The Babonen family were influential nobles from Bavaria in the Early and High Middle Ages. They are also known as Babones, Papones, Pabones, Puapones, Poppones, Papones, etc. and should not be confused with their possible ancestors the Popponids (both called after the same leading name variously spelled as Babo, Poppo, Papo, Pabo, Puapo, etc.).
The Babonids, after its progenitor Count Babo of Regensburg, administered possessions in the Bavarian Donaugau and Nordgau until the end of the 12th century. Today, these Gaue constitute roughly the areas of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate.
History Historical context
After the last Agilolfing Tassilo III was deposed as ruler of Bavaria in 788, Charlemagne and his successors placed Bavaria under the rule of non-hereditary governors and civil servants. But by the late 9th century, Frankish direct power in the region had waned due to recurring attacks by the Hungarians, and local rulers had been able to grab greater independence. Luitpold, Margrave of Carinthia and Upper Pannonia, set himself up as the most prominent of Bavaria's aristocracy and thereby laid the foundations of the renewed stem duchy. In 911, his son Arnulf the Bad assumed the title of Duke of Bavaria, centered around his possessions around Regensburg and in the adjacent March of the Nordgau. Luitpold's descendants, the Luitpoldings, would remain dukes until 947, when the king ceded the Bavarian duchy to his own brother Henry I. After the Luitpoldings, one leading Bavarian nobleman was Burkhard, who held the newly created title of the Margraviate of Austria (marcha orientalis) and was furthermore appointed as the first Praefectus Ratisbonensis (Burgrave of Regensburg, the capital of Bavaria at the time) in 970. But Burkhard was deposed at the Reichstag of Regensburg in 976, after he had joined in the uprising of Duke Henry II of Bavaria against Emperor Otto II in the War of the Three Henries (976–978). As Margrave of Austria, he was replaced by Leopold I, the progenitor of the Younger Babenberger dynasty. As Burgrave of Regensburg, he was replaced by a relative of the Babenberger, a certain Babo;F. Janner: Geschichte der Bischöfe von Regensburg. Band 1, 1883.Friedrich Prinz (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Bayerischen Geschichte. Band I, S. 301. he would become the progenitor of the Babonids, who would hold to this title for the next two centuries.
Origins of the Babonids The ancestry of Count Babo I is disputed. He is usually recognized as descending from the Popponids (also called the Elder or Franconian Babenberger) and related to the Younger (Austrian) Babenberger, but the precise linkage is unclear. His parents and grandparents would have been directly impacted by the fall of the Babenberger after the Babenberg Feud. Like the Popponids and several other related and unrelated nearby dynasties, the leading name Babo (Poppo) characterized the earlier Babonids generations.
Count Babo I could have been a son or grandson of the Babenberger Count Poppo IV an der Paar († 975), a grandson of Duke Poppo of Thuringia († c. 906), and Willibirg von Ebersberg [de] († 980, explaining Babo's secondary title as Count of Abensberg). Alternatively, he could have been a son or grandson of the Babenberger Henry III (c. 875 – 935) and Kunigunde of the Sualafeldgau (c. 885 – aft. 934, a sister of Margrave Luitpold), making him a brother or cousin of Margrave Leopold I and Berthold of Schweinfurt.
Babo is furthermore also said to be related to both the Luitpoldings and the Counts of Kühbach [de]. The link to the Luitpoldings can be explained if Babo was a (grand)son of Henry III and Kunigonde, as the latter was likely a sister of Margrave Luitpold. A relation to the Counts of Kühbach was suggested by Elisabeth Gäde (2020), in which she dismisses a hypothetical Babo von Kühbach (who is sometimes referenced in older literature) and instead postulates a dynastic bond between Babo I's daughter Hiltegart and Count Adalbero of Kühbach.
Mayer (1883) lists four arguments to connect the Babonids with the Elder Babenberger;
the geographic proximity of the lordships of Stevening [de], Riedenburg, and the Schweinfurt possessions at Kastl, Ammerthal, Kreussen [de]; the roughly simultaneous enfeoffment of Babo and Leopold of Babenberg after Burkhard's fall, where Babo received the Burggraviate of Regensburg and Leopold the Ostmark; the possession of the Buch estate in the Danube valley above Straubing, which was owned by Babo and which is listed in the record of estates seized from Tegernsee Abbey as having been seized by Margrave Adelbert in 1030 and by Margrave Ernest in 1060; the Babonid possessions in the Nordgau, that extended as far as the Mühlviertel and the Lower Austrian border of the Machland, similarly as the Formbach [de] and Babenberg possessions.
Count Babo I Count Babo would have been born around 930 or 940 and is reported to have died on 5 May 1001 or 1002.Mayer: Regesten zur Geschichte der Burggrafen (1889), S. 28. He was known as Vogt of Freising prior to his elevation to Burgrave of Regensburg around 983. He also had a tenure as Count of the Western Donaugau from 976 to 983 and as Margrave of the Nordgau in roughly the same period.
Babo married at least two times. His first wife may have been Ida of Swabia (about 933 – 17 May 986), a daughter of the Conradine Hermann I († 949) and Regelinda of Zürich († 958). His last wife was Matilda von Schweinachgau († about 1000), daughter of Count Ulrich of Formbach (or Schweinachgau) and Kunigunda of Bavaria (daughter of Duke Berthold of Bavaria, another Babenberger). Likely mostly from his first wife, Babo had a number of children:
Heinrich († 1002), 981 Count and Burgrave of Regensburg Ruprecht I of Regensburg († 1035/1036), 1002 Count and Burgrave of Regensburg, married Liutana the daughter of Margrave Heinrich von Schweinfurt († 1017) and Gerberga von Gleiberg († 1036) Adelbret Herolt Egilolf, monk in St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg Liutolf († 996), monk in St. Emmeram's Abbey in Regensburg Hiltegard, possibly married to Count Adalpero of Kühbach and later to Count Conrad Gebba, possibly nun in Niedermünster Abbey in Regensburg
Babo's descendants, the Babonids, would continue through his son Ruprecht only. They would rule the counties of Western Donaugau (until 1196) and Nordgau, Regensburg (from 985 to 1196) and Riedenburg. Babo's titles and goods would remain in the possession of his descendants until their extinction, but one descendant, Burgrave Otto I, would in addition be appointed Count of Regenstauf in 1125. Other property of the Babonids and their descending lines include Abensberg, Abenberg, Burg Rotteneck (in the Hallertau), a series of castles in the Nordgau (in the neighourhood of the Altmühl river), Sulz, Weiße and Schwarze Laber.
Count Babo's legendary 40 children
In the Vita Chuonradi archiepiscopi Salisburgensis on the life and ancestry of Archbishop of Salzburg, Conrad I of Abenberg (abt. 1075 – 1147), a direct descendant of Count Babo, it is described that Count Babo had an exceptional number of children, no less than 30 (or according to other sources 32) sons and eight daughters, from his three successive wives:Adam Rottler: Abensberg im Wandel der Zeiten. S. 26.
There has been confusion as to which Babo and which Emperor Henry he refers to. Babo I († 1001/1002) is the candidate proposed relatively early by Aventinus – he is also reported to have a relatively large number of children – but no Emperor Henry is at hand so early. Babo II († bef. 1049) is often assumed instead, as he was a contemporary of Emperor Henry II (reigning from 1014 to 1024). Finally, more recently, a case was made by Elisabeth Gäde (2020) that pinpoints Babo III († 1080-1088), the actual grandfather of Archbishop Conrad, where Henry III is the Emperor referred to (reigning from 1046 to 1056). Potentially, oral traditions may simply have combined up all of these Babo's into one fictional Count Babo.
As to the wives of this legendary Count Babo, they are named as Judith, Irmengard and Getraud.
A number of later Bavarian and Austrian noble families claim their descent from one of the sons of this legendary Count Babo. But the lack of sources from this period make it difficult to verify such claims; while some are unlikely, most can simply not be verified. At least it can be said that some noble houses at some stage in their history identified themselves with the Babonids' legacy.
The following list includes individuals and families that claim to trace their fatherly descent to Count Babo, some more convincingly than others. Some of these families included the typical Babonid rose(s) in their coats of arms.
St. Leoprig of Schwandorf († 1061), either saint or beatified Henry of Ebrantshausen [de] (c. 1120 – c. 1185), beatified Alowinus → Hartwig I of Bogen (fl. 11th century) → Counts of Bogen [de] Berthold I of Prunn (fl. 1080, 1095) → Lords of Prunn, Laber and Breitenegg [de] Wolfram of Abinberg and Rohr → House of Abensberg und Traun Eberhard of Abensberg → Counts of Abensberg [de] (more likely this would be a maternal connection to the Babonids through the Babo I's mother, Willibirg of Ebersberg) Rudpert of Rohr (possibly identical to Rupert II) → Lords of Rohr [de] Count Dietmar I of Leonsberg → Counts of Leonsberg, Dornberg and Lungau Count Erlambrecht of Biburg → Lords of Biburg Wetzil (Bezilo) of Freudenberg → Lords of Freudenberg [de] Babo of Hochfeld → Lords of Hohenfeld
Later history Babo was, among others, the grandfather of Otto von Riedenburg († 6 June 1089) bishop of Regensburg (1061-1089)
As Burgraves of Regensburg (Praefectus, präfectus urbis, burgi comes, Burggravius), they enjoyed the same judicial (courts), administrative (tax revenue) and military (Heerbann) powers as the Gaugrafen, insofar as these were not restricted by the privileges of the Bishopric of Regensburg or the monasteries. The office of burgrave was an imperial fief. The burgrave held court in the apse of St. Giles' Church [de] in Regensburg and was assisted by a judicial sub-officer known as the Schultheiß, tribunus or centurio. The right to ride through the streets of the town with a spear laid across the saddle, which existed until 1360, was connected to the defense of the town; anything that offered resistance to the spear had to be removed (this served to secure the freedom of the paths around all fortifications).
Since the early 12th century, the Babonids also became been known as the Counts of Riedenburg (or Landgraves or Burgraves of Riedenburg), a title with which they seemed to have become more affiliated with than the name Babonid or the title Burgrave of Regensburg. Today's coat of arms of Riedenburg still includes the typical three roses of the Babonids. They are considered to be the founders of Rosenburg Castle [de], Dachenstein Castle [de] and Rabenstein [de], all near Riedenburg. From the Bishopric of Regensburg, they also held the counties of Kufstein, Kitzbühel, Sinzing, as well as estates in Tangrintel (Tangründel). Finally, the County of Regenstauf would be added to burgrave Otto I's possessions in 1125.
In the 12th century, the Babonids became Vogt of the Benedictine Prüll Abbey as well as of St. Emmeram's Abbey, where their family tomb is also located. Furthermore, the Gundershausen estate near Bad Abbach (whose coat of arms still has the Babonid three roses) was transferred to their patronage, as well as the Abbeys of Walderbach [de] (again roses in its coat of arms) and of Altmühlmünster [de], the latter which was founded by Henry III and his brother Otto II in 1155. Finally, Burgrave Otto I was also a co-founder of the Scots or St. Jakob Monastery in Regensburg.