Welf (father of Judith)

Welf I (or Hwelf; died about 825) is the first documented ancestor of the Elder House of Welf. He is mentioned as a count (comes) in the Frankish lands of Bavaria.

Welf originated from a distinguished dynasty of Franconian nobles. He is mentioned only once: on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter Judith with Emperor Louis the Pious in 819 at Aachen. His son Conrad later appeared as a dux (duke) in Alamannia and achieved a powerful position in the Upper Swabian estates he possibly had inherited from his mother Hedwig (Heilwig).

His family became politically powerful when Louis the Pious chose his oldest daughter as his 2nd wife upon the death of his consort Ermengarde of Hesbaye. Though Welf himself never became publicly prominent, his family became interwoven with the Carolingian dynasty.

Welf married Hedwig (Heilwig), daughter of the Saxon count Isambart; Hedwig later became abbess of Chelles. The couple had the following children:

• Judith (d. 843), married to Emperor Louis the Pious, Roman Empress and Frankish Queen;
• Rudolph (d. 866), Count of Ponthieu;
• Conrad (d. after 862), Count of Auxerre, ancestor of the Welf kings of Burgundy;
• Hemma (d. 876), Frankish Queen, married to King Louis the German, son of Emperor Louis the Pious.