County of Rieneck

; Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
County of Rieneck
coat of arms
	; ;
Form of rule	county
Ruler / government	Count
Today's region / s	DE-BY ;
Reichskreis	Franconian
Capitals / residences	Rieneck Castle , then Lohr Castle
Dynasties	Count of Rieneck
Denomination / Religions	Catholic
Language / n	German ;
Incorporated into	since 1559 Kurmainzer fief, 1815 to Bavaria ;

In the Middle Ages, the county of Rieneck was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire in what is now Lower Franconia , which was owned by the Counts of Rieneck .

history

The time between 1168 and the Reformation

With the expansion of the fort in Rieneck in 1168, Count Ludwig I of Loon and Rieneck chose the castle and town of Rieneck as the center of his rule, which was soon referred to as the County of Rieneck. The Rieneck was one of the most important fortifications of the Würzburg region. However, since the middle of the 13th century, the seat of the county has been Lohr am Main , or to be more precise, Lohr Castle .

At the end of the 13th century, the county included a large part of the Spessart , parts of the Main Triangle , the " Franconian Plate " east of the Main Square, the area around Grünsfeld and free float from the Nahe to the Steigerwald . Until 1271 Steinau an der Straße belonged to the county. The dispute between the Archbishops of Mainz and the Counts of Rieneck over power in the western Spessart ended that year with a victory for the Archbishop of Mainz, Werner von Eppstein . Part of the peace agreement was that Countess Elisabeth von Rieneck was married to Ulrich I von Hanau , an ally of the Archbishop of Mainz, with a rich trousseau , which included the town of Steinau an der Strasse . The County of Rieneck became a Mainz fief in 1366.

Time of the Reformation and extinction of the count family

Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon recommended Johann Konrad Ulmer to Count Philipp von Rieneck to introduce the Reformation in his area. For this he was ordained on November 28, 1543 by Johannes Bugenhagen in Wittenberg. As court preacher to the Count in Lohr , he had a far-reaching effect. During his preaching activity, the city and then the entire county passed over to the Reformation in 1544 without violence.

Count Philip III. von Rieneck worked closely with Count Philip III on the question of the Reformation and also otherwise . von Hanau-Munzenberg (1526–1561) together. When it was foreseeable that the Count of Rieneck would die without a male heir, he asked Emperor Karl V for the eventual transfer of the fiefs to Hanau, which the Emperor also granted. However, he abdicated in the same year and his successor, King Ferdinand I , was unable to confirm it as a corresponding document was missing. Count Philip III. von Rieneck died as the last male member of his family on September 3, 1559. Count Philipp III. von Hanau-Münzenberg could not enforce his inheritance claims, so that the fiefdoms fell back to Kurmainz and the Bishopric of Würzburg . From then on, Lohr was the administrative seat of the Mainz rule of Rieneck. However, Philip III took over. von Hanau-Münzenberg the coat of arms of the Rieneckers and their names in its title .

The dispute over the inheritance continued, however, so that a condominium was finally formed, which belonged to ¾ Kurmainz and ¼ Hanau-Münzenberg . The Mainz share was bought in 1673 by Johann Hartwig Graf von Nostitz . This share was sold in 1803 to the Bohemian Counts of Colloredo and Mansfeld , who thus achieved the rise to imperial immediacy .

In 1815 Rieneck came completely to Bavaria.

and display information about the image

Rieneck Castle

literature

Theodor Ruf: Rieneck, Grafschaft , in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, 2017

Web links

County of Rieneck with map 1789

Individual evidence

^ Theodor Ruf: Hanau and Rieneck. About the changeable relationship between two neighboring noble families in the Middle Ages . In: New Magazine for Hanau History, 8th Vol., No. 6, pp. 300-311 (304).
^ Theodor Ruf: Hanau and Rieneck. About the changeable relationship between two neighboring noble families in the Middle Ages. In: New magazine for Hanau history. Vol. 8, No. 6, 1986, ZDB -ID 535233-2 , pp. 300-311, here p. 308.

[1] Theodor Ruf: Hanau and Rieneck. About the changeable relationship between two neighboring noble families in the Middle Ages . In: New Magazine for Hanau History, 8th Vol., No. 6, pp. 300-311 (304).

[2] Theodor Ruf: Hanau and Rieneck. About the changeable relationship between two neighboring noble families in the Middle Ages. In: New magazine for Hanau history. Vol. 8, No. 6, 1986, ZDB -ID 535233-2 , pp. 300-311, here p. 308.