County of Altena

; Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
County of Altena
coat of arms
	map
	County of Altena, core area brown, light red areas with old free float. ;
Form of rule	county
Ruler / government	Count
Today's region / s	DE-NW ; ;
Capitals / residences	Altena Castle ; after the division of the inheritance: Burg Isenberg , castle Nienbrügge , Marksburg
Dynasties	Berg-Altena line ; House Isenberg ; House of Mark (noble family)
Language / n	German ; Westphalian dialect , Sauerland Platt ;
Incorporated into	County Mark (1198/1262) ;

Altena Castle Residence

The County of Altena was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire that was emerging from the Bergische inheritance in 1161 . The county roughly encompassed main areas of ownership and rights in the area of the present-day localities of Neuenrade , Lüdenscheid , Plettenberg and Meinerzhagen an der Volme . The focus was today's city of Altena an der Lenne .

history

Emergence

The area of the later County of Altena has probably belonged to the County of Berg since the marriage of Adolf von Huvili (Hövel) (= Adolf II von Berg ) from the house of the Counts of Berg with Adelheid von Arnsberg in the 1120s . Thus Haus Berg had expanded its possessions into what is now the Ruhr area and the Sauerland .

According to the historian Johann Diederich von Steinen (1685–1759), the brothers Adolf and Eberhard , descendants of Count von Kleve and Teisterband , are said to have received this area around 1108 in the area of the Lenne from Emperor Heinrich V for loyal services and the castle there Altena have built.

Von Steinen thus rejected the depiction of Levold by Northof . This put the construction of Altena Castle on the year 1000 and Otto III. back and claimed that the founders and forefathers of the Märker were two brothers of a line of the Roman Ursini .

The independent county of Altena was created on the basis of an inheritance division in 1161, through which Eberhard I. von Berg-Altena split off a branch line from the Counts of Berg. This branch of the family was called the Count of Altena; their seat was Altena Castle.

Altenaische inheritance

Eberhard I. von Berg-Altena died on January 23, 1180. This year at the latest, his sons Arnold von Altena and Friedrich von Berg-Altena , whose relationship did not seem to have been entirely free of tension, started a dispute as a result the paternal inheritance was meticulously divided. According to Uta Vahrenholt-Huland, Friedrich von Altena was the initiator of the division of the estate, of which there is no example in Westphalia. In contrast to the Berg-Altenaische territorial division of 1161, this is a mixture division. Justice , allodes and fiefdoms were meticulously separated according to the following principle of division:

Both brothers had common, indivisible rights to the same object.
Both brothers had separate rights to the same property.
Both brothers had different goods or rights in the same place.
Both brothers had rights and possessions in neighboring towns.

According to this mode of division, the division of the County of Hövel also went to work, which, like the counties of Bochum and Altena, was split up. The greater county Hövel consisted of three comitates, the counties Warendorf , Ahlen and Unna . Warendorf and Ahlen were north of the Lippe in the Diocese of Münster , while the Comitat Unna was south of the Lippe. The comitate were now divided between the brothers. The Go Warendorf went to Arnold, the Go Telgte went to Friedrich.

In the case of Ahlen Comitat, the Go Rinkerode, which also contained the old main castle Hövel , which had previously been in Arnold's possession, went to Friedrich von Altena. The Go Ahlen was assigned to Arnold. When the Comitat Unna was divided, Arnold received the Go Benker Heide, Friedrich the Go Unna. In Go Benker Heide, directly on the Lippe , only a few kilometers from his former Hövel castle, was Nienbrügge - also known in Latin as Novus Ponte .

The county of Bochum was probably not divided until the 1990s . Here Friedrich received the bigger Go Bochum. Arnold was resigned to the smaller Go Hattingen and the subsequent bailiwick of the imperial abbey of Essen. He was also awarded Crooked County .

Even when the county of Altena was divided, Arnolds was part of the smaller one. The Go Elsey fell to him, the Dwarf Lordship Osteric / Oesterich and the northern part of the former Arnsberg half of Menden County, which was divided between Cologne and Arnsberg in 1103 . Friedrich got the southern part, as well as the Go Iserlohn and the big Go Lüdenscheid. The Altenaischen rights to the county Valbert - Plettenberg were transferred to Friedrich.

The Altenaische division was not a process that was carried out in one go, but probably lasted until the 1990s. When Friedrich von Altena died in 1199, however, it must have been irreversible. Otherwise Friedrich's son, Count Adolf I. von Altena, who later became Adolf I. von der Mark , would hardly have been able to inherit the father's inheritance without being contradicted.

Although Arnold and Friedrich, both in equal parts, took their ancestral castle Altena from Cologne as a fief, Arnold withdrew from it early. He did not sell his share to his brother, but to his liege lord , Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg . After Philip's death, the part of the castle came back to him until he sold it to Adolf von Altena , the former Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Westphalia. The sale of his share in the castle can possibly be seen as a hostile act against his brother, as the archbishop lent the share to strangers who now moved into the castle next to Friedrich.

It is also conceivable, however, that the archbishop was the actual initiator of the Altenaische inheritance. Eberhard's year of death, 1180, is also the year in which Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa gave his cousin Heinrich the Lion , the most powerful prince at the time, and the Gelnhausen certificate, based on the saying of Saxon princes . a. the tribal duchy of Saxony withdrew. Part of the former Saxony was given into the hands of the Archbishop of Cologne, who from now on held the title of Duke of Westphalia. The Duchy of Westphalia , which was created in this way, by no means encompassed the entire Saxon or Westphalian area and therefore had to fear the emergence of significant, competing territories in its immediate vicinity. The Altenaische inheritance could have been one of the means with which Archbishop and Duke Philipp von Heinsberg tried to prevent the emergence of a great territorial rule in competition with his duchy. So he could have forced Arnold von Altena to sell.

This is also supported by Philip's further action with regard to the neighboring nobles and their goods. The nobility of this time were in constant financial need due to their social obligations and the excessive lifestyle that followed. Philipp von Heinsberg invested large sums of money to buy up the allodies and feudal rights to the possessions of such noblemen. He then mortgaged the goods acquired in this way back to the seller, at the same time securing his vassal loyalty. In this way he secured and increased his influence, initially in the fight against Henry the Lion , later to consolidate his rule over the Duchy of Westphalia. Friedrich von Berg-Altena also sold the Wiseberg plot of land near Nienbrügge , which his father Eberhard had acquired for him, to the Archbishop of Cologne. From this sale came the money for the purchase or construction and expansion of the Brandenburg properties, the Oberhof Mark and the area of the later castle hill, on which for the benefit of Friedrich's son Adolf, the later Count Adolf I von der Mark , the castle Mark was built. The area of the Oberhof and the castle came into the possession of the Archbishop of Cologne in this way. Philip had bought the Brandenburg goods around 1170 from the nobleman of Rüdenberg Rabodo von der Mark. When the von Rüdenberg family died out a little later in the male line, the property of the Mark fell back to the Archbishop of Cologne, who later handed it over to Friedrich von Berg-Altena.

Friedrich's brother Arnold proceeded very similarly with Nienbrügge Castle. The expansion of Nienbrügge had become necessary because Count Arnold had to cede the former residence, Burg Hövel, to his brother Friedrich von Berg-Altena in the course of the Altenaische inheritance and the Altena castle was also lost to him. Shortly after its completion, Arnold pledged Nienbrügge Castle with the two arable estates Westerwinkel and Heessen to the Archbishop of Cologne. Philipp von Heinsberg enfeoffed the property back to Arnold after Arnold's vassal oath. So Nienbrügge Castle was handed back to Arnold, who received 500 gold pieces for the sale. After the new tenancy, he created new accommodation for the nuns living in the Hövel cloister courtyard about two kilometers east of Nienbrügge Castle and made the female order subject to the house rules of the Cistercians . In 1193 Arnold again became the owner of the property. Adolf von Altena , the new Archbishop of Cologne, supported the nobles, some of whom were closely related to him, by giving them back the castles and allodes that Philipp von Heinsberg had bought.

As a result of this division of the estate, both brothers only used Altena Castle for visits. While Arnold built new homes for himself with Nienbrügge and Isenberg on the Lippe and in Hattingen , Friedrich possibly had the old Krickenbeck Castle in the Rhineland - heir to his wife Alveradis von Krickenbeck-Millendonk, daughter of Count Rainer - in addition to his own legacy, Burg Hövel maybe even over the Oberhof Mark, on whose pastures Mark Castle was built.

The counties of Altena-Isenberg and Altena-Mark

At the latest since the acquisition of the Oberhof Mark and the construction of the Mark Castle - probably still by Friedrich von Berg-Altena - before or around 1198, part of Altena and the Mark formed a dual power. The other part, the Arnoldian legacy, slowly formed the County of Altena-Isenberg. Their counts Arnold and later Friedrich were also bailiffs of the Essen monastery .

Altena Mark

Presumably one must consider Friedrich as the first Count of Altena-Mark, who acquired the goods near Hamm that later gave the entire county its name. His son Adolf I, on the other hand, is already called Mark after the new castle . He first called himself Graf von der Mark in 1202 when he called himself puer Comes de marca in a document . The medieval puer means boy or squire and not, as is often assumed, a young count. Apparently he had not yet completed his training as a knight at this point. As early as 1205 in another document it only says Comes de marca . This also coincides with the usual time periods for training to become knights, between the ages of 14 and 21 the boy served as a squire at the court of a "strange" gentleman who took on his training. If he had only been born in 1194, as some historians assume, he would not have been able to witness a deed that year, nor would he have been a knight in 1205. It can therefore be assumed that Adolf was born at the beginning of the 1180s. Under his aegis, Altena-Mark developed into the core of what would later become the most important secular territory in Westphalia . After the failure of the Isenberg line, he reunited the County of Altena. Area cores of this later larger county were in the Hamm area, south of the Lippe, Kamen, Unna and around Altena. Only later - after 1225/43 - did the Isenberg inheritance also join.

Altena-Isenberg

Arnold von Altena died between 1206 and 1209, there are different information in the literature about the exact time of death Arnold von Altena. After Joseph Prinz, Friedrich's father died on May 3, 1206 or 1207. Josef Lappe from Lünen also dates Arnold's death to the year 1207. According to Reinhold Stirnberg, Arnold died at the beginning of 1209. Ribhegge, on the other hand, reports that Arnold and his eldest Son Eberhard took part in the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and both were killed. Since the crusader army only gathered in the middle of the year 1209, according to this version, the time of death could not have been until the second half of the year 1209.

In any case, it seems certain that Arnold von Altena died before his son Eberhard.

Friedrich von Isenberg, a younger son of Arnold von Altena, was originally intended for an ecclesiastical career and moved to Stirnberg canon of Cologne. However, he resigned from these offices and became co-regent of his brother Eberhards. Stirnberg suspects that the death of his brother could have been foreseeable in 1209, which explains this step. Alternatively, however, it could have been a purely precautionary measure in order not to allow a power vacuum to arise in the absence of Arnold and Eberhard von dem Isenberg due to the crossing and to secure the administration of Isenberg and the bailiwick of Essen. In any case, Friedrich von Isenberg came to the Grafenstuhl at the latest in 1209 and became Vogt of Essen.

Tensions later developed between him and the abbess of Essen - Adelheid - which eventually also preoccupied the pope, emperor and the German king and the life of Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne, educator of the German king, imperial administrator, duke of Westphalia and count von Berg should cost. In order to be prepared for the legal dispute with the pen, Friedrich had the Isenberger Vogteirollen drawn up, in which his rights as Vogt and the associated goods were carefully recorded. The small bailiff comes from the years before 1220, the big one from 1221. The abbess had meanwhile called the Archbishop of Cologne for help, who, however, probably held the “idle” hand over his close relative Friedrich. The abbess Adelheid subsequently passed over the archbishop and turned to the pope and the emperor with a request for help against Friedrich, who took more from the monastery than he was entitled to. This and the previously issued papal order to withdraw church property from the control of the bailiffs were the reasons that forced Engelbert to act in 1225. Friedrich refused, however, to lay down the bailiwick of Essen and to be compensated for it with cash benefits. The Archbishop therefore called the Noble Westphalia to Soest in November 1225 for a Princely Congress to settle the dispute that had arisen. But they could not come to an agreement in Soest, so they postponed another meeting a few days later in Cologne. Friedrich and Engelbert set out together in Soest, the archbishop wanted to hold a church consecration on the way to Schwelm , Friedrich either to Isenberg Castle, just a few kilometers away from the episcopal road from Soest to Cologne , or to travel to Cologne for further talks. But the talks in Cologne no longer took place. On November 7, 1225 Engelbert came in Gevelsberg in an ambush and was more than forty heavy - killed violations - 1978 proved to the bone. Few of these strikes have, according to the coroner certainly been enough to kill Engelbert. Since then there have been numerous theories about the motives for the murder and whether it was murder or just a failed kidnapping . The only source of what happened is the life story of Engelbert von Berg, written by the monk Caesarius von Heisterbach on behalf of the Cologne Church.

As a result of the attack, Engelbert was cooked in accordance with medieval legal practice in Cologne in order to remove the meat from the bones, buried the meat in one of the towers of the old Cologne Cathedral and wrapped the bones in cloths so that they could be shown when the indictment was brought . Thus equipped, the rose Elect Henry of Müllenark on December 1, 1225 on the court day to Nuremberg lawsuit against Frederick as main conspirators and demanded him anathema to beat. The underage king , who was probably deeply affected in view of the bones of his tutor , who had also just wanted to get married - Engelbert was actually supposed to perform the wedding ceremony - ignored the objections of the nobility that Friedrich could not be convicted in absentia and without the possibility of counter-speech. Then a commotion broke out in which several nobles were crushed to death.

The people of Cologne put a bounty on Friedrich in the amount of 2100 Cologne marks (1 mark = 233.8123 g silver). When he was betrayed on his way back by the Pope, to whom he had fled with his brothers the Bishop of Munster and the Bishop of Osnabrück , and extradited to Cologne, Müllenark put him on trial, whereby he was plaintiff and judge in one person and thus acted against medieval legal practice. In the presence of his pregnant wife Sophie von Limburg, he was condemned and Friedrich braided on the bike in front of the Severinstor .

Reunification of the County of Altena

Adolf I. Graf von der Mark consistently sided with Cologne at the latest after the murder and occupied the Isenberg inheritance of the Altenaischen count house with the approval of the Cologne church. The Isenberg castle and town of Nienbrügge near Hamm was razed and the citizens of the Ham between Ahse and Lippe, about 1 km further east, were resettled. Adolf gave the new settlement the city right on Ash Wednesday 1226. The castle Isenberg was also occupied by eau de Cologne and Brandenburg troops and dragged several kilometers upriver in Blankenstein built for Adolf the Blankenstein Castle . The legacy of the Counts of Berg was lost to the descendants of the Berg family , which had become extinct in the main line of the Altena-Mark and Altena-Isenberg lines. As had been determined by Engelbert years earlier, it went to his niece and her descendants after his death.

Isenberg confusion

Main article: Isenberg turmoil

Since 1225 Adolf had confiscated almost all Isenberg estates - the bailiwick of Essen went to the archbishopric. But in 1232 the remaining brothers and the son of Frederick demanded the inheritance back. Supported by his uncles, the Bishop of Osnabrück, the Duke of Limburg and Count von Berg, the feud broke out shortly after Adolf I had rejected the demands. In eleven years, however, the fighting led to little land gains for the Isenbergers and to a military stalemate. In 1243 Adolf I first sold the maternal legacy of Krickenbeck to his brother-in-law Otto von Geldern, although it remains unclear whether it was done to pay war costs or as thanks for help during the feud. Two months later the conflict ended with a contract over the Isenberg possessions in the Münsterland, which brought in the Krumme Grafschaft and Hohenlimburg Castle, which was built during the feud, as the nucleus of the tiny County of Limburg from the paternal property. However, Dietrich had to take this as a thanks for Count von Berg's help as a fief. The name Limburg was also a thank you to its supporters from the House of Limburg in what is now Belgium.

Adolf I, on the other hand, was able to keep a considerable part of the Isenberg estates. The Krumme Grafschaft in the Bochum area later fell back to the Märker, and the bailiwick of Essen Abbey and Werden Abbey again fell to them.

Distribution of the estate in Altena and Mark

After the death of Adolf I von der Mark, Altena and Krickenbeck , his son Otto von der Mark, Count of Altena, took over the rule of the County of Altena for a short time with the consent of his brother Engelbert I, Count von der Mark . Otto rearranged the administration in Altena and built a new hall at Altena Castle. He died in 1262 as the last incumbent count of Altena.

The end of the County of Altena - 1262

With Otto's death, the County of Altena fell back to Engelbert I and was merged with the County of Mark . Her name now disappeared permanently in favor of the name Grafschaft Mark . As early as 1225, the title was hardly used by the ruling family. Only Otto used it again from 1249 to 1262.

Ruler of the County of Altena

Berg-Altena line

1161–1180 Eberhard I von Berg-Altena

Altenaische inheritance 1180

Berg-Altena-Isenberg line

1180–1206 / 9 Arnold von Altena
1206 / 9–1209 Eberhard von Altena-Isenberg
1209–1225 Friedrich von Isenberg
1225–1301 Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg , First Count of Limburg , raised claims to Altena-Isenberg until 1243. However, lost most of Altena-Isenberg to Adolf I von der Mark

Berg-Altena-Mark line

1161–1198 Friedrich von Berg-Altena , Count of Altena and Krickenbeck; probably acquired the mark after 1180
1198–1249 Adolf I von der Mark , Count von der Mark, Altena and Krickenbeck; moved in Altena-Isenberg in 1225, sold Krickenbeck in 1243 and, in peace with Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg and Limburg, kept large parts of Altena-Isenberg.
1249–1262 Otto von der Mark , last Count of Altena

After 1262 Altena stayed with Mark and the title and the county went into the county of Mark. The line of Adolf I ruled the Mark until it was extinguished in 1609.

Individual evidence

^ Hermann Bollnow : The Counts of Werl. Genealogical research on the history of the 10th – 12th centuries Century. Ostsee-Druckerei und Verlag, Stettin 1930 (Greifswald, phil. Dissertation, 1930).

^ Jens Friedhoff: Altena Castle. In: Jens Friedhoff : Theiss Burgenführer Sauerland and Siegerland. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1706-8 , p. 22 f.

^ Johann Diederich von Steinen : Westphälische Geschichte. Meyer, Lemgo 1755.

↑ Paul Derks : The castle, place and field name Altena and its relatives. Names - name history - name interpretation. A research report. (PDF; 696 kB) In: Essener Linguistic Scripts. Vol. 0, H. 1, 2000, ISSN 1617-5425 , pp. 31-205.

↑ Museums of Altena Castle: Chronicle of Altena Castle .

↑ Levold von Northof : Chronicle of the Counts of the Mark and the Archbishops of Cöln. Improved and completed from manuscripts by Karl Ludwig Philipp Tross . Self-published by the editor, Hamm 1859.

^ Stefan Eismann: Altena Castle in Altena, Märkischer Kreis (= early castles in Westphalia. Vol. 28, ISSN 0939-4745 ). Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Münster 2009.

↑ Joseph Prince: The Counts of Limburg-Stirum - Servants of the Church - Warriors of God. In: Stichting Van Limburg Stirum (ed.): The Counts of Limburg Stirum. Introduction and final volume of the history of the Counts of Limburg Stirum and their direct ancestors (= Divorced from the Graven van Limburg-Stirum Volume 1, 1). van Gorcum et al., Assen et al. 1976, ISBN 90-232-1354-8 .

^ Josef Lappe: Hamm in the Middle Ages and in the modern age. In: Magistrat der Stadt Hamm (Ed.): 700 years city of Hamm. Festschrift to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the city. Breer & Thiemann, Hamm 1926, pp. 49–155, here p. 54.

↑ Reinhold Stirnberg: Before the Märker Came , Part VI: The Counts of Altena and the End of the German Controversy for the Throne. In: Active Seniors. the magazine for swords. Vol. 15, issue 60, September 2002, pp. 12–18, here p. 15 ( Online (PDF; 981 kB) ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2

^ Wilhelm Ribhegge: The Counts of the Mark and the history of the city of Hamm in the Middle Ages. Ardey-Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-87023-234-X , p. 50.

[1] Hermann Bollnow : The Counts of Werl. Genealogical research on the history of the 10th – 12th centuries Century. Ostsee-Druckerei und Verlag, Stettin 1930 (Greifswald, phil. Dissertation, 1930).

[2] Jens Friedhoff: Altena Castle. In: Jens Friedhoff : Theiss Burgenführer Sauerland and Siegerland. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1706-8 , p. 22 f.

[3] Johann Diederich von Steinen : Westphälische Geschichte. Meyer, Lemgo 1755.

[4] Paul Derks : The castle, place and field name Altena and its relatives. Names - name history - name interpretation. A research report. (PDF; 696 kB) In: Essener Linguistic Scripts. Vol. 0, H. 1, 2000, ISSN 1617-5425 , pp. 31-205.

[5] Museums of Altena Castle: Chronicle of Altena Castle .

[6] Levold von Northof : Chronicle of the Counts of the Mark and the Archbishops of Cöln. Improved and completed from manuscripts by Karl Ludwig Philipp Tross . Self-published by the editor, Hamm 1859.

[7] Stefan Eismann: Altena Castle in Altena, Märkischer Kreis (= early castles in Westphalia. Vol. 28, ISSN 0939-4745 ). Antiquities Commission for Westphalia, Münster 2009.

[8] Joseph Prince: The Counts of Limburg-Stirum - Servants of the Church - Warriors of God. In: Stichting Van Limburg Stirum (ed.): The Counts of Limburg Stirum. Introduction and final volume of the history of the Counts of Limburg Stirum and their direct ancestors (= Divorced from the Graven van Limburg-Stirum Volume 1, 1). van Gorcum et al., Assen et al. 1976, ISBN 90-232-1354-8 .

[9] Josef Lappe: Hamm in the Middle Ages and in the modern age. In: Magistrat der Stadt Hamm (Ed.): 700 years city of Hamm. Festschrift to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the city. Breer & Thiemann, Hamm 1926, pp. 49–155, here p. 54.