Albrecht I of Berwangen

Albrecht I von Berwangen (* uncertain: 1353; † uncertain: 1413) was an important representative of the Lords of Berwangen and high servants at the Baden and Electoral Palatinate courts around 1400. From 1387 he was the first court master at the Baden court in Baden , moved to the court of the Electoral Palatinate in Heidelberg as steward until 1401 and was from 1403 court advisor .

Life

Albrecht was the son of Heinrich von Berwangen († 1378). His date of birth is unknown, but based on his biographical data, it is estimated to be 1353. It was first mentioned in 1379 when he bought a farm in Neibsheim from Gerhard von Obrigheim . In 1384 Albrecht was among the witnesses of the city of Pforzheim's homage to Margrave Bernhard I of Baden and was in the service of Baden. Bernhard established the office of magister curiae ( court master ) at the Baden court for the first time in 1387 , to which Albrecht von Berwangen was the first to hold. The seat of the margravial court, Baden , was elevated to a town in 1388. 1393 was Albrecht chief magistrate to Baden, 1395, he was Vogt of the city of Baden. From that time he was entrusted with various diplomatic missions, which he u. a. 1396 led to Strasbourg . In 1398 he received from Count Palatine Ruprecht III. a farm in Berwangen as a fiefdom . In July 1401 he was named as steward at the Electoral Palatinate court in Heidelberg , where Count Palatine Ruprecht III. had meanwhile risen to king. In accordance with his office, Albrecht was mainly active in the vicinity of the court at the beginning of his term of office, where he also appeared as a member of the court court . From summer 1402 he was active on various missions in the Rhine region as well as in the imperial cities of Heilbronn , Wimpfen and Strasbourg. During a stay in Nuremberg in March 1403, he was last named court master and first time councilor. He was one of the king's donors to finance the trip of Bishop Raban von Helmstatt to Pope Boniface IX. to Rome. In the summer of 1403, Albrecht received the castle hat over Steinsberg Castle , which was probably an honorary position, as he was mainly at the court in Heidelberg or while traveling. At that time he was married to Elsbet von Sternenfels and had a son Heinrich (* around 1390). In May 1405, Albrecht was part of the delegation that negotiated the marriage of his daughter Elisabeth to Duke Friedrich IV of Austria on behalf of King Ruprecht in Wildberg . In 1406 he mediated the conflict between the Habsburgs and the Appenzell people . In 1409 the castle hat on the Steinsberg came to the Landgrave of Luchtenberge, Albrecht received the rank of Burgmann in Bretten as compensation . Nothing is known about his further life. A document from 1893 states, without a source, that he was executed on April 19, 1413 at a hospital near Reichstett on the orders of Count Philipp von Hanau and buried in Strasbourg. His son Heinrich was a member of the Baden court council in 1416 and owned a castle in Neibsheim, which could still go back to the farm acquired by Albrecht in 1379.

literature

• Peter Wanner: A Berwangener at the royal court - Albrecht (I.) von Berwangen . In: Berwangen, Bockschaft, Kirchardt. A second home book . Kirchardt municipality, Kirchardt 1993