Agnes von Staufen (Countess Palatine)

Agnes von Staufen (* around 1176 ; † May 7 or 9, 1204 in Stade ) was the heir to Konrad von Staufen , the Count Palatine of the Rhine , and from 1195 to 1204 as the wife of Heinrich the Elder. Ä. von Braunschweig herself countess palatine near the Rhine.

Life

Agnes' father Konrad, Count Palatine near the Rhine and half-brother of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa , was a politician who tried to achieve peace and balance in the empire. Even before 1180 he had arranged his daughter's engagement to Heinrich, the eldest son of Henry the Lion , in order to defuse the renewed conflict between the Hohenstaufen and Guelphs through this connection .

In 1193, Barbarossa's son, Emperor Heinrich VI , tried . about a political alliance with the French King Philip II August and wanted to give him Agnes, who was his cousin, as his wife. When the young Welf Heinrich heard of this plan, he called on Agnes' parents. Konrad avoided making a binding statement about his daughter's engagement because on the one hand he advocated the planned relationship with the French king and on the other hand he did not want to snub Heinrich, who was enthusiastically adored by his daughter.

Agnes' mother Irmengard von Henneberg († 1197) continued to advocate her daughter's marriage to the Guelph. A little later, she took advantage of the absence of her with Heinrich VI. residing man to resist the emperor's plan. She had the young Heinrich come to Stahleck Castle , where the church wedding of the young bride and groom was held around the turn of the year 1193/1194. The event went down in history as the wedding of Stahleck .

Henry VI. felt betrayed and demanded that Konrad annul the marriage immediately . But after initial resistance, the Count Palatine confessed to marrying his daughter, as she had already been blessed by the Church. He succeeded Heinrich VI. to convince of the domestic political advantages of this connection. If the Emperor Konrad's son-in-law Heinrich were to enfeoff the Count Palatine near Rhine , the succession would be secured, which was in danger after the early death of the sons of Konrad. In addition, Konrad and Agnes suggested that the emperor pardon Heinrich the Lion, who was outlawed by his father.

The reconciliation between the Hohenstaufen Heinrich VI. and the Guelph Heinrich the Lion took place in March 1194 in the Palatinate Tilleda . Agnes and her husband Heinrich had done good preparatory work for this important domestic political event with their Coup von Stahleck. In addition, Heinrich VI. was dependent on a settlement with the Guelphs and, above all, peace in the empire , since after the death of Tankred of Lecce († February 20, 1194) he intended to enforce his claims to the throne in the Kingdom of Sicily .

From the marriage between Agnes von Staufen and Heinrich d. Ä. from Braunschweig had a son and two daughters. Heinrich d. J. von Braunschweig was from 1212 to 1214 Count Palatine of the Rhine. The older daughter Irmengard (1200–1260) married Hermann V , Margrave of Baden. The younger daughter (1201–1267), who was also called Agnes, married Otto II , the Duke of Bavaria. Both became the first parents of the Wittelsbach family in Bavaria and the Palatinate. Her daughter Elisabeth became the mother of Conradin , her son Ludwig the Strict was the father of the future Emperor Ludwig IV.

Afterlife

Agnes von Staufen's life was transfigured during the Romantic era . So it was in Christian Dietrich Grabbe's drama Heinrich VI published in 1830 . portrayed as a carefree but resolute girl who fought for happiness in love at the Reichstag and brought about the reconciliation of the Guelphs and Hohenstaufen on Henry the Lion's deathbed.

On May 18, 1827, the first performance of the parts of the opera Agnes von Hohenstaufen by the Italian composer Gaspare Spontini , which had been completed by that time, took place at the Royal Opera in Berlin .

literature

• Joachim Ehlers : Heinrich the lion. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-787-1 , pp. 367, 384 ( review)
• Paul Barz : Heinrich the Lion and his time ; Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH & Co. KG; Munich; Original edition June 2008; ISBN 978-3-423-24676-7 , pp. 231, 233 and 253
• Friedemann Needy : Staufer pocket dictionary . Piper, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-492-23032-6 , p. 11.
• Anno Mungen : Music theater as a history picture. Gaspare Spontini's “Agnes von Hohenstaufen” as a contribution to German opera (= Mainz Studies in Musicology 38), Tutzing 1997.