The Billung Dynasty: Networking in Realm and Region and the Dynastic Continuity in the Twelfth Century

在十二世纪初，比隆王朝是帝国中公爵在位时间最长的王朝之一。从比隆家族直接继承的五位萨克森公爵是：赫尔曼（Hermann，1973年）、伯恩哈德一世（Bernhard I）。（† 1011），Bernhard II.（约1059年），Ordulf（约1072年）和Magnus（约1106年）。在那个时期，帝国的其他公国都没有这样的连续性。尽管有证据表明比隆王朝统治下的萨克森有一个稳定的政府，尽管有丰富的原始资料，但在过去的几年里，没有对这个王朝进行重大的研究。虽然学者们对帝国的其他贵族家族进行了深入的研究，显示出帝国领土上个别贵族家族的研究在方法上具有极大的潜力，但最近没有关于比隆的专著出版。从那时起，方法论和文本方法经历了深刻的转变，这使得有必要质疑传统的观点，并在一个新的光调查和评估他们。经过初步审查，三个调查领域似乎特别适合重新评估：1。最近对贵族家庭的研究揭示了一种类似氏族的结构，其中个人网络构成了11世纪和12世纪帝国贵族家庭的组织和结构。这些新的见解使我们有必要在个人、领土和制度层面上仔细审查比隆家族的网络。这种新的认识，即同源亲属关系仍然是重要的建设王朝仍然在12世纪促使我们重新思考所谓的“灭绝”的比隆家族在1106年，并建议调查的历史，家庭和他们的自我认识超过了1106年。3.对欧洲大陆欧洲化（巴特利特）的研究表明，基督教欧洲的外围正在不断扩张。新的证据表明，比隆人自世纪末以来比迄今为止所认为的更强烈地参与了这一扩张政策，并且扩张政策甚至在苏帕林堡的洛塔尔统治下的王朝延续中延伸。考虑到这些发展，并借鉴最近关于这一时期其他帝国贵族家庭的优秀作品，该项目的目的是揭示新的光在第十一和（在其连续性）十二世纪的比隆房子，并发表在专题研究这一项目的结果。

At the beginning of the twelfth century the Billung Dynasty was one of the longest-serving dynasties of dukes in the Empire. Five dukes of Saxony, that followed in direct succession, originated from the house of Billung: Hermann († 973), Bernhard I. († 1011), Bernhard II. († around 1059), Ordulf († 1072), and Magnus († 1106). No other duchy of the Empire at that period could feature such a continuity in succession. In spite of this evidence for a stable government in Saxony under the Billung Dynasty and in spite of the abundant source material, no major research has been carried out about this dynasty in the last years. While scholars have intensively worked on other noble families of the Empire, showing which extreme potential, as regards methodology, those studies of individual noble houses on imperial territory have, no monograph has been published about the Billung recently.The last major studies on the Billung Dynasty have been carried out in the 1950's. Since that time, the methodological and textual approaches have undergone profound transitions which make it necessary to question traditional views on the Billung and to investigate and assess them in a new light. After a preliminary examination three fields of investigation have appeared to be in particular suitable for re-assessment: 1. Recent studies on noble families have revealed a clan-like construction, in which personal networks constituted the organization and structure of noble families in eleventh- and twelfth-century Empire. Those new insights make it essential to scrutinize the networks of the Billung family on personal, territorial, and institutional level.2. The new understanding that the cognatic kinship remained important for the construction of dynasties still in the twelfth century prompts us to re-think the allegedly "extinction" of the Billung family in 1106 and suggests to investigate the history of the family and their self-perception beyond the year 1106. 3. Studies on the Europeanization (Bartlett) of the continent have shown that there was an increasing expansion at the periphery of Christian Europe. New evidence points to the fact that the Billung have been stronger involved in this expansionistic policy since the end of the eleventh century than it has been assumed so far and that the expansionistic policy even extended in the continuation of the dynasty under Lothar of Supplinburg.Considering those developments and drawing on recent, excellent works on other imperial noble families of this period, the project aims to shed new light on the house of Billung in the eleventh and (in their continuities) twelfth centuries and to publish the results of this project in a monographic study.