Berthold-Bezelin

The Berthold-Bezelins were a German noble family from the 10th century, whose sphere of influence and property laid about the Trechirgau and Maifeldgau. They were the Counts of Stromberg before that county became a part of the Electorate of the Palatinate. The family is named after the prevailing first name Berthold, and its variation Bezelin. The Berthold-Bezelins supposedly descended from the Ernestiner and through them from the Luitpoldinger Dukes of Bavaria as a junior lineage.

Genealogy

The reconstructed genealogy by D. C. Jackman reads

a. Ernst II/IV, m. N.N., sister of Erenfried II of the House of the Ezzonen
* b1. Berthold I, Count in Maifeldgau and Trechirgau, m. Alberada, granddaughter of Eberhard of Maienfeld of the House of the Matfridinger
** c1. Bezelin or Berthold II, Count in Maifeldgau and Trechirgau
*** d1. Berthold III, Count in Maifeldgau and Trechirgau, Count in Wetterau, successor of Otto of Hammerstein, m. N.N. of the House of the Ezzonen
**** e1. Berthold IV, Count in Maifeldgau and Trechirgau, 1064 Count ca. Wetterau/Maingau
**** e2. Udo, 1040 Count
**** e3. Ezzo, 1048 Count in Niddagau
**** e4. Kunigunde, m. Emich IV, Count in Nahegau
***** f1. Berthold I of Nürings, heir to jurisdiction of Niddagau and Wetterau
**** e5. N.N., m. Stephan I, Count of Sponheim, heirs to some jurisdiction of Trechirgau and Maifeldgau
** c2. Gerlach, Count of Lower Lahngau, 1013 Count in Maingau

Jackman cites Berthold of Ham, advocate of Prüm and documented with the Vianden cognomen, as a probable scion of this family and founder of the House of Vianden, a Sponheim branch.

Jackman, Donald C. Stromburg. Medieval German Counties. Medieval Prosopography. http://www.enlaplage.com/prosop/counts/countyA/county85.htm