Wife of Gottfrid of the Alamannians

Unproven as daughter or sister of Theodo II, duke of Bavaria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotfrid

last edited on 8 June 2021 to read:

"It has often been stated that Gotfrid married a daughter of Theodo of Bavaria, but there is no conclusive evidence to support this assertion. It is largely based on conjecture, due to the fact that his third son, Odilo, later ruled in Bavaria. Furthermore, Gotfried died several years before most of Theodo's children are believed to have been born. Even if he had been betrothed to Theodo's daughter, whose name is unknown, she would have been little more than a child and unable to consummate such a union before his death, let alone bear him multiple children.

"One theory suggests that he had a Merovingian wife, based on the fact that several of his descendants bore Merovingian names, including the sons of his great-great-granddaughter Hildegard of the Vinzgau, wife of Charlemagne. The Agilolfings were, in fact, ruling Bavaria and Alemannia under the suzerainty of the Merovingian dynasty at this time, so such a union is not improbable. However, there is currently no further evidence to confirm this."

'Various secondary sources identify the wife of Gottfrid of Alemannia as Hildegarde, or Oda, or Ragnetrude or Regine (of Bavaria). However, her identity is speculative. "There is no direct evidence regarding Gottfried's wife or wives." She might have been a daughter of Theodo I or of Theodo II.

Stewart Baldwin summarizes the evidence as follows:

"The suggestion that he [Gottfrid] was married to a daughter of duke Theodo (II not V) is based on a string of conjectures:

1. It has been conjectured that duke Odilo of Bavaria was a son of Gottfried. This conjecture has been accepted by many scholars, and I am inclined to regard it as probably true, but the evidence is not that strong.

2. Assuming that the first conjecture is correct, it has been conjectured on top of that that Odilo's mother was an Agilolfing, in order to explain his possession of the duchy of Bavaria and to explain the Agilolfing name that he gave to his son Thassilo.

3. Assuming that the second conjecture is correct, it has been conjectured on top of that that Gottfried's wife was a daughter of Theodo II, Agilolfing duke of Bavaria. Based on the same string of guesses, Settipani has conjectured that Gottfried's wife was a sister of Theodo rather than his daughter. Although both conjectures are based on very slender evidence, Settipani's version is chronologically more plausible.

To accept the above line [omitted here], you would have to accept all of the above string of conjectures, and accept in addition that Huoching and Odilo had the same mother, when we have no evidence whether or not Gottfried was married more than once."

(Stewart Baldwin, soc.genealogy.medieval, May 18, 2012)

• Not proven as wife of Gotfrid, duke of the Alemannians
• Perhaps daughter or sister of Theodo II, duke of Bavaria

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Identity

From https://fasg.org/projects/henryproject/data/gottf000.htm

Possible spouse of Gottfried: NN of Bavaria, Agilolfing. (Wife of Gottfrid of the Alamannians)

Gottfried's connection to the Agilolfinger

Members of the ducal family of Bavaria were sometimes called Agilolfinger ["De genealogia qui vocantur Hosi Drazza Fagana Hahilinga Anniona isti sunt quasi primi post Agilolfingos qui sunt de genere ducali." Lex Baiwariorum, III, I, MGH Leg. Nat. Germ. 5.1: 312-3]. As noted above, Gottfrieds probable son Liutfrid is also called an Agilolfing in a late source. It has also been pointed out that one of Gottfried's son (Theodebald) was given the same name as one of the sons of duke Theodo of Bavaria, that the name of another son (Lantfrid) had the same first element as the name of one of Theodo's son (Lantbert/Lambert), and that Gottfried's Odilo is a variant form of the name of one of Theodo's daughters (Oda) [Eckhardt (1965), 77-9]. Also, Odilo gave his son the name Tassilo, also present in the family of duke Theodo, and Tassilo named two sons Theodo and Theodebert, the latter also being the name of duke Theodo's son and successor [ibid.]. Assuming that Zöllner's theory that Odilo was a son of Gottfried is correct, all of this points to a close relationship between Gottfried's sons and the Bavarian ducal family of duke Theodo. Thus, it is probable that either Gottfried or his wife was an Agilolfing.

But which was it? This is unclear. If the Agilolfinger were an exclusively patrilineal dynasty (and this is far from certain), then the Agilolfing status of Liutfrid would imply that Gottfried was also an Agilolfing. This was the view of Erich Zöllner, who referred to the Swabian "branch" ("Zweig") of the Agilolfinger [Z%C3%B6llner (1951), 263; Zöllner (1978), 105]. To Wilhelm Störmer it appeared that the connection went back to an earlier marriage (or marriages) [St%C3%B6rmer (1972), 22].

On the other hand, Karl August Eckhardt argued that Gottfried was descended from the previous Alemannian dukes (see below), and based on the Agilolfing connections of Gottfried's sons mentioned above, proposed that Gottfried was married to a daughter of duke Theodo of Bavaria [Eckhardt (1965), 77-9]. Störmer objected that this was not probable, because Gottfried died in 709, and Theodo not until 717×8 [St%C3%B6rmer (1972), 22]. Such chronological arguments based on death dates can be misleading, but it does seem likely that Gottfried and Theodo were in approximately the same generation. Thus, if Gottfried's wife really was a member of Theodo's family, then Christian Settipani's suggestion that she was a sister of Theodo seems more likely [Settipani (1990), 9 & n. 24, 10 (table)].

Ultimately, the situation is uncertain. Although the evidence of Agilolfing connections is good, there is simply not enough evidence to decide whether these connections came through Gottfried or through his wife.

Conjectured wife (evidence poor - very improbable): NN, Merovingian princess.