Adalbert von Schauenburg

Adalbert von Schauenburg († 1073 ) became notorious for his involvement in 1070 in the plot against Otto von Northeim .

King Heinrich IV. Spent the Whitsun holidays of 1070 in Fritzlar . There Egeno I. von Konradsburg appeared , a nobleman of dubious reputation from the northern slope of the Harz Mountains. He claimed that the Duke of Bavaria, Otto von Northeim, had recruited him to murder the king, and presented a sword that was supposedly given to him for this purpose. Otto protested his innocence, but was nevertheless supposed to wash away the accusation through a divine judgment , a duel with Egeno. This aroused considerable displeasure among the imperial princes , among whom Otto was highly regarded and who requested a duel with a "bush thief" as unreasonable.

Otto refused to appear for the duel in Goslar because of a lack of security guarantees, and was then put under imperial ban by Heinrich , deposed as duke and expropriated his Saxon property. He then allied himself with Magnus Billung , the son of the Duke of Saxony, and took up arms, but was defeated in early 1071 and taken into imperial custody from Pentecost 1071 to July 1072. Then he got his property back, but not his extensive fiefs.

Adalbert von Schauenburg and Count Giso II from Lahngau were described as instigators and authors of the plot against Otto. Presumably with knowledge or even on Heinrich's orders, they are said to have forged the plan, formulated the indictment and bribed Egeno to appear at the royal court with the indictment. The aim of the conspiracy was the disempowerment of the Bavarian Duke and the expropriation of all his property, which would have been available to Heinrich for personal possession or for lending to loyal followers. Otto forgot and did not forgive. In the summer of 1073 he took the lead in the Saxon uprising against the Salian kingship and its kingdom policy. His followers invaded Hesse and, as the chronicler Lampert von Hersfeld reports, captured Giso's Hollende Castle near Marburg and killed Giso, Adalbert and Adalbert's four sons who had fled there.

It is not certain, but probable, that Adalbert belonged to the Counts of the North Hessian family of Schauenburg , which was first mentioned as such in 1089.

Web links

• Genealogy Middle Ages: Giso II, Count in Hessen