Background
According to the Passio, after the revenge of God came upon his father Gozbert, Hedan was chased from the realm and his mother Geilana ruled as duchess (689).
According to the Passio, after the revenge of God came upon his father Gozbert, Hedan was chased from the realm and his mother Geilana ruled as duchess (689).
He may have been the Hedan who married Saint Bilihild. One of the chief sources for his life is the Passio minor sancti Kiliani. Sometime later Hedan returned as an adult and took over (before 704).
The duchy over which Hedan and his ancestors ruled was the region around the river Main.
Only under Hedan did the duke take up an extensive interest in the lands to the east, the region today called Thuringia. Hedan"s hypothetical relationship with Bilihild is established by the 12th-century Vita Bilihildis, based on earlier sources, which names Bilihild"s husband as dux militum gentilis.. vocabulo Hetan.
Theotbald on the other hand may have been a brother of Theodrada and the man who preceded Hedan in ruling Thuringia. In 742 the diocese of Erfurt was established.
A document dated 18 April 716/717, Hedan enlarged his earlier donation by granting hereditary estates on the Saale and at Hammelberg to the counts Cato and Sigeric as well as the nutricius Ado and the magnates Adogoto and Hereric.
He also had ties to the monastery of Weißenburg in Alsace.