Weilnau county

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Coat of arms of the Counts of Weilnau
Keep of the Altweilnau castle ruins

The County of Weilnau was created in the first half of the 13th century by splitting off a branch line of the Counts of Diez , who took their seat at Altweilnau Castle, first mentioned in 1208 and subsequently called themselves Counts of Weilnau.

Origin and ascent

Heinrich II von Diez accompanied Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa on his Italian campaigns and was involved in diplomatic negotiations there. When Barbarossa set off from Regensburg on May 11, 1189 on a second German crusade , he was at his side. However, he did not see Jerusalem because he died that same year. The sons Gerhard and Heinrich, Counts von Diez and loyal vassals of King Philipp , exchanged their Mainz fief, the Vogtei von Castell , for Reichsland in Weiltal and Hintertaunus on January 15, 1207 . There they built the castle (Alt-) Weilnau, which was integrated into the security ring of Hohenstaufen fortresses around the fertile Wetterau . This was the Hohenstaufen area of ​​influence and was particularly secure during the period of the Hohenstaufen-Welf conflict in the empire. "Gerardi Comiti de Wilnawe" signed a document dated September 14, 1208 and in future was called Gerhard von Diez "Count von Weilnau". The castle probably had a separation of property and title, which was not recorded until 1249–1282 during the reign of Heinrich I von Weilnau. With him begins in the historical sources the distinction between the older Diez and the younger Weilnau line of the count house.

Keep of Freienfels Castle

Heinrich IV. Von Diez, the son of Heinrich III. resided in Weilnau-Altweilnau from 1249 to 1294 under the names "Heinrich de Dietse" (von Diez) and "Heinrich de Wilname" (von Weilnau). Since then, the sources have distinguished an older Diezer line and a younger Weilnau line of the Grafenhaus. His son Heinrich I. von Diez-Birstein, Count von Weilnau, held the office of "imperalis aule marescalcus" ( court marshal ) to Archbishop Werner von Eppstein of Mainz in 1252 . As such, he traveled in his entourage in 1261 to the coronation of Ottokar II Přemysl as King of Bohemia in Prague . As his shop steward, he was frequently used as a witness and arbitrator; he was very close to King William of Holland . With him, the Weilnauer line also reached its peak. Under Heinrich I or his successor, the Freienfels Castle was probably built, with which the Weilnauer wanted to secure their area to the north against the expanding House of Nassau .

Separation from Diez

A tower stump is one of the few remnants of the original Neuweilnau Castle

Four of Heinrich's sons obtained important ecclesiastical offices; so was Heinrich von Weilnau 1288-1313 abbot of the monastery of Fulda . However, the family owner, Gerhard von Weilnau, owed himself and the family property shared with the Diez relatives, and his son Heinrich II made further sales from Weilnau property. In order to prevent a further sale of the family property, the Diezer main line, by Count Gerhard IV. Von Diez, contracted the ownership shares in 1302. The Weilnau lordship was divided into old and new Weilnau. With this, the two lines finally separated and formed two separate counties. The ancestral castle Altweilnau and the associated spots remained in Diezischem possession. For the Weilnau people , now known as the Neu-Weilnau Line, the Diezers built Neu-Weilnau Castle on the opposite Rödelnberg , around which the town of Neuweilnau then developed.

As early as 1326, the castle and rule of Neuweilnau, once founded by Heinrich, came to the Counts of Nassau. With the extinction of the older Diezer line (Gerhard) in the male line in 1388, the whole county passed into Nassau hands.

Move to Birstein and Ende

Heinrich II von Weilnau only used the castle for a few years. As early as 1326 he moved his seat to Birstein in the south of Vogelsberg , where he had acquired rights through marriage. The lordship of Birstein was a property of Fulda, a result of the Reichenbach district court in Fulda, and initially passed to the Lords of Büdingen as a fief. It was inherited from these by the Lords of Trimberg , and in 1279 Prince Abbot Bertho IV of Fulda enfeoffed Heinrich von Weilnau and his wife Lukardis von Trimberg with this inheritance from their family, the "castrum birsenstein et Advochatiam in Richenbach".

In the same year Heinrich's brother-in-law Siegfried von Runkel , provost of the St. Severus Monastery in Gemünden in the Westerwald , bought Neuweilnau Castle and the rest of the Weilnau's property in the Lahn-Taunus area as a pledge, but sold the castle in the same year Count Gerlach I of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein-Weilburg .

The Weilnau rule in Birstein did not last long either. Already in 1332 Heinrich II. Von Ysenburg acquired half of the castle and lordship of Birstein through marriage, and in 1438 the entire remainder went to Diether I von Ysenburg, unless it had already been pledged or pledged to the Lords of Stockheim or those of Reifenberg , again as a fuldisches fief.

Diez-Weilnau tribe list

Coat of arms of the Counts of Welnau
  1. Heinrich II., Count von Diez , (* around 1142, † 1189), son of Embricho II., Count von Diez and Demudis von Lauenburg; ∞ Kunigunde von Katzenelnbogen , daughter of Heinrich II. Von Katzenelnbogen and Hildegard von Henneberg
    1. Henry III. von Diez (* around 1180); ∞ from Bolanden
      1. Philipp von Diez-Weilnau
      2. Heinrich IV. Von Diez (* around 1226, † around 1234) also (de Ditse), (de Wilnawe)
        1. Gerhard von Diez-Weilnau (* around 1234)
        2. Heinrich I von Diez-Birstein, Count of Weilnau, (* around 1234); ∞ Luitgart von Trimberg († 1297)
          1. Hermann von Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1260), Canon in Mainz
          2. Margareta von Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1250); ∞ Siegfried V. von Runkel (* around 1250)
          3. Gerhard I. , Count of Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1265); ∞ Isengard from Hanau
            1. Heinrich I , Count of Diez-Weilnau, († 1342); ∞ Mechthild von Isenburg (* around 1303, † around 1342)
              1. Eberhard von Diez-Weilnau
              2. Isengard von Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1312); ∞ Johann von Kerpen (* around 1326)
            2. Reinhard , Count von Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1282, † around 1344) ∞ Margarete von Salza , (* around 1328; † around 1365)
              1. Gerhard II , Count of Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Margarete
                1. Heinrich IV. , Count of Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1389); ∞ Margareta von Rodenstein , (* around 1405)
                  1. Adolf , Count of Diez-Weilnau, (* 1421; † 1451); ∞ Margareta Countess von Schlitz called von Görtz
                  2. Heinrich V , von Diez-Weilnau (* 1426; † before 1438)
                  3. Reinhard von Weilnau , (* 1424; † 1472), prince abbot of Fulda from 1449 to 1472
                  4. Elisabeth von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Philipp von Herd
                  5. Margarete von Diez-Weilnau
                  6. Lorche von Diez-Weilnau
                  7. Agnes von Diez-Weilnau
                2. Margarete von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ I: Gottfried von Waldenstein; ∞ II: Frowin von Hutten
              2. Margarete von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Conrad V. von Bickenbach ; "The younger"; (1362--4 October 1393)
            3. Elisabeth von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Conrad von Trimberg (* 1324)
          4. Henry III. von Diez-Weilnau (* 1249; † 1475)
          5. Albert, Count von Diez-Birstein, (* around 1267), Canon in Würzburg
          6. Heinrich V von Weilnau von Diez-Weilnau († 1313) Prince Abbot of Fulda from 1288 to 1313
          7. Adelheid von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Ludwig IV of Frankenstein (* around 1284)
          8. Jutta von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ I: Berthold I. von Castell ; ∞ II: Boppo I, Count von Eberstein (* around 1295)
          9. Peter von Diez-Weilnau, (* around 1294), Canon in Mainz
        3. Mathilde von Diez-Weilnau; ∞ Konrad von Merenberg
      3. Gerhard von Diez-Weilnau (* around 1237)
    2. Bertoldus Comes de Dietze
    3. Dieter von Dietz (* around 1180)
    4. Gerhard II, Count von Diez, (* around 1185)
      1. Gerhard III, Count von Diez, (* around 1233)

coat of arms

The line of the Counts of Dietz-Weilnau has inverted colors compared to the main line of the Counts of Dietz : The coat of arms in gold has two red, blue-armored leopards (looking, striding lions) one above the other.

The crest would be a black flight, covered on both sides with a disc tinged like the shield. Red and gold helmet covers.

Here is the sign for Reinhard Graf v. Diez-Weilnau (until approx. 1333/1344).

literature

  • Jost Kloft: Territorial history of the district Usingen. Elwert, Marburg 1971 ( Writings of the Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies 32 ), pp. 135–143.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helfrich Bernhard Wenck's Hessian State History. With a document book and geographical charts. Volume 1 (Darmstadt 1783), p. 542.
  2. ↑ Geneall.net Diez-Weilnau family .
  3. ↑ Dieter Michael Feineis: The genealogy of the Lords of Bickenbach , (PDF).
  4. ↑ Dr. Bernhard Peter: coat of arms of the Middle Rhine and Moselle, Nassau .
  5. ↑ Katharinenkirche Oppenheim: Epitaph by Johann Kämmerer von Worms gt. Von Dalberg and Anna von Bickenbach, T. d. Margarete v. Dietz-Weilnau .