George I. (Ortenburg)

Georg I († before 1422 ) was the ruling count of the county of Ortenburg from 1395 to 1422 . He was the fourth child of Count Heinrich IV. Von Ortenburg and Agnes von Hals and came from the Lower Bavarian dynasty of the Ortenburgers .

Live and act

After the death of his father Heinrich IV. In 1395, the Ortenburg house split into three lines. Alt-Ortenburg , Neu-Ortenburg and Dorfbach . His two brothers Alram I. and Etzel I. received Dorfbach and Alt-Ortenburg respectively . Georg himself received Neu-Ortenburg Castle and the associated possessions. Georg became the official incumbent count of the entire county, as his older brother Alram I probably renounced it due to his possessions in Dorfbach.

In 1391 Georg and his brother Etzel I signed a document in which they granted the Bavarian Duke Friedrich von Bayern-Ingolstadt the right to open their castles. Why they committed themselves to this is unknown, at least this meant that the Ortenburgers thereby gave up part of their imperial rights.

In 1403 Georg entered the service of Duke Johann III. from Straubing-Holland . This was to be a momentous decision, as the dukes of Bavaria-Landshut did not get along very well with their relatives. This led to further potential for conflict. So Georg was in 1404 by Duke Heinrich XVI. von Bayern-Landshut obliged to serve his enemy, the Bishop of Passau , for a year.

A year later there was another dispute between George and Heinrich XVI. for an unknown reason, which is why Duke Heinrich even had the Neu-Ortenburg Fortress occupied. On June 18, 1405, Georg even had to bequeath both the castle and all of his other possessions to Heinrich for several months. He also had to vow to appear in Burghausen at the Duke's request and to remain there until he had completed his duties there.

No sooner had peace been restored than new quarrels broke out and he was captured by Duke Heinrich. He escaped from this detention only through the document of March 3, 1408, in which Georg had to repeat all previous concessions. In addition, Heinrich had the right of first refusal on Neu-Ortenburg written down. If someone else should buy it, he would have to make the same concessions as Georg.

As soon as he was free, Georg, like his later descendant Count Joachim , toyed with the idea of ​​selling the county.

Georg's last attempt to break away from the Bavarian shackles also failed. He was taken prisoner again. On November 20, 1409 he had to sign another document and renew all concessions.

Over the centuries, these concessions were to serve as justification for the Bavarian dukes to incorporate the county. However, despite these grave concessions and the related partial abandonment of imperial rights, they did not succeed. The county was temporarily a Bavarian vassal, but it did not become a Bavarian market town until 1805. With the entry in the Reich register in 1521 and the Reich Chamber Court ruling of 1573, his descendants succeeded in breaking free of the former concessions to the Bavarian dukes. Why Georg I did not, like his two successors Sebastian I and Joachim , turned to his supreme liege lord the emperor is unclear.

progeny

Georg I was married to Siguna von Buchberg. The following children were born from this marriage:

• Heinrich V , Count of Neu-Ortenburg († 1449), ∞ Ursula Ecker zu Saldenburg († 1436), ∞ Elisabeth von Törring († 1487)
• Oswald, Canon and Vicar General of Salzburg († June 3, 1450)

literature

• Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde, No. 36, Passau 1994 (p. 9 -62).
• Friedrich Hausmann: Archives of the Counts of Ortenburg. Documents of the family and county of Ortenburg (in Tambach and Munich) Volume 1: 1142–1400 (= Bavarian archive inventories 42), Neustadt an der Aisch 1984.
• Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts 'entire house of Ortenburg - Part 2: The counts' house in Bavaria. , Vilshofen 1932.
• Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( digitized version ).
• Johann Ferdinand von Huschberg : History of the ducal and countial general house of Ortenburg: edited from the sources , Sulzbach 1828 ( digitized ).

Web links

• Root list on Genealogy.euweb.cz
• Genealogy of the Counts of Ortenburg

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry IV.	Count of Ortenburg 1395-1422	Etzel I.