Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk

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Grave slab of Elisabeth von Arnshaugk, Georgenkirche (Eisenach)

Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk (* 1286 ; † August 22, 1359 in Gotha ) was a legitimate daughter of Otto IV. Von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk († August 2, 1289) or Hartmann XI. von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk († February 20, 1289) and Elisabeth , b. Countess of Weimar-Orlamünde (around 1260–1333). On August 24, 1300, she married Friedrich I (the Freidigen) , Margrave of Meissen and Landgrave of Thuringia, in Gotha .

Life

1286 to 1321

Elisabeth was the last member of the Arnshaugk branch of the Lords of Lobdeburg , formed in the 13th century , a family who immigrated from Swabia and who has been in Thuringia since the middle of the 12th century and whose main holdings were in the Neustadt an der Orla , Triptis and Jena areas . The identity of her father is controversial, as it is not clear whether her mother is the wife of Hartmann XI. or from whose father Otto IV. After the death of her first husband, Elisabeth von Orlamünde married the Wettin Albrecht the Degenerate in 1290 .

Nothing is known about Elisabeth's childhood. However, chroniclers described their extraordinary attractiveness. The Meissen margrave Friedrich I , who had been widowed since 1293 , was told in 1299 or 1300 that his 29 years younger "stepsister" Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk "eyne suberliche hobische weideliche mait, von body unde synnen wol was chirped ” . On August 24, 1300, Friedrich and Elisabeth married in Gotha. The chronicler Johannes Rothe (1360–1434) reported that Friedrich kidnapped Elisabeth to ask her mother for her hand. The connection brought Frederick the Open territorial advantages in Thuringia. It is considered to be the beginning of the rise of the Wettins after the crisis that arose as a result of the politics of Albrecht the Degenerate after the death of his father, the Meissen Margrave Heinrich the Illustrious († 1288).

After the wedding, Elisabeth was involved in several legal awards for the Jena city ​​and monastery church of St. Michael . With the help of an arbitrator appointed by him, her husband managed to win the dispute over the Arnshaugk inheritance against Elisabeth's relatives. Elisabeth's mother achieved the reconciliation between Friedrich and his father Albrecht, who renounced the reign in Thuringia in 1307 in favor of his son.

Friedrich and Elisabeth lived on the Wartburg from 1306 . Friedrich led numerous military conflicts with his opponents in Thuringia, the support to Albrecht I served. On May 31, 1307, the troops of Wettin Friedrich and Dietrich defeated the royal army in the battle of Lucka . This victory, but also the assassination of the king by his nephew Johann Parricida on May 1, 1308 , consolidated Frederick's rule over the Margraviate of Meissen and the Landgraviate of Thuringia . In 1306 the daughter Elisabeth was born, in 1310 the son Friedrich .

On January 13, 1315, Friedrich the Lame (* May 9, 1293), Friedrich's son from his first marriage to Agnes of Görz and Tyrol († May 14, 1293), fell during the siege of Zwenkau . His early death initiated Friedrich's physical decline. On May 4, 1321, during a performance of the mystery play of the Ten Virgins in Eisenach, he suffered a stroke, which led to incapacity to govern and to permanent paralysis. Elisabeth took over the reign.

1321 to 1349

Hollow pfennig of Elisabeth von Arnshaugk, around 1330

As early as December 1321, the margravine and landgrave acted as a contractual partner of her relative Burchard III. who served as Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1307 to 1325. After her husband died on November 16, 1323 in Eisenach after a two-year infirmity, Elisabeth ruled for her son, the underage Friedrich II. (The serious one). During her reign she was advised by Friedrich II's guardian, Heinrich VII von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg († 1324) and, after his death, by Heinrich II Reuss von Plauen . Frederick II later complained to his father-in-law, Emperor Ludwig IV (the Bavarian), about the disadvantages that were inflicted on him by the guardianship of the Russians. The fact is that the Reuße pursued a policy partly geared towards self-interest and in 1329 gave up guardianship over his ward despite the intervention of the emperor. In 1332 there was a final break between Heinrich II. Reuss and the Wettins, in the Thuringian Count War from 1342 to 1346 the Reuss was one of the opponents of Frederick the Serious.

On May 22, 1322, Elisabeth arranged the engagement between her son Friedrich and Jutta , the daughter of the Bohemian King Johann , who was sent to the Wartburg for further education and preparation for the marriage.

On September 28, 1322 the army of King Ludwig IV defeated the troops of his Habsburg rival Frederick the Fair in the battle of Mühldorf . After that, the Wittelsbacher tried to secure his power in the empire. Therefore, after the death of Heinrich II. († 1320), the last margrave of the Ascanians , he intended to enforce his rule over the Mark Brandenburg as a settled fiefdom. For this, the king needed the Wettins as allies. For this reason, he offered Elisabeth the engagement between his daughter Mathilde (Mechthild) and her son Friedrich. At the same time, he urged Elisabeth to immediately dissolve the engagement between her son and the Bohemian princess Jutta.

Since January 24, 1323 Elisabeth and Ludwig IV negotiated in Regensburg. The margravine and landgravine managed to get the king to give her son Friedrich the Pleißenland , including the imperial cities of Chemnitz , Zwickau and Altenburg, as compensation for Mathilde's unpaid dowry. With the acquisition of the Pleißenland, which lay like a wedge between the Meissnian and Thuringian territories of the Wettins, she laid the foundations for the emerging territorial state that existed until 1485. As a result of the new political orientation, the Bohemian king's daughter was sent back to her father in Prague. In 1332 she was married to the French Crown Prince Johann . In 1328 the wedding between Friedrich the Serious and Mathilde (Mechthild) took place.

Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk lived during her widowhood at Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha, which is part of her widow's estate. In 1327 she fended off the war campaign of the Lords von Treffurt in the Gothaer Land with the support of the Gotha citizens and Friedrich von Wangenheim . The lords of Treffurt were considered robber barons from the beginning of the 14th century. In 1336 they had to vacate their castle in Treffurt and leave the Landgraviate of Thuringia. The reasons for the feud-like raid in 1327, however, have not been recorded. Some of the defeated and captured opponents were executed. Elisabeth is also said to have rejected a mother's petition for clemency for her three sons involved. In 1332 Elisabeth granted a privilege with which she transferred the law applicable in Gotha to the city of Jena. In return, the city of Jena undertook to pay her an annual pension of 100 silver marks.

In 1333 Ludwig IV, who was personally present in Thuringia, settled a dispute between Elisabeth and her son Friedrich, which concerned her widow's equipment and Friedrich's territorial position. Friedrich the Serious asked his mother, among other things, to swap her place of residence, Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha, for another castle. Elisabeth then convinced the citizens of Erfurt and Mühlhausen as well as some Thuringian counts to ask the emperor to mediate by letter. The family quarrel could be settled, Elisabeth got Gotha and Jena, Friedrich got Weißenfels. With this arrangement, the rift between mother and son that had existed since Friedrich was of legal age was finally overcome. In 1336 Elisabeth successfully mediated a conflict between the Erfurt citizenship, the administrator of the Archdiocese of Mainz and her son.

From around 1334 there was a marital dispute at the Hessian court in Kassel between Landgrave Heinrich II and his wife Elisabeth, the daughter of Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk and Frederick the Freidigen. The marriage, which was concluded in 1322 and was politically important for Hesse and Thuringia, failed due to personal differences between the spouses. Henry II on the one hand cheated on his wife with a maid of honor from her entourage, on the other hand he accused her of adultery. These accusations prompted Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk and Friedrich the Serious to organize the flight of the Hessian landgrave to Gotha. Although Ludwig IV intervened for the continued existence of the marriage of the Hessian landgrave couple, Elisabeth's daughter stayed at the widow's farm in Gotha until her mother's death.

The promotion of church institutions was part of Elisabeth's religious self-image. In August 1323 she awarded the church patronage in Mittweida to the Meissen cathedral. In 1344 she moved the canons of Ohrdruf to Gotha. Because the Gotha City Council feared various disadvantages for communal matters, it insisted on a number of conditions for the settlement of the canons, which related to property taxes and structural aspects of city defense.

1349 to 1359

In the years 1349/50 there were pogroms against the Jews in many Thuringian cities , which Friedrich the Serious encouraged. Nothing is known about Elisabeth's attitude to these acts of violence.

After Friedrich's death on November 18, 1349, Elisabeth acted as an advisor to her grandchildren, after the succession plan had assigned her the role of an oath-taker. Elisabeth achieved that her grandson Friedrich III. (the severity) , Balthasar and Wilhelm I (the one-eyed man) initially renounced the division of the country. After the death of Friedrich III. († 1381), however, the Chemnitz division of the country between Friedrich's brothers and his sons occurred in the following year .

In 1350 Elisabeth initiated the transfer of the state administration to Marshal Thimo VII von Colditz . In addition, she had to pass Jena to Friedrich III. transferred, whereby the city remained obliged to continue paying the taxes to Elisabeth. In 1351 Friedrich III took over. rule over the Margraviate of Meissen and the Landgraviate of Thuringia. In 1358, Elisabeth managed to initiate the politically important connection between her grandson Wilhelm the One-Eyed and Elisabeth of Moravia (around 1355–1400), the niece of Charles IV and daughter of his brother Johann Heinrich . However, she did not live to see the marriage of her grandson and niece of the emperor in 1366.

Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk died on August 22, 1359 in Gotha. She found her final resting place in the Dominican monastery in Eisenach , where her daughter kept the memory of the dead. The grave slab that was created shortly after her death has been in the Georgenkirche since 1952 .

The margravine and landgrave was one of the few princesses who were given the role of adviser or regent of three generations of rulers. On the one hand she had a strong political mind, on the other hand she also had the toughness and energy to pursue her and her family's interests. In addition, she was able to fall back on her ability to mediate and mediate in the long stretches of merciless battles of her time.

children

  1. Elisabeth (II.) (1306–1367), following her marriage to Heinrich II. Landgravine of Hesse in 1322
  2. Frederick II (the Serious) (1310–1349), Margrave of Meissen, Landgrave of Thuringia

literature

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Hiebel: Genalogy Middle Ages
  2. ↑ Stammler Genealogy: Journey into History
  3. ↑ The Freidigen: Elisabeth von Arnshaugk
  4. ↑ Arnold Vaatz, Elisabeth von Arnshaugk in: Saxony's secret rulers - The strong women of the Wettins , p. 30
  5. ↑ Arnold Vaatz, Elisabeth von Arnshaugk in: Saxony's secret rulers - The strong women of the Wettins , p. 31
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Spies: Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
  7. ^ Rudolf Kötzschke / Hellmut Kretzschmar: Saxon history . Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-705-1 , p. 123
  8. ↑ Jörg Rogge: The Wettiner - Rise of a Family in the Middle Ages , p. 90
  9. ^ Ingo Zimmermann: Saxony's margraves, electors and kings . Berliner Verlags-Anstalt Union GmbH, 1st edition 1990, ISBN 3-372-00402-7 , p. 55
  10. ↑ Jörg Rogge: The Wettiner - Rise of a Family in the Middle Ages , p. 96
  11. ↑ Jörg Rogge: The Wettiner - Rise of a Family in the Middle Ages , p. 94
  12. ^ Gertrud Benker: Ludwig the Bavarian 1282-1347. A Wittelsbacher on the imperial throne. Callwey Verlag Munich, 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0514-8 , p. 114
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Spies: Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Spies: Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
  15. ↑ Wolfgang Spies: Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth von Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth von Arnshaugk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Friedrich I. (Meißen)
DATE OF BIRTH 1286
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1359
Place of death Gotha