City letter

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The city letter was a privilege letter from Dukes Bernhard and Heinrich from 1392 and was addressed to the cities in the Principality of Lüneburg . It was created as part of the negotiations on the Lüneburg Sate and contains a detailed description of the rights and obligations of the cities in the Principality of Lüneburg.

prehistory

After Wilhelm II of Lüneburg died in 1369 without male descendants, the older Lüneburg house became extinct. In accordance with the Guelph house laws and William's wish, Duke Magnus II Torquatus of Braunschweig would have been entitled to inheritance. However, Emperor Charles IV considered the imperial fiefdom to have reverted to the Reich and enfeoffed Albrecht von Sachsen-Wittenberg and his uncle Wenzel with the principality, which triggered the War of the Lüneburg Succession . Only after the battle of Winsen in 1388, in which Wenzel lost his life, the Wittenbergers renounced their claims and the principality was finally secured to the Guelphs.

The War of the Lüneburg Succession had led to a great deal of power among the estates in the principality. In order to secure the support of the cities and the lower nobility, both the Guelphs and the Ascanians were forced to guarantee the estates extensive privileges and to pledge them numerous justice and castles . Although the dukes of Celle emerged victorious from the conflict, they were faced with massive financial problems. When the dukes approached the city of Lüneburg in 1392 with a new financial request, an extensive contract, the Lüneburg Sate , was concluded in return for a loan of 50,000 marks , in which the statuses in three letters, the city letter, the community letter and the letter to the prelates , numerous privileges were confirmed and the dukes submitted to the jurisdiction of a body formed by the estates .

content

The city letter is addressed to the cities of Lüneburg, Hanover, Uelzen, Lüchow, Dannenberg, Celle, Neustadt, Pattensen, Münder, Eldagsen, Springe and the Weichbilde Winsen, Harburg, Bleckede, Dahlenburg, Hitzacker and Rethem and is divided into 14 articles.

Article 1 expresses the will of the dukes to protect the cities against violent attacks and to enable them to live in peace. This is followed by a precise description of the rights and obligations of the cities and the sovereign rulers in Articles 2 to 13. The dukes confirm all the privileges granted to cities in the past and confess that they want to promote the well-being of the cities. Furthermore, the city's jurisdiction is confirmed and assured not to intervene in legal disputes. Responsibilities for the construction of waterways are defined, regulations for the procedure to be followed in the event of traffic accidents are established, provisions governing the construction of mill weirs are established and the cities are guaranteed the right to freely import and export goods. Further articles deal with the right of the city of Lüneburg to expand the Ilmenau , as well as the duty of all merchants not to drive around the Principality of Lüneburg, but to stop in Lüneburg ( stacking right ). With regard to city fortifications, the cities and soft formations are guaranteed the right to build all fortifications deemed necessary. Finally, in Article 14 of the town letter, the dukes vow to keep the promises they made, and the date and witnesses are named.

validity

The city letter retained its legal validity regardless of the continued existence of the Lüneburg Sate and was confirmed several times in the following decades by the state rulers. In 1447 and 1460 decrees of the Celle dukes were explicitly justified with the city letter, in 1497 Heinrich the Middle confirmed the continuation of the privileges. In 1517 he received another confirmation, with the restriction that the city letter would only apply to the city of Lüneburg. On the occasion of the homage to Heinrich the Middle by the city of Lüneburg in 1520, the last ducal confirmation of the privileges took place. It was not until a contract negotiated in 1562 between the dukes Wilhelm and Heinrich and the city of Lüneburg, in which essential privileges of the city letter were suspended, that the city letter lost its importance.

Lore

Seven original documents have been preserved from the city letter. Contemporary copies are in the Privilege Book of the City of Lüneburg and in the Lüneburg Satebuch. The city letter was first published in the 18th century.

literature

  • Michael Reinbold: The Lüneburg Sate. A contribution to the constitutional history of Lower Saxony in the late Middle Ages. Lax, Hildesheim 1987. ISBN 3-7848-3656-9 , pp. 53-64 and pp. 228-230