Elves (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the von Elben family from Siebmacher's coat of arms book from 1605

The Lords of Elves were a first time documented in the second half of the 12th century and 1535 extinct in the male line Gender precious free in North Hesse . As ministerials of the St. Alban Abbey in Mainz , the Landgrave of Hesse and the Hersfeld Abbey, members of the family held important offices in Lower Hesse and held allodial and fiefdoms , especially in and around Elbenberg near Naumburg in what is now the district of Kassel , but also in neighboring Schwalm -Eder-Kreis and east of the Fulda in the Söhre . However, their history is only sketchy and passed down mainly through isolated evidence of ownership.

The rise of the family occurred in the time before and around the separation of Lower Hesse from the Landgraviate of Thuringia after the death of the last Ludowinger Landgrave, Heinrich Raspe , in 1247.

The Elber Mark as a starting point

The first known mention of the family comes from the time between 1155 and 1191, when Gisela von Elben donated two Hufen land near Obermelsungen to the Breitenau monastery for the salvation of her apparently deceased husband Konrad .

The gender becomes fully understandable in the 13th century. Probably in 1231, when the St. Alban Abbey near Mainz came into the possession of the so-called Elber Mark - d. H. of the villages of Altendorf , Beltershausen and Elben (with Elberberg ) - the Lords of Elben were appointed as bailiffs of the march and marchmasters of the marrow cooperative . The Mark Elben was freed from the secular jurisdiction of the St. Alban Abbey and received its own court. Still in 1440 are Märker in Elves, Altendorf and Beltershausen in a Weistum testified Mark as the actual owner of Elber, with the Lords of hereditary same as Mark masters and Greben of Elves as a Mark Masters.

From this base, the Lords of Elben acquired important offices, influence and property in Lower Hesse in the course of the 13th century, as partisans of Duchess Sophie von Brabant and her son Heinrich , the first Landgrave of Hesse .

Consolidation during the creation of the Landgraviate of Hessen

When Archbishop Siegfried von Mainz called the most influential gentlemen in the area together in Fritzlar on February 27, 1247, just eleven days after Heinrich Raspe's death, in order to arrange the succession of the deceased in the northern Hessian areas held by Mainz as fief since 1121 , was among those present also Konrad II. von Elben , who at that time as a ministerial, probably as a Burgmann and bailiff , the Ludowinger resided on the Obernburg in Gudensberg , near the Lower Hessian capital and court of Maden . When Sophie von Brabant appeared in Hesse in the spring of 1248 to enforce her son Heinrich's claim to his Ludowingian inheritance, Konrad von Elben was one of the influential Hessian nobles who stayed in her area, and he is then called her “most loyal and active Trailer ”.

After Duchess Sophie had appointed her cousin Heinrich II of Meißen , the new Wettin Landgrave of Thuringia, as guardian regent for her son for the Wartburg and Hesse in a contract (" Eisenach direction ") on March 2, 1250 , the latter left the Mainz ones Fiefdom, d. H. approximately the later Landgraviate of Hesse, through which he appointed Landrichter Wernher II von Bischofshausen and Konrad von Elben and Vogt Heinrich von Glizberg in possession and administration. Konrad von Elben held this office until 1256. Like most of the Hessian nobility, he stood on Sophie's side in her struggle for the Ludowinger inheritance, in which she tried to secure at least the Landgraviate of Hesse for her son Heinrich . It was he who in 1254 held the castle on the Niedensteiner Kopf for Sophie against the people of Archbishop Gerhard von Dhaun of Mainz and, on behalf of Sophie, on the western slope of the Burgberg, on the area of ​​the original Wichdorf area that belonged to him , the new one, already in 1259 Niedenstein ("Nydensteyne") settlement called town ( oppidum ) founded, whose nearby hilltop castle Niedenstein Castle had been part of the noble family since 1236 at the latest.

Probably around the same time or soon afterwards, Duchess Sophie pledged the Reichenbach Castle near Hessisch Lichtenau , which had been conquered by her people in 1249, to Konrad's brother or son Thilo von Elben and Eckhard von Kappel in order to mobilize funds to finance their struggle for succession.

Another brother of Konrad was Dietrich (Diedericus) the Elder, who was named in a deed of donation to the Breitenau monastery together with Konrad as the owner of goods in Altenstädt near Naumburg in 1253 and was also announced in 1267. Also known in 1267 are Hermann von Elben, canon in the Petristift Fritzlar , and Dietrich von Elben the Younger.

In 1260 the Lords of Elben are attested as the owners of the lower jurisdiction over Obervorschütz near Gudensberg .

In 1266, when the precious free Wittekind of Naumburg , canon in Magdeburg and canon in Halberstadt , with the consent of his nephews, the castle in Naumburg, which in Wolfhagen location Weidelsburg and the Naumburgern of the Landgrave of Hesse pledged Court Elves ( "hornbeam" ) sold to Archbishop Werner von Mainz, the Elber Mark remained - d. That is, the villages of Altendorf, Beltershausen and Elben (with Elberberg) - excluded from this sale, and the Lords of Elben stayed there as bailiffs and market masters of the St. Alban monastery before Mainz. In the course of time they managed to transform their bailiwick into de facto property.

In 1266, the St. Alban Abbey also acquired the predecessor castle of today 's Elberberg Castle , and the Lords of Elben, as bailiffs of the Elber Mark, may have had their official residence there. In 1386 they received this castle as a fief.

Ownership expansion in the 14th century

In the course of the 14th century, the family was able to acquire further property through enfeoffment , marriage and inheritance. A document from 1314 mentions the Gudensberg magistrate Dieterich von Elben and his brother Heimerad. The acquisition of church patronage through the church in Bettenhausen in 1318 is obviously linked to real estate already existing in the village at that time; this fell in 1535 by inheritance to the family of von Buttlar zu Elberberg . In the years from 1324 to the extinction of the family in 1535, the enfeoffment of those von Elben by the Landgraves of Hesse with the tithe and goods in Oberelsungen near Zierenberg is notarized (e.g. 1429 to the brothers Thiele and Werner von Elben, 1478 on Werner von Elben, and in 1489 and 1535 to Heimbrod von Elben).

On February 3, 1335, Johann von Elben, Pleban zu Gudensberg, and Heinrich von Elben, Knappe and Burgmann zu Gudensberg, appear as witnesses to a sales deed. With the extinction of the noble lords of Gudensberg in the male line shortly after 1335, their fiefdoms, including the castle man's seat on the Obernburg , went to the lords of Elben on the basis of an inheritance contract concluded in 1323, who thus acquired stately property in the Gudensberg area. They were the second family of Burgmanns who had their permanent seat on the Obernburg itself; the other castle men, like the knights von Grifte and von Gleichen , had free aristocratic houses in the city. However, it was Ekkebrecht von Grifte who successfully defended Obernburg in 1387, and the Lords of Elben are not mentioned.

1345 pledged Archbishop Heinrich III. of Mainz part of the Naumburg office to Count Otto II. von Waldeck , the other part to Thilo von Elben, whose part in 1384 to Friedrich III. from Hertingshausen and thus to the Lords of Hertingshausen .

A document dated June 2, 1351 (today in the Marburg State Archives) states that the brothers Thyle, Heimrad (Heimbrod) and Werner von Elben are contractually willing to give their feudal rights to the village of Wellerode , now part of Söhrewald , to the abbess of the Kaufungen monastery , Jutta von Katzenelnbogen (1310–1378), for sale. In 1354 the city of Gudensberg offered to redeem Hermann von Elben's pledge on the nearby village of Stockhausen . In 1365 Hermann von Elben, Burgmann in Gudensberg, and his wife Else founded the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Gudensberg. In 1370 it is documented that Tile von Elben and his brother Heimbrod, probably sons of Hermann and Katharina von Elben, received income from a farm in Altendorf that the Peterstift Fritzlar had bought from their parents. The Lords of Elben held the lower court of Lohne as a landgrave's fief since 1386 until they died out. They also held part of the village of Deute as a landgrave's fief, although the date of the first lending is not known.

When it came in the years 1376-1378 because of sharp tax increases by Landgrave Heinrich II in most of the Lower Hesse cities and within the landed aristocracy to great displeasure and even to the temporary occupation of the landgrave's castle in Kassel, Helmbrod von Elben was one of the opponents were captured by Heinrich's nephew, co-regent and successor Hermann II and were only released again in 1378 after the end of the rebellion.

Abbots

In the 14th century there were at least three members of the house as abbots from important North Hessian monasteries:

The 15th century and the feud of the federal rulers

As was to be expected, the lords of Elben were related and related by marriage in many ways with the other families of knights in the closer and wider region. On the one hand, this could lead to valuable inheritance claims and mobilize allies in the numerous feuds of the time, but on the other hand it also harbored the risk of being drawn into the feuds of others. In 1431, for example, a feud letter from Eberhard von Tottenheim to Kraft von Hohenlohe was signed by Hermann von Elben, Hermann von Hansberg, Simon and Ewald Schlitz, Ott and Gottschalk von Buchenau, Kurt and Hermann Rumrott, Erck von Schenkwalt, Mangolt von Eberstein, and Bastian Jung , Ebberhard Burkhardt, Hans Greck and Michel von der Tann, all related to one another or by marriage.

In 1432 Werner received from same half tithe to Niedenstein of Landgraf I. Ludwig transferred. From 1472 to 1482, Burg Grebenstein was administered in the name of the Landgrave .

In the middle of the 15th century there was a long feud, devastating for the villages in the area and fatal for a number of the knights involved, the feud of the federal rulers culminating in the years 1450 to 1454 . The main participants were Werner von Elben on the one hand and Reinhard von Dalwigk and Friedrich IV von Hertingshausen , who were notorious for their feudal lust as robber barons , who sat as bailiffs at the neighboring castles of Naumburg and Weidelsburg. The dispute began around 1440, escalated over the years, and was not finally settled until December 1454. The hot phase began in June 1450. Both sides secured numerous allies under the knighthood of Lower Hesse, and the allies of Werner von Elben called themselves the "Federal Lords". Repeated attempts by Landgrave Ludwig to bring an end to the hostilities were unsuccessful. Fields were devastated, cattle driven away, villages looted and burned down. In the village of Elben there was a fight in 1453 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 seriously wounded in the thigh and taken prisoner. On April 29, 1454, Johann von Meysenbug and his people attacked the village of Obervorschütz , which Werner von Elben held as a landgrave's fief, and burned it down. On June 8, 1454, Heinrich Schenck, Hans von Born and Henne von Grifte, all three supporters of Werner von Elben, were attacked and slain near Dorla by Johann von Meysenbug and his people. On November 19, 1454, the village of Holzhausen am Hahn and its church were burned down by Johann von Meisenbug and his people. Landgrave Ludwig and Count Wolrad I of Waldeck only managed to end the feud in December 1454 . Both sides released their prisoners and Friedrich von Hertingshausen was compensated for his injury. Reinhard von Dalwigk, Friedrich von Hertingshausen, Johann von Meysenbug and their allies signed a letter of atonement for Werner von Elben, his sons and Heinrich von Grifte. That ended the feud.

The high reputation of the Lords of Elben at this time can be seen in the fact that during the lengthy negotiations that were supposed to end the Hessian Fratricidal War of 1469, Werner von Elben was one of the four Lower Hessian knights who led the negotiations as representatives of the estates June 1469 in the Spieskappel monastery with the two landgraves Ludwig II and Heinrich III. sealed the award.

From 1472 to 1482 Werner von Elben was a Hessian Burgmann at Grebenstein Castle . From 1485 to 1516 the Lords of Elben held the lower jurisdiction in Haddamar near Fritzlar as a Hessian fief . The Altenburg near Felsberg was also assigned to them as a fief for some time.

Late 16th century

The male line of the von Elben became extinct with the death of Konrad (Kurt) von Elben in 1535. The allodial inheritance came through Konrad's sisters to their spouses and descendants. The fiefdom held by the St. Alban Abbey in front of Mainz over the Elber Mark and Elberberg Castle first came to the knight and landgrave councilor Jakob von Taubenheim in 1535 , but this was contested by the other heirs of Kurt von Elben. Probably already in 1537 it came to the Elbener Ganerbe , the lords of Boyneburg called von Hohenstein and the lords of Buttlar . In 1559, the von Boyneburg-Hohenstein family renounced their share, and Elben and Elberberg were then the sole property of the von Buttlar family.

Landgrave Philipp gave the Elben castle seat in Gudensberg in 1537, together with other former Elben estates, to his councilor Dr. Fischer called Walther to fiefdom.

Addendum

The coat of arms of today's municipality of Söhrewald is based on that of the Lords of Elben, as can be seen on a seal on the document from 1351, which is considered the "birth certificate" of the Söhrewald district of Wellerode. By resolution of the municipal council of Söhrewald on October 18, 1972, the coat of arms of the former municipality of Wellerode was adopted. It shows a silver deer pole in red with four ends ending in lilies.

literature

  • Werner Die: From Adorf to Zwesten: Local history paperback of the Fritzlar-Homberg district , A. Bernecker, Melsungen, 1972.
  • Otto Grotefend : A contribution to the older history of the Breitenau monastery. ZHG 59/60 (1934), pp. 53-56.
  • Zillinger, Waldemar: A coat of arms stone of the Lords of Elben in the town church (Bad Hersfeld) , in: Mein Heimatland, vol. 37 (1997), booklet 20a, p. 132.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grotefend, ZHG, p. 56.
  2. ↑ Brunner, p. 99.
  3. ^ Friedrich Küch:  Sophie . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 661-665.
  4. ^ Friedrich Küch:  Sophie . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 661-665.
  5. ↑ Brunner, p. 105
  6. ↑ Landgrafen Regesten online  ( 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 / cgi-host.uni-marburg.de  
  7. ^ According to Landau's description of the Hessengau , the following places and fields belonged to the Elben court at the time of sale: Elben , Burg and Tal Elberberg , Altenburg , Altendorf , Beltershausen , Dippelshausen, Gershausen , Mandangishein, and Todenhausen.
  8. ↑ Brunner, p. 103
  9. ↑ http://www.archive.nrw.de/LAV_NRW/jsp/findbuch.jsp?archivNr=1&tektId=710&id=054&klassId=52
  10. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Urk. 16 Kloster Breitenau: Goods sold to the monastery Breitenau by the brothers Heinrich and Konrad von Venne
  11. ↑ Brunner, p. 117
  12. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated November 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burgenlexikon.eu
  13. ↑ Documents for the Naumburg Office ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.naumburg.eu
  14. ^ Ide, p. 241
  15. ↑ Ingrid Baumgärtner , Niederhessen in crisis? Urban uproar in the landgrave of Kassel and in the archbishop's court geismar (p. 146) .
  16. ^ Franz Carl Theodor Piderit, Memories of Hersfeld, Hersfeld, 1829 (p. 96)
  17. ↑ http://www.suehnekreuz.de/hessen/dorla.htm
  18. ↑ “Both landgraves seal and bid those present here with them from the knighthood and from the cities of both countries in Hesse on this side and on the other side of the spear to be sealed with them. This is done by Otto Hund, Werner von Elben, Philipp von Berlepsch and Rabe von Boyneburg called Hohenstein and from the cities of Kassel, Eschwege, Wolfhagen and Grebenstein; and from the knighthood on the Lahn Gottfried von Hatzfeld, Kurt von Dernbach, Hermann von Nordeck zur Rabenau and Gerlach von Breidenbach and from the cities of Marburg, Gießen, Alsfeld and Treysa. Likewise, the arbitrators Philipp von Hundelshausen, Bernhard von Herzenrode and Hans von Stockhausen as well as Hans von Dörnberg, Reinhard von Boyneburg and Hartmann Schleier. ” (Arbitration in the dispute between Ludwig II and Heinrich III, Landgrave regesta online) ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cgi-host.uni-marburg.de
  19. ↑ Bürgerinfo Fritzlar  ( 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: Dead Link / s3.amazonaws.com  
  20. ↑ a b Elben, district of Kassel; Paragraph landlord and landowner. Historical local dictionary for Hesse (as of July 29, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 21, 2016 .
  21. ^ Friedrich Küch: Political Archive of Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse . Hirzel, Leipzig, 1910 (p. 688)
  22. ↑ A document from 1542 names as heirs of Konrad von Elben Joachim, Joseph, Jost and Heimbrod von Boyneburg called von Hohenstein and Kurt von Grifte ( documents for the Naumburg office) ( memento of the original from September 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.naumburg.eu
  23. ↑ Brunner, p. 117