County of Brehna

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approximate demarcation of the county of Brehna around 1480
Seal of the Counts of Brehna 1226

The county of Brehna lay between the margraviate of Meißen and the duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg and got its name from the place Brehna .

Emergence

Count Dietrich II von Wettin inherited the property of his uncle, Count Friedrich von Eilenburg , in 1017 , as he only had daughters who were not entitled to inheritance. After the murder of Dietrich II in 1034, his sons shared their father's property:

Brehna

For the first time in 1053 the place and the county appeared under the name Brehna (Brene) . Count Thimo I had a castle built in Brehna before 1053 .

Initially, both brothers jointly administered the county. Thimo I. received Wettin and Gero Brehna and Camburg later . Both brothers took part in the battles of the Saxon nobility against Heinrich IV and temporarily supported the anti -king Rudolf of Swabia . Thimo II, the younger, is named as the next count, although his existence is not proven; some researchers deduce it from the fact that Thimo I (born before 1034) as a possible father of Conrad I at his birth (around 1098) must have already had a considerable age. He or Thimo II left two sons, Dedo IV and Conrad I, the great. Since the sons Geros, Dietrich, Wilhelm von Camburg and Günther had no children, the county of Brehna fell to Konrad I von Wettin in 1106 . Konrad I, who was Margrave of Meißen from 1127 and Lower Lusatia , Count of Brehna, Camburg and ruler of the Eilenburg rule from 1136 , stayed occasionally in Brehna . Before joining the Augustinian canons on the Petersberg near Halle (Lauterberg) , Konrad I gave his entire property to his sons. Friedrich I , the youngest son, born between 1142 and 1145, married to the daughter Theobald I of Böhmen-Jamnitz , Hedwig, received the counties of Brehna and Camburg. Amazingly , he is considered to be the founder of the Counts of Brehna , although there were Wettin counts in Brehna before Conrad I, and he acquired numerous estates for the county.

Herzberger time

After his death in 1181, his two sons, Otto I and Friedrich II. , Moved the seat of the County of Brehna to Herzberg (Elster) , but kept the name Count of Brehna . The reason for the relocation could have been their participation in the German eastward expansion . The by the sudden death of Henry VI. triggered Hohenstaufen-Welf throne dispute led the two o. g. Sons of Frederick on the side of King Philip of Swabia . In 1203 there were disputes between the warring parties, which also affected the Brehna area. The Bohemian King Przemysl Ottokar I and Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, who had switched to the Guelph side, oppressed the cities of Halle and Magdeburg with their troops in 1203 and devastated Brehna and Wettin . Otto I and his cousin, Count Ulrich I von Wettin , were able to beat their opponents in the battles near Landsberg and Zörbig . Otto I died on December 23, 1203. He was buried in the Brehna monastery.

Wettiner

The county was administered by his brother Friedrich II alone. Since 1206 this guardian was Count Heinrich III. from Wettin. Since he died at the age of 12, the line of the Counts of Wettin died out with him in 1217 . Most of the county fell to the Brehna family. On October 6, 1220 his wife Judith died, with whom he had four children. In 1221 he embarked on a crusade to the Holy Land , where he joined the Knights Templar and soon died of illness. His two sons, Otto II and Dietrich I, took over the business of government. The brothers, who had the counties of Brehna and Wettin firmly in their hands, stayed mainly in Herzberg , Schlieben and Löben . In 1234 Otto II died childless. His inheritance fell to his younger brother Dietrich I.

Konrad I, the only son of Dietrich I who remained in the secular class, succeeded his father. Conrad I's successor was his eldest son Albrecht. Albrecht died in 1284 without leaving any children. His brother Otto IV became his successor. Count Otto IV took part in the Reichstag convened by King Rudolf I in Erfurt in June 1290. There he died as the last of his line.

Ascanians

After Otto IV's death, the county fell to King Rudolf I , as he had not named an heir. On August 31, 1290, King Rudolf I gave it to his underage grandson, the Ascanian Duke Rudolf I of Saxony-Wittenberg . The Ascanian dukes adopted the title and coat of arms of the Counts of Brehna. The acquisition of the County of Brehna meant an increase in power for the Duke, because the income of the Counts of Brehna is said to have amounted to 2,000 silver marks according to the Erfurt Peterschronik .

With the extinction of the Wittenberg Saxony- line of Askanier 1422 came the county Brehna 1423 at Friedrich (IV.) / I., The Belligerent , from the House of Wettin , who in the August 1, 1425 Budapest with the Electorate of Saxony , the Erzmarschallamt , the Allstedt Castle , the County of Brehna and the Burgraviate of Magdeburg was solemnly enfeoffed. Due to the division of Leipzig in 1485, the county of Brehna fell to the Ernestine line founded by Elector Ernst and in 1547 to the Albertine line. From 1658 to 1738 Brehna belonged to Sachsen-Merseburg . In 1815 it came to Prussia following the Congress of Vienna .

The Counts of Brehna

Brehna coat of arms

See also

literature