By Otto's marriage to Eilika, daughter of Magnus, Duke of Saxony, the Ascanians became heirs to half of the property of the House of Billung, former dukes of Saxony.

In the middle of the 10th century, when the Saxon dukes of the House of Liudolfing had also become German kings, King Otto the Great entrusted more and more of his ducal authority to Hermann Billung.

The Saxon dukes, however, continued to rule central Holstein, and when Lothair of Supplinburg became duke of Saxony ( 1106 ), on the extinction of the Billung line, he enfeoofed Lord Adolphus of Schauenburg with the County of Holstein, as a Saxon subfief, becoming Adolphus I, Count of Holstein with the Saxon, later Lower Saxon dukes as liege lords.

Albert was the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika, daughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony.

He inherited the valuable estates in northern Saxony of his father in 1123, and on his mother's death, in 1142, succeeded to one-half of the lands of the house of Billung.

For five generations, the House of Billung ruled the Duchy of Saxony.

After years of purchasing lands or gaining them via inheritance or marriage alliances throughout Saxony, Lothair gained the domains of the Billung, Nordheim and Brunswick families and became one of the dominant landowners in the northern duchy.

The House of Billung, to which several Dukes of Saxony belonged, had Matilda's sister among its ancestors and thus also claimed descent from Widukind.

* Hermann Billung, a Margrave of Saxony

He was the son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, and Wulfhilde, daughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony, and thus a member of the Welf family, and, what was quite important, senior heir of the Billung family.

Saxony, which he had attempted to hold but was not officially invested with, was given to Albert the Bear, son of the younger daughter of Magnus, the last Billung duke.

* 938: Hermann Billung becomes margrave (" Markgraf ") of Saxony.

* 953: Otto I elevates Hermann Billung to viceduke of Saxony.

Hermann Billung dies in Quedlinburg ; Bernhard I Billung becomes duke of Saxony.

He was the son of Baldwin III of Flanders and Mathilde Billung of Saxony, daughter of Herman, Duke of Saxony.

In 961 Emperor Otto I appointed the count, Hermann Billung, as Duke of Saxony.

She married Liudger, a son of the Saxon duke Hermann Billung and brother of Bernard I, Duke of Saxony.

In 961 Baldwin had married Mathilde Billung of Saxony ( d. 1008 ), daughter of Herman, Duke of Saxony, by whom he had a son, his heir

He was the younger son of Duke Liudolf of Saxony and his wife Oda of Billung, and succeeded his brother Bruno as duke after the latter's death in battle in 880.

He was the elder son of Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing dynasty and his wife Oda of Billung.

The Northern March ( outlined in red ) and the Billung March were abandoned by the Empire following the Great Slav Rising in 983.

Both the Billung March and the North March were lost following the Great Slav Rising.

The successes of the Empire's Christianization policy towards the Slavs were nullified, and the political control over the Billung March and the Northern March ( territories east of the Elbe ) was lost.

During these campaigns, Henry II was confronted with the opposition of part of the Saxon nobility, including the House of Billung, who maintained good relations and were in part relatives of Boleslaw I.

The rebellion of 983, initiated by the Lutici, led to a factual disestablishment of the Northern and Billung marches as well as the corresponding bishoprics, though titular margraves and bishops were still appointed.

During the reigns of Henry and his son Otto I, several marches were established to guard the eastern acquisitions, such as the Billung March to the north and the Marca Geronis to the south.

The estates of the bishop, including the so-called Junkernhof farm, did not return after his death in 962 to the Bishopric of Verden, but were incorporated by his brother, Hermann Billung, ( died 973 ), which later led to the imposition of an excommunication order on him.

(, ), on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony ( Niedersachsen ), Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg ( later described as the Elector of Hanover ).

From 1657 to 1738 Merseburg was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Merseburg, after which it fell to the Electorate of Saxony.

The dukes of Saxony became kings ( Henry I, the Fowler, 919 ) and later the first emperors ( Henry's son, Otto I, the Great ) of Germany during the 10th century, but they lost this position in 1024.

For example, the Obotrites evolved from the unification of the Holstein and Western Mecklenburg tribes led by mighty dukes known for their raids into German Saxony.

From 1485, it was the seat of the dukes of Saxony, and from 1547 the electors as well.

The four major dukes of Germany ( Henry II of Bavaria, Conrad I of Swabia, Henry III of Carinthia, and Bernard I of Saxony ) also paid tribute to the child king.

The importance of Wittenberg historically was due to its seat of the Elector of Saxony, a dignity held by the dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg and also to its close connection with Martin Luther and the dawn of the Protestant Reformation ; several of its buildings are associated with the events of this time.

The elder branch of the House of Este, the House of Welf, historically rendered " Guelf " or " Guelph " in English, produced dukes of Bavaria ( 1070 – 1139, 1156 – 1180 ), dukes of Saxony ( 1138 – 1139, 1142 – 1180 ), a German King ( 1198 – 1218 ), and the dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg ( 1208 – 1918 ), later styled the " Electors of Hanover " when two branches of the family recombined in 1705.

Born in Ravensburg, he was the son of Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the son of Duke Henry the Black and an heir of the Billungs, former dukes of Saxony.

In 911 the East Frankish Carolingian dynasty became extinct with the death of King Louis the Child, whereafter the dukes of Saxony, Swabia and Bavaria met at Forchheim to elect the Conradine duke Conrad I of Franconia king.

Matthias consolidated his position by alliances with the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, with the Swiss Confederation and the archbishop of Salzburg, establishing henceforth the greatest potentate in central Europe.

The city of Bergedorf received town privileges in 1275, then a part of the younger Duchy of Saxony ( 1180 – 1296 ), which was partitioned by its four co-ruling dukes in 1296 into the branch duchies of Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg.

According to the Res gestae saxonicae by chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Conrad on his deathbed persuaded his younger brother Eberhard to offer the crown to Henry the Fowler, the duke of Saxony and one of his principal opponents, since he considered Henry to be the only prince capable of holding the German kingdom together in the face of internal rivalries among the dukes and the continuous Hungarian raids.

Elimar's ancestors appear as vassals, though sometimes rebellious ones, of the dukes of Saxony ; but they attained the dignity of princes of the empire when the emperor Frederick I dismembered the Saxon duchy in 1180.

The Prussian king, Frederick II, joined by the dukes of Bavaria and Saxony, invaded the Bohemian Kingdom in 1741.

The House of Wettin is a dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors ( Kurfürsten ) and kings that once ruled the area of today's German states of Saxony, the Saxon part of Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia for more than 800 years.

By the month's end, Hannover, the Hessian dukes, Brandenburg and Saxony were officially aligned against the empire, and France had agreed to provide substantially greater funding for Gustav's armies.