Elimar I, Count of Oldenburg

Elimar I (1040-1112) also known as Egilmar I, was the first Count of Oldenburg and reigned from 1101 to 1108.

Life and family

Elimar married Rixa (also called Rikissa and Richenza), who according to the annals of Stade was the daughter of Dedi or Adalger^[1] and may have been the heiress to Oldenburg.^[2]

The name of Elimar is found in a charter dating from 1108. His wife claimed that he was descended from Wittekind, a notable defender of the Saxons and the chief opponent of Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars of 777 to 785, but there is no other evidence for this.^[3] According to one account, Elimar was the son of Helyas of Lorraine, known as "the Swan Knight", by his marriage to Elsa of Brabant. For each of them it is said to have been their second marriage. Helyas may have married thirdly Beatrix of Cleves, daughter of Rutger II of Cleves, and with her is said to have had a further son, Dietrich. But evidence of this has not been found.^[2]

Elimar is the patrilineal ancestor of the House of Oldenburg, which has ruled as monarchs of Denmark continuously since 1448, and also as counts, dukes, kings, or emperors of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lauenburg, and Greece. Present-day patrilineal descendants of Elimar include Margrethe II of Denmark, Harald V of Norway, Constantine II of Greece, Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Christopher, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Elimar's current senior male line descendant.^[4]

Notes

1. Donald C. Jackman, Canes palatini: Dynastic Transplantation and the Cult of St Simeon, p. 8
2. David Hughes, The British Chronicles, vol. 1, p. 379
3. The Athenæum (1894), p. 494
4. Michel Huberty, L'Allemagne dynastique, Volume 7, Giraud, 1994, ISBN 2-901138-07-1, ISBN 978-2-901138-07-5