Heinrich II. (Zweibrücken)

Heinrich II of Zweibrücken († 1284 or already 1282 ), called the arguable, was the second count of the county of Zweibrücken . He ruled from 1237 to 1282.

Life

He was the only son of Heinrich I and Hedwig von Lothringen-Bitsch. In 1238 Heinrich married Agnes von Eberstein, daughter of Count Eberhard IV. Von Eberstein , who outlived him by a year.

Heinrich II had good reason to be nicknamed the Arguable , as he was involved in countless feuds over the decades. Multiple disagreements with the Hornbach Monastery have been recorded, most of which involved administrative responsibilities.

1259 and 1260 built Heinrich against considerable resistance of the monks from the neighboring Remigiusberg the Lichtenberg Castle from one of the strongest fortresses in the area. In court in 1263, the count successfully fought a dispute over his rights in the free imperial city of Worms and the surrounding villages.

After Count Eberhart von Eberstein died on March 18, 1263, the inheritance fell to Heinrich's wife Agnes as the only living child. The eldest son Simon, who now called himself Count von Zweibrücken and Herr zu Eberstein, took over the rule of the Eberstein County on the right bank of the Rhine . Heinrich integrated the holdings on the left bank of the Rhine into his territory, which was expanded to include the rule of Stauf near Göllheim .

After the death of Rainald of Lorraine , who had forcibly appropriated the county of Blieskastel with reference to the rights of his wife Elisabeth, Heinrich II. Von Zweibrücken, as executor, promised the numerous heirs that everyone would get his due rights. However, the Count of Salm brought Blieskastel and Püttlingen into his possession in 1275 and thus triggered the War of Lorraine or the War of the War of Succession, the first major battle of which took place on the Wattweiler Höhe near Zweibrücken between the army of Lorraine and the entourage of the Count of Zweibrücken. According to the traditional Alsatian chronicle, there must have been riders and arms bearers of considerable strength, with the Lorraine army having to surrender with great losses on both sides. After the reconciliation of the Lorraine ally, Simon IV of Saarbrücken, with the Bishop of Metz, further campaigns took place in 1277 and 1278 without any success in defeating Count Heinrich. Finally, in August 1278, the peace agreement between Duke Friedrich von Lothringen and Heinrich took place.

After Heinrich's death, his sons Eberhard and Walram I ruled together before the county split into the Zweibrücken-Zweibrücken and Zweibrücken-Bitsch lines after four years.

family

Heinrich and Agnes von Eberstein had at least nine children, whose life data are, however, only sparsely known:

• Simon I († 1282), oldest descendant, Count von Eberstein
• Eberhard († before 1321), founder of the Zweibrücken-Bitsch family , ∞ Agnes von Saarbrücken
• Walram I († 1308), followed Heinrich as Count von Zweibrücken, ∞ Agnes von Vaudemont
• Heinrich († March 17, 1305), Canonicus of Trier, Provost of Worms
• Elisabeth († 1259), ∞ Gerlach V. von Veldenz
• Mechtild († around 1275)
• Katharina, ∞ Hugo von Vinstingen
• Agnes, ∞ Dietrich von Hohenfels
• Kunigunde, last born child, abbess in Rosenthal

literature

• Theodor Julius Ney:  Heinrich II. (Count of Zweibrücken) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 45, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 521 f.
• Hans-Walter Herrmann: The county of Zweibrücken . In: Kurt Hoppstädter, Hans-Walter Herrmann : Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes , Volume 2, Saarbrücken 1977, pp. 316–322. ISBN 3-921870-00-3 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Heinrich I.	Count of Zweibrücken 1237–1281	Walram