Heinrich II. (Mecklenburg)

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Heinrich II, Lord of Mecklenburg , called the Lion (* after April 14, 1266 ; † January 21, 1329 in Sternberg ), was regent from 1287 to 1298, co-regent from 1298 to 1302 and sole lord of Mecklenburg from 1302 to 1329 .

Life

Heinrich II. Was a son of Heinrich I and ruled 1287–1289 together with his brother Johann III. Before that (since 1275) his mother Anastasia of Pomerania practiced with his uncle Nicholas III. (until 1290) and Johann II (until 1283) took over the reign. He was co-regent of his father from 1298–1301 and succeeded him in the government after his capture and at the latest after his death in 1302.

At the beginning of his reign, he unsuccessfully waged war against Nikolaus II von Werle for the succession to Heinrich I von Werle . Around 1299 - after the death of the sons of his father-in-law Albrecht III.  - Heinrich II. Was given the land of Stargard as a Brandenburg fief by a contract of sale (or bill of sale) . This had already been brought into the marriage as Wittum by his wife Beatrix von Brandenburg in 1292 . After Albrecht's death, the Wittmannsdorf Treaty of January 15, 1304 secured the land as a fief until his wife's death († September 22, 1314) .

In 1299 he made a first attempt to conquer the Principality of Rostock in an alliance with the Margrave of Brandenburg and Nikolaus II von Werle . Its prince Nikolaus I of Rostock placed his country under protection and the feudal rule of King Erich of Denmark in 1300 . Heinrich succumbed to this and the Danish king himself became the owner of the Rostock estate. In 1304, Henry II and the Margrave of Brandenburg came to the aid of the Bohemian King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia in the war against King Albrecht I. This war brought Henry II the nickname the lion .

From 1308 the North German Margrave War (1308-1317) followed against the Hanseatic cities of Stralsund , Wismar and Rostock and the former allied Brandenburg margraves. The trigger was Wismar's refusal to hold the wedding of his daughter Mechthild with Duke Otto zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg in the city. He then had the wedding carried out in Sternberg . Heinrich II then chose the city as his residence. Wismar submitted as early as 1311 and Heinrich II moved against Rostock. On December 15, 1312, Rostock was taken after violent resistance. Rostock arose during Heinrich's pilgrimage to Madonna della Rocca in 1313 , but was quickly taken on January 12, 1314. The old council, around councilor Bernhard Kopman , was reinstated. In 1315 Heinrich II fought against the city of Stralsund and had to defend himself against the occupation of the Land of Stargard by the Brandenburg Margrave Waldemar . After the death of Heinrich's wife Beatrix, the latter regarded the Stargard fief as settled and demanded it back. Heinrich II had to give up the siege of Stralsund in July 1316 without success, but was able to drive the Brandenburgers out of the Stargard region and defeat them in the battle of Gransee . With the Templin Peace of November 25, 1317, the Stargard rule was finally awarded to him as a Brandenburg fief.

In 1319 he and Count Gerhard von Holstein fought unsuccessfully against the Dithmarschers . They won the battle of Wöhrden , from which Heinrich II escaped with difficulty. During this time there was also an alliance with the Swedish Duchess Ingeborg Håkonsdotter , which was sealed in 1321 by a marriage contract between Eufemia Eriksdatter , Ingeborg's daughter from her marriage to Duke Erik of Sweden, and Albrecht , the son of Duke Heinrich. The alliance was directed against Denmark, weakened after the death of Erik Menved , towards the reconquest of Skåne . After the death of the Brandenburg margrave Waldemar, he conquered the Prignitz and the Uckermark . After another war against Rostock, he managed to make peace with the Danish King Christoph II on May 21, 1323. He received the rule of Rostock including the bailiwicks of Gnoien and Schwaan as hereditary fiefs from Denmark. In the war against the new Brandenburg margrave Ludwig I (under the tutelage of Count Berthold von Henneberg) he lost his conquests in the Uckermark and in the Prignitz and had to make peace on May 24, 1325 in return for compensation. The War of the Rügen Succession after the death of the last Prince of Rügen, Wizlaw , on November 10, 1325 ended after a hard struggle in the peace of Brudersdorf on June 27, 1328 only with the pledge of the Barth bailiff. Heinrich II died on January 21, 1329.

Throughout his entire reign, Heinrich II relied heavily on the Mecklenburg knighthood, which he absolutely needed for his expansive policy and which in return benefited no less from the politics of their sovereign. Instead of relying primarily on small castle garrisons and the command of the Mecklenburg knighthood for national defense, as before, Henry II dissolved the old castle fiefs and expanded his entourage to around 400 knights and squires from the 1290s. In order to be able to maintain this at all, he was forced to put himself in the service of Lübeck, Brandenburg and finally Denmark. Since the North German Margrave War (1308-1317), Heinrich II made another military change by using low-nobility war entrepreneurs from the Mecklenburg noble families of Dewitz , Plessen , Stralendorf , Preen , Moltke , Lützow , Barnekow and Maltzan to conduct his warfare to make it more flexible in the face of different theaters of war. However, since Heinrich II lacked the financial means to pay off his war entrepreneurs of low nobility in cash, he was forced to pledge large parts of the land to them. With the enormous profits from war entrepreneurship, the majority of these families rose to become the leading aristocratic families in the country. Although Heinrich II more than tripled his dominion with the acquisition of the dominions of Stargard and Rostock as well as the bailiwicks of Lübz and Grabow, his income situation did not improve due to the massive bailiff pledges. On his deathbed, Heinrich II made the leading members of the knighthood, whom he trusted closely, obliged to act as guardians for his underage sons from his second marriage.

Heinrich II was in his first marriage to Beatrix von Brandenburg († before September 25, 1314), daughter of Albrecht III. von Brandenburg , in second marriage after July 6, 1315 with Anna zu Sachsen-Wittenberg († between June 25, 1327 and August 9, 1328), daughter of Duke Albrecht of Sachsen-Wittenberg and in third marriage with Agnes, daughter of Count Günther von Lindow-Ruppin († after July 30, 1343) married.

children

with Beatrix:

with Anna von Sachsen-Wittenberg:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Boll : Heinrich von Mecklenburg in possession of the Land Stargard with Lychen and Wesenberg. The Wittmannsdorf Treaty. In: ders .: History of the country Stargard up to the year 1471. Volume 1. Neustrelitz 1846, pp. 123–129. ( Digitized at books.google.de)
  2. ^ A b c Hermann Krabbo : The transition of the state of Stargard from Brandenburg to Mecklenburg. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 91 (1927), pp. 7-8. ( Digitized and full text on mvdok.lbmv.de)
  3. ^ Franz Boll: Bohemian campaign. 1304. Henry the Lion. The little country Arnsberg. In: History of the Land of Stargard up to 1471. Volume 1. Neustrelitz 1846, pp. 130-131. ( Digitized on books.google.de)
  4. ^ Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch : The battle at Gransee in 1316. In: Year books of the association for Mecklenburg history and antiquity. Volume 11, Schwerin 1846, pp. 216-220. ( Digitized and full text on mvdok.lbmv.de)
  5. ^ Tobias Pietsch: Leading groups in the late medieval lower nobility of Mecklenburg . Kiel 2019.

literature

Web links

Commons : Heinrich II. (Mecklenburg)  - Collection of images
predecessor Office successor
Heinrich I. Prince of Mecklenburg
1287 (1302) -1329 		Albrecht II. , Johann I.
personal data
SURNAME Henry II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henry the Lion
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Mecklenburg
DATE OF BIRTH after April 14, 1266
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1329
Place of death Sternberg