County of Neuenahr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of the Counts of Neuenahr

The county of Neuenahr was a county around the castle Neuenahr in the Ahr valley . In the Middle Ages, it included the current districts of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler : Wadenheim , Hemmessen and Beul as well as Ramersbach .

In addition, most of the villages in what is now Grafschaft, a community -free municipality, belonged to the county of Neuenahr: Ringen , Beller , Bölingen , Bengen , Karweiler , Leimersdorf , Oeverich , Niederich , Birresdorf , Holzweiler , Esch and, until 1382, Gelsdorf .

The medieval Grafschaft Neuenahr did not belong to the three villages of today's unionship-free municipality Grafschaft: Vettelhoven ( enclave of the Bailiwick of Ahrweiler and therefore part of Kurköln ), Lantershofen (Kurkölnisches fief, later imperial rule) and Nierendorf (to the imperial knighthood of Landskron ).

In the north, the villages Fritzdorf , Ersdorf , Altendorf , Wormersdorf and Klein Altendorf as well as the exclave Ramershoven with Peppenhoven (near Rheinbach ) also belonged to the historic county of Neuenahr. As a joint property ( condominium ) with the Imperial Knight of Landskron, the Count of Neuenahr owned rights to the villages of Gimmigen and Kirchdaun . Until a territorial swap in 1659, Adendorf , Arzdorf , Eckendorf and Villip also belonged to the County of Neuenahr and, from 1546, to the Jülich office of Neuenahr that emerged from it .

Neuenahr Castle was built around 1225 by the Counts of Neuenahr, a new branch of the Are-Hochstaden-Nürburg family .

  • 1221–1358 rule of the Counts of Neuenahr
  • 1358–1425 rulership of the Counts of Neuenahr-Saffenburg
  • 1372 Destruction of Neuenahr Castle by Ahrweiler riflemen and Kurkölner troops
  • 1382–1546 was the county of Kurköln.
  • 1425–1546 rulership of the Counts of Neuenahr- Saffenburg - Virneburg
  • 1546–1609 Duke of Jülich is Count von Neuenahr (after the Neuenahr-Saffenburg-Virneburg line had died out, the direct feudal lord , the Duke of Jülich , established the settled fief and asserted his claims against the rival Kurköln.)
  • In 1614 with the Treaty of Xanten as a result of the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute, the County of Neuenahr and Jülich-Berg fell to the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg
  • 1685 County Neuenahr belongs to acquisition of Palatine electorship by line Neuburg to 1797 to Kurpfalz .

Succession disputes 1358 to 1382

Family coat of arms of those of Neuenahr: a black “Aar” (eagle) on a golden background

With the death of Wilhelm III. In 1358 the Neuenahr line died out in the male line . His daughter Katharina von Neuenahr married Johann von Saffenburg from nearby Saffenburg at the age of twelve .

The female line of succession was only recognized in exceptional cases at that time, and so Johann IV von Rösberg , from a sideline of that of Neuenahr, also made claims to the county of Neuenahr.

The inheritance disputes dragged on for several decades. The residents of the County of Neuenahr, who had already paid the taxes ( tithes ) to Katharina von Neuenahr-Saffenburg, who resided in her husband's Saffenburg, were violently by Johann IV von Rösberg, who had managed to get himself to the castle Neuenahr, forced to pay her tithe to him a second time. Johann IV von Rösberg also worked as a robber baron and highwayman by plundering Ahrweiler merchants who transported their goods towards the Rhine. Additional income, he explores through hostage-taking at Ahrweiler merchants, he only after ransom payment from the castle dungeon dismissed again.

The damaged city of Ahrweiler belonged to Kurköln, but the powerful Archbishop of Cologne mixed up despite obvious interests (the county of Neuenahr would be the territorial link between the main part of Kurköln with Drachenfelser Ländchen, Meckenheim and Rheinbach on the northern side and the large exclave of Kurköln around Ahrweiler, Altenahr and Nürburg on the southern side) entered the disputes in the comparatively small county on its borders late.

But no sooner was the equally powerful rival, the Duchy of Jülich, bound by the First War of the Geldrian Succession from 1371 to 1379, than the Archbishop of Cologne dispatched his troops and the civil rifle of Ahrweiler against Johann IV. Von Rösberg. After four months of siege, he had to surrender in Neuenahr Castle. The winners then destroyed Neuenahr Castle and the Archbishop of Cologne had the two warring family lines assure him that a castle (which could again become a robber baron's nest and an obstacle to traffic to Ahrweiler) could never be built again.

Kurköln actually wanted to incorporate this county of Neuenahr, but after the successful end of the War of the Geldr Succession, the Duchy of Jülich got involved again. As a formal feudal lord of the county with interests of his own (after all, at this time Jülich had already been granted rights to the imperial estate around Sinzig and Remagen by the German kings), Jülich could have withdrawn the completed fief at that time , as it was then in 1546 other power-political constellations was possible.

Due to the bond in the Duchy of Geldern , Jülich came too late and could only prevent the full incorporation of the County of Neuenahr into Kurköln. Jülich protested together with his own formal overlord Kurpfalz against the incorporation. In 1382, Kurköln agreed with the Neuenahr-Saffenburg line of the heiress Katharina about a common rule over the county of Neuenahr. And so Kurköln had co-rulership over the county of Neuenahr from 1382 to 1546.

literature

Web links