Zweibrücken-Bitsch

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Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor with haloes (1400-1806) .svg
Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Zweibrücken-Bitsch
coat of arms
Zweibruecken-Bitsch.svg
map
Zweibruecken 1400.png
Counties Zweibrücken (dark green) and Zweibrücken-Bitsch (light pink) around 1400


Arose from 1286: County of Zweibrücken
Form of rule county
Ruler / government Count
Today's region / s FR-57 / DE-RP / DE-SL



Capitals / residences Bitsch
Dynasties 1286: Zweibrücken-Bitsch
Denomination / Religions Roman Catholic
Language / n German


Incorporated into 1570: Hanau-Lichtenberg
1572: Duchy of Lorraine


The County of Zweibrücken-Bitsch was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation that emerged between 1286 and 1302 from the eastern part of the old County of Zweibrücken and the lordship of Bitsch exchanged by Lorraine , which existed until 1570 and was divided among the heirs after the counts died out .

history

middle Ages

After the division of the Zweibrücker Lande under the sons of Count Heinrich II. Von Zweibrücken , the office of Lemberg with the castle of the same name came to the older son Eberhard I. His part also included Morsberg , Linder and Saargemünd . In 1297 he exchanged these three castles with Duke Friedrich III. of Lorraine and received the castle and lordship of Bitsch as a fief. The exchange of territory was further specified in 1302. Eberhard called himself from then on Graf von Zweibrücken and Herr zu Bitsch. Since he and his descendants had the title of Count, the newly formed territory was called Grafschaft Zweibrücken-Bitsch.

Other parts of the area were initially administered jointly by Eberhard I and his younger brother Walram I , who had received the office of Zweibrücken, and were not finally divided until 1333. Castle Stauf , Bergzabern as well as the town and monastery Hornbach fell to Walram's heirs . Thaleischweiler , Pirmasens and shares in the castles Landeck and Lindelbronn came to Eberhard's heirs . In the period that followed, the Bitsch counts only managed to acquire further property to a limited extent. When the Zweibrücken cousins ​​died out in 1394, pieces of the inheritance fell to them, but not the County of Zweibrücken, because the last Count of Zweibrücken had sold his county to the Electoral Palatinate in 1385 .

Early modern age

Simon IV. Wecker von Zweibrücken-Bitsch married Elisabeth von Lichtenberg (1444–1495), daughter of Ludwig V. von Lichtenberg . Her sister, Anna von Lichtenberg (* 1442; † 1474), married Count Philip I the Elder of Hanau-Babenhausen (* 1417; † 1480) in 1458. Since there were no other male members of the von Lichtenberg family left, the two and their descendants were heirs when Jakob von Lichtenberg died in 1480 . His estate was shared between the two families. Zweibrücken-Bitsch received the offices

as well as a half share in the following offices, which became condominiums together with the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg :

This incomplete division of real estate led to a permanent conflict between the Hanau-Lichtenberg and Zweibrücken-Bitsch houses. The situation was such that an arbitration agreement finally brokered by Emperor Maximilian I in 1513 took nine years to implement: It was not until autumn 1522 that the parties finally agreed that the Brumath office should become Zweibrücken-Bitsch, the Willstätt office completely came to the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg.

In the 16th century, Count Jakob achieved a clear concentration of power in northern Alsace and southern Palatinate for the last time : in 1559 he came into the possession of the Ochsenstein rulership because the Zweibrücken-Bitsch-Ochsenstein branch line, which had existed since 1485, died out. However, since both Jacob and his brother Simon V. Wecker, who had died in 1540, had only left one daughter each, after Jacob's death in 1570 a dispute broke out between the husbands of the two cousins, Count Philip I of Leiningen-Westerburg and Count Philipp V. from Hanau-Lichtenberg . Although Philip V of Hanau-Lichtenberg was able to prevail against Philip I, the immediate introduction of the Reformation with the Lutheran confession made the powerful, strictly Roman Catholic Duchy of Lorraine (under Duke Charles III ) an enemy, which the Possessed sovereignty over Bitsch. In July 1572 Lorraine troops occupied the county. Since Philip V was not up to the overwhelming power of Lorraine, he chose the legal route. In the subsequent process before the Imperial Court of Justice, Lorraine was able to invoke the barter agreement of 1302 as well as the fact that in 1573 it had acquired the inheritance claims of the Count of Leiningen by purchase agreement.

In 1604 there was a contractual settlement between Hanau-Lichtenberg and Lorraine. The Lemberg office came to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg and the Bitsch office to the Duchy of Lorraine.

List of the Counts of Zweibrücken-Bitsch

  • May 13, 1297–1321: Eberhard I.
his grandparents were Count Heinrich I and his wife Hedwig von Lothringen, a daughter of Friedrich von Bitsch .
  • 1321–1355: Simon I. ⚭ Agnes von Lichtenberg
  • 1355–1400: Johannes (Hanemann) I.
  • 1400–1418: Johannes (Hanemann) II.
initially ruled together with his brother Simon III. Alarm clock († 1407)
  • 1418-1474: Friedrich
his brother Heinrich I married Kunigunde von Ochsenstein and founded the Zweibrücken-Bitsch-Ochsenstein branch
  • 1474–1499: Simon IV. Wecker ⚭ Elisabeth von Lichtenberg : * 1444, † 1495, heiress
  • 1499–1532: Reinhard, Herr von Lichtenberg and Bitsch, Count of Zweibrücken ⚭ Anna von Dhaun, daughter of Johann VI., Wild-Rheingraf zu Dhaun and Kirburg (* 1470 - December 25, 1499) and Johanna von Salm; have five children:
    • Simon V. Wecker (born August 28, 1505 - † October 28, 1540)
    • Wilhelm (born December 8, 1507)
    • Elisabeth ⚭ Johann Ludwig I. von Sulz
    • Jakob (born July 19, 1510) ⚭ Katharina von Honstein-Klettenberg
    • Johanna (born June 10, 1517) ⚭ Konrad V. von Tübingen-Lichteneck
  • 1532–1540: Simon V. Wecker ⚭ Barbara von Dun
has two daughters, Esther († 1542) and Amalie (* 1537; † 1577, ⚭ 1551 Philip I of Leiningen-Westerburg ); therefore his brother follows
  • 1540–1570: Jakob (* July 19, 1510; † March 22, 1570 in Stürzelbronn )
has a son, Johann Friederich (* 1537; † 22 August 1538), and a daughter, Ludovica Margaretha von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1540; † 1569), ⚭ Count Philipp V. von Hanau-Lichtenberg

coat of arms

Blazon : In gold, a red lion armed and tongued with blue.

literature

  • Hans-Walter Herrmann : The county of Zweibrücken-Bitsch . In: Kurt Hoppstädter , Hans-Walter Herrmann (Hrsg.): Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes . Volume 2: From the Frankish conquest to the outbreak of the French Revolution. Saarbrücken 1977, pp. 323-332. ISBN 3-921870-00-3
  • Johann Georg Lehmann : Documented history of the county Hanau-Lichtenberg . Mannheim 1862.
  • Detlev Schwennicke : European Family Tables, Vol. XVII - Between Maas and Rhine . Frankfurt 1998, pp. 148-149.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lehmann, Vol. 2, pp. 441, 446f.
  2. ^ Family table of the Counts of Zweybrücken-Bitsch in Johann Georg Lehmann : Documented history of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg . tape 2 . J. Schneider, Mannheim 1863.