Betz von Lichtenberg

Betz von Lichtenberg († July 28, 1480 died in the defense of Rhodes) was from 1477 to 1480 Großbailli of the Order of St. John and commander of the Coming Villingen and the double Coming Hemmendorf-Rexingen.

life and career

In 1459 he took part in the general chapter of that year as procurator of the German language . As a representative of the German language, he was a member of the conclave that elected Piero Raimondo Zacosta as Grand Master of the Order of St. John on August 24, 1461 . In July 1462 and at the Grand Chapter in October 1462 he was deputy of the Grand Bailli Richard von Buttlar. In 1464 he had already received the commander in Frankfurt am Main, which he held until 1474. In 1466 he stayed in Rome, where he was procurator of the German language in the Grand Chapter of the Order of St. John, which was held there in December 1466. In February 1467, Grand Master Piero Raimondo Zacosta died in Rome. Pope Paul II constituted an electoral college from the high-ranking Knights of St. John present in Rome. Betz von Lichtenberg was appointed to the electoral college as a representative of the German language. Allegedly, his voice was the decisive voice that made the Grand Prior of Rome Giovanni Battista Orsini the new Grand Master. In 1467 he received the coming Villingen and the double coming Hemmendorf-Rexingen from the new grand master.

In 1471, Grand Master Orsini called all German knights to Rhodes because of the threat posed by Ottoman troops. To pay for the crossing and the necessary equipment, they should lease their religious goods for three years and leave for Rhodes immediately. In November 1471 he was back in Rhodes and took part in the General Chapter. Back in Germany in 1474, he issued some documents. In 1477 he was presumably elected to the Großbailli in Rhodes (at least it is first recorded as Großbailli for 1477). In 1478 he took part in the general chapter taking place in Rhodes. In December 1479 a small group of Ottoman troops landed on Rhodes. Presumably, however, they only pursued education; they were soon driven out by Johanniter troops. In May 1480, however, Ottoman troops with an estimated strength of up to 100,000 infantry, cavalry and artillery landed on Rhodes. In the weeks that followed, the artillery shelled the fortifications and severely damaged them. Two assault attacks were repulsed. On July 28, 1480, the main attack by the Ottomans took place. At one point they managed to conquer the ramparts. In this situation, the Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson led a counterattack, along with Provencal and Italian knights. They were supported by a group of German knights, including the Großbailli Betz von Lichtenberg, who died in the course of the successful defensive battle. The death of Grand Bailli was confirmed in a letter from the priest Giàcomo de Curti, an eyewitness to the fighting in Rhodes, which he wrote to his brother in Rome. Karl Herquet , however, assumed that Betz von Lichtenberg was not on Rhodes during the fighting.

In 1521, Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate traveled as a pilgrim to the Holy Land and also made a stop in Rhodes. He reported that the German captain Betz von Lichtenberg had also been killed in the fighting for Rhodes in 1480 . His body was buried twice and did not rot. Only after he was buried for the third time near the place where he fell did the body decompose. He was then considered a saint. The Knights of St. John were (but) all of the brother knights who fell in the fight against the Muslims as martyrs and saints. In this respect, Ottheinrich's description that Betz was respected as a saint by Lichtenberg could well be correct.

literature

• Winfried Hecht: The death of the Hemmendorfer Komtur Betz von Lichtenberg. In: Peter Ehrmann, Karlheinz Geppert, Steffen Schlüter (Red.): 900 years Hemmendorf, pp. 225-227, Geiger Verlag, Horb, 2002 ISBN 3-89570-796-1 .
• Jürgen Sarnowsky: Power and rule in the Order of St. John of the 15th century. Constitution and administration of the Johanniter on Rhodes (1421–1522). X, 750 S., Münster 2001 ISBN 3-8258-5481-7 (hereinafter abbreviated as Sarnowsky, Macht und Herrschaft with corresponding page number)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johanna Maria van Winter: Sources concerning the Hospitallers of St. John in the Netherlands 14th-18th centuries. Brill, Leiden, 1998 ISBN 9004108033 , p. 58.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Karl Herquet : On the history of the German tongue of the Order of St. John. Weekly newspaper of the Johanniter-Ordens-Balley Brandenburg, 17: 270, Berlin 1876. Online at Google Books .
3. ^ Sarnowsky, Macht und Herrschaft, p. 396, footnote 120, preview at Google Books

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Schenk von Stauffenberg	Großbailli of the Order of St. John 1477–1480	Rudolf von Werdenberg