Federal feud

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The feud of the federal rulers was a long guerrilla war between 1440 and 1454 within the knighthood of Niederhessen and Waldeck, devastating for the villages in the area and fatal for a number of the knights involved . The dispute began around 1440, escalated over the years, and was not finally settled until December 1454. The main antagonists were, on the one hand, Werner von Elben , the market master of the Elber Mark near Naumburg , whose allies called themselves "Federal Lords", and on the other hand, Reinhard von Dalwigk and his nephew Friedrich IV von Hertingshausen , who were notorious for their feudalism , who worked on the neighboring Mainz castles Naumburg and Weidelsburg sat. Reinhard von Dalwigk, known as "the unborn" because he was born by a caesarean section , was a Mainz heirloom at the Schauenburg and (as the former guardian of Friedrich von Hertingshausen, who was still a minor in 1405) the bailiff at the Weidelsburg. Friedrich von Hertingshausen (the younger) kept the castle in Naumburg that had been pledged to him.

Beginning of the feud

The dispute began in 1440 when Reinhard von Dalwigk and Friedrich von Hertingshausen repeatedly came into conflict with Werner von Elben over forest usage rights in the Elber Mark, the area around today's Elbenberg . Only an arbitration court convened by Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse and Count Johann II von Ziegenhain in Obermöllrich in November 1440 was finally able to end this dispute on the basis of a wisdom on March 13, 1441.

Nevertheless, the conflict between Dalwigk and Hertingshausen on the one hand and Werner von Elben on the other continued to smolder and spread to other knight families in the area, with Dalwigk and Hertingshausen repeatedly proving themselves to be troublemakers. Landgrave Ludwig only managed to settle a dispute that had been going on since 1430 between Dalwigk, the Lords of Grifte and the Hund von Kirchberg over the property of the extinct Hund von Holzhausen in 1442 . Kirchberg and most of Holzhausen kept the dogs, Dalwigk got a share in Falkenstein Castle . Dalwigk and Hertingshausen also took on the neighboring town of Wolfhagen by making claims on the village of Bründersen and the former desolations of Ippinghausen and Zabenhausen, which the Landgrave had to fend off by giving Dalwigk and Hertingshausen the court, services and slopes in Ippinghausen and Zabenhausen enfeoffed, but left the property of the city of Wolfhagen untouched.

Dalwigk and Hertingshausen were twice, in 1443 and 1448, after they had devastated or even burned villages several times. B. 1443 the village of Berningshausen, which belongs to the Merxhausen monastery, and the village of Ermetheis near Niedenstein - besieged as breakers of the peace on the Weidelsburg by troops of the landgrave and the archbishop of Mainz, forced into submission and punished by the withdrawal of fiefs, but without this leading to permanent peace led.

The bloody phase

Another tithing dispute between Dalwigk and Hertingshausen on the one hand and Werner von Elben on the other, and Hermann Hund's insulting speeches about Reinhard von Dalwigk brought the hostilities to the boiling point. Landgrave Ludwig and Count Johann II. Von Ziegenhain tried to settle the matter at a court day in Homberg , but without success, although both sides swore atonement on a Friday morning before sunrise according to the old custom. Instead, on June 24, 1450, Dalwigk and Hertingshausen filed a lawsuit against Werner von Elben with the provost of Fritzlar Abbey , representing their Mainz liege lord, because Werner von Elben allegedly wrongly appropriated 3/8 of the tithe to Wellen im Edertal . An arbitration award by Hermann II. Riedesel , Hessian Hereditary Marshal and elected chairman of the arbitration tribunal, did not satisfy either side, and an open feud ensued.

Both sides secured numerous allies under the knighthood of Lower Hesse:

  • On the side of Werner von Elben and his sons Werner, Thilo, Heimerad and Dietrich stood Hermann Hund and his son Otto, Heinrich V. von Gudenberg , Hermann and Heinrich von Grifte, Henne von Wehren, Bernhard von Herzenrode, Johann von Gilsa , Hans von Born, Heinrich Schenk zu Schweinsberg , the knights of Falkenberg , von Holzheim , von Wallenstein and others. They called themselves "Bundesherren".
  • Reinhard von Dalwigk and Friedrich von Hertingshausen had Johann von Meysenbug (Marshal and Councilor of the Landgrave, free bishop of the secret holy courts, who had bought the village of Riede from the Lords of Wehren and then received a castle loan), Heinrich von Löwenstein , Henne on their side von Urff , Hermann von der Rabenau , Gerd von Melschede and Eberhard von Dernbach .

As usual, the feud was fought on the backs of the rural population, as they tried to inflict economic damage on each other and every raid led the other side to similar vengeance. Fields were devastated, cattle driven away, villages looted and burned down. But there were also some bloody skirmishes, for example with Dorla and Elben , in which several of the brawlers lost their lives and others became prisoners of the opposing side.

In 1451, Beltershausen Castle , located near the village of Beltershausen belonging to Friedrich von Hertingshausen , was built by Bernhard von Herzenrode and now owned by the Hessian Ministerial Ludwig von Wildungen , destroyed by Dalwigk and Hertingshausen. Meysenbug devastated the area around Elbenberg. All attempts by the landgrave, his sons, his nephew, Duke Heinrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, and Count Wolrad von Waldeck , to restore peace in the country were fruitless.

In 1453 there was a fight on the Riedweg near Elben between Friedrich von Hertingshausen on the one hand and Werner von Elben, Heinrich von Grifte and Otto Hund on the other. Friedrich von Hertingshausen was stabbed in the thigh with a racing spear. He fell from his horse and was taken prisoner with some of his servants. It was later reported in some places that Friedrich's leg had been amputated, but contemporary sources mostly only report that he was later severely paralyzed. (At the place of the battle there was later a stone cross . Today it is on the opposite side of the street, at the junction from the street Naumburg-Fritzlar to Elbenberg.)

After that, the clashes became increasingly violent. Landgrave Ludwig met repeatedly in Gudensberg to put an end to the hustle and bustle, but without success. On April 29, 1454, Johann von Meysenbug and his people attacked the village of Obervorschütz , which Werner von Elben held as a landgrave-Hessian fief, and burned it down. On June 8, 1454, Hermann Hund, Heinrich Schenck zu Schweinsberg, Hans von Born, Heinrich von Wallenstein and Heinrich / Henne von Grifte were attacked and slain by Johann von Meysenbug and his people near Dorla . Reinhard von Dalwigk may have been involved in the attack, but this has not been proven. On November 19, 1454, the village of Holzhausen am Hahn, three quarters of which was owned by the brothers Hermann and Otto Hund, together with its church, was burned down by Johann von Meysenbug and his people. Otto Hund was captured by his opponents.

termination

It was not until the end of 1454 that the landgrave succeeded in bringing about an atonement between the parties. Both sides released their prisoners, and Friedrich von Hertingshausen was compensated for his injury. The tithes claimed by the sovereigns for Elben, Stockhausen , the desert of Todenhausen and Beltershausen were awarded to Reinhard von Dalwigk and Friedrich von Hertingshausen, as these had already been granted to their ancestors. The other points of contention were referred to other bodies for decision. On December 3, 1454, Landgrave Ludwig I and Count Wolrad I von Waldeck finally brokered a permanent settlement. Reinhard von Dalwigk, Friedrich von Hertingshausen, Johann von Meysenbug, Henne von Urff, Wilhelm von Meysenbug, Hermann von der Rabenau, Gerd von Melschede and Eberhard von Dernbach signed a letter of atonement for Werner von Elben, his sons and Heinrich von Grifte on the same day . That ended the feud.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Landau, "Weisthum about the forests in the Elber Mark from November 3, 1440", in: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies , Kassel, 1840 (p. 242-247)
  2. ^ Weisthümer , collected by Jacob Grimm, Third Part, Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, Göttingen, 1842 (pp. 321-324)
  3. ^ Ippinghausen ( Memento from January 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Georg Landau, Historical-topographical description of the desert localities , p. 384
  5. ↑ http://www.kirchenkreis-fritzlar.de/scripts/angebote/2185?kirchspiele=29774&layout=2  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kirchenkreis-fritzlar.de  
  6. ↑ General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1835 (p. 53).
  7. ↑ http://www.suehnekreuz.de/hessen/haben.htm
  8. ^ Hugo Brunner, History of the City of Gudensberg and the Regional Court of Maden, communications to the members of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, Kassel 1897, (p. 118)
  9. ↑ http://www.suehnekreuz.de/hessen/dorla.htm

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