Rikdag

Who was Rikdag?

Rikdag, Ricdag, Riddag, or Rihdag was the Margrave of Meissen from 979 until his death. In 982, he acquired the marches of Merseburg and Zeitz. In 985, he was made count in the Schwabengau. He temporarily reunited all of the southern marca Geronis under his command. His march fronted the Chutizi and Dalaminzi tribes.

Ricdag's daughter, Oda or Hunilda, married Boleslaus I Chrobry, who later became the King of Poland. However, this marriage alliance was cut short by the interests of power politics.

In 983, following word of the defeat of the Emperor Otto II at the Battle of Stilo, the Slavic tribes bordering eastern Saxony rebelled. Havelberg and Brandenburg were destroyed and the March of Zeitz devastated. Ricdag and Dietrich of the Nordmark joined with the troops of Gisilher, Archbishop of Magdeburg and the Bishop of Halberstadt and defeated the Slavs at Belkesheim, near Stendal. Nevertheless, the Germans were once again limited to the land west of the Elbe.

In 985, Ricdag and his sister, Eilsuit, founded the monastery of Gerbstedt, in which he was buried and she was first abbess. Ricdag's and Dietrich's deaths in that same year were a severe setback on the middle border. By an unnamed wife, Ricdag, beside the aforementioned Oda, left a son and another daughter: Charles, who was count in the Schwabengau in 992 and who was unjustly deprived of his benefices because of false accusations, and Gerburga, who was later abbess of Quedlinburg.