County of Bregenz
The county of Bregenz is only mentioned (under this name) in the Middle Ages from 1043 to 1160. It belonged to the Udalrichinger family , who not only had their headquarters in Bregenz , but also took their name accordingly; they are also called Ulriche after their ancestor and lead name . Before that, an ancestor of the Counts of Bregenz had appeared as Count in Bregenz as early as the first half of the 10th century. After 1160, the Counts of Montfort-Bregenz are found as a branch line of the House of Montfort , after that the title Count of Bregenz is the title of the Habsburgs , and the County of Bregenz is part of Upper Austria . Its remnants will later, after the restructuring of the Austrian Empire in the course of the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna, be incorporated into the County of Tyrol , to which Vorarlberg represents a part of the country (in 1861 independent as "Land"). There the county existed titular (the imperial counties had expired in 1806) until the breakup of Austria-Hungary in 1918.
Counts of Bregenz (Ulriche, 1043 to 1160)
Counts in or from Bregenz were:
- Ulrich VI., † 950/957, Count in Bregenz, Graf in Rätien (→ County Rätien )
- Ulrich IX., † before 1079, probably a great-grandson of Ulrich VI., Count of Bregenz, Count in Argengau and Nibelgau
- Ulrich X., † 1097, Count of Bregenz; ∞ Bertha Countess von Kellmünz, † after 1128, daughter of the anti-king Rudolf von Rheinfelden
- Rudolf, † 1160, Count of Bregenz, Count in Unterrätien, Count of Chur; ∞ I Irmgard von Calw, daughter of Adalbert II, Count von Calw ; ∞ II Wulfhild of Bavaria, † after 1160, daughter of Heinrich the Black Duke of Bavaria ( Welfen ), became a nun of the Wessenbrunn convent after the death of her husband
- Elisabeth von Bregenz (* 1152; † after April 1, 1216), daughter of Rudolf and Wulfhild, wife of Count Palatine Hugo II of Tübingen
Counts of Montfort-Bregenz (1160 to 1451 or 1543)
The last Count of Bregenz bequeathed his property through his daughter Elisabeth and her husband Hugo II to the Count Palatine of Tübingen ; the grandson Hugo I , Count of Bregenz and Montfort († March 12, 1230/34) founded the important family of the Counts of Montfort , which was divided into many lines, ruled over Bregenz until 1523 and finally until 1780 over Tettnang.
Under Montfort rule, the Counts of Montfort-Bregenz , who ruled over the area of the former County of Bregenz, existed from 1170 as a partial line . The Montforters had developed in the previous generation as a branch line to the Count Palatine of Tübingen . Montfort-Bregenz became extinct again in 1338, and as a result, the third house (the first was Montfort-Feldkirch ) became the Montforter, the Montfort-Tettnang , from 1354 the Montfort-Tettnang-Bregenz line , which was divided into the older and 1379 shared the younger rule . This house brought with Hugo XII. (VIII. Von Bregenz , 1357–1423), minstrel and statesman, a prominent European representative.
Elisabeth von Hochberg (Hachberg), heir to Wilhelm VII († 1422), sold the older rule, part of the area, to the Habsburgs in 1451 .
The younger rulers called themselves Tettnang-Bregenz-Bregenz from 1514 , since with the Tettnang-Bregenz- Pfannberg / Beckach a Styrian line with the possessions that the minstrel Hugo had acquired in the service of Leopold IV . In 1523, the Montforters from Bregenz, all of whom served abroad, also sold the other part of the Bregenz County.
The Bregenz house, however, also inherited the Tettnang family on the Styrian line in 1574, and did not go out until 1780, with the last of those from Montfort.
Habsburgs (from 1451 or 1523)
Duke Siegmund, regent of Tyrol , bought half of the town and lordship of Bregenz, the courts of Hofsteig , Lingenau and Alberschwende from Elisabeth on July 12, 1451 , and the inhabitants of this half were from then on considered personally vacant. Ferdinand I bought the other half from Hugo on September 5, 1523.
The county of Bregenz existed as a constitutional imperial county until the dissolution of the Old Empire in 1806. Nevertheless, the Habsburgs carried the title of Count of Bregenz until 1918, and as such it is also found in the Great Title of the Emperor of Austria , as well as the blue and silver coat of arms in Coat of arms of the Habsburgs, the Austrian Empire and the Austrian states of Austria-Hungary .
coat of arms
This coat of arms is a fur coat of arms, as it is often found in France or England. The entire shield surface of the coat of arms is covered with fur. It is emblazoned :
- The two outer fields are ermine in four stakes (today steel blue)
- the middle bar is silver with three black field turnips (the colors of the city of Bregenz come from this stripe - black and white, but today the turnips are emblazoned as ermine tails ).
Whether this coat of arms is actually that of the old Counts of Bregenz is currently being questioned by researchers. It is likely to be an apocryphal, that is, a fake or false coat of arms.
The city of Bregenz was awarded this city coat of arms by the new sovereign King Ferdinand, later Emperor Ferdinand I , in 1529 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Zösmair: History of Rudolf the last of the old counts of Bregenz (1097-1160). In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings. 44th year 1915, pp. 25–39 ( digitized version )
- ↑ Placidus Braun: The life stories of all the saints and blessed, some of whom were born, lived or died in the city and others in the diocese of Augsburg . Augsburg 1825, pp. 165-166.
- ^ According to Ulrich Nachbaur : The Vorarlberg state coat of arms from 1864. A contribution to state and state symbolism. In: Montfort. Quarterly magazine for the past and present of Vorarlberg. Vol. 60, issue 4, 2008, ISBN 978-3-85430-343-5 , graphic 4: The Montfort house and its ruling lines (excluding Werdenberg). P. 249. ( Article, pdf ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Vorarlberg. at, p. 17)
- ^ The sons of Hermann II: Hugo XVII. died in Höchstädt , Georg III. in Bruck an der Mur , Wolfgang II in Gurk and Johannes IV in Salzburg , only Hermann III. could rest in Bregenz. On George III. the Pfannberger go back, from 1524 Beckacher (Peggauer) go back. According to Karl Heinz Burmeister: Count Georg III. from Montfort-Bregenz-Pfannberg (approx. 1475/80 - 1544). A biographical sketch. In: Montfort. Quarterly magazine for the past and present of Vorarlberg. Vol. 61, Issue 1, 2009, ISBN 978-3-85430-344-2 , section The loss of Bregenz. P. 20 (Article P. 7–25, Article, pdf ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2013 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. , vorarlberg.at, p. 17 there)
- ↑ The Montforters did not renounce the title Herr zu Bregenz until 1752. Burmeister: Graf Georg III. P. 20.
- ↑ Imperial diploma of August 20, 1864 on the award of a coat of arms to the State of Vorarlberg VLA, Libelle and Diploma No. 51. Quoted in: State Constitutional Law of October 11, 1934 on the Constitution of the State of Vorarlberg (State Constitution) LGBl. No. 23 / 1934 i. d. F. LGB1. No. 9/1969, LGBl. No. 24/1984 (vorarlberg.at, pdf)
- ↑ "[...] because of the county of Bregenz four vertically standing piles of ermine, in the middle of which a silver bar with three black turnips embedded in the same." New title and coat of arms of His Roman and Austrian Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, after the changes brought about by the Luneviller peace treaty and the very highest pragmatic ordinance of August 11th, 1804. Vienna, 1804. Quoted by Otto Posse: The seals of the German emperors and kings . tape 5 . Wilhelm and Bertha v. Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1913, supplements, p. 253 ( Wikisource ).
