Anton von Isenburg-Büdingen zu Ronneburg

Anton von Ysenburg-Büdingen (1501–1560)

Count Anton von Isenburg-Büdingen zu Ronneburg (also Anton von Ysenburg-Büdingen zu Ronneburg ; * August 2, 1501 in Büdingen ; † October 25, 1560 ), joined the Reformation in 1526. His death marks the beginning of a period of inheritance-related divisions and reunions of the County of Isenburg.

Life

In the sources he is also called Antoni , Anthony or Anthonia . He emerged from the marriage of Count Philipp I von Isenburg-Büdingen (1467–1526) and his wife Amalie, née Countess von Rieneck , along with four sisters as the only son in 1495 . He founded the sub-county of Ysenburg-Ronneburg , which existed in the 16th century . On October 19, 1523 Count Anton married Countess Elisabeth von Wied-Runkel, daughter of Johann III. by Wied-Runkel . The marriage resulted in a total of 15 children. His wife, Elisabeth (1509–1542), died shortly after her last birth at the age of 33.

Because of his severe gout disease , Count Anton moved his residence after the death of his wife from the Ronneburg to the more comfortable Wächtersbach Castle in the valley . He expanded it for this purpose. With increasing age, the disability resulting from the illness increased so much that "he was eventually lifted on a donkey, on which he rode up and down the castle if he wanted to get to the meal or another floor of the house." His second marriage can also be seen against the background of his severe handicap, which even made it necessary to hand out food. On November 16, 1554 married Count Anton, against the will of his sons, "was unethical" , Katharina (called Craingen) Gumpel, the daughter of a German couple from Gelnhaar . He had previously given her a generous morning gift. Four more children emerged from this connection. Three of them reached adulthood. Their demands on Count Anton's sons led to all sorts of disputes for decades.

Count Anton died shortly after his 59th birthday. He was buried in the Marienkirche in Büdingen , where his descendants built a magnificent epitaph for him and his wife Elisabeth in 1563. The sons Georg (1528–1577), Wolfgang (1533–1597) and Heinrich (1537–1601) continued the rule of their father after his death in the then divided county.

Family history (15th century to 1517)

One can anticipate that both the mental weakness of the father and the family history of the Isenburger Anton's life significantly shaped. So you can hardly avoid the latter if you want to understand or even judge Anton's rule. In fact, Anton's reign did not begin until 1526, when his father died. But he was already appointed as its curator from 1518 to 1526 to rule over its share in the Isenburgischen Grund, so that these years can also be attributed to his rule.

The Ronneburg, view from the south

Anton's grandfather, Ludwig II of Isenburg (1422–1511), not only inherited his rule after the death of his father, Diether I (1401–1461), in 1461, but also continued to develop the county. It is true that the Isenburg residents had to deal with all sorts of disputes, but Ludwig II nevertheless managed to further increase the Isenburg property and significantly increase its splendor. To name a few examples: The preservation of the Ronneburg , the acquisition of the forester's office over the Büdinger Forest and the purchase of most of the Dreieich Wildbann fell under his rule. The importance that the people of Isenburg had acquired in the course of history was already documented in the middle of the 15th century when Ludwig's brother Diether (1412–1482) was elected Archbishop of Mainz in 1459. But Ludwig II was also able to emphasize Isenburg's position in the southeastern Wetterau by not only expanding the territorial rule of the Isenburg but also consolidating it domestically. This is probably one of the reasons why he was considered "a highly respected gentleman in the whole empire".

In 1488, Ludwig recorded in his will in his will that the county, "which he had cultivated and increased with so much care and increased" after his death, should go undivided to his descendants Death Become the main heir of the Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen and take responsibility for himself and his brothers. The younger two brothers did not go away empty-handed, but were not supposed to move away or rule, but rather live in harmony and peace in the county under their brother's rule. The implementation of this will prove to be problematic: When Ludwig II died in 1511 at the age of 89, it quickly became apparent that the county could not be divided among the brothers as the will stated - it was the first-born, Philipp, plagued by a mental illness, Diether, the second-born, in shaky health and thus only the youngest, Johann, even suitable for the government of the country. "The laboriously built up work of the father, the unity of the county, was destroyed under his sons in 1517 by the division into the Ronnenburger and Birsteiner line."

Epitaph Anton von Ysenburg and Elisabeth von Wied (1563)

Count Anton's reign ([1518–] 1526–1560)

Due to the difficult inheritance situation and thanks to his mother Amalie, who knew how to take action against a division of the county, in which the inheritance rights of her husband had been overlooked - due to his mental weakness - Anton von Isenburg-Büdingen came to rule over one as his father's curator in 1518 not inconsiderable part of the previously united Isenburg country. After the death of his father in 1526, Anton entered his own government. Since he used to keep his court on the Ronneburg , which had been assigned to his father in the Hereditary Brother Agreement in 1517, his line of Isenburg was called the Ronneburgische. However, through the real division and at the same time amalgamation of the land, the attempt at fraternal government and coexistence led to the idea of ​​county unity being artificially kept alive. The reality was quite different: both lines expressed mutually inconsiderate power politics and no longer recognized each other's undertakings, notarizations and the like. Even if Count Anton may have been a man of excellent qualities, “a deplorable streak of hatred and hostility runs through his whole life” against his uncle Johann and the Birstein line. The longer this fellowship lasted, the more it became clear how impracticable it was; "Domestic" or family disputes were on the agenda. At that time (1519) Count Anton was just 18 years old.

Since only a few specific dates can be spoken of with regard to Count Anton's vita, his life and work remain largely in the dark not only with regard to the Reformation (which he joined quite early (around 1526)). However, a large part of the specific data relates to a wide variety of official acts and processes, so that they allow a little insight into his rule: since the beginning of the 1530s, he had dissolved or pledged several monasteries, and in 1543 led a lawsuit at the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer and since 1555 he was at the court of justice with the archbishop of Mainz because of the monastery Selbold in the process. An assessment of his rule is difficult in view of the lack of a biography and sources that are difficult to access. The only thing that can be certain with regard to Anton's life path is that since the Reformation, denominational disputes have also been added to the family disputes, which he was obviously strongly guided by. In both cases, he turned out to be a "hardliner". Count Anton died in 1560 at the age of 59 years and two months.

Here it is worth investigating a few facts that can give further clues about Count Anton's character, attitudes towards life and basic attitudes. So he has his motto: “ARMVT VND YBERFLVSS GIBT ZEITLICH BETRÜBNVS” as a mural in the Crooked Hall of Büdingen Castle . It is an acrostic , its first letters result in the initials: Anton von Ysenburg Graf zu Büdingen. On October 1, 1547, Anton had Emperor Charles V grant him the right, like a prince, to seal with red wax and on November 12 of the same year he obtained a coat of arms improvement with the Hardecker lion, a golden lion in the blue field. These examples show Count Anton von Isenburg-Büdingen to be a proud and ambitious ruler of his county.

literature

• Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house of Ysenburg and Büdingen , 3 vols., Frankfurt a. M. 1865.
• Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , Munich 1891.
• Hans Philippi : Territorial history of the county of Büdingen , Marburg 1954.
• Helmut Prinz: Count Ludwig II of Isenburg-Büdingen (1461–1511) , Frankfurt a. M., 1954.
• Hans-Thorald Michaelis: The county of Büdingen in the field of disputes about the religious and political unity of the empire (1517–1555) , Marburg / Lahn 1963.
• Karl Ernst Demandt : History of the State of Hesse , Kassel / Basel 1972.
• Dagmar Reimers: Isenburg (Ysenburg) Counts and Princes zu , In: NDB Vol. 10, 1974, 192–194.
• Jürgen Ackermann: Ysenburg extends its sovereignty at the expense of the castle and town of Gelnhausen , In: Büdinger Geschichtsblätter 19, 2006, 193–197.
• Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen , In: Winfried Speitkamp (Ed.): Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-942225-17-5 (=  Handbook of Hessian History 3 =  Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 63), pp. 233–272, esp. Pp. 243–245.
• Daniel Kaune: Isenburg (Ysenburg) -Büdingen zu Ronneburg, Anton von (1501–1560) , In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon 38 (2017), Sp. 754–760.
• Jürgen Ackermann, "Count Anton zu Ysenburg-Kelsterbach Missheurath caused his Count's family a lot of displeasure" , Collective Gesch. Wächtersbach, 48th January 2007, No. 331, ISSN 0931-2641
• Dagmar Reimers, "Wächtersbach Castle and the Ysenburgers" , Collective Gesch. Wächtersbach, January 41, 2003, No. 265, ISSN 0931-2641

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Huebner, Johann Huebners… Genealogical tables, in addition to the related genealogical questions, for the explanation of the political history […] Vol. 2, Leipzig 1727, Tab. 406 (= The counts of Isenburg, now extinct, in Kelsterbach); Gustav Simon, The History of the Imperial House of Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2, Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 252–254 and Annex IV. (= Isenburg-Büdingensche family table, from the first to the third division, from 1517–1684).
2. ↑ Jürgen Ackermann, "Count Anton zu Ysenburg-Kelsterbach Missheurath caused his Count's family a lot of displeasure" , collection Gesch. Wächtersbach, January 41, 2003, No. 265, ISSN 0931-2641, p. 4
3. ↑ Jürgen Ackermann: "Count Anton zu Ysenburg-Kelsterbach Missheurath caused his Count's family a lot of displeasure" , collection Gesch. Wächtersbach, January 41, 2003, No. 265, ISSN 0931-2641, p. 5
4. ↑ Jürgen Ackermann: "Count Anton zu Ysenburg-Kelsterbach Missheurath caused his Count's family a lot of displeasure" , collection Gesch. Wächtersbach, January 41, 2003, No. 265, ISSN 0931-2641, p. 6
5. ↑ Jürgen Ackermann: "Count Anton zu Ysenburg-Kelsterbach Missheurath caused his Count's family a lot of displeasure" , collection Gesch. Wächtersbach, 41st January 2003, No. 265, ISSN 0931-2641, pp. 7-11
6. ↑ Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 196-217 and 229-242; Ernst Bock: Dieter Graf von Isenburg , In: NDB Vol. 3 (1957), 668 f.
7. ↑ Helmut Prinz: The elevation of the rule to a county under Diether I (1408–1461) , In: Ders., Count Ludwig II. Von Isenburg-Büdingen (1461–1511), Frankfurt a. M. 1954, 21-29, 40 ff., 57 ff; Dagmar Reimers: Isenburg (Ysenburg) Grafen und Fürsten zu , In: NDB Vol. 10 (1974), 192-194
8. ↑ Hans-Thorald Michaelis: The county of Büdingen in the field of disputes about the religious and political unity of the empire (1517–1555) , Marburg 1963, 5 ff.
9. ↑ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , Munich 1891, 10
10. ↑ Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 249
11. ↑ Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house of Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 3 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, no.283
12. ↑ Dagmar Reimers: Isenburg (Ysenburg) Grafen und Fürsten zu , In: NDB Vol. 10 (1974), 193
13. ↑ Hans-Thorald Michaelis: The county of Büdingen in the field of disputes about the religious and political unity of the empire (1517–1555) , Marburg 1963, 16 ff; Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house of Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 250 ff; Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , Munich 1891, 16 ff; Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen, In: Winfried Speitkamp (Ed.), Handbuch der Hessischen Geschichte Vol. 3 , Marburg 2014, 233–272, esp. 243–245
14. ↑ Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 254
15. ^ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , Munich 1891, 10; Gustav SIMON: The history of the imperial house of Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 256
16. ↑ Hans-Thorald Michaelis: The county of Büdingen in the field of disputes about the religious and political unity of the empire (1517–1555) , Marburg 1963, 46 ff; Friedrich Thudichum: Legal history of the Wetterau - first volume , Tübingen 1867, 64; Gustav Simon: The history of the imperial house of Ysenburg and Büdingen Bd. 2 , Frankfurt a. M. 1865, 258 f.
17. ^ Daniel Kaune: Isenburg (Ysenburg) -Büdingen zu Ronneburg, Anton von (1501–1560) , In: BBKL 38 (2017), Col. 757