Liudolf was a Saxon

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

 count, son of one count (Graf) Brun (Brunhart) and his wife Gisla von Verla ; later authors called him duke of the Eastern Saxons (dux orientalis Saxonum, probably since 850) and count of Eastphalia

Eastphalia

Eastphalia is a historical region in northern Germany, encompassing the eastern part of the historic Duchy of Saxony, between the Elbe, Leine, Saale and Unstrut rivers. Today, it covers the southeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony and the western part of Saxony-Anhalt.-Etymology:The name...

. Liudolf had extended possessions in eastern Saxony, and was a leader (dux) in the wars of King Louis the German

Louis the German

Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...

 against Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 and Slav

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

s. The ruling Liudolfing House, also known as the Ottonian dynasty, is named after him; he is its oldest verified member.

Before 830 Liudolf married Oda, daughter of a Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 princeps named Billung

Billung

The House of Billung was a dynasty of Saxon noblemen in the 9th through 12th centuries.The first known member of the house was Count Wichmann, mentioned as a Billung in 811...

 and his wife Aeda. Oda died on 17 May 913, supposedly at the age of 107.

They had six children:

• Brun
• Otto the Illustrious
  Otto I, Duke of Saxony
  Otto , called the Illustrious by later authors, was the Duke of Saxony from 880 to his death. He was the younger son of Duke Liudolf of Saxony and his wife Oda of Billung, and succeeded his brother Bruno as duke after the latter's death in battle in 880...
  
  , father of Henry the Fowler
• Liutgard
  Liutgard
  Liutgard of Saxony was the wife and Queen of Louis the Younger, the Frankish King of Saxony and East Francia....
  
   married King Louis the Younger
  Louis the Younger
  Louis the Younger , sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and his elder brother Carloman as King of Bavaria from 880...
  
   in 874.
• Hathumoda, became an abbess
• Gerberga, became an abbess
• Christina, became an abbess

By marrying a Frankish nobleman's daughter, Liudolf followed suggestions set forth by Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 about ensuring the integrity of the Frankish Empire in the aftermath of the Saxon Wars

Saxon Wars

The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany...

 through marriage.

In 845/846, Liudolf and his wife traveled to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in order to ask Pope Sergius II

Pope Sergius II

Pope Sergius II was Pope from January 844 – January 24, 847.On the death of Gregory IV the archdeacon John was proclaimed pope by popular acclamation, while the nobility elected Sergius, a Roman of noble birth. The opposition was suppressed, with Sergius intervening to save John's life...

 for permission to found a house of secular canonesses, duly established at their proprietary church

Proprietary church

During the Middle Ages, the proprietary church was a church, abbey or cloister built on private ground by a feudal lord, over which he retained proprietary interests, especially the right of what in English law is "advowson", that of nominating the ecclesiastic personnel...

 in Brunshausen around 852, and moved in 881 to form Gandersheim Abbey

Gandersheim Abbey

Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.The "Imperial...

. Liudolf's minor daughter Hathumod became the first abbess

Abbess

An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....

.

Liudolf is buried in Brunshausen.