Ballenhausen (noble family)

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Coat of arms of those of Ballenhausen

The Lords of Ballenhausen belonged to the Thuringian-Hessian nobility of the 12th century. Under the leadership of Konrad I, in the wake of Frederick I, they rose to the leading circles of the great on his Italian campaigns , but at the beginning of the 13th century had to modest with the status of ministerials to the Landgrave of Thuringia. There were two branches, namely a Lower Saxony branch named after Ballenhausen bei Reinhausen and a Thuringian branch named after the villages of Groß- and Klein Ballhausen , as well as a civil line to Göttingen . The Thuringian line died out in 1363. The family died out in 1507.

history

Origin of both lines

Shortly after the Count of Reinhausen died out , the ancestors of both lines appear in a document. Henselin von Balenhusen is mentioned in a document in 1110 by Ludwig the Springer , Count of Schauenburg in Thuringia, right after Count Erwin I of Tonna , from the later house of the Counts of Gleichen . His Lower Saxon cousin Unoko von Ballenhausen appeared as a witness in 1135 in a document from the Reinhausen monastery , in which Azo, probably also one from Ballenhausen, gave an estate in Ballenhausen. Duke Heinrich the Lion confirmed this donation in 1168. Unoko also gave Count Poppo I of Blankenburg a loan of 4 marks in 1152 , the proceeds of which went to Reinhausen Monastery after his death . Heinrich I von Ballenhausen met Archbishop Siegfried in Erfurt in 1221, bringing him close to his Saxon namesakes. At the latest in 1225 he was awarded the accolade , the last time he appears in a document from 1256. His contemporary Otto II. Ballhausen already threatened in the ministerials dismount. In addition, a relative, knight Ludwig von Rohrberg, took possession of Settmarshausen , and it took years before the Amelunxborn monastery got the castle back. In 1245 he also had to Otto III. von Ballenhausen and Arnold von Ballenhausen and their mother Mechthild. Otto carried the title of Vogt von Ballenhausen around 1246.

Rise during Barbarossa's Italian campaigns, relapse into ministerialism (before 1160 to around 1204)

Adalbert von Ballenhausen, son of Henselin, recorded documents between 1144 and 1170. In 1170 he took part in the Reichstag of Emperor Friedrich I in Frankfurt together with his son Konrad . Adalbert appears here as a count , but this may only be due to the fact that he was listed as a Comes in Italy .

Konrad von Ballenhausen (first documented mention 1160–1206) had already been in the imperial service for many years and took part in several campaigns in Italy. a. at the siege of Carcano in August 1160 by the Milanese, then at the siege of Milan. On September 1, 1161, he first appeared in an imperial diploma . Konrad was one of six Germans, along with six Lombards, who swore the Milan representatives' oath of submission. At Acerbus Morena , when the army stood before Rome, Konrad is described in more detail: He was therefore a little smaller, had light blonde hair and strikingly white skin, was friendly and affable, never took part in looting. Most importantly, he spoke Italian as well as German. He served as governor of Ferrara for several years, but this did not prevent the city from switching to the Guelphs' side . In May 1162 the emperor made him Podestà of Ferrara. In the imperial entourage he stayed in Pavia in April 1162 , in Turin in mid-August , then in Lodi in autumn 1163 , finally in Faenza in 1164 and again in Pavia. Whether he left Italy afterwards or stayed there is unclear, in any case he appeared in 1166 with the emperor on the Hessian Boyneburg and in 1170 first in Magdeburg , then at the Frankfurt Hoftag . He moved to Italy with Archbishop Christian I von Buch and was one of the signatories of the treaty with Genoa of March 6, 1172, as well as a privilege for Viterbo in Siena . When Emperor Friedrich besieged Alessandria in 1174 , he joined him. In the name of the emperor, Konrad von Ballenhausen swore the truce at Tortona of 1176. In December 1176 he signed the agreement with Cremona, together with the most important greats of the empire, where he swore the oath again for the emperor. It is unclear whether he did this in Venice in 1177 .

After Barbarossa's death, the von Ballenhausen family got into a dispute between the Guelphs and Staufers , but nothing can be found about Konrad himself. Ballhausen was certainly affected by the siege of the neighboring Weißensee in the summer of 1204. It was probably also at this time that Konrad, who had advanced into the highest circles, was relegated to the position of ministerial of Landgrave Hermann I , who maneuvered between the parties. In old age, Konrad, who had lost his exposed position, went to the canons' monastery at Jechaburg near Sondershausen , where he last documented it around 1206. Jechaburg had owned goods in Ballhausen since 1128.

Reinhard von Ballenhausen, from the Lower Saxon line, appeared in 1151 as a witness in a document from Archbishop Heinrich I of Mainz when this Count Hermann II of Winzenburg enfeoffed the county and Schloss Schöneberg .

Ministerials of the Thuringian Landgrave, split into several lines

It was not until Eckhard I. von Ballhausen-Sümmern that those of Ballenhausen reappeared after this descent in 1256 and 1262, and now exclusively as landgrave ministerials. On his seal he had the inscription "Eckehard von Sumeriggen". In the last quarter of the 13th century, the family claimed the right of patronage in Lützensömmern (Lutzeln-Sumeringen). In 1237 Hugo von Sömmern was an assessor at the Gogergericht in Aspe.

In the middle of the 13th century, three members of the family appeared, namely Eckhard, Hugo and Berthold. Berthold I of Ballhausen appears in a document of the German master Albert Hallenberg of 1256, in Albert Müller a mill in leasehold awarded. The other two people from Ballhausen appeared as co-owners of the Espe Gogergericht, but they signed off at the very end. Eckhard, a knight since 1255 at the latest , was married to Luitgard, daughter of the knight Helfrich von Rotenburg. 1256 Eckhard settled the dispute between the imperial city of Mühlhausen and his nephews Hugo and Johann von Weidensee, in which the court of the Weidenseer at the imperial castle had gone up in flames. The Weidenseer remained free from citizens' floors , in disputes they had to appear before the town mayor . In contrast to this contract, Eckhard did not sign any of the contracts with which the Weißenseer sold their property in the next few years. He only sold smaller goods in 1258 and 1265 to the Teutonic Order House in Nägelstedt and to the Cistercian monastery in Reifenstein, founded in 1162 . In addition, he only exchanged goods in order to obtain a more cohesive possession, but donations were made, such as to the Heida monastery or the Volkenrode monastery .

The Thuringian line (1255–1363), loss of the family castle

The Thuringian line divided into several side branches from the middle of the 13th century. So the line from Ballenhausen-Sömmern, the line Stranz from Döllstädt and the line from Schwarzenberg. The latter line only died out after 1420.

Eckhard's I son Helfrich only appears in documents in 1262 and 1265. His son, in turn, with the rare name Widekind (for the first time in 1273), was, like Berthold III, a son together with Bertha von Naumburg. However, after the early death of her husband, she returned to Hesse, where she remarried. Her sons followed her. Like Helfrich, Rudolf also died early. The other brothers Eckhard II., Hugo II. And Berthold II got into a dispute with the Gandersheim nunnery , which the Bailiwick had given the brothers over its property in Tennstädt . It was not until 1273 that a settlement came about, in which the brothers had to forego their appropriation of taxes due to the monastery. In a similar way, the three lost their patronage rights over the church in Lützensömmern to the nunnery Kapelle in 1277 . Eckhard II was the head of the family. He promised the nuns of the Heida monastery on the Fulda that they would free a certain hoof from the feudal association, unless it was part of the family's allod - apparently the brothers themselves were not sure. They also got into the quarrel between Landgrave Albrecht and his sons.

King Rudolf I of Habsburg appointed Heinrich II of Mainz as captain and rector of Thuringia in order to protect citizens and farmers from knightly attacks . He not only commanded peace in the country , but also received the right from the landgrave to buy castles and build new ones. After his death, the king stayed in Erfurt for almost a year from December 1289 to transfer the main team to Gerlach von Breuberg in 1290 (until 1297). This brought Ballhausen Castle under his control. He pledged it to Gerhard II of Mainz , but Mainz lost this rule at the beginning of the 14th century.

The three brothers kept in close contact with Schwarzenberg in Hesse throughout the entire period, but the landgrave there had 18 permanent houses destroyed, including 1293 Schwarzenberg. The contact with the Thuringian line was almost completely cut off, and the Hessian landgrave was given the remaining goods there in 1301. Eckhard II. And his descendants remained wealthy, but they were rather insignificant masters, no longer knights. In 1311 Eckhard III. the accolade . Eckhard IV and (probably) his son Eckhard V. also appear as knights in some documents. The latter sold his tithe at Korbetha , north of Weißenfels, to the Beutitz monastery in 1322 , and in 1331 renounced the tithe in Bothenheilingen , which Eckhard IV had given the Homburg monastery in 1316 . In 1348 Eckhard VI appeared in a document, apparently no longer a knight. He and three brothers now lived on fiefs in Markröblitz , more precisely on two farms that they lived in, including 15 farms and the local court, in Dorfmark 18 Hufe land and 8 acres of wood. In addition, there was a part of the forest of Müuellen ( Querfurt district ) as well as other, modest possessions. After this was also sold, the debts grew rapidly.

The Schwarzenberg branch (1329-1420)

The Hessian line also disappeared, but not until 1420. Its ancestors were Widekind (1273–1301) and Berthold III. (1286-1301). But as early as 1329, Johann I's tangible property had shrunk drastically. He still owned a house, a small meadow, little land and a piece of mountain near Schwarzenberg. In front of the city of Melsungen he was entitled to a sixteenth of the tithe, which was collected as the "Schwarzenberg tithe" until 1835. Then there was the ten of the later Wendesdorf desert, plus the “tongue hooves” between Melsungen and Schwarzenberg and a few other sources of income. In 1351, Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse exempted the wife of Johann I Katharina and her heirs from services and extraordinary taxes. In 1372, Johann II finally renounced his previous right to the Schwarzenberg church fief in the villages of Schwarzenburg and Röhrenfurt for his salvation . Again the family got into the disputes between the landgrave and his knightly opponents, in the course of which the landgrave in 1379 granted ownership rights of the Schwarzenbergs to his follower Knight Walther von Hundelshausen the younger in order to settle his fiefs.

As a reward for services rendered, Adolf I of Mainz raised the Schwarzenberger Helfrich and his heirs to Burgmannen on the Bischofstein in the upper Eichsfeld in 1385 . In 1388 the archbishop began his campaign against Hesse, but he died in 1390. The Landgrave prevailed after decades of conflict with the Mainz and Helfrich had to finally give up Schwarzenberg in 1417. In 1421 the Archbishop of Mainz compensated the last member of the family, who died soon after.

The Lower Saxony line, the civil line in Göttingen (until 1507)

The Lower Saxon line shows its closeness to the Lords of Rosdorf through Heinrich I von Ballenhausen, who in 1221 attested a document to Archbishop Siegfried II von Eppstein in Erfurt together with his Thuringian cousins. In 1256 he witnessed the sale of the tithe in Dramfeld by the Lords of Rosdorf , his relatives, to the Reinhausen monastery . Around this time the Lower Saxon male line died out, which is why Hermann II von Hardenberg , son of Hermann I von Hardenberg from the Bernhard line, inherited the property and name. Between 1269 and 1303 he appeared as Hermann von Hardenberg-Ballenhausen, his son Werner only called himself von Ballenhausen.

While Hermann II. Von Hardenberg-Ballenhausen called his father's brother, Dietrich von Hardenberg , his uncle (patruum = on the father's side) - he was married to a sister Friedrich von Rosdorf - Werner von Ballenhausen called his guardian, Hildebrand von Hardenberg , his Uncle. Friedrich von Rosdorf and Dietrich von Hardenberg were governors of the Archbishops of Mainz for the Eichsfeld and in 1287 they took possession of Hardenberg Castle as a pledge. The real estate deals that this uncle, Hildebrand von Hardenberg, handled on behalf of his ward Werner von Ballenhausen, show the close relationship and property amalgamation of the named.

In 1304 the tithe in Rosdorf was sold to the Walkenried monastery . A deal that resulted in a lawsuit that lasted for years, in which the Duke of Braunschweig, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Archbishop of Mainz were involved, before Werner von Ballenhausen was awarded high financial compensation.

With Werner von Ballenhausen, the Lower Saxony line died out. However, those with the lords of Rosdorf, the lords of Hardenberg and the lords of Grone related to von Ballenhausen carried on the name: by Heinrich II. Von Grone-Ballenhausen. With him, the noble von Ballenhausen family finally ended in their Lower Saxon line in 1350.

Members of the family had already acquired citizenship in Göttingen in the 13th century and continued this bourgeois line of the family under the name of Bolnhusen until 1507. With Bartold Bollnhusen, this branch also died out in the end.

A Heyse von Bolnhusen can be proven from 1377 to 1400, Tile from 1383 to 1395. In 1392 they were head of the merchants' guild , magistri gildae mercatorum . Tile was a member of the Göttingen council in 1395, and Heyse was provisional at the Bartholomäusspital in 1400. In 1413 and 1415 a Hartung appears with his wife Katharina, who later belonged to another city.

A Tile Bollnhusen appeared as a citizen of Göttingen in 1445, the aforementioned Bartold Bollnhusen was in the neighboring Bosdorf Alderman .

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the Lords of Ballenhausen, both lines and side lines, consisted of two vertical ram horns turned against each other. It thus resembles the coat of arms of the Lords of Rosdorf, whereby their coat of arms consisted of two vertical keys with their backs turned against each other. The line from Hardenberg-Ballenhausen used both coats of arms for sealing by connecting them with a sealing cord. The Rosdorf-Hardenberger coat of arms hung at the top, i.e. directly on the certificate, the smaller Ballenhausen coat of arms on the thread below. Werner von Ballenhausen also carried this double coat of arms from his father.

swell

  • Collection of unprinted documents Vol. I, II. - 1749–52
  • Paulinzelle Monastery University Library, 1889
  • Johan Friedrich Falke (ed.), Codex Traditionum Corbeiensium, 1792
  • Stephan Alexander Würdtwein : Subsidia diplomatica , 1772
  • Walkenrieder Document Book II, 1860
  • Gustav Schmidt : Document book of the city of Göttingen I , 1863
  • Franz Lübeck: Chronicle of Göttingen ( Göttingen manuscript 4 in the Göttingen University Library?)
  • H. Sudendorf: Document book on the history of the dukes of Braunschweig , I - 5
  • Document book Lippoldsberg Monastery
  • Document book of Reinhausen Monastery
  • Pure: Thuringia sacra, II

literature

The article is based predominantly on Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. Along with excerpts from documents and chronicles by those of Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Altertumskunde 21 (1903), pp. 220–328 (now online , PDF) as well as slightly supplementary Ders .: Die von Balenhusen. A supplement , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 31 (1913) 241f. ( online , TIF)

  • Carl Philipp Emil von Hanstein: Documented history of the Hanstein family in the Eichsfeld in Prussia (province of Saxony) together with the document book and gender tables , Kassel 1856.
  • Burchard Christian von Spilcker: Contributions to older German history , Vol. II, Arolsen 1827.
  • Johann Wolf: History of the Hardenberg Family , Vol. I, II, Göttingen 1823/25
  • Johann Wolf: The family of the noble lords of Rosdorf , Göttingen 1812.
  • Johann Wolf: Diplomatic history of the Petersstift zu Nörten , Erfurt 1799.
  • Christian Ludwig Scheidt: Origines Guelficae , Vol. III, Hanover 1752. ( digitized version )
  • Johann Philipp Kuchenbecker: Founded treatise by the Erb-Hof-Aemtern of the Landgraviate of Hesse - with necessary evidence and comments , Marburg 1744. ( digitized version )

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. In addition to excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 221.
  2. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. Along with excerpts from documents and chronicles by those of Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 272.
  3. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. In addition to excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: pp. 271f.
  4. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. In addition to excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 221.
  5. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. Along with excerpts from documents and chronicles by those of Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 222.
  6. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. Along with excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 228.
  7. ^ With Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. Along with excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, from p. 238.
  8. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. An addendum , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Archeology 31 (1913) 241f., Here: p. 242.
  9. ↑ Ludwig Armbrust: The von Balenhusen. In addition to excerpts from documents and chronicles by von Balenhusen , in: Journal of the Association for Thuringian History and Antiquity 21 (1903), pp. 220–328, here: p. 281.