Wichmann I the Elder (died 23 April 944) was a member of the Saxon House of Billung. He was a brother of Amelung, Bishop of Verden, and Herman, Duke of Saxony

Herman, Duke of Saxony

Hermann Billung was a Margrave of Saxony and one of the most well-known members of the House of Billung.Hermann was the son of Billung von Stubenskorn and Ermengarde of Nantes. Hermann is generally counted as the first Billung Duke of Saxony, but his exact position is unclear...

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In 938, Wichmann rebelled because his younger brother Herman had been given the military command of the northern reaches of the Duchy of Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

. He believed that he had a better claim to the office by virtue of his seniority and because he was related by marriage to the queen dowager Matilda of Ringelheim

Matilda of Ringelheim

Saint Mathilda was the wife of King Henry I of Germany, the first ruler of the Saxon Ottonian dynasty, thereby Duchess consort of Saxony from 912 and German Queen from 919 until 936. Their eldest son Otto succeeded his father as German King and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962...

: that is, Königsnähe. He was joined by Eberhard of Franconia and Thankmar

Thankmar

Thankmar was the eldest son of Henry I of Germany by his first wife, Hatheburg . His mother had been previously married and widowed, after which she entered a convent. Because she left the convent to marry Henry, her second marriage was considered invalid and the couple split...

, the half-brother of King Otto I. The revolt was soon suppressed: Thankmar died the same year he and Eberhard came to terms. Wichmann allied with some Slavs and made war against his former compatriots. He was finally reconciled to Otto in 941.

Wichmann married Frederuna (or Fridaruna), sister of Queen Matilda. She became a nun after her husband's death and died on 18 January 971. She left hims three sons and a daughter:

• Wichmann II
  Wichmann the Younger
  Wichmann II the Younger was a member of the Saxon House of Billung. He was a son of Count Wichmann the Elder and his wife Frederuna, probably a sister of Queen Matilda...
  
  
• Bruno, Bishop of Verden
• Egbert the One-Eyed
  Egbert the One-Eyed
  Egbert the One-Eyed was the second son of Wichmann the Elder and the younger brother of Wichmann the Younger. He was thus of the elder line of the Billung family. His nickname derives from the fact that he lost an eye in battle, an injury for which he blamed Otto I and which partly explains his...
  
  
• Hedwig or Hathui, married Siegfried, son of Gero
  Gero
  Gero I , called the Great , ruled an initially modest march centred on Merseburg, which he expanded into a vast territory named after him: the marca Geronis. During the mid-10th century, he was the leader of the Saxon Drang nach Osten.-Succession and early conflicts:Gero was the son of Count...
  
  

Sources

• Reuter, Timothy
  Timothy Reuter
  Timothy Alan Reuter , grandson of the former mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter, was a German-British historian who specialized in the study of medieval Germany, particularly the social, military and ecclesiastical institutions of the Ottonian and Salian periods .Reuter received his D.phil from Oxford in...
  
  . Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.
• Thompson, James Westfall
  James Westfall Thompson
  James Westfall Thompson was an American historian specializing in the history of medieval and early modern Europe, particularly of the Holy Roman Empire and France...
  
  . Feudal Germany, Volume II. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1928.
• Bernhardt, John W. Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c. 936–1075. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.