Hans von Werthern

Hans von Werthern (1443–1533)

Hans von Werthern , also von Werther and von Werterde , (born June 24, 1443 in Stolberg (Harz) , † July 9, 1533 in Wiehe ) was a knight, Reich Chamberlain , Privy Councilor of the reigning Dukes of Saxony and the Count of Stolberg as well as bailiff to Gebesee , Weißenfels and Freyburg (Unstrut) . He was the heir to Wiehe Castle , acquired the rulership of Brücken (Helme) in 1498 , Gut Frohndorf with Großneuhausen and Bachra in 1505 and Beichlingen in 1519 . He is the progenitor of all lines of his family that are still in bloom.

Life

He came from the Thuringian noble family von Werthern and was a son of the knight Dietrich von Werthern († 1470) and Elisabeth von Hoym († 1480). His father had bought Wiehe in 1452 and thus gained national importance. After his apprenticeship, Hans von Werthern entered the service of the Wettin dukes Wilhelm, Albrecht and Georg von Sachsen. In 1482 Hans von Werther is also referred to as the secret advice of Count Heinrich zu Stolberg.

In 1477 he was named as a bailiff in Gebesee, after which he worked for 48 years as a bailiff in Weißenfels before he was employed as a bailiff in Freyburg for the last years of his life. During this time he is also referred to as the administrator and governor of Thuringia .

The emperors Maximilian I and Karl V confirmed to him in 1494, 1514 and 1521 the office of the Reichserbkammertürhüters, which his family had been given in 1086.

In 1487 he acquired the Allerstedt estate and in 1498 from Christoph von Witzleben castle and lordship bridges (helmets) and was granted imperial town charter on bridges on September 3, 1518. The later lordship of bridges also included Hohlstedt and the desert areas of Garsfeld and Stetten.

Count Heinrich zu Stolberg approved that the two villages of Backleben and Bachra , which belong to the Frohndorf rulership, should be sold on March 19, 1491 to his former councilor, the now ducal Saxon bailiff in Weißenfels and Freyburg, Knight Hans von Werthern on Wiehe, for 2,900 Rhenish guilders could become. The condition of this sale was that Count Heinrich should have the right to redeem both villages within ten years and that the Countess was given the Rossla Castle as compensation. After Hans von Werthern had extended the repurchase period for Bachra and Backleben by one year on October 2, 1500, the buy-back from the count's side must have come about at the end of the year, because Duke Georg von Sachsen enfeoffed Count Heinrich the Elder. Ä. and his two sons Heinrich d. J. and Botho on January 28, 1501 in Meißen with both villages, expanded to include Schillingstedt, Dermsdorf and Ellersleben. Knight Hans von Werthern, however, must have taken a keen interest in this property, because he persuaded Count Heinrich d. Ä. zu Stolberg, on March 29, 1502, to grant him preferential rights in the event of a new sale of Bachra and Backleben.

Ultimately, on March 5, 1505, the Stolberg Counts sold Frohndorf Castle and all accessories for 27,000 guilders to the knight and Weißenfels bailiff Hans von Werthern due to the heavy debt burden. In addition to Frohndorf, accessories at that time included the villages of Groß- and Kleinneuhausen , Groß- and Wenigenorlishausen, Ellersleben, Battgendorf, Dermsdorf and Schillingstedt as well as 14 other villages. On May 23rd, Duke Georg of Saxony confirmed the above-mentioned purchase contract, through which the Count's House of Stolberg lost an important base in the Thuringian Basin, which was ruled by the Wettins. However, the Stolbergers did not completely relinquish the Frohndorf rule. With the purchase, Hans von Werthern only became an after-arm-bearer and the Stolbergers had the fief over Frohndorf regularly renewed by the electoral chancellery and the Lehnhof Dresden in the following decades.

In 1519 Hans von Werthern bought the castle and the county of Beichlingen from Count Adam von Beichlingen . His last purchase was the village of Leubingen in 1528 , in which the local manor remained in the family's possession until 1945.

The family's grave, where Hans von Werthern was also buried, is in the St. Anna Church in Frohndorf.

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  Wiehe Castle

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  Beichlingen Castle

Marriages and offspring

Hans von Werthern was married three times:

1. on August 26, 1460 in Wiehe with Susanne von Seebach († 1464), childless
2. on June 24, 1465 in Wiehe with Elisabeth von Hopffgarten on Mülverstedt († August 17, 1485). From this marriage the children Georg (1466–1537), Dietrich (1468–1536) and Hans the Younger (1470–1534) and the daughters Elisabeth († 1519), Margaretha († 1510) and Elisabeth († 1485)
3. on November 12, 1488 in Wiehe with Elisabeth von Schönberg . from Miltitz.