Gerhard (or Gerard) of the Moselle (Latin Gerhardus Mosellensis), Count of Metz and possibly of Alsace (approximately 970-1025[1]), was a Lotharingian noble active in the early 11th century.
Gerhard was thus a part of the rebellion of his in-laws the Luxembourg family, led by Sigfried's eldest son Henry V, Duke of Bavaria.
Hlawitschka proposed this Richard to be a grandson of Godfrey, Count Palatine of Lotharingia, one of whose sons (possibly the one named Gerhard) was an ancestor of Emperor Henry III, according to the eleventh-century biography of Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich.
[5] Some time after 1010, Alpertus of Metz described the powerful man Gerhard of the Mosel, along with Count Lambert of Leuven, as companions (clientes) of Count Balderic, whose powerbase was around the area east of Nijmegen near where the Rhine and Meuse (or Maas) rivers cross the modern border of Germany and the Netherlands.
As the situation escalated Alpertus wrote that Gerhard and Lambert "said that they would endure travails and dangers" because "these two men were always prepared to stir up any kind of commotion or rebellion".
In 1017, an out-of-favour servant of Balderic managed to capture Wichmann's old fort of Monterberg [de; fr] (near Cleves), then under the guardianship of Duke Berhard of Saxony.
Dietmar names the servant as his own first cousin Berthold, a younger son of Liuthar, Margrave of the Saxon North March.
This capture gave hope to Balderic but the emperor ordered the fort to be destroyed, and Gerhard was one of the magnates asked to ensure that this took place.
[10] The chronicle of the acts (Gesta) of the bishops of Cambrai, which favoured the side of Godfrey's family, suggests that this battle was originally planned by Gerhard as a surprise attack.