Friedrich III. (Veldenz)

Coat of arms Grafschaft Veldenz.

Friedrich III. von Veldenz (* in the 14th century; † 1444 ) was the last ruling Count of Veldenz from the Geroldseck line . With him, the family died out in 1444 in the male line.

Life

Friedrich was the son of Heinrich II von Veldenz and Loretta von Sponheim-Starkenburg . His brother Johann von Veldenz († 1434) was a Benedictine and abbot of the Weißenburg (Wissembourg) monastery in Alsace. Friedrich began a spiritual career and was canon in Trier in 1393 . After the death of his brother Heinrich III. he stepped back into the secular class, married Margarethe von Nassau and took over the paternal inheritance. In 1387 the county was divided into a lower and an upper county by Heinrich II. And his brother Friedrich II. In 1396 Friedrich was able to reunite the two parts after his uncle Friedrich II died without an heir. The only daughter and heir to the county was Anna von Veldenz , who married Duke Stefan von Pfalz-Zweibrücken in 1410 . In 1419 Friedrich took on his son-in-law Stefan as co-regent. In 1425, the pending succession of the County of Sponheim with Baden as co-heirs was regulated in the Beinheim decision . In 1437, Johann V. von Sponheim, the last count of Sponheim, died. According to the agreement, Friedrich and Margrave Jakob von Baden took over the inheritance. The inheritance of Sponheim, Veldenz and the Palatinate parts created a new large territory (see Pfalz-Simmern-Zweibrücken ). In 1438, a division of the estate between Stefan's children was agreed. Friedrich von Veldenz agreed to this division of the estate.

literature

• Hans-Walter Herrman: The county of Veldenz . In: Kurt Hoppstädter, Hans-Walter Herrmann : Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes , Volume 2, Saarbrücken 1977, pp. 332–337 with family tree and map supplements. ISBN 3-921870-00-3 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Heinrich IV of Veldenz	Count of Veldenz 1396–1444	Stefan of Pfalz-Simmern-Zweibrücken
Johann V.	Count of Sponheim 1437–1444	Friedrich I. (Palatinate-Simmern)