County of Ratzeburg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The County of Ratzeburg was founded in 1143 and existed as such for less than a century.

founding

In 1143, Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony enfeoffed Count Heinrich von Badewide, who had been ousted from Holstein and Stormarn by Adolf II von Schauenburg, with areas in the settlement area of ​​the Abodritic Polabas he had subjugated . The newly created county comprised the landscapes of Ratzeburg, Wittenburg and Gadebusch , as well as Rehna , Zarrentin and the Vogtei Mölln - that is, the northern part of what is now the Duchy of Lauenburg and parts of western Mecklenburg .

history

The county around the Abodritic Gauburg, built probably in the 11th century by the Polabian prince Ratibor (Ratse) and first mentioned in 1062, was a Saxon fiefdom . It remained in the male line with Bernhard III, who died in childhood, until it died out. († 1199) owned by the Badwiden . By marrying Bernhard's widowed mother Adelheid von Wassel , Adolf I von Dassel gained reign in 1200, but lost it a short time later due to the battle of Waschow (May 25, 1200 or 1201) in which he and his allies against an army of Mecklenburg vassals of the Danish king Knut VI. documents. The county then came under the sovereignty of the Danish king, and his brother and successor Waldemar II gave it to his nephew, Count Albrecht II of Orlamünde , who, as Count of Holstein, Stormarn, Ratzeburg and Wagrien, was the Danish governor of Northern Albania was.

In 1204 Waldemar II gave the Counts of Schwerin as a reward for their support of the Danish expansion all areas of the County of Ratzeburg east of today's border between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. In order to compensate for this , the noble gang , which until then had always been under the direct rule of the Saxon dukes, was attached to the county. This was the first time that the northern and southern parts of today's Duchy of Lauenburg were administratively united.

The End

County of Ratzeburg around 1250, after its incorporation into the Duchy of Saxony (dark green)

After the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227, with which the Danish expansion efforts in northern Germany were ended, the area of ​​the county came to the Ascanian Duke Albrecht I of Saxony . Since the Badwiden had already died out in 1199, Albrecht had already been assured in advance as a price for his participation in the war against King Waldemar that he would be able to move in the County of Ratzeburg as a settled Saxon fiefdom. Already in 1225, after the capture of Albrecht of Orlamünde in the battle of Mölln , Albrecht had also let him cede the Lauenburger Land to him. After Albrecht's death in 1260, his sons Johann I and Albrecht II jointly took over rule in the Duchy of Saxony. The younger brother Albrecht II ruled the part that became the Duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg when the Duchy was officially divided in 1296 . Johann I ruled over the former county of Ratzeburg and the Lauenburger Land. This area was under his sons Johann II. , Erich and Albrecht III. 1296 formally to the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg .

Count of Ratzeburg

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The battle of Waschow, on the website of Stadt & Amt Wittenburg. ( Memento from January 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Wilhelm Meyer: History of the counts of Ratzeburg . In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 76 (1911), pp. 1-160. ( Digitized version )
  • Eckardt Opitz (ed.): Duchy of Lauenburg. The country and its history , Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2003, ISBN 3-529-02060-5
  • Peter von Kobbe: History and description of the country of the Duchy of Lauenburg, First Part, Hammerich, Altona, 1836 ; photomechanical reprint 1979, Verlag Harro von Hirschheydt, ISBN 3-7777-0062-2 ( preview in Google book search)