Count Rudolf (living 944), was a count in Lower Lotharingia, who apparently held possessions in the Hesbaye region and in the area of Meuse river north of Maastricht. It has been proposed that he was a son of Reginar II, Count of Hainaut, and thus a member of the so-called Regnarid dynasty.
Although there are no records which associate the brother of Reginar III clearly with any specific geographical area, counties called Avernas and Huste were counties belonging to a count or counts named Rudolf in this period, and it has been proposed that this may have been Rudolf the brother of Reginar.
Rudolf is only clearly mentioned in one specific record as brother of Reginar III:
Another possible record comes from a later period, where Reginar is associated with a count Rodwold. The two men were both uncles of the same person. Bishop Ratherius wrote his Phrenesis to defend the position he lost as Bishop of Liège, and one of his claims was that his replacement Balderic I (bishop 956-9), had benefited from nepotism, being the nephew of Counts "Regeneri atque Ruoduolti", and the son of the brother of Bishop Balderic of Utrecht.[2] This Rodwold has often been equated to the Rodulf the brother of Reginar mentioned by Floduard.
It is generally accepted that it is the same two brothers who appear next to each other ("Rudolfus comes, Reginherus comes") in a charter by King Otto in 949, confirming the Abbey of Susteren on the Meuse to be a possession of Prüm abbey.[3]
Other charters previous to this appear to show (if they are the same person) that he held territory on the left bank of the Meuse, and also the County of Avernas (though none of these charters give genealogical information).
In 958, Reginar III was defeated by King Lothair and Archbishop Bruno and banished to Bavaria. Rudolf is not explicitly mentioned in this regard, but about that same time, a Werner appears as under-advocate (subadvocatus) of the Abbey of St Truiden, a position that would in later centuries be held by the count over the area around the Abbey, an area where a Count Rudolf had been count, and a Count Werner also appears in other areas where the Reginars had been powerful. It is thought likely that Bruno replaced Rudolf as count with Werner around 958. The main documentary evidence is that in 966, a charter states that Rudolf’s property at Gelmen (between St Truiden and Borgloon) had been confiscated because of his infidelity and was now in the county of Werner in the pagus of Hesbaye.[8] For all these reasons, it was argued by Léon Vanderkindere and others that Count Werner replaced Rudolf.
Any wives or children that Rudolf might have had are not known from any clear records. It is known that in similar areas to Rudolf's and his brother's lordships Werner (or Garnier) appears as count after 953. In 973 however, the sons of Reginar III, Reginar IV and his brother Lambert, returned and killed Werner and his brother Renaud. Rudolf's nephews then established themselves in the counties of Hainaut and Louvain. It was proposed by Leon Vanderkindere that the related family of Nevelong, Count of Betuwe, who married a sister of Rudolf and had a son with her named Rudolf, played a more lasting role in the Hesbaye area, both during and after the time of Werner. One Count in particular who may be a member of that family was named Eremfried, and a Count Emmo (who replaced Rudolf in Gelmen) might be the same person.
Perhaps there was a final mention of Rudolf in 982, according to Jongbloed. In a charter made in Capua, 26 July 982, "on the day that we fight the Saracens" Otto II certified that if a certain "Cunradus, son of the late count Rudolf" died, he wanted his possessions in Lotharingia to go to Gorze Abbey, and these included "curtis Velm in pago Haspongowe et in comitate Eremfridi comitis".[11] In the Battle of Cotrone itself (13 July 982, so it had already happened) it seems that both this Conrad, and this count Eremfried, lost their lives. Velm, now part of St Truiden, did come under Gorze Abbey, and a Count Irimfrid was recorded as dying in the battle.[12] However, this Conrad's possessions were widespread, and on the basis of those Vanderkindere (1902 pp.340-1) believes his father was Rodolphe Count of Ivois.[13] Of this Count however, Vanderkindere (p.342) says that given his connection to Velm it is "not without some likelihood" that he is a member of the Regnarid family, where the name Rodolphe was familiar.
In the 11th century, Balderic II of Liège, brother of Gilbert the first recorded Count of Loon, was recorded as being a relative to Count Arnulf of Valenciennes, as well as the Regnarid Lambert I, Count of Louvain.[14] In this way at least, it is clear that the later Counts of Loon were related to Rudolf.
