Grenzau feud
The Grenzau feud was the armed conflict between the troops of the Electorate City of Koblenz and Messrs. Philipp von Isenburg and Reinhard von Westerburg near Grenzau on April 20, 1347 . The Koblenz contingent was ambushed in which 172 young people from Koblenz were killed.
A memorial service in the Koblenz churches with a procession remembered the fallen citizens on the Friday after Easter every year until around 1800. After the mass in the Liebfrauenkirche , a citizen of Koblenz is said to have climbed a stone block at a house opposite (which was temporarily the rectory of the Liebfrauenkirche) and told the story of the feud.
The Grenzau feud is part of the armed conflict surrounding the election of Charles IV - Ludwig IV was the Roman-German king from 1314. After 1340, however, the German electors increasingly distanced themselves from Ludwig and in 1346 elected Charles IV as the opposing king. With the election of Charles IV a civil war began between king and anti-king. On Karl’s side were u. a. Archbishop Balduin of Trier and Archbishop of Cologne Walram. Ludwig's allies include the Limburg dynast Gerlach and Reinhard von Westerburg. In the course of these disputes Reinhard von Westerburg had conquered the Kurtrier castle Grenzau in the Westerwald. While trying to recapture the castle, the people of Koblenz were ambushed. After the slaughter of the 172 Koblenzers, the Westerburger had to run away; he fled to Gerlach in Limburg Castle. Now the Limburg lords had the castle as a fief, one third each from the empire, from the Hessian landgrave and from the archbishop of Trier. Baldwin now moved in front of the castle in Limburg and, citing the feudal contract, demanded that the castle be opened. But Gerlach refused, since he was only obliged to be loyal to Baldwin if the feud did not go against the Reich, the Archbishop of Mainz and the Hessian Landgrave. Baldwin withdrew without having achieved anything.
literature
- Hellmuth Gensicke : Self-assertion in the Westerwald. In: Franz-Josef Heyen (Ed.): Balduin von Luxemburg. Archbishop of Trier - Elector of the Empire. 1285-1345. Festschrift on the occasion of the 700th year of birth (= sources and treatises on the Middle Rhine church history. Vol. 53, ISSN 0480-7480 ). Verlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, Mainz 1985, pp. 391–401, here p. 398, digitized version .
- Franz-Karl Nieder: The Limburg dynasts and the German kings 1292 to 1356 . In: Nassauische Annalen vol. 117; 2006, pp. 89–107, here p. 102 ff. Digitized .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen : The Limburg Chronicle (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Scriptores qui vernacula lingua usi sunt. T. 4, P. 1 = German chronicles and other history books of the Middle Ages. Vol. 4, Part 1). Published by Arthur Wyss . Hahn, Hanover 1883, p. 31 .
- ^ Christian von Stramberg : Coblenz, the city. Historically and topographically represented (= memorable and useful Rheinischer Antiquarius, who represents the most important and pleasant geographical, historical and political peculiarities of the entire Rhine, from its outflow into the sea to its origin. Middle Rhine. Abth. 1, Vol. 4). Volume 4. Hergt, Koblenz 1856, p. 327 .