Falkenstein (Swiss noble family)

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Falckhenstain's coat of arms in Scheibler's book of arms

The Counts of Falkenstein were a Swiss noble family in the area south of the Jura crossing over the upper Hauenstein between the Mittelland and Basel . The family is easy to understand over several generations. They formed a side branch of the Barons von Bechburg . After the resignation from the Landgrave's office in Buchsgau in 1318, the representatives of the family appeared as barons . As heirs to the Counts of Thierstein -Farnsburg, the Barons von Falkenstein again came to a landgrave office, this time over the Sisgau , a fief of the Bishop of Basel , which they exercised until the Farnsburg reign was sold in 1461 and they moved to the area of ​​the central Black Forest . The last male representative of the family died in 1568 as an imperial councilor and governor in Alsace .

history

The noble Falkenstein family appears for the first time in a document from 1145, the authenticity of which is, however, questioned. It mentions the brothers Welf and Ulrich von Falkenstein.

Descent from the Barons von Bechburg

The first documented representative of the Falkenstein family was Rudolf I von Bechburg. In 1201 he and his uncle Ulrich von Bechburg and his brother Conrad carried out an extensive exchange of goods with the St. Urban monastery . In doing so, they exchanged property at Roggwil , perhaps a dozen Schupposen and thus about half the village, for 12 Schupposen at Oberbuchsiten and one property at Altbüron . Opposite Count Hermann II. Von Frohburg they renounced the fiefdom of the "Platz der Burg Rotenberg" (near Roggwil) on this occasion, so that the latter could in turn transfer the position of the apparently abandoned castle to the St. Urban monastery. In 1205 Rudolf I was mentioned as Vogt zu Wynau , where the Falkensteiners held the church patronage until 1274.

Rudolf I von Bechburg is mentioned until 1224, when he was first named Count von Falkenstein. The title of the count could be related to the fact that the Count of Frohburg appointed him as Landgrave in Buchsgau . The name Falkenstein referred to his place of residence, Neu-Falkenstein Castle near Balsthal , which must have existed since the early 12th century and which apparently became his residence around 1200 together with the rulers of the same name. In addition, the division of property between him and his brother Conrad von Bechburg (mentioned from 1201 to 1224), for whom Alt-Bechburg Castle remained with Holderbank SO , remains opaque.

Elevation of rank to Count von Falkenstein

The descendants of Rudolf I von Bechburg took over the new name and the title of count. The presumed daughter Heilwig de Falkenstein (mentioned from 1212 to 1226) was married to Ulrich von Thorberg . His son of the same name Rudolf I von Falkenstein, mentioned as a knight in 1227, was the first documented owner of Neu-Falkenstein Castle. In 1250 he set up in the Klus in Balsthal the castle Alt-Falkenstein and the fortified bailey at the foot of the castle rock. (Alt-Falkenstein is thus younger than the ancestral castle Neu-Falkenstein!) He was married to a daughter of the Count of Neuchâtel, Ulrich III. von Neuchâtel-Nidau († 1225) and the Jolante from the house of the Counts of Urach .

Four sons emerged from the marriage with the count's daughter, who apparently seemed appropriate to her status. The first three all appeared as Counts of Falkenstein, while the fourth, Berchtold, embarked on a spiritual career and was dean in 1282 and abbot in 1286 of the Alsatian Benedictine monastery in Murbach . He died in 1298.

His three brothers, Counts Ulrich I, Otto and Heinrich von Falkenstein, named here for the first time, exchanged their rights over the church of Wynau, Kirchsatz , Vogtei and Tehnten with the St. Urban monastery in 1274, together with their cousins ​​von Bechburg towards the little village of Waldkirch near Niederbipp . For this they received a premium of 134 silver marks from the monastery. Again all three together they donated the church set of the small village Waldkirch to the Schönthal monastery in 1312 . While Heinrich and Ulrich I apparently remained unmarried, Otto († before 1315) was married to Elisabeth von Wädenswil. She was a daughter of Baron Arnold II of Wädenswil . Ulrich I could have been provost of Solothurn and of Moutier-Grandval .

Resignation from the Landgrave's Office in Buchsgau

It is unclear to what extent the office of landgrave in the Buchsgau was still exercised by the three sons of Rudolf I von Falkenstein as an afterfief from the Frohburgers . Otto's son Rudolf II. (Mentioned from 1294 to 1332) was explicitly mentioned again as Landgrave in Buchsgau in 1311. Seven years later, in 1318, he gave up the Landgrave's office - why is not known, but the reason is presumed to be his improper marriage to Anna von Ifenthal from a family of ministers of the Counts of Frohburg. Rudolf II received in 1327 from Count Rudolf III. from Neuchâtel-Nidau, his second cousin, ten Schupposen to Oberbipp. He died after 1332.

Five sons are known from Rudolf's marriage to Anna von Ifenthal, three of whom have hardly left any traces: Rudolf III. and Ulrich III. were mentioned in 1318, the latter again in 1336, while knight Hug von Falkenstein (mentioned from 1357) bequeathed the old mill in Egerkingen to his wife Anna from the Solothurn family of the von Dürrach in 1395 . Probably the youngest of the five sons, Johann I. von Falkenstein, (mentioned from 1372) was rector in Cappel ( Kestenholz ) and died in 1380 as a canon in Basel . Wernher von Falkenstein, mentioned from 1318, was mentioned as a knight in 1352 and called himself baron in 1372. As such, he appropriately married Amalia von Gösgen. He died in 1382 and left two sons, Rudolf IV. († before 1399), about whom almost nothing is known, and Hans II. Wernher's legacy was the inheritance of the Barons von Gösgen, who died out in the male line a year later, in 1383 .

Barons von Falkenstein and Landgraves in Sisgau

Like his father, Hans II pursued the career of a knight (mentioned as such in 1399) and maintained the status of a baron (mentioned as baro. 1416). Married to Susanna von Eptingen, he had a son Hans Friedrich and two daughters. He gave Gred Agatha to Konrad von Eptingen, after whose death in 1427 she married Konrad von Mörsberg (from Morimont Castle near Oberlarg in Alsace ). She died in 1450. Her sister Amalia was mentioned as a nun in Königsfelden in 1427 and was still living in 1463. In Claranna, he found a wife for his son Hans Friedrich, who in turn meant a social rise: she was the daughter of Otto III., The last count von Thierstein -Farnsburg and Landgraf in Sisgau. When he died in 1418, the Basel bishop transferred the deceased's landgrave to Hans II. Von Falkenstein - certainly thanks to his son's marriage connection, who thereby became the heir of the Farnsburg rule. In the following year, 1419, the bishop transferred the neighboring Landgraviate of Buchsgau as a fief to his son Hans Friedrich, who was called Baron von Falkenstein on this occasion.

Apparently, Baron Hans Friedrich was appointed Landgrave in Sisgau by the Bishop of Basel in 1426 as the successor to his father Hans II, although he lived until 1429. In 1426 the Falkensteiners sold the Landgraviate Buchsgau to Bern and Solothurn. However, Hans Friedrich died surprisingly young in 1426. He left two sons, Thomas and Hans von Falkenstein, who were both minors at the time and grew up mainly in Bern under the tutelage of the cities of Bern and Solothurn. Only when the two Falkensteiners came of age in 1428 was the office of Landgrave in Sisgau transferred to them again.

The barons of Falkenstein at the Farnsburg

Falkenstein Castle in Niedergösgen , colored copper engraving, between 1754 and 1773

Thomas, who has appeared in the sources since 1414, and Hans von Falkenstein, mentioned from 1418, turned to the House of Habsburg after the end of the Bern and Solothurn guardianship around 1440 and actively participated on their side in the Old Zurich War . In 1443 they shared their property: Thomas took over the rule of Gösgen, Hans the rule of Farnsburg . On June 24, 1444 Thomas von Falkenstein attacked the Bernese town of Brugg together with Hans von Rechberg . They then withdrew to the Farnsburg, where they were besieged by a federal army of almost 1,500 men with Basel artillery . When the besiegers received news that the Armagnaks were approaching, they hurriedly withdrew towards Basel - towards their destruction in the battle of St. Jakob an der Birs . The garrison of the Farnsburg seized the abandoned siege gun.

His brother Hans was in 1445 together with Thuringia II von Hallwyl under the Austrian occupation of around 70 men in Stein Castle on the Rhine island near Rheinfelden , which the owner of the castle, Wilhelm von Grünenberg , entered there to defend against the citizens of Rheinfelden put. On August 17, 1445, the actual siege of Stein by 3,000 people from Basel, Bern and Solothurn began. In vain tried Duke Albrecht VI. von Habsburg to bring reinforcements from the right bank of the Rhine. On September 14, 1445 the occupation surrendered, the castle was immediately occupied and looted.

The “Great Nobility War”, fought by the city of Basel against the Austrian-minded nobility after the Battle of St. Jakob , brought the two barons of Falkenstein to an economic and political collapse. They had to pledge their fern castle to the dukes of Austria. Finally, in 1461, the city of Basel, taking advantage of the financial weakness of the bishop as a feudal lord over the Sisgau, acquired the castle and rule of Farnsburg and thus the Landgraviate of Sisgau for 10,000 guilders. Junker Petermann Offenburg was the first municipal steward of the Farnsburg.

Thomas von Falkenstein had to sell the rule of Gösgen from his great-grandmother to Solothurn in 1458, also the Kastvogtei via the Werd monastery ( Schönenwerd ). The two brothers Hans and Thomas von Falkenstein acquired the Heidburg rule between Kinzigtal and Elztal before they left the Jura in 1461 . Soon after 1479 Thomas died. Two of his daughters from his marriage to Ursula von Ramstein were nuns in the Säckingen women's monastery . Elisabeth († 1508) served as abbess from 1484. After her death, her sister Anna took over this office, which she held until her death on April 24, 1534.

The Falkensteiner in Breisgau and Alsace

Gravestones in the parish church in Ebringen

Sigmund von Falkenstein, a son from the second marriage of Thomas von Falkenstein to Amelia von Weinsberg , is mentioned in 1521 as a district. From 1499 to 1506 he owned the rule Schneeburg bei Ehaben in what is now the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district . In 1506 he married the widow Helena, daughter of Hans von Hohenems from Vorarlberg and heiress of Ehaben. Until 1519 Sigmund also owned the Heidburg , which his ancestors had acquired before 1461.

The last male representative of the sex, Johann Christoph von Falkenstein, was first mentioned in 1523. He was imperial councilor, president of the West Austrian government in Ensisheim and supreme governor in Sundgau and Breisgau. Christoph died in 1559. A grave monument in the parish church in Ebringen reminds us of him, as well as of his father who died in 1533.

coat of arms

Blazon : Divided by red, silver and black. Upper coat of arms: Gooseneck growing out of the stech helmet with nine individual comb feathers, colored in the same division as the shield (3: 3: 3). Outside black helmet covers, red inside.

The coat of arms is documented in Scheibler's coat of arms book , page 71. It is the same in the shield as that of the tribal barons of Bechburg, which is documented in the Zurich coat of arms around 1335/1345.

See also

supporting documents

literature

  • Max Jufer: The barons of Langenstein-Grünenberg . In: Yearbook of the Oberaargau . tape 37 . Merkur Druck AG, Langenthal 1994, p. 109 to 214 ( unibe.ch [PDF; accessed on April 9, 2015]).
  • Ambros Kocher: Solothurn document book . First volume 762-1245. State Chancellery of the Canton of Solothurn, Solothurn 1952.
  • Werner Meyer : Burgen A to Z . Castle lexicon of the region. Klingenthal printing company, Basel 1981.
  • Hans Sigrist: The barons of Bechburg and the Oberaargau . In: Yearbook of the Oberaargau . tape 3 . Schelbli + Co., Herzogenbuchsee 1960, p. 105 to 111 ( unibe.ch [PDF; accessed on April 9, 2015]).

Web links

Commons : Falckenstein family (Switzerland)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sigrist 1960: p. 106.
  2. ↑ a b c Kocher 1952: Family table 2.
  3. ↑ a b HLS: Falkenstein, von (Count).
  4. ↑ a b HLS: Bechburg, von.
  5. ↑ Sigrist 1960: p. 107.
  6. ↑ a b Sigrist 1960: p. 108.
  7. ↑ Meyer 1981: p. 95
  8. ^ Wilhelm Vischer :  Falkenstein, Thomas von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 557 f.
  9. ↑ Jufer 1994: p. 198.
  10. ↑ Meyer 1981: pp. 95-96.
  11. ↑ Damenstift Säckingen: List of Abbesses .
  12. ↑ a b geneall.net: Sigmund Freiherr von Falkenstein , accessed on December 21, 2012
  13. ↑ Kindler von Knobloch: Upper Baden Gender Book , Volume 1, pp. 335f. See also the list of the territories of the Swabian Empire .
  14. ↑ the ages - Ebringen , Geiger-Verlag, Horb on Neckar 1988, ISBN 389264263X f, p. 9