Anna of Kleve (Arnsberg)

Anna von Kleve († after 1377/1378, before May 1, 1392) from the house of the Counts of Kleve was Countess of Arnsberg by marriage .

Life

She was the daughter of Count Dietrich VIII and Margarethe von Neu-Kyburg. She married Count Gottfried IV von Arnsberg . She was first mentioned as the Count's wife in 1340. There were no children from the marriage.

The childlessness of their marriage was a central point for the decision to sell the county of Arnsberg on August 25, 1368 to the Archdiocese of Cologne . Shortly before, the count had given the city of Neheim from the Lürwald the forest, later called Neheimer Stadtwald. In return, he obliged the citizens of the city to hold memorial services for him and his wife. “On the other hand, we desire from them, and they have also vowed this to us, that they should hold two events every year for Us, Our wife Anna and all of our forefathers, with vigils, masses and commendations, just as if We were still above the earth stand. ” These commemorative events still take place today as so-called donors' meals.

The deed for the sale of the county is drawn up in the name of Gottfried, Graf von Arnsberg, and Annas von Kleve. The final handover took place after the payment of parts of the purchase price and the assurance of annual pensions to the Count and Countess in 1369. The count couple was given the castle, town and office of Brühl . If the countess survived her husband, she would receive a widow's pension. The amount was the same as that her husband had promised before the sale. There were also ten loads of good wine. Should the countess prefer to live in Westphalia, she should get Hachen Castle . However, the pension entitlement would then expire. The obligation to deliver wine would have continued.

She evidently preferred to return to Westphalia after Gottfried's death. It is unclear whether she lived in Hachen after Gottfried's death in 1371. Instead, she lived at Wildshausen Castle . She received this when she renounced her Wittum from the administrator of the Archdiocese of Cologne Kuno II von Falkenstein . From the property she received enough income in kind and money to be able to live on it. She even maintained a small court, as the naming of a bailiff in her service suggests.

Your brothers Otto the Peaceful , Dietrich IX. and Johann III. those who followed the father in rule had no male offspring. Competitors for the inheritance were Adolf III. von der Mark , Dietrich von Horn and Otto von Arkel . Anna, who is probably the only surviving daughter of Dietrich VIII, also claimed the inheritance for herself. In a document from 1377 she made this claim. At the same time it transferred the county of Kleve with all its glories, rights and courts to Archbishop Friedrich III. from Saar Werden . Ultimately, the von der Mark won the inheritance dispute. Around 1392 the archbishop refrained from attempting to claim the entire county, but he used the document to force Adolf von der Mark to recognize the archbishop's suzerainty over parts of the county of Kleve.

Anna's certificate was issued at Wildshausen Castle. Witnesses were Wilhelm Freseken , provost of the Meschede monastery , Johann Schürmann, provost zu Soest , the knight and bailiff of Countess Conrad von Wreden and Noldeken von Estinghausen. The certificate suggests that she outlived her husband by at least six years. The date of her death is unclear. According to the deed of transferring the county of Kleve, she was still alive in 1377. Some writers claim that she died shortly afterwards. There is no proof of this. The order of Archbishop Friedrich III. to a memorial celebration for Count Gottfried and Anna von Arnsberg in Cologne Cathedral with the participation of the other collegiate churches of Cologne on May 1, 1392 can be interpreted as an indication of the Countess's death. The place of her burial is also unknown. But she was probably buried in the Wedinghausen monastery.

It had its own seal. The shape was round. Inside was a divided heart shield, the right half of which contained the Arnsberg eagle and the left half the half of the Klevian lily pile. The inscription is Sig. Anne. Comitisse. de Arnsberg .

Annastraße is named after her in Neheim today.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Donators' meal at Heimatbund Neheim-Hüsten ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ August 25, 1368 Regest on the digital Westphalian document database (DWUD)
3. ^ Karl Féaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1895, p. 58 f.
4. ↑ Heike Hawicks: Xanten in the late Middle Ages: pen and city caught between Cologne and Cleves. Cologne u. a. 2007, p. 447 f.
5. ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet: Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. Bd.3 Düsseldorf, 1853, No. 969, Michael Gosmann: The Counts of Arnsberg and their county. In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Volume 1: The Electorate of Cologne Duchy of Westphalia from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia to secularization in 1803. Aschendorff, Münster 2009, p. 201.
6. ^ Johann Suibert Seibertz: Diplomatic family history of the old Counts of Westphalia zu Werl and Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1845, p. 243 f.
7. ^ Ferdy Fischer : Street names of personalities in Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1988, p. 3.

literature

• Johann Suibert Seibertz : Diplomatic family history of the old counts of Westphalia to Werl and Arnsberg. (State and legal history of the Duchy of Westphalia. Volume 1, 1). Arnsberg, 1845, pp. 260–262 ( limited preview in Google book search).