Churrätien
From the early Middle Ages to the early modern period, Churrätien is a name for that part of the late Roman, earlier Roman province of Raetia prima , which was able to maintain its linguistic and cultural character during the migration of the peoples and which continued to be administered from Curia Raetorum ( Chur ). The Raetia prima was already called Raetia Curiensis after its capital in Roman times . "Churrätien" is initially nothing more than the German translation of the Latin name. This German name is usually only used for the central and southern part of the former province, after the northern part between Constance and Bregenz was populated by Alemanni during the migration period, probably between 400 and 600, with the complete displacement or assimilation of the Romanized population . In contrast, Romansh culture remained in the area of Churrätien for several centuries and in some cases to this day, which is why it was also known as "Churwalchen" or "Churwahlen" - where "walch" or "welsch" refers to the Romansh language and culture from a German perspective.
expansion
The exact extent of Churrätien can no longer be determined exactly today and has probably changed over the centuries. The core of Churrätien was today's Graubünden without Misox and Puschlav , today's Liechtenstein , in Vorarlberg the Walgau including Feldkirch , Damüls , Großwalsertal and Montafon , the St. Gallen Rhine Valley up to the Hirschensprung and the Sarganserland . Furthermore, the Vinschgau (up to the 12th century), Ursern and the Linth Plain, possibly also the whole of today's Canton of Glarus, belonged to Churrätien. It is controversial whether the Bergell and the Vinschgau already belonged to the Raetia province in late antiquity. Both areas came to Churrätien in the 6th century.
Organizationally, Churrätien essentially coincided with the then diocese of Chur . The Chur bishop presumably took over the administration of the Raetia during the Migration Period , after first the Romans and then the Ostrogoths had to concentrate on the administration and defense of their heartlands. It was not until the reorganization of the Diocese of Chur after 1815 that the historical borders were adapted to the changed political conditions.
history
The Roman province of Raetia
Under the province name → Raetia (originally Raetia et Vindelicia ) were the 15 BC in the first half of the 1st century AD. BC areas of the foothills of the Alps between the Danube and Inn , today's Switzerland south of Lake Constance and northern Tyrol were combined under Roman rule. Around 180 Raetia became an imperial province 2nd class, administered by a senator with a praetorical rank. In the course of the Diocletian imperial reforms , the province of Raetia was divided into two new provinces, Raetia prima ( Curiensis ) and Raetia secunda ( Vindelica ), along Lake Constance and the northern Alps in AD 297 . The two new provinces belonged to the Diocese of Italia and were militarily subordinate to a Dux Raetiae . Civil administration in each of the two new provinces was the responsibility of a praeses , governors of lower rank. The later German names “Churrätien” and “Vindelicien” were derived from their residences Curia Raetorum ( Chur ) and Augusta Vindelicorum ( Augsburg ).
The area of the province of Raetia prima in the 4th century can hardly be recognized from sources. For a long time the prevailing opinion was that it simply comprised the alpine part of the predecessor province of Raetia , including the northern Alps as far as Kufstein , the Inn valley from Finstermünz down to the Zillertal and the upper Eisack valley . The new Pauly (2001) and Heuberger ( 1930e , without Vinschgau since 1932), on the other hand, roughly state the Argen as the northern border and the eastern border as running from Isny over the Arlberg through the Val Müstair to the Stilfser Joch . It is not certain whether northern Ticino with Bellinzona and the Italian Eschental also belonged to the Raetia prima .
End of Roman rule - time of the Great Migration
Even after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, the political connection between Raetia prima and Italy did not break, on the contrary. At first this province came under the rule of Odoacer . After his death in 493, the Ostrogothic Empire gained control of Raetia just fine. The Ostrogothic King Theodoric used a Dux (German: Duke ) again in the province of Raetia to secure Italy . But this had purely military powers. The office of Praeses was retained for civil administration . The main seat of this administration was Chur , which was first mentioned in 452 as a bishopric . In 537 the Ostrogoth king Witiges had to cede part of Raetia prima, the area south of Lake Constance , to the Frankish king Theudebert I in return for his support of the Ostrogoths against the Byzantine Empire ( Gothic War (535-554) ). Taking advantage of the military weakening of the Ostrogoths in the fight against the Byzantines, Theudebert I managed to control the rest of Raetia with the militarily and economically important Graubünden pass roads until his death in 548 . Exactly how this happened, by struggle or by agreement, is not recorded. Raetia prima, called Churrätien since the Middle Ages , was now part of the Merovingian Empire and thus lost its political connection with Italy.
However, this did not apply to the economic ties between Churraetia and Italy. Even if there is almost no reliable information about Churrätien from the Merovingian period , it is scientifically considered to be certain that trade continued between the now Longobard Italy and the north. Historiography agrees that Churrätien enjoyed extensive independence during this time, without the ties to the Franconian Empire being completely broken. It was not until the Alamann trains 710 to 712 and the final reintegration of the Alamannia into the Franconian Empire by Karl Martell around 740 that Churrätien also came closer to the Franconian Empire.
During the Frankish rule, political control over Churrätien was in the hands of the Chur aristocratic family of the Viktoriden . Various representatives of this dynasty combined the old political office of the praeses with the dignity of the bishop of Chur. So they managed to control both the old Roman imperial and fiscal property as well as church property.
Incorporation into the Franconian Empire: The County of (Chur-) Raetia
With the death of the Chur bishop Tello (765), the Victoride rule ended. Charlemagne took the opportunity by issuing his successor, Bishop and Rector Constantius, a certificate of protection in 772/74 in order to bind him back to the royal rule. His successor Remedius came from the imperial court. Charles then used the death of Remedius (approx. 806) to finally integrate the strategically important Churrätien into his empire. By separating imperial and ecclesiastical property ( divisio inter episcopatum et comitatum ), he practically deprived the bishops of Chur of the material basis of their secular rule, since this "division" evidently converted most of the episcopal property into royal property. In addition, the county constitution was introduced in Churrätia , thus also directly separating the secular from the spiritual jurisdiction.
Hunfried I was installed as Count of Churrätien ( comes curiae / curiensis ) , to whom the royal estate served as the basis of rule. The extent of this royal estate is at least partially handed down through a land register of the imperial estate in Churrätien from the 1st half of the 9th century. This appears to have been taken in response to four letters of complaint from Bishop Victor III. from Chur to Emperor Ludwig the Pious (825), in which the bishop complained about Count Roderich's attacks on the property still remaining in the diocese.
The (marrow) county of (Chur) Raetia formed part of the Frankish empire from then on. In 917, Margrave Burchard II of Churrätien proclaimed the Duchy of Swabia . Under his successors, Churrätien therefore became part of the Duchy of Swabia and with this in turn the Holy Roman Empire . Whether Churrätien was divided into three counties in the 10th century is controversial in research. Since the original county of Raetia was now connected in personal union with the Duchy of Swabia, it could have been divided into three counties: Upper Rats ( pagus Curiensis ) and Lower Rats ( pagus Raetia Curiensis ), separated by the Landquart and the Rätikon chain , as well as the Vinschgau ( pagus Venusta ), which also included the Lower Engadine. The county of Vinschgau fell to the Counts of Tyrol in the middle of the 12th century, the Upper Councils to the Counts of Buchhorn and the Lower Councils to the Counts of Bregenz.
In the Middle Ages, the bishops of Chur were able to secure various rights of rule in Churrätien, but their secular influence was limited to the area around Chur, Domleschg , Engadin , Bergell , Chiavenna , Bormio and Vinschgau .
18th and 19th centuries - the Helvetic canton of Raetia
The geographical designation "Raetia" was used throughout the Middle Ages and increasingly again in the 18th and 19th centuries for the Free State of the Three Leagues . The addition of Chur-Raetia finally disappeared in the 19th century. When the former Free State of the Three Leagues was accepted as a new canton in the Helvetic Republic on April 21, 1799 , it was initially given the name " Canton Rätien ", later Graubünden .
See also
literature
- Otto P. Clavadetscher: Raetia in the Middle Ages. Constitution, traffic, law, notary. Selected essays. Festive edition for the 75th birthday. Desertina-Verlag, Disentis 1994, ISBN 3-85637-223-7 .
- Otto P. Clavadetscher: «The introduction of the county constitution in Raetia and the complaints of Bishop Viktor III. from Chur. " in: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . 70, 1953, pp. 46-111. ISSN 0323-4045
- Otto P. Clavadetscher: "On the Churrätischen Reichsgutsurbar from the Carolingian period." In: Journal of Swiss History . Vol. 30 (1950), pp. 161-197, doi : 10.5169 / seals-77325 .
- Reinhold Kaiser : Churrätien in the early Middle Ages. Late 5th to mid 10th century. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Schwabe, Basel 2008. ISBN 978-3-7965-1064-9
- Ursus Brunold, Lothar Deplazes (ed.): History and culture of Churrätiens . Festschrift for Father Iso Müller OSB on his 85th birthday. Disentis 1986. ISBN 3-85637-112-5
- Sebastian Grüninger: Manorial rule in the early medieval Churrätien. Dissertation University of Zurich 2003. Disertina, Chur 2006. ISBN 3856373195
- Elisabeth Meyer-Marthaler, Franz Perret (ed.): Bündner Urkundenbuch. Vol. 1. Bischofberger, Chur 1955.
- Alois Niederstätter: “Stately spatial organization in what will later be Vorarlberg during the Middle Ages. An overview." In: Montfort , 4/2009, pp. 231-258.
- Wolfgang von Juvalt: Research on the feudal period in the Curischen Raetien. Zurich 1871.
- Thomas von Mohr (Ed.): Codex Diplomaticus ad Historiam Raeticam. Collection of documents on the history of Cur-Raetia and the Republic of Graubünden. Vol. 1. Chur 1863, Vol. 2. Chur 1852–54.
- Ulrich Stutz: Charlemagne divisio of the diocese and county of Chur. A contribution to the history of the imperial and church constitution of the Franconian period in general and to the history of Churrätien as well as the law of private churches in particular. Weimar 1909.
Web links
- Lothar Deplazes: Churrätien. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Remarks
- ^ Kaiser, Churrätien in the early Middle Ages, pp. 16-18, 34f.
- ↑ See R. Heuberger : Raetia prima and Raetia secunda (1930e and Klio 1931), p. 352.
- ↑ Handbuch der Schweizer Geschichte Vol. 1, p. 68. For a complete overview of the literature, see there.
- ↑ Ursula Koch: "Defeated, robbed, expelled - The consequences of the defeats of 496/497 and 506", in: Archäologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Württemberg (Ed.): "Die Alamannen", Wais & Partner publishing house, Stuttgart 1997, p. 196, ISBN 3-8062-1302-X
- ↑ Hasler, Heiligmann, Höneisen, Leuzinger, Swozilek (eds.): "In the protection of mighty walls - late Roman forts in the Lake Constance area", Verlag Huber & Co. AG, Frauenfeld 2005, p. 56, ISBN 3-9522941-1-X
- ^ Office for Archeology of the Canton Thurgau: "Römer, Alemannen, Christen - Frühmittelalter am Bodensee", Frauenfeld 2013, p. 15 and p. 28, ISBN 978-3-9522941-6-1
- ↑ Otto P. Clavadetscher: "Churrätien in the transition from late antiquity to the Middle Ages according to the written sources", in: Joachim Werner / Eugen Ewig (ed.): "From late antiquity to early Middle Ages", Sigmaringen 1979. pp. 165–168.
- ^ Kaiser, Churrätien in the early Middle Ages, pp. 66f.