On Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 12:17:10 AM UTC+10, Stewart Baldwin wrote: > On 5/15/2017 12:26 AM, Hans Vogels wrote: > > > H. Dobbertin's self-admitted starting point was the plaque and 999 as > > Gisela's birthyear. Published research, as well as contributions here > > on the newsgroup, has proven him wrong on this account, therefore some > > topics continue to buzz. > > The other piece of evidence which keeps Dobbertin's theory from being > stopped dead in its tracks is Annalista Saxo, which incorrectly places > Gisela's marriage to Ernst before her marriage to Bruno, consistent with > what it necessary for Dobbertin's theory to work. The plaque and > Annalista Saxo are both reasonable pieces of evidence that one should be > reluctant to set aside without good reason, but there are so many pieces > of evidence pointing in the other direction that their combined weight > is sufficient to overturn the plaque and Annalista. However, when > considered individually, none of these other pieces of evidence > qualifies as a "smoking gun" by itself. Thus, someone who has already > made up their mind based on the plaque and Annalista Saxo might very > well believe that they could argue away the other pieces of evidence > individually without considering their combined weight. So, it seems > likely that some version of Dobbertin's theory will be making an > appearance from time to time. A further argument against Dobbertin's preferred order of Gisela's marriages is implicit in an article published last year about the birth date of her son Heinrich III (Gerhard Lubich & Dirk Jäckel, Das Geburtsjahr Heinrichs III.: 1016, in *Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters* 72 pp 581-592). They made a strong case that Heinrich's birth on 28 October was in 1016, not in 1017 as has been almost universally accepted since the 17th century. If this is correct, then Gisela must have married Konrad II by January 1016 at the latest - and since her previous husband Ernst was killed on 31 May 1015, it would be impossible for her to have married Bruno of Brunswick and to have given birth to a son by him in the interval. Peter Stewart