Eberhard II (Württemberg, Count)

Statue of Count Eberhard II in the Stuttgart collegiate church

Eberhard II , called "der Greiner" (* after 1315 ; † March 15, 1392 in Stuttgart ), was Count of Württemberg from 1344 to 1392.

Life

Eberhard was the son of Count Ulrich III. and Sophie von Pfirt . He married Countess Elisabeth von Henneberg-Schleusingen on September 17, 1342 . The marriage resulted in two children: Ulrich , the father of his successor Eberhard III. , and Sophie, the future Duchess of Lorraine .

From the beginning of his reign until 1361, Eberhard II ruled together with his brother Ulrich IV , whom he forced to agree to a house contract that confirmed the indivisibility of Württemberg. Soon afterwards, on May 1, 1362, Ulrich gave Eberhard sole regency. To consolidate his power and to enlarge the territory of Württemberg, Eberhard II entered into various alliances and disputes with Emperor Charles IV . As a result, Eberhard and his brother received additional privileges (for example sole jurisdiction) in 1360, which redefined the county of Württemberg. The attack by Count Wolf von Eberstein on Eberhard during a stay "in the Wildbad" , which probably meant Wildbad or Teinach , caused a sensation .

During the rest of his reign, Eberhard directed his policy strongly against the imperial cities that stood in the way of the expansion of Württemberg territory. In 1372 near Altheim , 1377 near Reutlingen and 1388 near Döffingen there were battles against the imperial cities that were united in the Swabian League of Cities from 1376 onwards . The result of this conflict was a stalemate that gave the cities their independence. The territorial gains of Württemberg during the reign of Eberhard were nevertheless considerable (for example Calw and Böblingen ). Eberhard's son and designated successor Ulrich died in the battle of Döffingen , which was victorious for Württemberg .

Eberhard entered literature through ballads by Schiller and Uhland (Count Eberhard der Rauschebart / Der Überfall im Wildbad). Greinen in the linguistic usage at the time meant something like "quarreling". While he was decried as a "brawler" by his opponents, the people, whom he was able to protect from the aristocrats, some of whom degenerated into robber knights, worshiped him as a "beard".

literature

• Eberhard wood, Wolfgang Huschner (ed.): German princes of the Middle Ages . Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-361-00437-3 .
• Gerhard Raff : Hie good Wirtemberg all the way. Volume 1: The House of Württemberg from Count Ulrich the Founder to Duke Ludwig. 6th edition. Landhege, Schwaigern 2014, ISBN 978-3-943066-34-0 , pp. 151-164.
• Paul Friedrich von Stälin :  Eberhard the Greiner . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 555 f.
• Robert Uhland:  Eberhard the Greiner, the long beard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 233 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Karl Konrad Finke: The assassination attempt on Count Eberhard II of Württemberg. The "attack in the Wildbad" 1367. In: Schwäbische Heimat vol. 67 (2016), pp. 286–294.

Web links

Commons : Eberhard II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Eberhard II  in the German Digital Library

predecessor	Office	successor
Ulrich III.	Count of Württemberg (until 1362 with Ulrich IV. ) 1344–1392	Eberhard III.