Rikdag

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Rikdag, also called Ricdag, Riddag, or Rihdag, died in 985. He was the Margrave of Meissen from 979 until his death. In 982 he also ruled the marches of Merseburg and Zeitz. After the Great Slav Rising in 983, he temporarily reunited all of the southern marcher lands under his command. His territory included areas that were home to the Chutizi and the Dolomici tribes.

Rikdag is believed to be an ancestor of the House of Wettin. He was the son of Volkmar I, Count of the Harzgau, and is described as an agnatic relative of Theodoric I of Wettin, though the exact family ties are not clear.

His daughter, Oda or Hunilda, married Boleslaus I the Brave, who would later become King of Poland. The marriage alliance was cut short by power politics.

Rikdag was a count in the Schwabengau region of Eastphalia. In 979 he followed Thietmar in the Margraviate of Meissen, and in 982 he was enfeoffed with the Merseburg and Zeitz marches, succeeding Gunther and Wigger I.

In 983, after Emperor Otto II’s defeat at Stilo, Slavic tribes along the eastern border rose up. The attacks destroyed the episcopal seats at Havelberg and Brandenburg and devastated the March of Zeitz. Rikdag, along with Dietrich of the Nordmark and church leaders, defeated the Slavs at Belkesheim near Stendal.

In 985 Rikdag and his sister Eilsuit founded the Gerbstedt monastery, where Rikdag was buried and Eilsuit became the first abbess. He left behind a son, Charles, who was count in Schwabengau in 992 and died in 1014, and a daughter, Gerburga, who later became abbess of Quedlinburg. His wife’s name is not known.

Rikdag’s death in 985 marked a major setback on the empire’s eastern border after years of expanded control.