Giso IV, Count of Gudensberg

Who was Giso IV, Count of Gudensberg?

Giso IV, Count of Gudensberg was a German nobleman. He was a Count in the Upper Lahngau and from 1121, he was Count of Gudensberg in Lower Hesse and Imperial Standard Bearer. During his lifetime, the Gisones dynasty reached the peak of its power, its largest territorial expanse and the largest number of bailiff positions.

Giso IV was first mentioned in a document dated 1099, as the son of Countess Matilda from her first marriage with either Giso II or Giso III. She later married Count Adalbert of Saffenberg, a Count in the Ahr valley. After he died in 1109, she lived at Hollende Castle, the ancestral seat of the Gisones near Wetter, north of Marburg, where she died in 1110.

Giso IV married Kunigunde, the daughter of Count Rugger II of Bilstein. Her mother, whose name is unknown, was probably a daughter of Count Werner III of Gudensberg. Giso IV acquired considerable possessions and bailiwicks via her, mostly in the Werra area, the Upper Lahngau and on the Rhine — among these were the advocatus positions over Hersfeld Abbey and the St. Florins church in Koblenz.

In contemporary documents, Giso IV is often mentioned together with Count Werner IV of Maden and Gudensberg. Both were confidants of Emperor Henry IV. Even after Henry V forced Henry IV to abdicate in 1105, Giso IV remained loyal to Henry IV. In 1114, he went to war against Archbishop Frederick I of Cologne, who supported the Pope in the Investiture Controversy. He did considerable damage to Grafschaft Abbey in the Sauerland region.