Berta von Arnsberg

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Berta von Arnsberg († January 8, 1292 ) was abbess of the women's monastery in Essen from before 1243 until her death .

origin

Berta von Arnsberg was the daughter of Gottfried II. Count von Arnsberg . The mother was Agnes von Rüdenberg. Berta's sister Adelheid married Konrad II Burgrave von Stromberg. Irmgard was a nun in the Oelinghausen monastery , Sophie married Bernhard III. Lord of Lippe-Detmold. Her brother Gottfried was named Gottfried III. Count of Arnsberg. The sister Syradis was later abbess of St. Aegidii , the brother Hermann was a canon in Soest .

Life

The abbess tried to assert herself among powerful neighbors as imperial princess. In 1262 Archbishop Engelbert II was elected Vogt for life by the Abbess and Chapter of Essen. After his death, King Rudolf was elected the new Vogt in 1275 in order to strengthen his own power in this area by emphasizing old imperial rights. In 1288 he entrusted the Count of the Mark with the execution of the bailiwick. The Archbishop of Cologne did not want to come to terms with his rejection and tried to strengthen his power in the Essen monastery again with various, sometimes extreme, means.

Archbishop Siegfried first tried to revoke the right to elect the bailiff of the abbess and the convent and to return the monastery to the Cologne ore chair. As Berta von Arnsberg had Pope Innocent IV confirmed the exemption of the monastery in 1245 and this was confirmed again from Rome after the trial, she had an important legal title against the claims of the Archdiocese of Cologne, to which Essen was subject. The conflicting legal claims led to conflicts in the monastery. A part of the convention headed by the prioress was on the side of the archbishop. King Rudolf later had the legal disputes between the two sides investigated by a commission, the results of which are not known.

After the defeat and capture of Archbishop Siegfried in the Battle of Worringen , the king gave the bailiwick to Count Eberhard von der Mark in 1288 . In 1289/90 Archbishop Siegfried took direct action against Berta von Arnsberg to remove her from her office. It all started with the confiscation of their vineyards in the Rhineland. She was accused of the most serious crimes, such as simony , disregard of the ban on church imposed on her by the Cologne official , letting in with fraudsters like Tile Kolup and the squandering of church goods. In particular, she was accused of being insubordinate to the Cologne Erzstuhl.

Berta stayed away from a court hearing that she had been summoned to Cologne. The archbishop then declared her deposed. With the support of the Essen provost Mechthild von Rennenberg, he made his niece Irmgard von Wittgenstein the Essen abbess. Shortly before, he had installed her as abbess in Herford . Nevertheless, the archbishop did not succeed in permanently removing the abbess Berta from her position. She had turned to Count von Berg for her support. This enabled her to maintain her position until her death.

The conflict was only resolved after Berta's death. On July 28, 1295, the monastery was confirmed to have the right to vote as the bailiff at a Princely Congress in Deutz. Eberhard von der Mark was granted the bailiff's rights for life on this occasion.

Under Berta, the reconstruction of the Essen collegiate church, which burned down in 1275, began in its shape that still exists today.

A document from 1286 testifies that the Count of Limburg had pledged the bailiwick of the Oberhof Ehrenzell west of the women's monastery to the abbess Bertha von Arnsberg. The Oberhof Ehrenzell was one of six Oberhöfe in Essen Abbey, where the Unterhöfe had to hand over their duties to the Abbey. His mayor was appointed by the abbess and was a judge on her behalf. Abbess Berta von Arnsberg bought the apparently pledged Oberhof Borbeck from the knights Hermann and Wennemar von Altendorf in 1288 in order to have the predecessor of today 's Borbeck Castle built there. With this she expressed her claim to power as abbess.

By starting the reconstruction of the collegiate church and emphasizing imperial rights and papal privileges, Berta made a significant contribution to leading the monastery out of a crisis that threatened its existence and thus ensuring its continued existence as an independent imperial principality.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Féaux de Lacroix : History of Arnsberg. HR Stein-Verlag, Arnsberg 1895 (reprint: Stein, Werl 1983, ISBN 3-920980-05-0 ), p. 33.
2. ↑ Manfred Petry: The Essen Abbey. In: Peter Berghaus , Siegfried Kessemeier: Cologne, Westphalia 1180–1980. State history between the Rhine and Weser. 2nd Edition. Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1981, pp. 165–167.
3. ^ Funcke: History of the Principality and Essen Monastery. P. 94.
4. ^ Funcke: History of the Principality and Essen Monastery. P. 96.
5. ^ Funcke: History of the Principality and Essen Monastery. P. 97.

literature

• Ute Küppers-Braun: Power in women's hands - 1000 years of rule by noble women in Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-106-X .
• Theodor Joseph Lacomblet (Ed.): Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cöln, the principalities of Jülich and Berg, Geldern, Meurs, Cleve and Mark, and the imperial monasteries of Elten, Essen and Werden. From the sources in the royal provincial archive in Düsseldorf and in the church and city archives of the province. Volume 2: From the year 1201 to 1300 inclusive. Schönian'sche Buchhandlung in Commission, Elberfeld 1846, p. XIf.
• F. Ph. Funcke: History of the principality and the city of Essen. A contribution to the history of Rhineland-Westphalia. Kamp, Mülheim an der Ruhr, 1848.