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]

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.^[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 thrones of the Commonwealth realms, and Christopher, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Elimar's current senior male-line descendant.^[3]

Elimar was succeeded by his son Elimar II.

Notes

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