Saar Werden County

Coat of arms of the county of Saar Werden

The county of Saar Werden was a county of the Holy Roman Empire . It was mentioned for the first time in 1125 and initially included areas on the upper Saar and the middle Blies . The seat was initially the eponymous castle Saar Werden near the place Saar Werden , later the city of Bockenheim (the part of the current Sarre-Union located on the right bank of the Saar ) became the administrative seat. After the assault of the county of Nassau-Saarbrücken in 1527 - seen from Saarbrücken - people also spoke of the "upper county". Today the core area of the former county belongs to the canton of Ingwiller in the Bas-Rhin department .

history

The county of Saar Werden 1397 (middle, light green) between the rule Finstingen and rule Bitsch

The Counts of Saar Werden can be traced for the first time in 1125 as a branch of the Counts of Metz-Lunéville . At the time of the division, Count Friedrich I and his brother Gottfried von Blieskastel received the following goods: Own property on the upper Saar and the middle Blies, plus fiefdoms of the Kirkel Castle , the Metz fiefs of Saar Werden and Bockenheim , Verdun fiefs in St. Wendel and Wolfersweiler and the bailiwicks over the property of Weißenburg Abbey in the upper Saar Valley and over the Herbitzheim Monastery property south of Keskastel . In 1131 Count Friedrich I and his wife Gertrud founded the Wörschweiler Monastery as a house monastery.

In the division of 1212/14, Count Ludwig III. the goods on the upper Saar, while his brother Heinrich I took over the Kirkel Castle and the possessions on both sides of the Blies and henceforth called himself "von Kirkel". Since then, the county of Saar Werden has had its focus in the upper Saar valley around Bockenheim, which was endowed with municipal privileges in 1328.

Count Heinrich III died in 1397 . von Saar became childless and the county passed through inheritance and purchase to the Counts of Moers , who were able to assert their claims against the Bishop of Metz de Coucy , who wanted to collect the Metz fiefs as settled. In 1427 the lords of Lahr and Mahlberg on the right bank of the Rhine were acquired. The "Counts of Moers-Saar Werden" died out in 1527, and since the heiress Katharina had married Count Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken in 1507 , the County of Saar Werden fell to the County of Nassau-Saarbrücken. The sons of Johann Ludwig, Johann and Adolf, shared the rule in 1556, Johann got Saarbrücken and Ottweiler , Adolf Saar Werden and Lahr.

The county of Saar Werden 1618 (middle, brown) surrounded by the Catholic Duchy of Lorraine

County of Saar Werden 1648–1789

Since both counts died childless one after the other and the older Nassau-Saarbrücken line died out in 1574, both counties fell to the evangelical house of Nassau-Weilburg , which introduced the Reformation in Saarbrücken, this time (see below) officially with the introduction of church regulations . Thereupon the Duchy of Lorraine moved in Bockenheim and Saar Werden as settled fiefdoms, against which the Saarbrücken counts sued the Reich Chamber Court. In 1629 it was decided that the county near Nassau-Saarbrücken, but the cities of Bockenheim and Saar Werden, should remain with Lorraine. After the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697, the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken built a new capital called Neu- Saar Werden (French: Ville Neuve de Sarrewerden) opposite the old, former capital Bockenheim (Bouquenom) on the left bank of the Saar . After the end of the feudal period in 1794, both places were united to form the city of Sarre-Union.

Two thirds of the former county, the Oberamt Harskirchen with 27 villages, came to Nassau-Saarbrücken in 1745 with a real division of the property, and a third came to Nassau-Weilburg with the city of Neu-Saar Werden and ten villages. In 1793 the two offices were occupied by French revolutionary troops and dissolved in the subsequent new regulations. After the annexation of the entire region by revolutionary France, the residents requested the administrative connection of the newly formed cantons to Protestant Alsace instead of the predominantly Catholic Lorraine. The former county of Saar Werden was almost entirely absorbed into what is now known as Crooked Alsace .

Prioress Kunigunde von Fleckenstein († 1353), daughter of Countess Agnes von Saar Werden, in the monastery church of Lambrecht

Depiction of Archbishop Friedrich III. von Saar Werden († 1414) in Cologne Cathedral

religion

In 1556, Count Adolf von Nassau-Saarbrücken introduced the Reformation according to the Lutheran confession in his domain of Saar Werden and Lahr and at the same time approved the settlement of Huguenots , ie Reformed communities, who had fled France in seven villages , later known as the "seven Welschen villages". He commissioned the renowned theologian Israel Achatius , whom he appointed as the county's (first and only) superintendent . The county of Saar Werden thus became an experimental field and a model for the peaceful coexistence of Lutherans and Calvinists, which in many other places only succeeded through the unions of the 19th century.

Since Adolf died childless in 1559, Saar Werden fell back to his brother Johann , who had remained Catholic - who dismissed superintendent Achatius but left the Lutheran and Reformed pastors in Saar Werden in their offices.

After the occupation by Lorraine and the division of the county in the 17th century, the evangelical pastors and parishes were sometimes subjected to severe persecution, which could only be resolved by the territorial consolidation of the county of Saarbrücken with France in the 18th century.

coat of arms

The family coat of arms shows a red-armored silver double-headed eagle in black . On the helmet with black and silver covers a silver inful , between the halves of which a shaft studded with button and plume emerges (equestrian seal Graf Friedrich von Saar Werden, 1338) or a silver double eagle's body (seal Graf Heinrich von Saar Werden, 1375).

Coat of arms based on the equestrian seal of Count Friedrich von Saar Werden, 1338
Coat of arms after the seal of Count Heinrich von Saar Werden, 1375

Personalities

Agnes von Saar Werden , daughter of Count Heinrich II., Married to Heinrich von Fleckenstein († 1305), was buried with her husband in the Lambrecht monastery , where a medieval inscription in the church still indicates the burial. Both their daughter Kunigunde von Fleckenstein († August 10, 1353) was the prioress of the above-mentioned monastery and is shown there on a picture of the donor.
Friedrich III. von Saar Werden , Archbishop of Cologne 1370 to 1414, son of Johann II. von Saar Werden

Counts of Saar Werden

Friedrich IV. Count of Moers and Saar Werden († 1448)

The Saar double-headed eagle in the coat of arms of the Princes of Nassau-Usingen-Saarbrücken 1728–1793 / 1801

Saar Werden House

Until the division of the county in 1212/14:

Friedrich I. 1111–1131 ⚭ Gertrud
- Folmar I. 1131–1165 ⚭ Stephania, daughter of Dietrich II von Mömpelgard
  - Ludwig I the Elder 1165–1200 ⚭ Gertrud, daughter of Hugos von Dagsburg
    - Ludwig III. 1212–1246 ⚭ Agnes, daughter of Heinrich I von Zweibrücken , see below
    - Heinrich I, Lord of Kirkel , 1214–1242, ⚭ Irmentrud, daughter of Philip II of Bolanden , childless
  - Ludwig II the Younger 1171, † 1176, childless

After the division of the county in 1212/14:

Ludwig III. 1212–1246 ⚭ Agnes, daughter of Heinrich I von Zweibrücken , see above
- Ludwig IV. 1242–1243 ⚭ Kunigunde
- Heinrich II. 1242–1271 ⚭ Elisabeth, daughter of Walters von Meisenburg
  - Johann I. 1289–1310, ⚭ Ferriata, daughter of Friedrich IV. Von Leiningen
    - Friedrich II. 1321–1363, ⚭ Agnes, daughter of Johann von Salm
      - Johann II. 1339–1381, ⚭ Klara, daughter of Heinrich von Vinstingen-Brackenkopf
        
        Henry III. (1375– † 1397), ⚭ Herzlaude, daughter of Ulrich von Rappoltstein, childless
        
        1397–1399 Friedrich (1348– † 1414), his brother , Archbishop of Cologne
        
        Walpurga, his sister , ⚭ 1376 Friedrich III. from Moers

House Moers-Saar Werden

1399–1418 Friedrich IV. Von Moers († 1448)

1418–1431 Johann I († 1431), his brother
1431–1483 Jacob I († 1483), his son

1483–1488 Nikolaus, his son

1488-1507 John III. (* 1468; † 1507), his half-brother
Katharina (* around 1491; † 1547), his daughter , ⚭ 1507 Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken 1507–1527 in 1/2 Saar Werden

1507–1514 Jacob II († 1514), brother of Johann III. , in 1/2 Saar
1514–1527 Johann Jakob (* 1514; † 1527), his son , in 1/2 Saar

House Nassau-Saarbrücken

1527–1545 Johann Ludwig (1507–1527 in 1/2 Saar Werden)
- 1545–1556 Johann III. (* 1511; † 1574), his son
- 1556–1559 Adolf (* 1526; † 1559), his brother
- 1559–1574 Johann III. (* 1511; † 1574), whose brother dies childless, Saarbrücken and Saar Werden fall to Nassau-Saarbrücken-Weilburg

Continuation: see the list of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken

literature

Hans-Walter Herrmann : History of the County of Saar Werden up to 1527. 2 volumes, Saarbrücken 1957–1962, also dissertation, Saarbrücken 1959

Kurt Hoppstädter and Hans-Walter Herrmann (eds.): Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes, Volume 2: From the Franconian conquest to the outbreak of the French Revolution , Saarbrücken 1977. The Counts of Saar Werden S. 262–265

Thomas Bergholz: ACHATIUS, Israel, (originally Bossler). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 1-3. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Literature about the county of Saar Werden in the Saarland Bibliography

Individual evidence

↑ J. Siebmacher's large and general Wappenbuch, Volume II, Section 11, Plate 3, p. 4; The nobility of German Lorraine; Author: M. Gritzner, Ad. M. Hildebrandt; Publication: Nuremberg: Bauer & Raspe, 1873
^ Genealogical data on Agnes von Saar Werden and Heinrich von Fleckenstein
↑ Hans-Walter Herrmann : History of the County of Saar Werden up to the year 1527. At the same time dissertation, Volume 2, representation, Saarbrücken 1959. Appendix Table 1: Family table of the Counts of Saar Werden.

[1] J. Siebmacher's large and general Wappenbuch, Volume II, Section 11, Plate 3, p. 4; The nobility of German Lorraine; Author: M. Gritzner, Ad. M. Hildebrandt; Publication: Nuremberg: Bauer & Raspe, 1873

[2] Genealogical data on Agnes von Saar Werden and Heinrich von Fleckenstein

[3] Hans-Walter Herrmann : History of the County of Saar Werden up to the year 1527. At the same time dissertation, Volume 2, representation, Saarbrücken 1959. Appendix Table 1: Family table of the Counts of Saar Werden.