Elisabeth of Rapperswil

Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil (* around 1251 or 1261; † 1309 probably in Rapperswil ) - also known as Elisabeth von Homberg or Elisabeth von Habsburg -Laufenburg - continued the line of the Counts of Rapperswil with her second marriage and secured the branch line Habsburg-Laufenburg the extensive possessions of the Rapperswilers in Zurichgau .

View from Lake Zurich to the old town , Rapperswil Castle and the city ​​church

Of their descendants, the Homberg line died out in 1323 or 1325, the Habsburg-Laufburg line in 1408.

biography

The genealogy of the Rapperswilers has not been clarified beyond doubt and is said to go back to the lords of Uster in the maternal line and to the Guelphs in the male line. Rudolf III. von Vaz called himself after the death of Rudolf III. von Rapperswil from 1255 as Count Rudolf IV. von Rapperswil. His marriage to Mechthild von Neifen had three children: Vincent, who lived only briefly and died before 1261, Rudolf V. (* around 1265; † January 15, 1283) and Elisabeth.

Drinking bowl by Countess Elisabeth, after 1300, in the Rapperswil City Museum

Count Wernher von Homberg , illustration of a knight fight. Codex Manesse , page 43v

Elisabeth was married to Count Ludwig von Homberg († April 27, 1289). Her son, Wernher von Homberg (* 1284 - March 21, 1320 near Genoa) was from 1309 imperial count , imperial bailiff of the Waldstätte , imperial field captain (lieutenant general) in Lombardy at the time of Emperor Henry VII and one of the Codex Manesse ( page 43v ) mentioned minstrel . After her husband Ludwig I von Homberg fell in the battle of Schosshalde in 1289 , she sold all her rights and possessions in Uri to the Wettingen monastery in 1290 . Countess Elisabeth, like her mother and father, was one of the patrons of the city of Zurich monastery Oetenbach : Cäcilia von Homberg (* probably before 1300; † after 1320), daughter of Elisabeth, and prioress of the abbey, from 1317 promoted its further expansion and her brother Wernher donated the Chapel of Our Lady to the Dominican Sisters around 1320 .

Johann I von Habsburg-Laufenburg comes from Elisabeth's second marriage to Count Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg († 1315) . After the death of Count Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg, the inheritance of the Rapperswil possessions and rights went to her son Johann I (* before 1295/1296; † September 21, 1337 in the Battle of Grynau ), then to his son, Johann II . (* around 1330; † 1380) from Habsburg-Laufenburg, who was imprisoned in the city of Zurich's Wellenberg for around two years after the night of the murder in Zurich . After the Homberg family died out, their inheritance fell to Habsburg-Laufenburg in 1330 as a fief of the Habsburg family .

Elisabeth von Rapperswil probably died in Rapperswil in 1309.

Countess Elisabeth as ruler of the County of Rapperswil

Main article: History of the city of Rapperswil

Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil seems to have had a decisive influence on the fate of the County of Rapperswil , and largely steered it from 1289 to 1309. It is mentioned repeatedly in documents and historical writings.

Extinction of the male line of the Counts of Rapperswil

The male line of the Rapperswil family ended in 1283 with the death of Rudolf V, Elisabeth's underage brother. After his death, King Rudolf I of Habsburg took over the imperial fiefs of the Rapperswilers and handed over the fiefs that were reverting to the St. Gallen monastery to his sons. In this way, Rudolf I von Habsburg came into the possession of the Imperial Bailiwick of the Urserental - with which he gained control of the strategically important Gotthard Pass and the Kastvogtei over the Einsiedeln monastery.

The Einsiedeln monastery archive explains this serious change in the balance of forces in the Zurichgau in more detail in the abbots' professorship, below are excerpts from the passages on the person of the Countess von Rapperswil:

The Zürichgau in the Stumpf'schen Chronik of 1547/48

«... The Counts of Rapperswil also threatened to die out. Abbot Anselm had a good relationship with the then Count Rudolf [IV]; because he appears several times as a witness in the Count's documents, for example when the church of Rapperswil [Count Rudolf III] was separated from the one in Wurmsbach, at the foundation of the Wurmsbach monastery and on the occasion of a donation to this monastery. Since he had no male heir, the count wanted the bailiwick, which he held as a fief over the monastery properties outside the Etzel, to go to his wife Mechtild [von Neifen] first as a personal property, but then to his daughter Elisabeth. Abbot Anselm admitted this on January 10, 1261. But since Rudolf [IV.] Had a son after his death on July 27, 1262, the contract lapsed ... »

"... According to a report by Abbot Johannes I, [Peter I. von Schwanden] transferred the bailiffs to the later son [Rudolf V] of Count Rudolf [IV] von Rapperswil that would otherwise have fallen to his sister Elisabeth ..."

«... Of great importance for the further history of the monastery was that under this abbot [Heinrich II. Von Güttingen ] the bailiwick passed over the church to the Habsburgs. The young Count of Rapperswil mentioned above died on January 15, 1283. Since his sister resp. whose husband, Ludwig von Homberg, did not lose the fiefdom, the abbot transferred it to his own brother, Rudolf von Güttingen.

However, King Rudolf did not agree with this, because the acquisition of this bailiwick fit perfectly with his plans with which he carried himself towards the Waldstätten. He therefore let the fiefdoms, which in and for themselves could only inherit in the male line, move in through Wetzel the mayor of Winterthur , in the hands of the king ...

But when Count Ludwig von Homberg died on April 27, 1289, the king transferred the Stäfa, Erlenbach, Pfäffikon and Wollerau farms to his widow Elisabeth's request, as well as the Pfäfer farms at Männedorf and Tuggen. The other courts and the bailiwick remained with the Dukes of Austria ...

Apparently the fairy tale quarrel broke out before 1283, because we have a bull from Pope Martin IV dated June 1, 1282, in which the abbot von Pfäfers was the abbot of Pfäfers following the complaint of the monastery that it had to suffer many damage instructed to take action against them. The complaint Rodel from 1311 (see below) reports that an attack had occurred under Abbot Heinrich. Otherwise we will not learn anything further. However, recent research has shown that the great freedom movement of the three countries [Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden] should be relocated to the last years of Rudolf I's rule. That is why such hostilities, even if we do not find out anything else, cannot be ruled out. Pope Nicholas IV confirmed the freedoms and immunities of the monastery on August 23, 1290 ... In general, Abbot Heinrich had many worries about the property entrusted to him. Countess Elisabeth von Homberg-Rapperswil raised claims to the farms in Brütten and Finstersee , but waived her claims on November 20, 1293 ... »

Document mentions of the Countess von Rapperswil

Documentary mentions of Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil are known in connection with the Uster Castle and the Rüti Monastery : in 1286 she sold her farm in Ober dürnten with the associated rights - especially the lower jurisdiction - to the Premonstratensian Abbey in Rüti .

Elisabeth von Rapperswil sold the remaining Rapperswil property in Uri in 1290. In 1291 she entered into an alliance with the city of Zurich , which was presumably directed against the main Habsburg-Austria line.

The Einsiedeln monastery archive mentions Elisabeth again in the abbots' professions book, to hand over the bailiwick rights over Pfäffikon and in connection with the cast bailiwick over the Einsiedeln monastery to the county of Rapperswil :

«… The bailiwick of Pfäffikon etc. was given by Abbot Johannes in 1296 to Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil, who married Rudolf III for the second time. von Habsburg-Laufenburg had married. But her son from her first marriage, Wernher von Homberg, received part of it; Habsburg Austria also pledged the bailiwick of Einsiedeln to this in 1319; later all fiefdoms were contractually transferred to Habsburg-Laufenburg ... »

Greifensee , engraving by M. Merian (1593–1650)

An original document signed by her from the year 1300 mentions on January 7, 1300 the pledge of the Greifensee rule to the knight Hermann II von Landenberg :

«We Elizabethe greuenne von Habsburch and frowe ze Raprechtswile announce to everyone ... dc we with gray Ruodolfs from Habsburch our landlord hand… set up with the right phande Grifense the castle and the statute with the sewe, whom one speaks Glatse » .

The pledge not only included the castle , the town and the lake of the same name, but also a large number of farms including fields, meadows, forests and even the courtiers themselves. The associated lower and middle court rights and the law ( church law ), the Appointing pastors in Uster were also pledged.

Around 1303 it divided the county of Rapperswil , so that the property on the left bank of Lake Zurich fell to the descendants of Ludwig von Homberg, while the property on the right bank remained with the Habsburg-Laufenburg family.

In 1303, however, King Albrecht I tried to dispute parts of the property which fell to Werner, the son of Ludwig I von Homberg and Elisabeth von Rapperswil. Albrecht and his sons forced the abbots of Reichenau , Einsiedeln , St. Gallen and Pfäfers , of whom Werner had numerous fiefs in the March , to cancel them. This attempt failed, however, because these were inherited which could not be canceled. The relationship between Albrecht I and Werner has remained divided ever since, despite their relatives.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of the March district , history
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln Professbuch: Abbots, 20. Heinrich II. Von Güttingen
3. ^ Georg von Wyss: Count Wernher von Homberg . Reichsvogt in the Waldstätten Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden and Reichs-Feldhauptmann in Lombardy at the time of Emperor Henry VII. 4 °. 23 S. Br. Announcements of the Antiquarian Society No. 24. Zurich 1860
4. ↑ Aegidius Tschudi: Chronicon Helveticum, Volume I., pp. 199-200
5. ↑ Martina Wehrli-Johns: Oetenbach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
6. ↑ During his imprisonment in the Wellenberg in Zurich, Count Johann II composed the Minne song "Blümli blawe", which Goethe immortalized in the ballad "Das Blümlein Wunderschön des Captive Counts".
7. ↑ Einsiedeln monastery archives Professbuch: Abbots, 17. Anselm von Schwanden
8. ↑ Einsiedeln monastery archives Professbuch: Abbots, 19th Peter I. von Schwanden
9. ^ Website Wagner Burgensammlung, Schloss Uster ( Memento from August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
10. ^ Website of the municipality of Dürnten, Dürnte
11. ↑ Einsiedeln monastery archives Professbuch: Abbots, 21. Johannes I. von Schwanden
12. ^ Website of the Greifensee community , history
13. ^ Aegidius Tschudi: Chronicon Helveticum, Volume IS 229

literature

• Michael Mente: Rapperswil, Elisabeth von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland ., 2010
• Georg Boner: The Count House Rapperswil in the last century of its history. In: St. Gallen Linth area. Yearbook 1983. Rapperswil 1983. pp. 10-20.
• State Archives of the Canton of Zurich: Brief Zurich Constitutional History 1218–2000. Published on behalf of the Directorate of Justice and the Interior on the day the Zurich Constitutional Council was constituted on September 13, 2000. Chronos, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-90531403-7 .
• Hans Rathgeb: Rapperswil in the good old days , Rapperswil city and country , Eastern Switzerland - a state region presents itself ; and together with O. Eggmann Rapperswil - Stadt und Land .
• Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland , Vol. 5, p. 536f. Neuchâtel 1929.
• Karl Dändliker : Swiss history. 1885.
• The Kastvogtei of Rapperswil in the 13th and 14th centuries. Described by Hans von Schwanden, Abbot of Einsiedeln. Geschichtsfreund , 1845, II. Vol., Pp. 149–152.

Web links

• Website of the city of Rapperswil (redirect to the website of Rapperswil-Jona)
• City Museum Rapperswil on the website of the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona
• Website of the Greifensee municipality