Lebenau county
The County of Lebenau (also known as Liebenau or Lebenau-Hohenburg ) was a medieval territory that stretched for the most part in what is now Upper Bavaria and the Salzburg region from the Salzach and Mosach to the Alz in the then Salzburggau of the Duchy of Baiern .
From 1104 until its end in 1229, the county was an almost independent domain in the Duchy of Bavaria. It was administered by a branch of the Spanheim family and its ancestor is Siegfried I von Lebenau, a grandson of Siegfried I von Spanheim.
history
Little is known about the Counts of Lebenau - a side branch of the Spanheim family. Their closest relatives, the Spanheim Dukes of Carinthia and the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg , are much easier to understand historically and in documents.
The main seat of the county in the Salzburger Gau was the Feste Lebenau near Laufen on the Salzach . Until the 19th century, the castle stood on a steeply sloping headland at the confluence of the Salzach and Schinderbach rivers.
origin
The origin of the Counts of Lebenau goes back to Siegfried I. von Spanheim . He was a native of the Rhine Franconia and was born at Sponheim Castle . In 1035 Siegfried came to the southeast of the Holy Roman Empire as a confidante of Emperor Conrad II . There he married Richgard, the rich heir daughter of Sieghardinger Engelbert IV. After his death in 1048 his extensive possessions in Tyrol and Carinthia fell to Siegfried.
Large estates in Upper Bavaria also came to the Spanheim family. These included the Lebenau fortress, which apparently goes back to the Aribones . Siegfried died in 1065 on a pilgrimage back from the Holy Land.
His eldest son, Margrave Engelbert I of Istria, inherited his possessions. Engelbert was a supporter of Pope Gregory VII and was on his side in the investiture dispute . For this reason he was very supportive of the Salzburg bishops in the fight against King Henry IV , the future emperor. This led to Engelbert's strong ties in the Salzburg area.
Creation of the county
After the death of Margrave Engelbert I on April 1, 1096, the first division of the estate in the Spanheim family took place. Engelbert's fourth son Siegfried was given a widely scattered territory with possessions in Upper Bavaria, Carinthia, Lower Styria and Carniola . As a result of the division, the Lebenau fortress also came into his possession. He settled there around 1104.
Although he lived in the Salzburg area, he and his family, like his Carinthian relatives, always kept good contacts with the Spanheimer house monastery , the St. Paul Abbey in Lavanttal , whose benefactors they appeared. Siegfried soon referred to himself as Count von Arch (today Raka Castle , southwest of Krško , Slovenia), but did not own any counts.
Siegfried tried to change this through marriages. In his first marriage he married the wealthy heir, Hildburg, daughter of Count Friedrich II. Von Tengling in Siegharding . After his death and the associated extinction of the Counts of Tengling in 1120, Siegfried fell to all Sieghardingen possessions west of the Salzach . He then moved the administration of the area to Lebenau. From 1130 he called himself Count Siegfried I von Lebenau after his property . However, when he was officially enfeoffed with the county is unknown.
Ascent
Through the mediation of Hartwig von Spanheim , Bishop of Regensburg and brother Siegfried, the Lebenau family received the bailiwick of the St. Emmeram monastery . They also were governors of Pfalzgraf I. Aribo founded monastery Seeon . This is also where the people of life were buried. Some historians see in this, in addition to Siegfried's marriage to Hildburg, a very close bond between the Lebenauers and the Aribones .
Siegfried I. von Lebenau married again around 1132. It was about Adelheid, Countess von Dießen, daughter of Count Arnold von Dießen , the original family of the Counts of Andechs . Due to the rich dowry, there was a significant increase in area for the population. Among other things, the Hohenburg Fortress fell to the Lebenauer, after which some subsequent counts were also to be named.
After Siegfried II. Followed the death of his father in 1132 as a count, he moved most of the territory from Carinthia to the Bavarian-Salzburg area. On November 18, 1150, he acquired the bailiwick rights of the Salzburg cathedral chapter for its possession in Chiemgau . The Counts of Lebenau were to hold these until 1229.
Through a common struggle of the entire Spanheim house against the Gurk bailiffs , the Askuiner , they were defeated and the Spanheimers appropriated their properties in Lower Styria . These were then divided among the various lines. How this conflict came about and how it developed is unknown.
Heyday
Siegfried II died in 1164. His two sons Siegfried III. and Otto I. must have been minors at this point, as they did not officially have a title as Count and Siboto IV. von Neuburg-Falkenstein only called them that from an old tradition . It was not until the summer of 1174 that both appeared as Counts of Lebenau.
After the death of Sieghardingen Count Gebhard II von Burghausen-Schala in 1168, his possessions were divided among the beneficiaries. The Wittelsbachers secured the Burghausen fortress , the majority of the land fell to the Babenbergs , and the Lebenauers secured the ownership and sovereignty rights of the rich town of Burghausen .
In 1186 the Count Siegfried III stayed. and Otto together on the St. Georgsberg near Enns . There you and others witnessed the Georgenberg hand festivals of Duke Ottokar IV of Styria. In it, the succession of the childless Ottokar IV in the Duchy of Styria was regulated by the Dukes of Austria from the house of the Babenbergs.
For many historians, the most outstanding event in the history of the count family is the participation of Count Siegfried III. on Friedrich Barbarossa's third crusade . Siegfried moved in with his brother-in-law Konrad von Dornberg in the wake of the German emperor. Allegedly Siegfried's cousins Rapoto II and Heinrich I von Ortenburg also wanted to take part. However, this cannot be proven. Siegfried III. did not reach Palestine, however, as he died on March 12, 1190 in the army of the Roman-German emperor.
Siegfried's brother Count Otto then took over the county. In the course of his reign he expanded the areas to the right of the Salzach and appropriated the sovereign rights of the Burgraves of Haunsberg . These had been in Otto's service since 1190. Gottschalk II von Haunsberg bequeathed the estates to the lifelong early on, as he realized that he would probably die without a male heir.
Count Otto was married twice, first to Eufemia von Dornberg and second to Sophie von Plain. The latter was the daughter of Count Luitpold von Plain and granddaughter of Count Gebhard I von Burghausen-Schala.
After Otto's death in 1205 he was followed by his eldest son Siegfried IV. He died in 1210, whereupon his younger brother Bernhard became count. This was the last incumbent count of the Lebenau branch. When he died in 1229 without a male heir, the line of counts of Lebenau became extinct.
End of the county
With the extinction of the Lebenau, the Spanheim inheritance law on the cathedral bailiwick of Salzburg expired. Archbishop Eberhard II of Salzburg immediately withdrew the bailiwick rights for the Seeon Abbey . The ownership and sovereignty rights to Burghausen fell to the Wittelsbach Duke Ludwig the Kelheimer . Archbishop Eberhard then bought the core area of the county around Tittmoning from the Bavarian dukes and incorporated it into the Archdiocese of Salzburg . The Carinthian possessions, including the castles Rabenstein , Löschental and Lavamünd , fell to Ulrich von Peggau , who had married Bernhard's sister. The closest relatives of the Spanheim family, the Dukes of Carinthia and the Count Palatine of Ortenburg-Kraiburg and Counts of Ortenburg , were only able to secure small areas. Duke Bernhard of Carinthia was awarded the Lebenau fiefdom of the Freising diocese in Styria by Bishop Konrad I of Tölz and Hohenburg .
The Spanheimers did not completely give up the possessions in Lebenau. In 1244 Count Palatine Rapoto III traveled . from Bavaria to Archbishop Eberhard to negotiate the Chiemgau rights of the Counts of Lebenau. This gave Rapoto this as an inalienable fief.
In 1247 Philipp von Spanheim became administrator of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. As elected archbishop he secured the county of Lebenau in the Treaty of Erharting from 1254. In a second contract to Erharting from the year 1275, Philip set the exact boundaries of the county with Bavaria. After his death in 1279 the possessions fell back to the Archdiocese of Salzburg.
After the Salzburg bishops had appropriated the holdings in Rupertiwinkel and Chiemgau as a large and contiguous area due to the extinction of the Counts of Plain and Lebenau, they intensified their efforts to detach themselves from the duchy. In 1328 Salzburg became a largely independent state in the Holy Roman Empire. Lebenau became part of the bishopric and remained in Salzburg until the prince-bishop was withdrawn in 1803 ( Reichsdeputationshauptschluss ). In 1810 Salzburg , and with it Lebenau, became Bavarian, in 1816 Salzburg became Austrian, but Lebenau remained with Bavaria.
Historical points of contention
Historians today have different views on some of the events in the county's history. Some are of the opinion that the people of Leben also had possessions near Liebenau an der Mur in Styria and were therefore also Counts of Liebenau. However, this thesis has not yet been refuted or confirmed. What is certain, however, is that the Lebenau had possessions in Lower Styria . What exactly these were, however, is unknown.
There is also the claim that the Lebenau fortress was built by Siegfried I. von Lebenau himself. However, the view that this was a festival from the house of the Aribones is far more common. The reason for this is that the county of Lebenau was located in the heartland of the former aribone rulership. This had fallen to the Sieghardinger family and through the marriages of Siegfried I von Spanheim with Richgard and Siegfried I von Lebenau with Hildburg came to the entire house of the Spanheimers.
List of the counting counts
| Surname | Reign | ancestry |
|---|---|---|
| Siegfried I. | 1120–1132 Count von Arch, 1130–1132 Count von Lebenau | Son of Engelbert I. |
| Siegfried II. | 1132–1164 Count of Lebenau | Son of Siegfried I. |
| Siegfried III. | 1164 (underage), 1174–1190 Count von Lebenau-Hohenburg | Son of Siegfried II. |
| Otto I. | 1190–1205 Count of Lebenau-Hohenburg | Son of Siegfried II. |
| Siegfried IV. | 1190–1205 Count of Lebenau-Hohenburg | Son of Otto I. |
| Bernhard I. | 1210–1229 Count of Lebenau-Hohenburg | Son of Otto I. |
| Philipp von Spanheim | 1254–1279 Count of Lebenau | Son of Bernhard II. |
Tribe list
See family list of the Counts of Lebenau
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d Information and dates taken from Friedrich Hausmann's work: 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.
- ↑ a b Information from Count Eberhard zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts' entire house of Ortenburg - Part 1: The ducal house in Carinthia. , Vilshofen 1932.
- ↑ a b c d e Lebenaus story based on Manfred Hiebl
literature
- Heinz Dopsch : The Counts of Lebenau (approx. 1130-1229), modest branch of a great dynasty . In: Ferdinand Kramer , Wilhelm Störmer (ed.): High Middle Ages noble families in Old Bavaria, Franconia and Swabia (= Studies on Bavarian Constitutional and Social History 20), Munich 2005, pp. 509-538.
- Hausmann, Friedrich : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their branch lines . In: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde, No. 36 , Passau 1994.
- Heinz Dopsch: The Counts of Lebenau . In: Das Salzfass, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1970, pp. 33–59.
- Ortenburg-Tambach, Dr. Eberhard Graf zu: History of the imperial, ducal and counts' entire house in Ortenburg - Part 1: The ducal house in Carinthia. Vilshofen 1932.
- Ortenburg-Tambach, Dr. Eberhard Graf zu: History of the imperial, ducal and counts 'entire house in Ortenburg - Part 2: The counts' house in Bavaria. Vilshofen 1932.