Engelhard von Neipperg

Grave slab of Engelhard von Neipperg († 1495) in the town church of Schwaigern

Engelhard von Neipperg (* before 1443; † January 21, 1495 ) came from the family of the Lords of Neipperg , an old, formerly imperial knight family in Swabia . The family has its headquarters in Neipperg and Schwaigern . Engelhard was a confidante of the Count Palatine Friedrich I and Philip , held some high Palatinate offices and was enfeoffed with numerous goods, especially in the Palatinate. After inheriting the property of two brothers who had remained without sons around 1483/84, he took up his seat in the Altwiesloch moated castle , which was centrally located in the midst of his scattered goods. In 1491, for lack of descendants, he assigned the Neipperg family property to his nephews, while most of his Palatinate property either came to the Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler as an allodial heir or fell back to the Palatinate.

family

Engelhard von Neipperg was the youngest son of Reinhard II von Neipperg and Magdalena von Sickingen , the daughter of Schwarz-Reinhard von Sickingen and Katharina von Niefern .

Life

Engelhard is first mentioned in a document when preparing the division of his father's estate in 1457/58 and was probably just of legal age at the time. His legacy included a quarter of the city of Bönnigheim , which was intended as his home, shares in Neipperg Castle , the Hof zur Schönecke in Heidelberg and the Freihof in Wiesloch , as well as income from Grauenbrunnen (near Nussloch, now sold), Mingolsheim and Dielheim .

At a young age he was already employed in the service of the Elector of the Palatinate , where his maternal grandfather had already had great influence. At the end of April 1460 he was defeated with the Palatine near Weinsberg in a battle against the Wuerttembergians . In July 1460 he won against the Counts of Mainz, Palatinate-Veldenz and Leiningen in front of Pfeddersheim with the Electoral Palatinate. At that time he was already known as Vogt of Heidelberg . Engelhard and his brother Wendel († 1480) received the knighthood with others after the Battle of Seckenheim in 1462, in which they fought alongside Count Palatine Friedrich . His cousin Wilhelm von Neipperg († 1498), margravial court master of Baden , was among the defeated.

Engelhard remained closely connected to the Electoral Palatinate throughout his life, although he initially became more involved in Alsace in the 1460s and early 1470s, where he received pledges from his brother-in-law Jakob von Hohenstein and was involved in a silver mine in Oberorschweiler . In 1471 he took part in the siege and capture of the city of Wachenheim on the Palatinate side . 1472 he became Marshal of the Count Palatine Frederick, giving it 1473 Burghut the castle Winzingen transferred, which he already then that for 1476 testified Vicedomamt to Neustadt an der Haardt should have held. After the death of Elector Friedrich, Engelhard resigned from the court as marshal, but remained in the circle of confidants of the new Elector Philip even without holding an official office . In 1477 he accepted the homage for this in the regional bailiff of Alsace, in 1480 he fulfilled a diplomatic mission in mediating between the bishop of Speyer and the city of Worms in the dispute over road tolls. In 1481 he was chairman of the Palatinate court .

In 1478 he passed the statutes of the Society with the Donkey together with numerous aristocrats from the Kraichgau and the Odenwald . Later he represented the knighthood that the Electoral Palatinate, Wuerttemberg and the emperor sought to capture, and appeared as a valued mediator between the various parties in delicate matters.

On the part of the Palatinate electors, he was given numerous fiefs and castles, including a court at Maisbach and the Burglehen at Oppenheim and Windeck Castle . He received Spangenberg Castle from the Speyer bishop, Erfenstein Castle from the Count of Leiningen , and Scharfenberg Castle from the Count of Pfalz-Veldenz .

After the death of his brothers Hans († 1482) and Eberhard († around 1483/84), who left no heirs, he also took over most of their property and rights. He combined the sole ownership of the estates and castles in Neipperg, Wiesloch and Heidelberg and also came into possession of estates in Schatthausen, Grauenbrunnen, Herxheim in Speyergau , Heilbronn , Adelshofen and Schwaigern . The Altwiesloch moated castle then became his main residence. It was centrally located in the middle of his scattered possessions and also close to the Palatinate Court in Heidelberg.

It was not until 1480 that he married Elisabeth von Hohenstein, but there were no more descendants. In 1491 he left his entire property in Neipperg, Schwaigern, Bönnigheim and Adelshofen to his nephews Eberhard IV and Wilhelm von Neipperg in return for an annual annuity . He himself kept his goods and services in the Palatinate. a. in Wiesloch, Weinheim, Heidelberg, Plankstadt, Nussloch and Schatthausen, which after his death partly fell back to the Allodial heirs of the Stormfeder von Oppenweilerk family and partly to the Palatinate, while the Neipperg family owned property remained with the nephews.

Engelhard von Neipperg died in 1495, and his grave is preserved in the Schwaigern town church . His widow, who had received the property in Altwiesloch as a widow's estate, entered into a second marriage in 1497 with the Strasbourg patrician Dr. Jakob Merswin and, as a result of the remarriage, had to leave her widow's estate to the Allodial heirs. Their second marriage was not a happy one, after only a year the emperor had to settle a dispute. In 1498 Elisabeth von Hohenstadt bought herself into Strasbourg's citizenship, after which her trace is lost.

literature

• Kurt Andermann : The copy book of Engelhard von Neipperg († 1495). Certificates regesta (1235) 1331-1493. Heimatverein Kraichgau , Sinsheim 1994 ( special publication no. 11).
• Kurt Andermann: Between aristocratic rule, princely service and threatened country residency. The cousins ​​Engelhard and Wilhelm von Neipperg . In: Journal for the History of the Upper Rhine 146 (1998) ( ISSN  0044-2607 ) pp. 159–196. (not evaluated)
• Kurt Andermann: Engelhard von Neipperg († 1495), lord of the castle of Altwiesloch and client of the Heidelberg court , in: Wiesloch - Contributions to History , Volume 2, Ubstadt-Weiher 2001, pp. 91-102.
• Christine Prohaska-Gross and Uwe Gross: From "silver dishes" and "hussrat" at Altwiesloch Castle - silver treasure and everyday items Engelhards von Neipperg and his wife Elisabeth von Hohenstein based on the inventory of 1499 , in: Wiesloch - Contributions to History , Volume 2, Ubstadt -Weiher 2001, pp. 103-148.