Friedrich (Arnsberg)

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Friedrich von Arnsberg (called Friedrich der Streitbare ) (* around 1075 ; † February 11, 1124 ) was regent of the County of Arnsberg - Werl from 1092 to 1124.

Origin and family

Friedrich was a son of Count Konrad II von Werl-Arnsberg and Mathilde von Northeim, a daughter of Count Otto von Northeim , Duke of Bavaria. He himself was married to Adelheid von Limburg, a daughter of Duke Heinrich I. From the marriage the daughter Ida (sometimes also referred to as Jutta) emerged as the heiress of the County of Werl-Arnsberg. Her first marriage was to Gottfried II. Count von Cappenberg and her second marriage to Gottfried I, Count von Cuyk .

Live and act

After Count Konrad II and his son Hermann fell against the Frisians in 1092, his sons Friedrich and Heinrich inherited him . Friedrich was most likely the elder of the two and was enfeoffed with his father's county. Presumably because of the inheritance of the Allode with his brother, Friedrich moved the focus of his rule to Arnsberg, while his brother Heinrich named himself after the Rietberg Castle.

Friedrich's nickname reflects the character of his rule. The Saxon annalist reported that Friedrich had been brought into bondage through his violence, almost the entire " Land of Westphalia. (...) The very same was a second Caesar; his hand was against everyone and everyone's hand was against him. (...) “Hence he was given the name of the" arguable. " Harm Klueting judges that Friedrich rose to “the most powerful man in Westphalia” during his reign. After the death of his brother Heinrich, he imprisoned his niece for a few years to ensure that her inheritance could not be removed from his administration through marriage.

Friedrich as a follower of Emperor Heinrich IV.

Beyond the narrower area of ​​his county, Friedrich was important because he played a considerable role in the politics of the empire and exerted influence on the contemporary emperors. Like his father, he was on the side of the emperors in the ongoing dispute with the reform papacy (which may have contributed to his negative assessment by spiritual chroniclers.) His position, initially loyal to the emperor, stood in striking contrast to most of the other Saxon aristocrats, who opposed king Rudolf von Rheinfelden supported. As a supporter of Emperor Heinrich IV , Friedrich invaded the territory of the Archbishop of Cologne Friedrich I. von Schwarzenburg in 1102 . Thereupon the archbishop attacked the county and destroyed the Arnsberg castle . The bishop's troops were then defeated by Friedrich and some of them were taken prisoner. However, the agreement between the conflicting parties took place at the expense of Friedrich. He had to cede half of the count's rights still remaining to his house to the Archdiocese of Cologne. These areas were passed on as fiefs from the Cologne residents to followers such as the Lords of Ardey and the Lords of Volmarstein . In the conflict between the later Emperor Heinrich V and his father Heinrich IV, Friedrich, in contrast to large parts of the nobility, was on the father's side. In this context he attacked Bishop Burchard von Munster , who was on the side of the son, captured him in 1106 and handed him over to the emperor.

Time of the Saxon nobility rise

For this reason, the relationship with the new ruler was not unclouded after the death of Henry IV. Therefore, not the count, but his brother Heinrich accompanied Emperor Heinrich V on his imperial train to Italy. In 1111, Heinrich was one of the hostages taken by the Germans during negotiations with Pope Paschal II .

In 1112 Friedrich visited the emperor's camp in Münster and swore his allegiance to it. Of course, this agreement did not last long. In 1114 Friedrich and his brother Heinrich were among the Saxon nobles who, under the leadership of the new Duke of Saxony, Lothar von Supplinburg, revolted against the emperor. The archbishops of Cologne and Mainz were also among the supporters. When he and his troops stabbed the imperial units in the rear during the battle of Jülich , he made a decisive contribution to their defeat. The imperial troops then raided the county and plundered. But they could not decisively weaken Friedrich, who continued to play an important role in the indignation of the nobility. In the spring of 1115, Henry V began a campaign. He conquered Braunschweig and devastated Halberstadt . Under the leadership of Friedrich, his brother Heinrich, the Counts of Ravensberg and Heinrich von Limburg , Westphalian nobles came to the aid of the anti-imperialists. They then also went on the offensive and attacked the imperial general Hoyer von Mansfeld . Thereupon Mansfeld and Heinrich V also united and both sides met on February 11, 1115 in the Battle of Welfesholz . Lothar von Supplinburg and his allies won this battle. The emperor withdrew to Mainz and the rebels destroyed the imperial palace in Dortmund and then turned to Munster, which stood on the opposite side and had been fortified for fear of the Counts of Arnsberg and Tecklenburg. The allies conquered the city and replaced Bishop Burchardt with Theodoric von Weizenburg . Friedrich was then also involved in the destruction of the Falkenhagen and Waldshausen castles. At the Corvey monastery , emissaries of the emperor, including Duke Welf of Bavaria , managed to get the rebels to negotiate with the emperor at an imperial assembly in Mainz on November 1, 1115.

During his stay in Corvey, Friedrich made friends with Abbot Erkenbert and even allowed himself to be accepted into the local prayer fraternity. The abbot used this friendship to induce Friedrich to attack Obermarsberg . Since Ludwig the Pious , the former imperial fortress Eresburg there belonged to the Corvey Monastery, which maintained a convent there. The inhabitants of the associated settlement had revolted against the rule of the monastery. Friedrich carried out the abbot's request and destroyed the fortifications in Obermarsberg. This was not only a gesture of friendship towards the abbot, but also a welcome opportunity to shut down a fortified point on the border of one's own territory.

Change of front and support of Emperor Henry V

In contrast to the aristocratic leaders of the nobility outrage, Friedrich had apparently actually traveled to Mainz, changed fronts and reconciled with Emperor Heinrich V there. Klueting sees the reason for this in the growing power of Lothar von Supplinburg. The establishment of a strong ducal power would have threatened the relatively independent position of the Westphalian counts. As a result, he then appeared as a witness at imperial official acts. From then on Friedrich was active in the imperial service. In 1120 the change of fronts led to the attack of Lothar von Supplinburg on the territory of Count Friedrich and the destruction of the Rüdenburg near Arnsberg. In the same year Friedrich was one of the mediators between the emperor and the rebellious princes as well as the archbishop of Cologne.

Last years

If Friedrich was involved in the conflicts of the empire in previous years, he now had to take care of the area of ​​his rule himself. So he tried in vain to prevent the Count von Berg from founding Altena Castle .

Friedrich also had problems in his own family. Since he remained without a male heir, his daughter Ida was the heir to the county. A union with the property of her husband Gottfried von Cappenberg would have provided the basis for a strong new line of counts. Like his brother Otto, however, he decided in 1121 to atone for the acts of violence during the Lothar von Supplinburg uprising, to give up their property, and founded the first Westphalian Premonstratensian monastery, the Cappenberg monastery . After her husband entered the monastery he had founded, Ida married the Dutch Count Gottfried von Cuyk for the second time .

With the death of Friedrich, the house of the Counts of Werl-Arnsberg went out. The inheritance came to the daughter Ida's second husband, Gottfried von Cuyk, who became the progenitor of the younger line of the Counts of Arnsberg.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Féaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. HR Stein-Verlag, Arnsberg 1895 p. 12
  2. ^ Klueting, Geschichte Westfalens, p. 41
  3. ^ Klueting, Geschichte Westfalens, p. 42

swell

  • Richard Knipping: The regests of the archbishops of Cologne in the Middle Ages (= publications of the society for Rheinische Geschichtskunde 21, 2). 2nd volume: 1100-1205. Droste, Düsseldorf 1901 (reprint. Hanstein et al., Bonn et al. 1985, ISBN 3-7700-7553-6 ).
  • Regesta Historiae Westfaliae. Codex diplomaticus. The sources of the history of Westphalia in chronologically ordered records and extracts, accompanied by a document book. Volume 1: From the oldest historical news up to the year 1125. Regensberg in commission, Münster 1847.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedrich I. von Werl-Arnsberg; Friedrich von Arnsberg; Frederick the Arguable
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Werl-Arnsberg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1075
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1124