Konrad Schott von Schottenstein
Konrad Schott von Schottenstein († January 8, 1526 ) was the margrave bailiff of Streitberg with his seat at Streitberg Castle . He was in contact with Götz von Berlichingen and Hans Thomas von Absberg . Schott may have served as a model for the well-known engraving " Knight, Death and the Devil " by Albrecht Dürer .
Name and origin
Konrad Schott von Schottenstein was also known as "Conz" or "Cunz". "Schott" is an abbreviation of his surname. He himself signed letters with "Konrat Schott". The Schott von Schottenstein family was an old, imperial, Franconian knight dynasty . The eponymous headquarters of Schottenstein is today part of the municipality of Itzgrund in the Upper Franconian district of Coburg .
His father Lutz was the bailiff on the Hinterfrankenberg (see Schloss Frankenberg ) until this residence was destroyed in 1462. In 1464 he acquired Hornberg Castle from the Speyer diocese . Conz probably grew up on the Hinterfrankenberg. He married Dorothea von Absberg, whose family lived in Vorderfrankenberg . It can be documented for the first time at Hornberg Castle. When his father had to leave the Hornberg, the family moved to an official residence in Lichtenfels .
The life of Konrad Schott von Schottenstein
Declining knighthood and robbery knighthood
Because of the atrocities he committed, his contemporaries regarded him as a “soulless man” and was often adorned with titles such as “a particularly wild fellow, extremely vicious, addicted to trading and rowdy”. Helgard Ulmschneider even considers him “one of the pillars of the Franconian Heckenreitertums”. Konrad Schott and Götz von Berlichingen got to know each other at a young age and were initially friends. So both pursued a group of riders in 1504 in the Spessart - in vain - because “Mr. Schott wanted to become an enemy of the Count Palatine”, but “he was a lazy rider”. During the Nuremberg feud in 1512 an unsuccessful is simulated purchase of Berlichingschen property by Konrad Schott known to save it against an imperial mandate.
Several years after 1469, when Georg von Rosenberg feuded the imperial city of Hall , Konrad turned to him for advice. The city had destroyed Maienfels Castle , in which his father owned a Ganerboard . When asked for advice whether he should feud Hall, Rosenberg replied, “He advised dis not; ime his eyssin, whom he rode in iren staigen, was not paid by the vonn Hall. ... So Mr. Conradt Schott is stale from his furnemmen ”.
The extent to which Konrad Schott's goings-on was actually as reprehensible as it has been portrayed over the centuries is at least doubtful. The imperial knights had very hard to keep it at that time their status and to compete economically. On the one hand, it was hardly needed by the emperor, on the other hand, the sovereigns were bothered by the knighthoods that were direct from the empire. In addition, the imperial knights came more and more to economic and educational disadvantage and increasingly bitter hostility to the up-and-coming urban bourgeoisie . a. because of the imperial knights' adherence to their last remaining significant privilege, the right to feud .
Ultimately, the actions of Konrad and Götz are likely to have hardly differed. Götz only had the opportunity to dictate and pass on his biography, which is why Goethe idealized him historically in an extremely imprecise way and thus helped him to become world famous. On the other hand, our view of Konrad today is predominantly shaped by bourgeois propaganda (“ robber barons ”) against noble imperial knights.
Konrad and Wilwolt von Schaumberg
In the "Stories and Deeds of Wilwolt von Schaumberg " one learns that in a bloody feud between the Schott and Schaumberg families, Wilwolt and his people once threw down Konrad and "left him for dead". Since that meeting, he is said to have had a lifelong scar on his face. Konrad, for his part, had ambushed Wilwolt von Schaumberg and took him prisoner. He had tried to defend this inglorious act, for which he was banned from the Reich in 1485, before Duke Albrecht of Saxony . But his attempt at justification failed and he no longer had any friends. In order to escape the declaration of imperial ban against him and the intense persecution associated with it, Konrad finally had to release Wilwolt without having attached any further conditions.
Ganerbeburg Rothenberg
In 1492 Konrad and his cousin Veit were enfeoffed with Hellingen , which his nephew Hans had probably only converted into a moated castle in 1515 . In 1497, 44 heirs of the Rothenberg castle from Franconian knight families elected Konrad Schott as their burgrave. From there, the imperial city of Nuremberg could be reached within three hours. The mighty city was never able to conquer the Rothenberg. In 1499 there was an extremely violent and very bloody feud between Konrad and the city of Nuremberg. Despite its interventions at the imperial court, the city ultimately remained a loser. The feud was formally settled, but Schott's accomplices continued it against a largely impotent city that blamed him for its predicament. But Konrad concluded a service contract in 1501 after the performance of an original feud with the Margrave of Brandenburg Friedrich . In the Landshut War of Succession of 1504, Konrad and the city of Nuremberg fought together on the imperial side. For his services in this war, he became a knight beaten . With that, Konrad got into disputes with the city of Nuremberg again. The city allegedly withheld his share of the spoils of war. The city did not want to respond to his demands at first. In a settlement brokered by the Würzburg bishop Lorenz von Bibra , Willibald Pirckheimer, as the city's negotiator, finally had to grant him compensation of 600 guilders .
Feud against Count Palatine Philip
Already in 1504 Konrad declared the feud to the Count Palatine Philip because of the Hornberg, which had once been taken from the family . Although the Count Palatine made sure that the Emperor again imposed the eight on Konrad , but this in no way helped the Count Palatine. In this year Konrad succeeded in recapturing the two castles Hornberg ( Duo Castra Horimberch ) with friends (60 riders) , which his father Lutz Schott von Schottenstein had acquired in 1464 and had lost militarily to Count Palatine Friedrich I (the Victorious) in 1474 . After the reconquest, a legal dispute developed with the Count Palatine, who tried to defend himself by legal means. But Konrad won in both instances. In the latter (May 27, 1505 in Enßisheim by chairman knight Hans Imber von Gilgenberg ) he was even awarded a compensation of 1,300 Rhenish guilders to be paid by the Count Palatinate for having taken over and used the legal Schott family property for a long time. The defeat of the Count Palatine in the Landshut War of Succession came to the rescue.
Expansion of Hornberg Castle
With the compensation Konrad Schott developed a brisk construction activity on Hornberg. A new palace was built and the two castles were united by a mighty wall to form Hornberg Castle . In 1512 the paternal inheritance was converted into a man's fief; Konrad was enfeoffed with Hornberg Castle. His new employer was now Duke Ulrich von Württemberg , at whose wedding in 1511 he and many other nobles waited.
Confrontation with Count Reinhard von Hanau-Münzenberg
The Württemberg Yearbook for Statistics and Regional Studies reports that on December 12th, 1507, in the second hour of the night, “Mr. Konrad Schott was 'up' with a noticeable sum on horseback, without knowing where he was going”. On the following Tuesday (Tuesday after St. Luciä, December 14th) the Obervogt wrote that it had been a “debarment”, “one heard shooting in Langenburg and other places”. In 1511 there was an error between Konrad Schott and Reinhard IV von Hanau-Münzenberg . For unknown reasons, Konrad registered his claim to the office of civil servant at Schwarzenfels Castle between Spessart and Rhön . A comparison was made through the mediation of Neithart von Thüngen auf Sodenberg and Count Michael von Wertheim . Konrad received compensation of 300 guilders and had to offer his services to the count for the next four years. A letter from the Count Palatinate was read out on Knight's Day in Windsheim in September 1515 . In it he announced that the (just happened) prostration of Konrad Schott had taken place “without his knowledge”. After negotiating the Stephan von Venningen case in Heidelberg, he was thrown down while riding away. Since he was a fief of the cathedral monastery in Speyer , the incident was dealt with there in March 1515.
Hornberg Castle is sold to Götz von Berlichingen
Konrad Schott sold Hornberg Castle to Götz von Berlichingen on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1517 . He paid 4,000 guilders immediately and was supposed to pay 2,500 guilders at Petri's chair ceremony, including interest, a year later. In the meantime, however, Götz declared himself ready to the Count Palatine to take over his feud, which he had just declared against Konrad Schott (1518). Konrad had his follower Georg Rüdt von Bödigheim arrested on his journey home when he had paid Konrad's debt to his father. The acceptance of this feud was quite resentful to Götz within the Franconian knighthood. Twice Götz narrowly escaped capture by Konrad: once when the last purchase installment of 2500 guilders was handed over to Konrad's wife Dorothea, née von Absberg , in Schweinfurt - Götz had been warned, and so he escaped through the only city gate not guarded by Konrad's henchmen -, the other time in his unsuccessful attempt to capture Konrad at Markt Marktbergel with inferior forces. Finally Götz managed to arrest Veit Schott, the owner of the Eichelsdorf moated castle near Hofheim in Lower Franconia. However, Veit Schott was not a close relative of Konrad.
Konrad as margravial bailiff of Streitberg
Konrad Schott, who had held the office of Möckmühl at least since 1512 , was now bailiff of the Margrave of Brandenburg Casimir on the Streitberg near Forchheim . The award of the office may be connected with a loan by Konrad to the margrave of 10,000 guilders.
Punitive expedition of the Swabian Federation 1523
At the foot of the Streitberg, the war band of the Swabian Confederation passed by on their punitive expedition through Franconia in the summer of 1523 , during which 23 “robber knight nests” were laid down (see also Wandereisen woodcuts from 1523 ). The aim of the federal government was to destroy the castles that Hans Thomas von Absberg supported. Because around 1519 his brother-in-law, Hans Thomas von Absberg, who was ostracized as a “handcutter”, had often been with him, Konrad himself was under strong suspicion. He tried to get rid of this by finally refusing admission to his brother-in-law. Konrad had been able to purge (clean) himself. However, a minor incident occurred when a mercenary was fishing in his fish box. He fired a shot at him and then put him in irons. This incident led to a negotiation with a negotiator from the city of Nuremberg. Despite the tense situation, however, the conflict did not escalate.
End of life
In 1525 Konrad Schott complained to Margrave Casimir because he had not been called to war against the peasants .; he wanted to know whether it was by grace or disgrace. He could not come himself because he was weak, but he could send his cousin, who was present at the moment. At the end of 1525 he went to the Heilsbronner Hof in Nuremberg, an exemtes margravial area within the city. There he died on January 8, 1526. His armor ended up in the Nuremberg arsenal and was later bought by the Counts of Erbach during the phase of secularization , who kept them in theirs until around 1930, together with a sword that is said to have been used to behead Konrad Lock issued. After that, the armor was sold overseas.
Legends
Because of Konrad Schott's cruelty to the Nuremberg councilor Wilhelm Derrer and because of the burning of Stein near Nuremberg, in which the dead were mocked with arrows that read “In one of Nuremberg”, a propaganda battle started. A hate poem directed against him wished him death on the wheel (Liliencron).
It may have been this generally evoked mood that led to the legend that Konrad Schott was ordered to Cadolzburg by the margrave in 1523, when the Swabian League's campaign of revenge took place. It is reported from the scene at the margrave that he should have said "It is better for you to die than that my poor people are ruined, whereupon he kneels down at night and surrenders his head." Later written evidence refutes this as a legend . Yet it remains ineradicably stubborn to this day.
He is also said to have attacked and robbed a Nuremberg merchant who is said to have carried works by the artist Albrecht Dürer with him to sell at the fair in Frankfurt.
He is also said to have sat as a robber baron on the "Bierpanscherburg" Stockenfels am Regen . This castle was only bought together with Fischbach Castle around 1560 by Hans Schott, a son of his nephew Hans Schott zu Hellingen. The grandson Hans-Konrad Schott sold Stockenfels Castle to Count Dohna in 1617 - probably for economic reasons, as he had 18 children.
literature
- Friedrich Wolfgang Götz Graf von Berlichingen-Rossach: History of the knight Götz von Berlichingen with the iron hand and his family . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1861.
- Götz von Berlichingen: Purchase contract for Hornberg Castle in 1517 . Archive Castle Hornberg, Neckarzimmern.
- Joseph Heller: Message about the knight and captain zu Streitberg Conrad Schott . In: Archives for history and antiquity of Upper Franconia . 1st volume 2nd issue. Bayreuth 1840. pp. 116-118.
- Hans Obert: 1200 years of Neckarzimmern . Self-published by the Neckarzimmern community, 1973.
- Fr. Krieger: Hornberg Castle on the Neckar . Heidelberg 1869.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ As with many other families, the genealogy of Johann Gottfried Biedermann is not reliable in detail for the Schott von Schottenstein either
- ↑ Christian Kolb: Herolts Chronica , edited by the Württemberg Commission for Regional History, p. 164
- ↑ Johannes Müllner: The Annals of the Imperial City of Nuremberg from 1623, Part II: From 1351 to 1469 . Nuremberg 1972. p. 34.
- ^ Martin Schütz: The Ganerbschaft Rothenberg . Nuremberg 1924. 9f.
- ^ The minutes of the Speyer Cathedral Chapter , p. 405
- ^ Peter Ritzmann: Plackerey in teutschen Landen . Dissertation publisher NG copy shop. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-928536-50-8 . Pp. 333-335.
- ↑ Schott or Schotte, an ancient noble family. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 35, Leipzig 1743, column 1031 f.
- ^ Hans Frank, Westfälische Zeitung 1957
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schott von Schottenstein, Konrad |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schott, Konrad |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Frankish nobleman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 8, 1526 |