Egbert (Archbishop of Trier)

Egbert (ca. 950 – 9 December 993) was the Archbishop of Trier from 977 until his death.

Egbert was a son of Dirk II, Count of Holland. After being trained in Egmond Abbey, founded and controlled by his family, and at the court of Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne, he became the chancellor of Otto II in 976. The following year he was appointed to the archdiocese of Trier, still probably in his twenties. He accompanied Otto II on visits to Italy in 980 and 983, and may have made other trips there. After Otto II's death in 983, he joined the party supporting the succession of Henry the Quarrelsome, Duke of Bavaria, rather than Otto III, but returned to supporting Otto in 985.

Egbert was a significant patron of science and the arts, who established one or more workshops of goldsmiths and enamellers at Trier, which produced works for other Ottonian centres and the Imperial court. Beginning with his tenure, Trier came to rival Mainz and Cologne as the artistic centre of the Ottonian world. These were the three most important episcopal sees in Germany, who at this period disputed the primacy of the emerging German (East Frankish) kingdom between them.

To be established as the Primate of Germany would bring important political advantages, and increasing the prestige of his see through cultural means was probably an important element in Egbert's presumed role in establishing or encouraging artists and craftsmen to settle there. When Otto II was crowned in Aachen in 961, all three archbishops had performed the ceremony together.

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