warfare, the church, however, "more foresighted than the crown ... made use of the tithe in the colonial lands from the very beginning."[4]
The march was incorporated into Saxony following the revolt of the Slavs in 983.
Sources
- Thompson, James Westfall. Feudal Germany, Volume II: New East Frontier Colonial Germany. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1928.
Notes
- ^ Thompson, 479.
- ^ Ibid, 487. This event is recalled by the Annales Corbeienses, Widukind of Corvey, Thietmar of Merseburg, and Adam of Bremen.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid. Ecclesiastical policy led to earlier and longer-lasting Christianisation than Germanisation.