County of Koenigstein

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The county of Königstein was an imperial territory of the Holy Roman Empire in the Upper Rhine Empire .

Under the Eppstein house

On 6 August 1505, the the received house Eppstein belonging brothers Eberhard , George and Philip, men Konigstein to Eppstein and to Münzenberg the Roman-German King Maximilian I the right to future name, emblem and the title of Count of Koenigstein to lead . But all three brothers remained without male descendants, so that Eberhard IV. Appointed the son of his sister Anna , who was married to Botho zu Stolberg , as a universal heir in his will.

According to the imperial register of 1521 , the Count of Königstein should provide four mounted and 13 foot soldiers in the event of war.

Under the Stolberg house

On May 25, 1535, Eberhard IV von Eppstein died and his universal heir Ludwig zu Stolberg , who had been co-regent of his uncle Eberhard from 1527, inherited the county by will. Under his rule, the Reformation was introduced according to the church regulations of Count Wolfgang von Pfalz-Zweibrücken . However, the opposed Cistercian - Kloster Marie Castle in Rocky Mount success of the Reformation.

Count Ludwig also remained without male descendants, so that his brother Christoph zu Stolberg took over the inheritance.

Dissolution of the county

The last lord of the county, Count Christoph zu Stolberg, died on August 5th, 1581. Thereupon the Mainz Elector Daniel Brendel von Homburg informed his brother Albrecht Georg zu Stolberg that the county was to be regarded as a settled imperial fief by power of attorney from Emperor Rudolf II and the elector would be appointed as Reich Commissioner for the rule. The county was converted into the Oberamt Königstein .

The Counts of Stolberg, however, sued the Reich Chamber of Commerce .

Even if the county was dissolved as an independent rule, it nominally existed until 1806. It was only abolished by the Rhine Confederation Act and the rule of Gedern belonging to the county was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

literature

  • Jörg Brückner: Between Imperial Estates and Estates (PDF file; 3.89 MB). The Counts of Stolberg and their relationship to the Landgraves of Thuringia and later dukes, electors and kings of Saxony (1210 to 1815), dissertation TU Chemnitz 2003.
  • Karl Wolf: The acquisition of the County of Königstein by Kurmainz i. J. 1581 and the Wetterau Count Association. In: Yearbook of the Association for Nassau Archeology and Historical Research 74, 1963, pp. 70 ff.
  • Beate Großmann-Hofmann, Hans-Curt Köster: Königstein im Taunus: History and Art. Verlag Langewiesche , Königstein 2010, ISBN 978-3-7845-0778-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Pohl: Magic belief and fear of witches in the Electorate of Mainz. A contribution to the witch question in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, p. 66.