Heinrich I (Hesse)

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Heinrich I of Hesse (born June 24, 1244 , † December 21, 1308 in Marburg ) was the first Landgrave of Hesse and founder of the Hessian Princely House .

Heinrich, also called the Child of Brabant , was the son of Duke Heinrich II of Brabant and Sophie of Brabant , daughter of Landgrave Louis the Saint of Thuringia and Saint Elizabeth .

Life

Shield of Heinrich; exhibited in Marburg Castle

After the death of the last Ludowing Landgrave of Thuringia , Heinrich Raspe , the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession (1247 to 1264) broke out. Heinrich's mother Sophie, as the niece and next heiress of Heinrich Raspe, fought for her son for the entire Thuringia-Hesse inheritance against the Wettin Heinrich the illustrious of Meissen . As early as 1247 Heinrich had them proclaimed landgrave on the Mader Heide and in Marburg. Through the Langsdorf Treaty of 1263, Sophie secured her son the Hessian possessions of the Ludowingers, which Heinrich ruled independently from now on. At that time, these areas included the region between Wolfhagen , Zierenberg , Eschwege , Alsfeld , Grünberg , Frankenberg and Biedenkopf . In the same year Heinrich acquired part of the County of Gleiberg with Gießen from Count Ulrich I of Asperg († 1283) from the house of the Count Palatine of Tübingen . First he made Marburg, then from 1277 Kassel his residence and now called himself "Landgrave of Hesse". Heinrich asserted himself against the strong influence of the Archbishops of Mainz in his sphere of influence. He was ostracized by Mainz in 1274, but prevailed against his rivals by 1280 at the latest when he defeated an army of the Archbishop of Mainz , Werner von Eppstein , near Fritzlar and thus ended the further use of archbishop's broadcasting courts in landgrave cities.

Heinrich supported King Rudolf I of Habsburg in his war against Ottokar of Bohemia and helped him to conquer Vienna in 1276 . He never gave up his claim to the heritage in Brabant , as his full title "Heinrich, born Duke of Brabant and Lorraine, Landgrave of Hesse" makes clear. In the Limburg succession dispute (1283 to 1289) he supported his Brabant nephew Johann I against Geldern and Luxemburg .

On May 12, 1292 he offered the city of Eschwege to King Adolf von Nassau as an imperial fief and immediately received it and the imperial castle Boyneburg back as a hereditary imperial fief. With this he acquired the dignity of imperial prince , which considerably strengthened his position of power in Hesse. Heinrich expanded Kassel as a residence from 1277 and built the Marburg Castle . Through skillful diplomacy, he came into the possession of Sooden-Allendorf , Kaufungen , Witzenhausen , Immenhausen , Grebenstein , Wanfried , Staufenberg , Trendelburg and the Reinhardswald , among others . He acquired the rule of Bilstein an der Werra by buying it in 1301.

From 1292 there were inheritance disputes with his sons from the first marriage, as his second wife demanded hereditary consideration of her own sons. This led to civil wars that lasted until Heinrich's death. Heinrich died in 1308 on a trip to Marburg and was buried there in the Elisabeth Church.

The legacy was finally divided in 1308. Otto I. von Hessen from his first marriage received the " Land an der Lahn " with Marburg and Johann von Hessen from his second marriage received Niederhessen with Kassel. Since Johann died in 1311, Niederhessen then also fell to Otto.

family

Heinrich married Adelheid von Braunschweig on September 10, 1263 († June 12, 1274 in Marburg ), daughter of Duke Otto I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Mathilde of Brandenburg. From this marriage came:

After Adelheid's death, around 1275 he married Mechtild von Kleve († December 21, 1309), daughter of Dietrich V./VII. Count of Kleve . He had the following children with her:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Document from May 14, 1301, Count Otto von Bilstein sells his feudal estates in (Lower) Hesse (Hassia) to Landgrave Heinrich from the Werra river to the Hecheno forest ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cgi-host.uni-marburg.de
  2. ↑ Gen Ma ( Memento of October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
predecessor Office successor
--- Landgrave of Hesse
1247–1308 		Otto I. ( Upper Hesse )
Johann ( Lower Hesse )
personal data
SURNAME Heinrich I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heinrich I of Hesse; Child of Brabant
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first Landgrave of Hesse and founder of the Hessian Princely House
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1244
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1308
Place of death Marburg