Bruno of Saxony

Bruno of Saxony (Brun, Braun) was duke of Saxony from 866 until his death on 2 February 880, and belonged to the Ottonian dynasty. He fell in battle against the Vikings and is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and martyr, among the martyrs of Ebstorf. He is venerated mainly in the West. He is commemorated on 2 February.

Life

Bruno was the eldest son of the Saxon count Liudolf and of Oda, of the Billung family. His father held large estates in Eastphalia, along the river Leine, and had founded the monastery of Brunshausen in 852. After Liudolf's death, in 866, Bruno took his place; in 877 he is mentioned as duke of Saxony. It is possible that, according to the chronicler Widukind of Corvey, he already ruled all Saxony. The rise of the family is seen in the fact that Bruno's sister Liutgard married in 874 Louis the Younger, son of the Carolingian king Louis the German. He is from then on called in the Annals of Fulda the duke and the queen's brother. Nothing is known of Bruno's marriage or children.

Bruno supported his brother-⁠in-⁠law Louis the Younger in his wars with the latter's uncle, the emperor Charles the Bald. As the Saxon commander-⁠in-⁠chief in the time of the Norse invasions, he died on 2 February 880, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, in a battle with Norse warriors, probably part of the Danish contingent of the Great Heathen Army, near Lüneburg. The midwinter fight was a heavy defeat: Duke Bruno fell, with the bishops of Minden and Hildesheim, twelve Saxon counts and other noblemen. According to the chronicler Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, Bruno died in a flooded river, perhaps during the fight or the retreat. He was succeeded by his younger brother Otto the Illustrious, whose son Henry the Fowler became king of East Francia in 919.

Veneration

The Catholic Church honours him as a saint and martyr on 2 February, among the martyrs of Ebstorf. Around 1160 the counts of Dannenberg moved part of his relics to Ebstorf Abbey, near Uelzen, which from the fourteenth century was reckoned the site of the battle of 880 and became an important place of pilgrimage. According to tradition, he is the founder of the city of Brunswick and the ancestor of Count Bruno I, of the Brunonid family. The kinship is however uncertain: some records seem to refer to an earlier Saxon margrave, Brun the Younger, possibly Bruno's grandfather.