Ernst (Bavaria)

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Duke Ernst among his councilors (drawing by RA Jaumann, created 1899)

Ernst von Bayern-Munich (* 1373 ; † July 2, 1438 in Munich ) from the House of Wittelsbach was Duke of Bavaria-Munich from 1397 to 1438 . After the Wittelsbach line between Bavaria and Straubing had expired , Bavaria-Munich was awarded the largest part of the Straubing legacy by the Pressburg arbitration award of 1429. Ernst is known to posterity primarily for his role in the death of Agnes Bernauer .

Life

Origin and beginning of government

The four Bavarian partial duchies after the division of the country in 1392

Ernst was the eldest son of Duke Johann II , called the God blessed, and his second wife Katharina von Görz , the daughter of Count Meinhard VI. , and thus a great-grandson of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria . From 1394 Ernst helped his father in the Bavarian House War against Bavaria-Ingolstadt .

Ernst then ruled after his father's death from 1397 to 1438, initially together with his brother Wilhelm III. and his uncle Stephan III. the Kneißel von Bayern-Ingolstadt, after the abandonment of the Bayern-Ingolstadt line in 1402 only with his brother and after his death in 1435 alone in the Duchy of Bavaria-Munich.

Even at the beginning of the joint reign with his brother, Ernst had to oppose his uncle Stephan III's claim to leadership. defend themselves from the Bayern-Ingolstadt line. He had taken sides against him in the revolt of the Munich guilds in 1396. He therefore waged a war of inheritance against the city of Munich and the Ingolstadt line and, in 1402, forced them to renounce all claims in Munich, which was subjected. During the unrest, Ernst resided in Wolfratshausen from December 24, 1397 to June 1403 . The six-year conflict ended with the dissolution of the brief reunification of Upper Bavaria and the capitulation of the Munich guilds, which had made common cause with Stephan the Kneißel. In 1410, however, Ernst was in league with Stephan trying to regain Tyrol by supporting the local aristocratic opposition, which ultimately failed.

In 1400 Ernst also turned against his cousin from the Electorate of the Palatinate, King Ruprecht , in the conflict over the throne of the Holy Roman Empire he stood by his deposed brother-in-law Wenzel and in 1411 was his envoy in Frankfurt am Main , where he voted for his brother Sigismund of Hungary co-decided on the Rex Romanorum . When Ruprecht's election as king was in the offing, Ernst, who remained on the Luxembourg side, had already been rewarded in 1399/1400 with the bailiff of Swabia, which his uncle Stephan had previously owned, who was initially on Ruprecht's side.

Hussite War and Bavarian War

The division of Bavaria-Straubing in 1429

Ernst also supported Sigismund in the fight against the Hussites that broke out from 1419 onwards , as a result of this conflict there was also devastation in Bavaria , especially north of the Danube, by marauding combat units until 1434 . Because of the threat posed by the Hussites, the existing city fortifications of Munich were also reinforced by a second, outer wall ring.

Ernst and Wilhelm III. entered on the initiative of their cousin Duke Heinrich XVI. von Bayern-Landshut joined his alliances against Stephen's son Ludwig VII of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, in 1414 the Kelheim Parakeet Society and in 1415 the Konstanz League, forged at the Council of Constance . Ernst also supported Landshut in the civil war against Ingolstadt, but his repeated attempts at mediation failed.

The Bavarian War of 1420 was ended by Ernst's victory over Ludwig bei Alling in 1422.

After the extinction of the Wittelsbach line between Bavaria and Straubing in 1425, he again waged a war of inheritance and received most of the Straubing inheritance that had already been occupied by the Pressburg arbitration award of 1429 with his brother Wilhelm; In addition to Straubing , the areas gained also included Bogen , Mitterfels and other places.

The campaign started by Ernst on behalf of Sigismund in 1430 for the inauguration of the Lithuanian Duke Vytautas was thwarted by his death.

Conflict over Agnes Bernauer

Ernst, pictured at the Agnes Bernauer Festival 2019

In October 1435, shortly after the death of his brother Wilhelm, Ernst took action against Agnes Bernauer , the non-noble lover of his son Albrecht . Ernst did not want to accept the endangerment of the succession through the improper connection of his only son Albrecht. While Albrecht was on a hunting event of his relative Heinrich von Bayern-Landshut , the old Duke had Agnes arrested and drowned on October 12, 1435 near Straubing in the Danube .

Together with Ludwig VII of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Albrecht then planned military steps against his father. Ernst's official reason for the execution of the Bernauerin can be found in the instructions with which he sent his confidante Friedrich Aichstetter to Emperor Sigismund on October 28, 1435 with the request for mediation. After the reconciliation with his father, Albrecht married Duchess Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen in 1436 , with whom he had ten children. The common confessor of father and son was the monastery reformer and spiritual writer Johannes Rothuet from Indersdorf , who probably also contributed to appeasing the relationship between son and father, which was disturbed by the execution of Agnes Bernauer, and thus to preventing a civil war in the duchy.

Ernst died two years later in Munich, his grave is with that of his wife in the Munich Frauenkirche .

progeny

On February 24, 1396 Duke Ernst married in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm Elisabetta Visconti (1374–1432).

The following children were born from this marriage:

  1. ⚭ (?) Agnes Bernauer (around 1410–1435),
  2. ⚭ 1437 Anna von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (1420–1474);
  1. ⚭ 1424 Count Hermann III. by Cilli (1380–1426),
  2. ⚭ 1426 Count Palatine Johann von Pfalz-Neumarkt (1383–1443);
  1. ⚭ 1430 Count Adolf von Jülich-Berg († 1437),
  2. ⚭ 1440 Count Hesso von Leiningen († 1467);
  • Amalie (1408–1432), nun in Munich.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Andreas von Regensburg : Chronica de principibus terrae Bavarorum . In: Georg Leidinger (ed.): Complete works . Rieger, Munich 1903, p. 583-584 (written before 1444; after Alfons Huber, Agnes Bernauer im Spiegel der Quellen , p. 55).
  2. ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: A previously unpublished letter from Johannes von Indersdorf. Everyday school life in the Middle Ages. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 10, 2014, pp. 81–88, here: p. 82.
predecessor Office successor
Johann II. Duke of Bavaria-Munich
1397–1438 		Albrecht III.
personal data
SURNAME serious
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ernst von Bayern-Munich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Bavaria-Munich
DATE OF BIRTH 1373
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1438
Place of death Munich