Hartvig Krummedike

Hartvig Krummedike also Hartwich Krummedyck (* around 1400, † 1476 or 1477 in Akershus Fortress ) was a Norwegian councilor and court master.

Life

His parents were the Danish court master Erik Segebodssøn Krummedike († 1439) and his wife Beate von Thienen . In his first marriage he was married to Katarina Buck, daughter of Markvard Buck and his wife Sigrid Galle; in the second marriage he married Karen Andersdatter Hak, in the third marriage Anne Henriksdatter.

Akershus Fortress

The home of the noble family of Krummedike was Holstein . The castle Krumme Dick was Itzehoe . Hartvik Krummedike is first mentioned in Danish sources from 1430. The high reputation of his father with King Eric the Pomeranian meant that he received Lista as a fiefdom in Norway in the 1430s . His marriage to Katarina Buck in the early 1440s made him one of Norway's richest aristocrats. He got large estates in Vestfold and Vestlandet . His property register is the only aristocratic property register in Norway that has survived from the 15th century. He kept buying up lands, owned around 240 farms and also donated land to Hovedøya Monastery for a burial site and to Oslo Cathedral for the construction of an altar. The plague epidemics in Norway may have made these purchases easier. The secretary of the Lübeck mountain drivers Christian von Geren with spiritual training and since 1449/1450 secretary of the Hanseatic office at Bryggen in Bergen, has left a relatively comprehensive chronicle. For the 50s and 60s of the 15th century he wrote about the plague:

“Anno 51 [1451] was grote pstilencie to Lubeke; anno 52 to Bergen, there storven 200 Dudesche in 1/2 year; ok annao 59 to Bergen. Unde to Lubeke was pestilencie anno 64 ... "

- Friedrich Bruns : The Lübeck mountain drivers and their chronicle. Hansische Geschichtsquellen, New Series, 2, Berlin (1900.) p. 353.

In Denmark he owned several farms on Funen , probably from his father. His wife and their children died. He then married two more Danish nobles. He had his only surviving son Henrik around 1463 with Karen Hak.

Through his marriage to the Norwegian Katarina Buck, he received the status of Norwegian. His fiefdom and nobility meant that he was soon accepted into the Norwegian Imperial Council. On the occasion of Christoffer von Baiern's coronation as king, he was knighted in 1442 and received Hardanger as a fief. Due to his loyalty to the king, he became the fortress commander of Akershus fortress in 1445, including its fiefs and skies . This gave him a decisive position of power after the death of King Christoffers in 1448. The Norwegian aristocracy had now split in two. One part supported Christian I's candidacy under the leadership of Hartvig Krummedike and also the Danish Bishop of Oslo Jens Jakobsson , because they wanted to maintain the personal union with Denmark and Sweden. The other part under Aslak Bolt preferred a personal union with the Swedish King Karl Knutsson . In this conflict Hartvig Krummedike was able to offer the Norwegians an electoral kingship and a first Norwegian electoral surrender, which upheld the political rights of the Norwegian elite, which meant that he was able to unite the majority behind him. Karl Knutsson had also drafted an election surrender, but this took more into account the privileges of the church. This gave the Norwegian Empire under Danish rule a new constitutional basis, called “Reichsrat constationalism”, which formed the basis for Norwegian constitutional law from 1449 to 1536. Hartvig Krummedike therefore played a crucial role in continuing the personal union with Denmark.

But now Hartvig Krummedike got enemies in influential circles, especially in the top of the Norwegian Church. In addition, he was probably involved in the murder of one of his most bitter main opponents, the knight Erik Sæmundsson , who was Jöns Knutsson's father-in-law. His brother Alv Knutsson had the Vogt Krummedikes murdered in Hedmark in 1460 . King Christian's attempts to mediate were unsuccessful. This bitter hostility continued in the next generation between the son of Krummedikes Erik and Alv Kutsson's son Knut. Erik Sæmundsson appears to have led a siege on Akershus fortress.

Hartvig Krummedike took part in the coronation celebrations for Christian I in Nidaros in 1450 , but not in the negotiations and in the conclusion of the union treaty between the Norwegian and Danish Imperial Councils, possibly due to the tension with part of the Norwegian Imperial Council. After his troops drove out the Swedish troops who had taken the bishopric of Hamar in the spring of 1453, the conflict with the church grew because he took the opportunity to confiscate the lands of the bishopric until the fall, until the rent was paid . He only withdrew in December after the king brokered a settlement with the Bishop of Hamar. In the same year he received the prestigious title "Reichshofmeister". He was at the height of his power.

Under pressure from his enemies, he fell out of favor with King Christian in 1458. He was deposed as captain of Akershus castle and as imperial court master, lost all his fiefdoms and had to pay the king 800 Luebian marks. A few years later he received the king's grace back and was again captain of the castle in Akershus. He stayed that way until his death in 1476/1477. After that he no longer appears to have appeared politically.

literature

• Ole Jørgen Benedictow: Article “Hartvig Krummedike” in Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on January 13, 2012.
• Geir Atle Ersland / Hilde Sandvik: Norsk historie 1300 - 1625 . Oslo 2008.
• Halvard Bjørkvik: Folketap og sammenbrudd 1350 - 1520. Oslo 1996.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The office of Reichshofmeister came into being around 1430 and was the highest state office in the Danish Empire. He was a kind of prime minister and representative of the king. In addition to his prominent constitutional position, he had a number of important tasks, even if his duties were not clearly defined. In the 16th century he headed the financial administration and was in charge of the rent chamber and customs.
2. ↑ This contradicted the Norwegian law, according to which the hereditary kingship ruled in Norway, but strengthened the role of the Imperial Council significantly. Norsk historie p. 128. The first step to electoral kingship took place when in 1343 Håkon Magnusson was preferred to his older brother Erik in the line of succession . When Olav Håkonsson died in 1387 without an heir, Margarete's position was so strong that she was accepted as ruler in 1388 even without any connection under inheritance law and the Imperial Council determined that the succession should now be derived from her. Actually, the descendant of Magnus Eriksson's sister Eufemia would have been heir to the throne. But this ( Albrecht von Meklenburg ) was through his war against Håkon VI. become unworthy of the royal rule. Erich der Pommer was therefore not "elected" but accepted ("annamelse"), which the Reichsrat attached particular importance to. (Bjørkvik pp. 130, 177), Diplomatarium Norvegicum vol. 18 no.34 .
3. ↑ Norsk historie p. 128.
4. ↑ Diplomatarium Norvegicum Vol. 8 No. 351 .