Lutgard of Salzwedel
Lutgard of Salzwedel or Liutgard/Luitgard of Stade, (b. , murdered 1152) was Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Eric III. Life Lutgard was born to Richardis, Countess of Sponheim-Lavanttal, and Count Rudolf I of Stade and Ditmarsh (d. 1124), Margrave of the Northern March, seated in Salzwedel. Lutgard's paternal grandfather was Margrave Lothair Udo II (of the Udonids, ). After the death of her father she lived at her mother's estates near Jerichow. Married to her uncle Frederick II, Count of Sommerschenburg ( – 19 May 1162), Count Palatine of Saxony as Frederick VI (since 1120), she had four children with him, but was forced to divorce him - on the grounds of prohibited degree of relation - by 1142. Her brother Hartwig, Count of Stade, provost at Bremen Cathedral since 1143, married her to Eric of Denmark in 1143 or 1144. With the death of her elder, childless brother Count Rudolf II of Stade and Freckleben in 1144, Lutgard and her children became the eventual heirs of the County of Stade, since her younger, inheriting brother, Hartwig, was childless too. However, in 1148 Hartwig stipulated with the cathedral chapter his election as Archbishop of Bremen in return