Mathilde, Abbess of Essen

Mathilde
Mathilde
	Mathilde and her brother Otto on the donor portrait of the Cross of Otto and Mathilde
Abbess of Essen
Reign	973 - 5 November 1011
Predecessor	Ida
Successor	Sophia
Born	949
Died	5 November 1011; Essen
House	Ottonian dynasty
Father	Liudolf, Duke of Swabia
Mother	Ida of Swabia
Religion	Catholic

Mathilde (also Mahthild or Matilda; 949 – 5 November 1011) was Abbess of Essen Abbey from 973 to her death. She was one of the most important abbesses in the history of Essen. She was responsible for the abbey, for its buildings, its precious relics, liturgical vessels and manuscripts, its political contacts, and for commissioning translations and overseeing education. In the unreliable list of Essen Abbesses from 1672, she is listed as the second Abbess Mathilde and as a result, she is sometimes called "Mathilde II" to distinguish her from the earlier abbess of the same name, who is meant to have governed Essen Abbey from 907 to 910 but whose existence is disputed.^[1]

^ Tobias Nüssel, Überlegungen zu den Essener Äbtissinnen zwischen Wicburg und Mathilde, in Das Münster am Hellweg 63, 2010, pp. 20–22.

[1] Tobias Nüssel, Überlegungen zu den Essener Äbtissinnen zwischen Wicburg und Mathilde, in Das Münster am Hellweg 63, 2010, pp. 20–22.

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