Esslingen Treaty

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The Esslingen Treaty is a treaty between the dukes Eberhard I and Eberhard II from 1492, which concerned the unity of Württemberg .

prehistory

Eberhard I.
Eberhard II.

Nürtingen Treaty

By the Nürtingen Treaty on January 25, 1442 between the two Württemberg Counts Ludwig I and his brother Ulrich V "the much-loved" (1413-1480), (from 1433 to 1441 Count of Württemberg and from 1441 to 1480 Count of Württemberg -Stuttgart) agreed to permanently split Württemberg into two parts. Ludwig received the Urach part with the cities of Balingen , Calw , Herrenberg , Münsingen , Tuttlingen and Tübingen . The Stuttgart part with the cities of Cannstatt , Göppingen , Marbach , Neuffen , Nürtingen , Schorndorf and Waiblingen went to Ulrich .

Although Ulrich V. the lifestyle and the disordered way of life of his son Eberhard VI, who was brought up at the court of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy . Not at all pleased, he nevertheless transferred the government of the Stuttgart part of the County of Württemberg to him in 1480 .

Münsinger contract

The division of the state was abolished by the Münsinger Treaty of December 14, 1482 and Württemberg was reunited. Count Eberhard VI, reigning in the Stuttgart region. (1447–1504), also called Eberhard the Younger, renounced his government rights in favor of his cousin, Count Eberhard V. (im Bart) (1445–1496), who later became Duke Eberhard I , residing in Urach , but retained his rights a right to have a say in the sale of parts of the country and the succession. Eberhard I. took over the government of the country and moved the residence to Stuttgart, the capital of the other part of the country.

Frankfurt decision

Eberhard VI. tried again and again to regain his lost rights with outside support. He complained of his need to the German King Maximilian at the Frankfurt Reichstag in 1489 . The king tried in vain to settle the disputes between the two counts through an amicable settlement. But both accepted Maximilian's suggestion that he and the imperial attorney should make the legal decision. On July 30, 1489, the king and the imperial lawyer, the Bishop of Eichstätt , made a decision and signed a contract between the two cousins, in which the younger Eberhard was severely disadvantaged.

The elder Eberhard kept the government of both parts of the country throughout his life. If Eberhard the Elder died before the younger, however, only his former part of the country should fall back on him, and not the whole country as agreed in the Münsingen Treaty. In addition, he should not get his part of the country back freely, but only with annoying restrictions. He shouldn't be allowed to pledge, sell, or give anything away, unless an emergency arose and twelve councilors of his landscape had given their consent. Nor should he be empowered to burden his subjects with new taxes or incur unnecessary debts.

However, even Eberhard the elder could not like this Frankfurt decision. It had always been his endeavor to be able to boast of having reunited Württemberg into an inseparable whole. He was sickly and therefore intended to make his will. In this he wanted to appoint Eitel Heinrich (who was renamed Ulrich at his confirmation in 1493 ), the son of his cousin (and brother Eberhard VI.) Heinrich von Mömpelgard , as heir in his part of the country. However, Württemberg would then have remained separate, because Eberhard VI. would then have ruled again in his inherited part of the country.

The contract

Count Eberhard VI. It did not escape the fact that his cousin had made the decision to appoint young Heinrich (Ulrich) as heir. Should the Münsinger Treaty endure, there was actually no other way out than that after the death of Eberhard I. the government of the whole country on Eberhard VI. had to pass over. Eberhard VI. therefore turned to the Elector Berthold of Mainz and to his brother-in-law, the Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg . He made it clear to them that, according to the Münsingen Treaty, Württemberg should remain undivided. This intention would have been contradicted if Count Eberhard I had bequeathed his part of the country to the young Count Heinrich (Ulrich). The elector and the margrave saw the importance of these reasons. They talked to the elder Eberhard until he agreed to leave his land to his cousin after his death. But its power was to be restricted by a regimental council of estates (i.e. a country steward and twelve councilors). Elector Berthold, Margrave Friedrich and the two counts therefore met in Esslingen in order to get this important business completely settled. On September 2, 1492, a new settlement, the Esslingen Treaty, came about.

But after the death of his childless cousin, Eberhard VI. 1496 as Eberhard II. Unchallenged the government without observing the Esslingen Treaty. Waste, favoritism and the Duke's arbitrary acts prompted the estates in 1498 to put the Esslingen Treaty into force, which Eberhard had not kept. Landhofmeister, chancellor, councilor, prelate, knight and landscape therefore issued regimental regulations on March 30, 1498 to put an end to the grievances. Eberhard, perhaps also startled by a rumor that he was going to be imprisoned for life, fled out of the country to Ulm. The power of government was immediately revoked and the Roman-German King Maximilian I took the land from him in Reutlingen on May 28, 1498. Since Eberhard found no support, he had to recognize Maximilian I's decision in Horber on June 10, 1498 . In return for an annual pension of 6000 guilders, he accepted his dismissal and expulsion from the country. A Council of States ruled in his place . This state of affairs only ended when his nephew Ulrich , his brother's son, took over government as a duke, when he came of age in 1503 .

literature