County Diez
The County of Diez was a medieval territory in the central Lahngau .
history
The county presumably emerged as the successor to the Count of the Konradines in Niederlahngau after this family had shifted their dominance from Franconia to Swabia in the second half of the 10th century . The von Diez family of counts probably came from the Nahe region and took over the county of the Lahn on behalf of the Salians as an official county , which soon became hereditary. The center of the county was the Grafenschloss Diez . Their territory extended along the Lahn valley to below Weilburg , to the north in the Westerwald and to the east in the Goldenen Grund .
The Counts of Diez were first mentioned in a document in 1073, when a Count Embricho and his brother von Diez ( Didesse ) sold goods near Badenheim to the St. Victorstift in Mainz-Weisenau . A Count Embricho has been recorded in Niederlahngau since 1059 . His brother was probably Count Godebold, who was proven in Niederlahngau from 1053 onwards. A close relative of Embrichos was probably the Augsburg bishop Embricho (1063-1077).
Under the Hohenstaufen , especially under Friedrich Barbarossa , the Counts of Diez reached the apex of their power. Heinrich II von Diez (1145–1189) inherited considerable property in the Wetterau, presumably from his marriage to an inheritance daughter of the Counts of Nürings who was not known by name . He accompanied Barbarossa on his Italian trains and was involved in diplomatic negotiations there, as did his son Heinrich III. In 1207 Heinrich III. and his brother Gerhard II. from the bailiwick of Mainz-Kastell to King Philip of Swabia and in return received imperial property near Usingen and the church patronage in the place. Gerhard II was also a member of the Regency Council and Heinrich VII's educational group .
The brothers Heinrich III. and Gerhard II initiated the establishment of the monastery in Salz as the house monastery of the Counts of Diez. The salt monastery was incorporated into the Diez collegiate monastery as early as 1289 by Count Gerhard VII .
The county was already called the Golden County by its contemporaries . In it there were the high dishes Stuhllinden near Winden-Höhn, St. Maximinus near Ellar and Reckenforst near Dietkirchen. These in turn were divided into the following Zente : Altendiez , Flacht , Hahnstatten , Lindenholzhausen , Dauborn , Niederhadamar (Dehrner Zent), Hundsangen , Nentershausen , Meudt , salt , Rotzenhahn , Hoen- Rennerod , Villmar , Schupbach , Panrod , Kirberg and Camberg , Lahr , Elsoff , Blessenberg ( Frickhofen ) and Niederzeuzheim .
The decline of the Counts of Diez began towards the end of the 13th century with the final split off of the Weilnau line , which initially had its headquarters in Altweilnau and from 1302 in Neuweilnau . With the end of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the family also lost their influence in politics. In addition, there were economic problems and the resulting successive sale of the territory.
In 1302, the two lines separated for good, forming two separate counties. In 1326 the Weilnau line moved its headquarters to Birstein im Vogelsberg . Their territory on the Lahn was largely taken over by the House of Nassau .
The Diez Line, weakened by the division of 1302, also lost possessions and rights in the following years, primarily through pledging to the overpowering neighbors Nassau and Kurtrier as well as Katzenelnbogen and Eppstein . Count Gottfried von Diez (1303-1348) was considered incapable of government , so that Emich von Nassau-Hadamar took over the guardianship from 1317 to 1332. From 1332 Gerhard VI ruled. for his father; he died on October 17, 1343 in a feud with the city of Limburg .
In 1388 the last Count von Diez, Gerhard VII, died. His remaining territory fell through his daughter Jutta to his son-in-law, Count Adolf von Nassau-Dillenburg . By this time, a significant portion of the county had been transferred to numerous pledgees. Adolf von Nassau-Dillenburg died in 1420 without any direct male descendants. The Nassau House, however, could only preserve ownership of half the county. The other half went to Gottfried VII von Eppstein-Münzenberg via Adolf's daughter Jutta. The Eppstein house sold half of its share in 1453 to the Counts of Katzenelnbogen . When the Counts of Katzenelnbogen died out, the Katzenelnbogen district fell to the Landgraves of Hesse , who ceded it to Nassau-Dillenburg with the Frankfurt Treaty of June 30, 1557. The remaining Eppstein quarter came to Kurtrier in 1535 . With the Diez Treaty of 1564, Nassau-Dillenburg and Kurtrier divided the county.
A Nassau-Diez line of the House of Nassau was established in 1606 .
coat of arms
- The family coat of arms (after seals from 1308 and 1346) shows two striding golden leopards one above the other in red . The helmet with its red and gold covers is fan-shaped with bolts.
- The later hereditary coat of arms shows a closed black flight over the same shield on the helmet covered with the two golden leopards in a round red disk.
Family coat of arms in Siebmacher's book of arms after Gottfried's seals of 1308 and 1346
Later hereditary coat of arms in Siebmacher's coat of arms book (correctly mirrored here)
Dynasts
Probably among the Counts of Diez were:
- Embricho (before 1059 to after 1073) and
- Godebold (before 1053 to after 1073)
Counts of the Diezer line were:
- The brothers Heinrich I and Gerhard I (before 1101 until after 1007)
- Embricho II (before 1145)
- Henry II (1145–1189)
- The brothers Gerhard II. (1189–1223) and Heinrich III. (1189-1234); Heinrich founded the Weilnau Line from 1208
- Gerhard III. (1234-1276)
- Gerhard IV. (1281-1306)
- The brothers Gerhard V. (1301– before 1308) and Gottfried (1303–1348)
- Gerhard VI. (1317–17 October 1343)
- Gerhard VII (1347-1388)
- Jutta (1368-1397), married to Adolf von Nassau-Dillenburg
Counts of the Weilnau line were:
- Henry III. (1189-1234)
- The brothers Gerhard I (1274–1282) and Heinrich I (1249–1275)
- The brothers Heinrich II. (1282-1344) and Reinhard (1282-1333), sons of Gerhard I, together with their nephew Heinrich III. (1275–1307), a son of Heinrich I.
- Gerhard II. (1360–1389), descendant of Reinhard
- Henry IV (1389–1413)
- The brothers Adolf (1420–1451), Heinrich V (1426– before 1438) and Reinhard (1424–1472)
Counts of Diez (House of Hesse)
The children from Landgrave Philipp I's second marriage to Margarethe von der Saale (* 1522, † July 6, 1566) in Rotenburg an der Fulda on March 4, 1540 “ on the left hand ” received the title Count von Diez (“ Born from the House of Hesse, Counts von Diez and Lords of Lißberg and Bickenbach "):
- Philip (1541–1569)
- Hermann (1542–1568)
- Christoph Ernst (1543–1603)
- Margarethe (1544-1608)
- Albrecht (1546–1569)
- Philipp Konrad (1547–1569)
- Moritz (1553–1575)
- Ernst (1554–1570)
The seven sons all died unmarried and without legitimate offspring.
literature
- Karl Ernst Demandt : History of the State of Hesse. 2nd edition, Kassel 1972 (pp. 405-410).
- Hellmuth Gensicke : State history of the Westerwald. Wiesbaden 1958.
- Hermann Heck: Pictures from the history of the county and the city of Diez. in "Journal for local history of the administrative district Coblenz and the adjacent areas of Hessen-Nassau", Coblenz 1921. ( Part 1 , Part 2 )
- Hermann Heck: The origin of the Grafschaft Diez and the origin of the Diezer Grafenhaus. in "Journal for local history of the administrative district Coblenz and the adjacent areas of Hessen-Nassau", Coblenz 1921 ( dilibri.de )
- Michael Hollmann / Michael Wettengel: Nassau's contribution to today's Hesse. Wiesbaden 1992 (pp. 15, 24-25).
- Klaus Eiler: Political upheaval on the lower Lahn in the counties Katzenelnbogen and Diez in the 16th century. In: Nassauische Annalen, Wiesbaden 1989, pp. 97–114.
- Wolf-Heino Struck : Church inventories of the County of Diez from 1525/26 and their contemporary historical background. A contribution to the history of the sovereign church regiment. In: Nassauische Annalen 1957, p. 58.
Web links
- Literature on Grafschaft Diez in the Hessian Bibliography
- Coat of arms of the Counts of Dietz in Siebmacher's Wappenbuch from 1701, Volume 2, Plate 17 (reversed)
Individual evidence
- ↑ see also Karl E. Demandt: Grafen von Diez. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 710 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ↑ See the information on the relevant exchange document from 1207 in Lemma Usingen , paragraph "Usingen in the Grafschaft Diez"
- ↑ J. Siebmacher's large and general book of arms, VI. Volume, 7th section, p. 4, plate 5; The dead Nassau nobility; Author: H. von Goeckingk, A. von Bierbrauer-Brennstein, A. von Grass; Publication: Nuremberg: Bauer & Raspe, 1882
- ↑ They are often referred to in older literature as the Counts of Dietz .