Bernhard (Oppeln-Falkenberg)

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Bernhard von Falkenberg (also Bernhard von Oppeln, Falkenberg and Strehlitz ; in Czech Bernard Falkenbersky ; * 1374/78; † 1455 ) was Duke of Opole from 1382-1455 and after the death of his eldest brother Johann I in 1421, Duke of Falkenberg . He also succeeded his brother Bolko IV as Duke of Strehlitz in 1437 . He was a feudal man of the Crown of Bohemia and came from the Opole branch of the Silesian Piasts .

Life

Bernhard's parents were Duke Bolko III. and Anna († 1378), whose origin is unknown. In 1401 he married Hedwig / Jadwiga († 1424), a daughter of the Krakow voivod Spytko von Melsztyn. The marriage remained childless.

After the death of the father Bolko III. In 1382 Bernhard and his brother Heinrich (1374-1394) were initially under the tutelage of their uncle Wladislaus II. Von Opole and their eldest brother Johann I. Since the inheritance of their grandmother Elisabeth von Schweidnitz had not yet been paid off by the death of their father the claim 1382 on Bernhard and his brothers over. In order to get the inheritance, they obtained a promissory note from the Bohemian King Wenceslaus IV , who was the legal heir of the Hereditary Duchy of Schweidnitz , in 1389 . He triggered the so-called Opole feud in 1390 , which was directed against the city of Wroclaw and lasted for decades. Because of this feud, Bernhard and his brothers were of bad repute.

Because of the anti-Polish policy of her uncle Wladislaus II., Who was a supporter of the Bohemian King Wenceslaus , supported the Teutonic Order and pursued the plan to crush Poland, the Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło undertook a campaign in the Opole region in 1391/92. Bernhard and his brother Bolko IV were held in Opole by the Polish army. In 1396, Bernhard's residence city Strehlen was besieged by a Polish army. As a result, Wladislaus II had to undertake to transfer the Duchy of Opole to his nephews Johann I, Bolko IV and Bernhard, whereby he was granted a lifelong usufruct. After Wladislaus II's death in 1401, who left only daughters, Bernhard and his two brothers were the legal heirs of the Duchy of Opole.

After King Wenceslas was captured for the second time, Bernhard, together with Duke Ruprecht I of Liegnitz , chaired the Silesian League , which was concluded on July 17, 1402 and to which all the Silesian princes and the cities of the hereditary principality of Wroclaw belonged.

During the so-called hunger war , which was waged between the Teutonic Order and Poland in 1414 and in October d. J. was ended by an armistice, Bernhard fought together with other Silesian princes on the Polish side. In 1424 he took part in the coronation of the Lithuanian princess Sophie Holszańska as Queen of Poland. Although his nephew Boleslaus / Bolko V. was a supporter of the Hussites , they plundered and burned up Bernhard's Falkenberg areas in 1428. Nevertheless, he was able to acquire the episcopal estate of Ujezd from Bishop Konrad von Oels from Breslau as a pledge . In order to bring about an armistice, Bernhard notarized on September 13, 1432 together with the bishop and other Silesian dukes as well as the cities of Breslau , Schweidnitz and Neisse on September 13, 1432, for the cities of Nimptsch , Kreuzburg and Ottmachau occupied by the Hussites, another 10,000 shock groschen to be guilty. Due to lack of money, the Liegnitz Duke Ludwig III pledged it to him in 1434 . Kreuzburg and Pitschen .

In the armed conflict over the Bohemian succession to the throne after the death of King Sigismund in 1437 between the mostly elected Habsburg Albrecht II and the not yet eleven-year-old Casimir IV , a son of the Polish king Władysław III. , a Polish army devastated Upper Silesian areas in order to force the Silesian princes to recognize Kasimir IV. Thereupon, on October 6, 1438, Bernhard and other Upper Silesian and Troppauer princes agreed to conditional recognition of Kasimir IV. However, in November 1438 all the Silesian and Troppauer princes and estates in Breslau paid homage to the elected King Albrecht II.

After 1443 the Teschen Duke Wenzel I sold the Duchy of Sewerien to the Krakow Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki in 1443 without the consent of the Dukes of Opole , Bernhard and his nephew Bolko V. fought the bishop for years. During the armed conflicts that lasted until 1452 and in which the sons of Duke Casimir I of Auschwitz were involved, the border area between Silesia and Lesser Poland was plundered and burned.

Bernhard, who initially resided in Strehlitz, lived in Rosenberg from around 1450 , to which he renewed the German town charter around this time and gave him a plot of land on which the small and large suburbs subsequently developed. In 1454 he confirmed the previous privileges of the town of Woischnik , whose town charter was lost during the Hussite Wars.

Bernhard von Falkenberg died in May 1455; his place of death and burial are not known. Since he left no male offspring, his inheritance fell to his nephew Bolko V. von Opole.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information here according to genealogy web link; according to pl: Bernard niemodliński they had daughters Hedwig / Jadwiga and Anna, whose lives are not known.
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ^ Rudolf Žáček: Dějiny Slezska v datech , p. 104.
personal data
SURNAME Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhard von Oppeln, Falkenberg and Strehlitz; Bernard Falkenberský (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Oppeln, Falkenberg and Strehlitz
DATE OF BIRTH between 1374 and 1378
DATE OF DEATH 1455