Assuming that the German scholars are right in their linking count Bruno of Brunswick to the murdered Bruno (+ <14-11-1014), it would mean that count Bruno was the first husband of Gisela since her second husband, duke Ernst I died 31 (March or May) 1015. Hans Vogels Op woensdag 10 mei 2017 07:27:29 UTC+2 schreef Peter Stewart: > On 10/05/2017 2:41 PM, Hans Vogels wrote: > > The minimum marriage age for girls by medieval Canon law was 12 years with the restriction that the girl in question reached puberty. If Gisela was 14/15 at the time of her first marriage and being born at the end of the '80, a first marriage ca.1002 is not troublesome, being the year of the latest known mentioning of count Bruno. > > The timing of Bruno's death is a vexed issue - he is usually identified > as the Bruno whose murder in his own home some time before was brought > up in the context of a crime committed by Thietmar of Merseberg's nephew > Werner in November 1014. Thietmar himself was present on 14 November > 1014 when Heinrich II was tasking counsel on the matter. Perhaps Bruno's > murder had taken place more than 5 years earlier, but I doubt if it > would still have been at the front of people's minds if it was much > longer ago than that. > > Funnily enough, the standard MGH edition of Thietmar's chronicle makes a > strange blunder over this - the editor agreed that Bruno of Brunswick > was the man murdered before November 1014, yet the index placed his > death in 1016. Maybe he, like Banquo's ghost, needed to be dispatched a > second time. > > Peter Stewart

On 10/05/2017 3:46 PM, Hans Vogels wrote: > Assuming that the German scholars are right in their linking count Bruno of Brunswick to the murdered Bruno (+ <14-11-1014), it would mean that count Bruno was the first husband of Gisela since her second husband, duke Ernst I died 31 (March or May) 1015. Yes, I think the order of Gisela's marriages (1. Bruno, 2. Ernest, 3. Konrad) is widely agreed now. Ernest was killed in a hunting mishap on 31 May 1015 - Thietmar of Merseburg gave the date, here: http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/goToPage/bsb00000689.html?pageNo=414 ("Ernost, inclitus Alemanniae dux ... cum in silva quadam illicite venaretur, ab uno militum suimet plus ignorantia quam voluntate spontanea, ut cervam sagittare debuit, pro dolor! vulneratur ... et mox vero de luce hac II. Kal. Iunii discessit"). The year is given by Hermann of Reichenau under 1015, here: http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/goToPage/bsb00000872.html?pageNo=119 ("Ernust dux Alemanniae in venatu ab Adalberone comite, feram appetente, sagitta vulneratus interiit"). Peter Stewart