Berthold V. von Neuffen

Bertold V. von Neuffen (* around 1290, † 1342 ) was Count of Marstetten and Graisbach and one of the most important councilors of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria .

Life

Berthold came from the Marstetter line of the Lords of Neuffen (or Neiffen). He was the only son of Count Albrecht II of Marstetten and followed his father in the county in 1306. About his mother Elisabeth, daughter of Count Berthold III. von Graisbach, the county of Graisbach fell to him after the death of his grandfather. In 1334 he also became Vogt of the imperial city of Ulm .

Berthold had already been in the service of the Wittelsbach Duke Ludwig of Bavaria since 1311 . Since the election of the double kings in 1314, he supported Ludwig against his Habsburg rival to the throne, Frederick the Fair . In 1316 Berthold became a district judge in the county of Hirschberg , in 1319 Ludwig appointed him for the first time captain or general procurator for Upper Bavaria . In this office, which is still to be settled above the vicarage , he was given the authority to represent the duke and to appoint, control and remove the ducal officials.

At least since this time, Berthold was one of the most important counselors of Ludwig of Bavaria and supported the emperor in his fight against the papacy. In 1323 he was sent by Ludwig as imperial vicar for Lombardy, Tuscia and the Marches to northern Italy in order to protect the imperial rights and the rule of Louis over imperial Italy against Pope John XXII. and defend Robert the Wise of Naples . Berthold was excommunicated together with Ludwig in 1324. Berthold served as imperial vicar with interruptions until 1331; he succeeded u. a. to repel an attack by Robert from Naples on Milan , who was loyal to the emperor , and thus to stabilize Ludwig's position in northern Italy permanently against the papal party.

In 1327 he returned to the Munich court as an Upper Bavarian captain and helped prepare Ludwig's Italian campaign . In 1328 he accompanied Ludwig to Italy and again served as imperial vicar for Italy. After his final return in 1331, Berthold remained captain of Upper Bavaria until 1341. In 1335 he was converted from the emperor to King Edward III. sent to England to negotiate the alliance between Ludwig and Edward, which was finally concluded in 1337.

Before his death in 1342, he appointed the emperor to be the guardian of his children. The only legitimate son, Berthold, was no more able to continue the line as Canon of Augsburg than the illegitimate son Konrad von Weißenhorn. The daughters Elisabeth and Margarete also entered the clerical status as abbess of Niederschönenfeld and Clarissess of Munich. The third daughter Anna was finally married off by the emperor to his grandson Friedrich the Wise , so that the allodial estates and the counties of Marstetten and Graisbach fell to the Wittelsbach family .

literature

• Hansmartin Decker-Hauff : Berthold von Neuffen. In: Swabian Life Pictures. Vol. VI. Stuttgart 1957, pp. 28-40.
• Sarah Hadry: The gentlemen of Neuffen, founders of Weißenhorn. In: Erich Mennel, Wolfgang Ott (eds.): Weißenhorner Profile 1160–2010. Contributions and investigations into the history of the city (= catalogs and publications of the Weißenhorn local history museum 5). Weißenhorn 2010, pp. 7–21.
• Sigmund Ritter von Riezler :  Berthold (Count of Marstetten and Graisbach) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 400 f.
• Marusja Serck: Berthold von Neuffen in the service of Ludwig of Bavaria. Berlin 1936.
• Heinz Thomas: Ludwig the Bavarian (1282-1347). Emperors and heretics. Regensburg 1993, passim.
• Thomas Zotz:  Neuffen. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 117 f. ( Digitized version ).