County of Nidda

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Territory in the
Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation
Overview List of territories in the Holy Roman Empire
coat of arms Coa fam DEU nidda grafen.jpg
designation County of Nidda
Head of state Count of Nidda
Capitals / residences Nidda
Emerged from Fief of the Fulda monastery
Form of rule county
Ruling house Count of Nidda
Religion / denomination Roman Catholic
language German
Submerged 1206 to the county of Ziegenhain

The county of Nidda , a territory of the Holy Roman Empire , was a small, from 1420 imperial direct county around the city of Nidda in today's Wetteraukreis in Hesse . It was located on the northern edge of the Wetterau and essentially consisted of a relatively closed block of fiefs from the Fulda monastery .

historical overview

The counties of Ziegenhain and Nidda (blue) and the Landgraviate of Hesse (brown) around 1450

The county emerged from a court of the Fulda Monastery, with which it summarized its property in the northern Wetterau . As early as the second half of the 11th century, this area was referred to as "Grafschaft Nidda" when the bailiwick was given to Volkold I of Malsburg as a fief of the area . With the marriage of his son Volkold II into the family of the Lords of Nürings at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, further property came to the family. The county of Nidda was constituted from this stock. In 1104 it is first documented that Volkold II was a member of the family who was referred to as "Count of Nidda".

In 1155, after a lost dispute in which the family took part alongside Count Palatine Hermann von Stahleck against the Archbishop of Mainz and Elector Arnold von Selenhofen , the Malsburg and other North Hessian possessions were lost, so that the county was now part of the northern Wetterau. A deed of donation from 1187 provides information about the extent of the county: It therefore extended at least over an area whose corner points are in Ranstadt , Einartshausen , Wenings and Gelnhaar . What also belonged to the county of Nidda is not certain due to the incomplete tradition. This document comes from Berthold II (attested from 1187; † 1205/06). He died childless, so that his nephew, Ludwig I von Ziegenhain, son of Count Rudolf II von Ziegenhain and his wife Mechthild, sister of the late Berthold II, inherited the county of Nidda. Smaller parts of the inheritance were probably used as trousseau for two of his sisters: Adelheid von Ziegenhain married Ulrich I von Munzenberg , Mechthild married Gerlach II von Isenburg .

From 1205/06 the county of Nidda was owned by the Counts of Ziegenhain, for whom it was mostly of minor importance compared to the much larger county of Ziegenhain . Only during the period from 1259 to 1330 was the county of Nidda formally separated from Ziegenhain again as a result of an inheritance division, but then came back to the main line of Ziegenhain by marriage after Johann I. von Ziegenhain became the heiress Lukardis (Luitgart) of the last count in 1311 von Nidda, Engelbert I., had married. In 1450, when the county of Nidda - as well as the county of Ziegenhain - after the childless death of Count Johann II. Became part of the Landgraviate of Hesse and ceased to exist as an independent territory, it included the office of Nidda with the courts of Widdersheim , Rodheim , Ulfa and Wallernhausen , the rule Lißberg , the Fulda Mark with the half bailiffs Echzell , Berstadt , Dauernheim and Bingenheim (with the exception of the local castle), and the courts of Burkhard and Crainfeld .

Origins

In the Wetterau area , the Fulda imperial abbey had acquired considerable free float on the basis of former imperial estates that had been transferred to it over time after the fall of the Konradin rule . In order to summarize this administratively, the Bingenheim court established it on Bingenheim Castle, first mentioned in 1064 . Soon, probably already during the term of office of the abbot Widerad von Eppenstein (1060-1075), the judicial district of Bingenheim was called "Grafschaft Nidda". Since the monastery could not exercise blood jurisdiction itself and at the same time needed secular protection for its possessions, it appointed bailiffs for the Fulda Mark and its possessions in the Niddatal ; in return, they received half of the associated villages (with the exception of Bingenheim Castle) as a Fulan fief . Initially, the bailiwick of the small county of Nidda was possibly in the hands of the Lords of Nürings im Taunus as a Fulda fief . However, it was probably already given in whole or in part as a fief by Abbot Widerad to the noble free von Malsburg , who also acquired Allod in the area through marriage and called themselves "Counts of Nidda" from 1104.

The Counts of Nidda from the House of Malsburg

Volkold I.

The bailiwick of Bingenheim or Fuldische Mark was probably already given by Abbot Widerad around or soon after 1065 in whole or in part to the noble free Volkold I (* around 1040, † 1097) of Malsburg . Volkold, who first appeared in 1062, has since served as the Fulda bailiff in Bingenheim and became the progenitor of the short-lived house of the first counts of Nidda . Volkolds family had in Hessengau a small domination in space in the 10th century Zierenberg created in Northern Hesse, and had on the local Malsburg their headquarters. Whether Volkold I or his son Volkold II was the builder of the moated castle in Nidda is still unclear; possibly the son completed the construction started by the father. It is at least known that the judicial district of Bingenheim was also called "Grafschaft Nidda" at this time.

Volkold II.

Volkold's son Volkold II (* around 1070, † around 1130) married Luitgart von Nürings , a daughter of Berthold von Nürings (1050–1112). The marriage brought Volkold Allod property in the Nidda area, which became the foundation of the County of Nidda, and probably also strengthened his entitlement to succeed his father as bailiff of the Bingenheim court, which he took over in 1097. He moved his residence from the Bingenheim Castle in Fulda to the castle in Nidda, which he or his father had built, and from 1104 at the latest he called himself “Count of Nidda”.

After he was captured during a feud in Mainz , he and his brother Udalrich had to give their castles Malsburg and Schartenberg to Archbishop Adalbert I of Mainz in 1124 and received them back from him as a fief. Volkold II stayed in Nidda, however, and left the administration of these fiefs to his brother, which after Udalrich's childless death came to him in full.

Berthold I.

Volkold's son Berthold I (* around 1110, † 1162) succeeded his father as Count of Nidda. He increased his property in the Nidda area by exchanging inherited goods in North Hesse and Westphalia with the Helmarshausen monastery near Bad Karlshafen and the Abdinghof monastery in Paderborn . In 1154 he lost the Westphalian goods he still had in Atteln and Boke in a process decided by Duke Heinrich the Lion to the Abdinghof monastery. In 1155 he also lost the castles of Malsburg and Schartenberg with their accessories to Archbishop Arnold von Mainz , as he had sided with Count Palatine Hermann von Stahleck in a feud . Several counts were as a partisan of the Count Palatine of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa because of breach of the peace with the outlawed occupied and degrading punishment of dogs wearing been sentenced, but Berthold ignored the summons to Gelnhausen and the judgment and made a name instead as a robber baron and highwaymen . He probably used the "Alteburg" near Kohden as a base. After all, he is said to have been forced to surrender and accept the punishment by an imperial contingent - according to legend, however, only after an attempt by his wife to save him in the manner of the Faithful Wives of Weinsberg had been discovered and thwarted.

Berthold II.

His successor as Count von Nidda, Berthold II. († 1205 at the latest), probably the son of Berthold I, donated extensive property in Nidda to the Order of St. John for the salvation of his parents, including the parish Nitehe (Nidda) and its daughter churches in Eichelsdorf and Reichelshausen, as well as income from a total of 26 other places in the area from Einartshausen and Eschenrod in the north to Wallernhausen , Wenings and Gelnhaar in the south. On this donation, the order established its first Commandery in Hesse, the eighth in Germany.

Berthold was last reported in 1191, as a witness at the foundation of the Konradsdorf monastery . With him, a close follower of Friedrich Barbarossa, the Counts of Nidda from the Malsburg family died out in the male line.

The Counts of Ziegenhain and Nidda

Ludwig I.

After the death of Berthold II, the county of Nidda, which remained a fiefdom of Fulda , came to her son Ludwig I through his sister Mechthild, who had married Count Rudolf II von Ziegenhain (* around 1132, † after 1188) in 1170 . (* around 1167 in Nidda, † 1227). After the death of his older brother Gottfried II (* 1156, † 1205) Ludwig became the ruling Count of Ziegenhain and now united both counties in his hand.

Around this time, the county of Nidda extended to the upper reaches of the Ohm and Felda in the Vogelsberg and included free float in the Rheingau near Rüdesheim am Rhein as well as bailiwicks over the Fulda estates and some Mainz possessions in the Wetterau up to the Main . Ludwig also made donations to the Johannites in Nidda, for example the Brungesrode estate in 1226 (in the area of ​​today's street name "Am Ruppelshof"). Due to the marriage of his sisters Adelheid and Mechthild, the county of Nidda lost valuable property and bailiwick rights to their spouses Ulrich I von Munzenberg and Gerlach II von Büdingen . B. the Bailiwick of Schotten with all accessories (at Büdingen). Together with his relatives in Ziegenhain and Reichenbach , Ludwig donated the former Reichenbach Monastery to the Teutonic Order in 1207 , which thereby acquired its first significant settlement in the German Empire. Ludwig was a reliable follower of the Staufer and after the election of Philip of Swabia as king in 1198 he was repeatedly notarized in the surrounding area (e.g. in Nuremberg in 1205 , in Boppard in 1206 , in Gelnhausen in 1207 and in Jülich ).

Berthold I. and Gottfried IV.

After Ludwig's death, his sons Gottfried IV († 1250) and Berthold I (* around 1207, † 1257/58) initially ruled the two counties together, with Berthold residing in the Ziegenhain homeland and Gottfried IV in Nidda. Like their father, both were partisans of the Staufer; In the decisive phase of the clash between the Hohenstaufen dynasty and the papacy , however, they moved to the anti-imperial camp early on , together with their brother Burkhart , who was provost at the Petristift in Fritzlar from 1240 and became Archbishop of Salzburg in 1247 , but died in the same year . Nidda, which was first designated as a city in 1234, was held by the brothers as an imperial fief from 1234, making the Counts of Nidda imperial princes . (The County of Nidda continued to be a Fulda fief.)

Separation of the counties of Nidda and Ziegenhain

Ludwig II.

In the county of Nidda, Gottfried IV, who died in 1250, was followed by his son Ludwig II († after 1289). Between him and his cousin Gottfried V. von Ziegenhain there was a dispute soon after his accession to government in Ziegenhain in 1258, and in the same year the two counties were formally divided and the area exchanged, mediated by Archbishop Gerhard I of Mainz, Bishop Simon I. von Paderborn and Abbot Heinrich IV. Von Fulda, who at the same time was also Abbot of Hersfeld and thus lord of the Ziegenhainers for both parts of Nidda and parts of Ziegenhain. Ludwig received the county of Nidda and the Neustadt office , gave up the bailiwick in Burg-Gemünden in exchange for the court in Rodheim and Widdersheim , and had to give up his claims to Staufenberg , Rauschenberg , Treysa , the castle in Burg-Gemünden, Schlitz and Lißberg . Gottfried should be free to redeem the bailiwick of the Fulda monastery with 175 silver marks from Ludwig. Gottfried was allowed to build in Nidda and Ludwig in Ziegenhain, but none to harm the other. In 1259, Ludwig bought part of Nidda Castle from the Rhine Counts Werner II and Siegfried I vom Stein. In 1263 he renounced his rights to Hornberg Castle near Neckarzimmern in favor of the Speyer diocese . He continued the family tradition of donations to the Haina Monastery. Probably out of financial difficulties, he sold the Johannitern zu Nidda between 1264 and 1286 considerable property in the city and the county, and in 1279 he pledged the Fulda bailiwick for 400 marks to Abbot Bertho IV of Fulda.

Like his cousin in Ziegenhain, Ludwig got into the mills of the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession , in which he tried to maintain his independence against the claims to power of Sophie von Brabant and her son, Heinrich I , who was proclaimed Landgrave of Hesse in 1247 and therefore sided with the Archdiocese of Mainz . In Neustadt around 1270 he built a castle to protect against Marburg in Hesse ; However, this was conquered in 1273 by the troops of Heinrich I of Hesse, who in the same year also had Gottfried V's castles in Staufenberg and Burg-Gemünden conquered and destroyed. Ludwig was also in the Mainz camp in 1288 when he loaned Archbishop Heinrich II 350 marks.

Engelbert I.

After Ludwig's death, his son Engelbert I († 1329) inherited him . He called himself "Graf von Ziegenhain, Herr zu Nidda". In order to get rid of his troubles around Neustadt, he sold the castle and town of Neustadt and associated villages on March 12, 1294 for 2,200 marks from Cologne pennies to Archbishop Gerhard II of Mainz. For Nidda, this sale meant the sale of distant free float, for the county of Ziegenhain, however, serious damage: it separated the Ziegenhain homeland on the Schwalm from the area on the Wohra with the Rauschenberg office. In the year 1300, a dispute broke out between Engelbert and the Johannitern over several places, which was only settled in 1315, after there had even been armed conflicts in 1314/15.

Engelbert married Heilwig in 1286, daughter of Ludwig I of Isenburg-Büdingen . The marriage resulted in the daughter Lukardis (Luitgard), and Engelbert probably died on September 6, 1329 without a male heir. However, as early as 1300 he had received an assurance from King Albrecht I that if there were no sons, his fiefs would pass to his daughter or daughters.

Lukardis

Engelbert's heir, Lukardis, had already in 1311 a great-grandson of Berthold I, Johann I von Ziegenhain († December 15, 1359), son of Gottfried VI. and since 1304 married Count von Ziegenhain. Engelbert and his wife Heilwig gave their daughter a. a. the Gülten at Ulfa, Rodheim, Widdersheim, Dauernheim, Bingenheim, Echzell, Berstadt, Burghards and Crainfeld. On February 4, 1311, on the occasion of their wedding, Lukardis and Johann confirmed their previous rights and freedoms to the city of Nidda, which went further than those of the cities of Treysa and Ziegenhain ; this proof of favor should probably prepare and secure the foreseeable transfer of the county to Johann. As early as April 1, 1323, Emperor Ludwig IV had enfeoffed Johann with the castle and town of Nidda as an imperial fief, which now also made the castle an imperial fief. however, the court remained a fiefdom. Engelbert died in 1329, and Lukardis ruled the county of Nidda nominally until her death in 1333.

Reunification with Ziegenhain

Johann I.

After Lukardis' death, Johann reunited the two counties of Ziegenhain and Nidda, which had been separated in 1258, in one hand. Johann, who had inherited the important office of high bailiff of the imperial abbey of Fulda , but which had not included the bailiwick over the monastery itself since 1279, signed a contract in April 1331 against the prince abbot and city lord of Fulda, Heinrich von Hohenberg with the outraged city of Fulda by multiple tax increases, as a result of which the abbey castles, the monastery and the provost's office were stormed and looted. The uprising was put down, however, and Johann himself escaped capture only with difficulty. He and the city were given an imperial ban. At the mediation of the Archbishop of Trier, Baldwin , a peace was concluded in September 1331, but it was not until 1339 that Johann had fully paid the fines and payments imposed on him.

At the beginning of 1344 Johann tried, albeit in vain, to swap the town of Nidda for the formerly nidda, but in 1294, after Engelbert's sale, the new town became Mainz, in order to round off his territory and to restore the connection between his areas on the Schwalm and the Wohra. This did not happen, however, because in the same year a new feud between Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse and Archbishop Heinrich III. broke out of Mainz, Johann and his son Gottfried VII were allied with the Landgrave this time, and the Landgrave conquered Neustadt Castle. Instead, Johann, who was in financial distress, in agreement with his son Gottfried, sold a quarter of the castle and town of Nidda along with all accessories, villages, people, courts, etc. to the Archdiocese of Mainz on February 6, 1344.

On May 5, 1344, the Fulda Abbey, although deeply in debt, bought all of Johann's remaining rights of the Fulda umbrella bailiff for 7,100 pounds of Heller . Receipt of the full purchase price was confirmed in 1346. Only the hereditary office of Marshal of Fulda was expressly retained for Johann; it included the disciplinary jurisdiction over the entire knighthood of Fulda, the chairmanship of the state parliaments , and the command of the feudal nobility and ministeriality .

The End

Until the Count of Ziegenhain died out with Johann II in 1450, the County of Nidda was then united with the County of Ziegenhain. Both passed into the possession of the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1450 . When the landgraviate was divided under the sons of Philip I in 1567, Nidda came with the castle to Hessen-Marburg , then in 1604 to Hessen-Darmstadt .

List of the Counts of Nidda

Counts of Nidda from the House of Malsburg (1104–1205 / 06)

  • Volkold I. (* around 1040, † 1097)
  • Volkold II., Son of Volkold I (* 1070, † around 1130)
  • Berthold I, son of Volkolds II (* 1100, † 1162)
  • Berthold II., Son of Berthold I († 1205/06)

Counts of Ziegenhain and Nidda from the House of Ziegenhain (1206–1258)

  • Ludwig I (* around 1167, † 1227), son of Rudolf II. Von Ziegenhain, son-in-law of Berthold II.
  • Gottfried IV. († 1257/58) and Berthold I (* around 1207, † 1257/58), sons of Ludwig I, together (Gottfried in Nidda, Berthold in Ziegenhain)

Counts of Nidda from the House of Ziegenhain (1258–1333)

  • Ludwig II. († 1289/1294), son of Gottfried IV.
  • Engelbert I († 1329), son of Ludwig II.
  • Lukardis († 1333), daughter of Engelbert I, regent 1329–1333

Counts of Ziegenhain and Nidda from the House of Ziegenhain (1333–1450)

territory

The county of Nidda consisted of the following when it passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1450:

coat of arms

The coat of arms shows a black and gold (yellow) divided shield, the upper black field of which shows two eight-pointed, silver (white) stars next to each other - in contrast to the coat of arms of Grafschaft Ziegenhain, which looks exactly the same, but only shows one six-pointed star.

Aftermath

During the time when it belonged to the Landgraviate and later to the Grand Duchy of Hesse , the designation "Graf zu Nidda" was part of the title. In the 19th century, it was also given to people who married into the House of Hesse , but were not equal , and therefore had to be given a different family name. Those were:

  • Caroline Török de Szendrő (1786–1862), whom Prince Georg (1780–1856) had morganatically married. She became "Countess of Nidda" in 1808, and "Princess of Nidda" in 1821 - so the county of Nidda even became a principality very late .
  • Caroline Willich called von Pöllnitz (1848–1879), who morganatically married Prince Heinrich of Hesse in 1878 . On this occasion, she received the title of "Baroness of Nidda". Their son from this marriage, Karl (1879–1920), received the title "Graf von Nidda" in 1883.

literature

  • Ottfried Dascher (Ed.): Nidda: the history of a city and its surrounding area. 2nd Edition. Niddaer Heimatmuseum eV, Nidda 2003, ISBN 3-9803915-8-2 .
  • Karl E. Demandt: History of the State of Hesse. 2nd Edition. Kassel 1972, ISBN 3-7618-0404-0 . (County Nidda: p. 159)
  • Angela Metzner: Reichslandpolitik, aristocracy and castles - studies on the Wetterau in the Staufer period. Büdingen 2008/2009, ISBN 978-3-00-026770-3 , pp. 136-141 ( Büdinger Geschichtsblätter 21 ).
  • Martin Röhling: The story of the counts of Nidda and the counts of Ziegenhain. Ed .: Niddaer Heimatmuseum eV, Nidda 2005, ISBN 3-9803915-9-0 . (= Nidda history sheets 9.)
  • Wilhelm Wagner: 1025 years of Nidda - the story of an old, lovable city. Nidda 1976.
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Witzel: The imperial abbey of Fulda and their high bailiffs, the counts of Ziegenhain in the 12th and 13th centuries. 1963. (= Publication of the Fulda History Association 41)
  • Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 7th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54986-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Landau: Description of the German Gaue, first volume: Description of the Gaues Wettereiba. Kassel, 1855, p. 30.
  2. ↑ However, it is only documented in 1104 that Volkold II., Who moved his seat from Bingenheim Castle to Nidda, was a member of the family who was referred to as "Count of Nidda".
  3. ↑ Burgenlexikon ( Memento of the original from February 3, 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burgenlexikon.eu
  4. ↑ Georg Landau: The Hessian knight castles and their owners, first volume. Luckhardsche Hofbuchhandlung, Kassel 1832, pp. 358–359
  5. ^ Schmidt, Geschichte des Großherzogthums Hessen , p. 254.
  6. ↑ Today desert east of Ober-Schmitten .
  7. ↑ Deed of donation from Count Berthold II. Von Nidda to the Johanniter ( Memento from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ The Johanniterturm, which was added to the Romanesque Johanniterkirche from the 11th century, which was donated to the order in 1491/92, is the last remnant of this commandery still visible today.
  9. ↑ Rudolf was the second son of Gottfried I , the first Count of Ziegenhain, and the brother and successor of Count Gozmar III. who died in 1184 when the Erfurt latrine fell .
  10. ↑ In 1218 and 1223 Nidda was still referred to as "villa".
  11. ↑ Ludwig's death year is unknown: he was still alive in 1290, but in 1294 his wife Sophie is attested as a widow.
  12. ↑ Burgenlexikon: Nidda ( Memento of the original dated February 22, 2014 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 notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burgenlexikon.eu
  13. ↑ Röhling, p. 49.
  14. ↑ Röhling, pp. 50-51.
  15. ↑ Gottfried had already received the castle and town of Nidda, as well as Burggemünden and Staufenberg Castle during his father's lifetime .
  16. ↑ Röhling, p. 75.
  17. ↑ Röhling, p. 90.