Heinrich II. Reuss of Plauen

Heinrich II. Reuss (* around 1289 in Plauen ; † December 18, 1350 ) was Vogt and Lord of Plauen (younger line) (1303–1306) and Lord of Greiz (1306–1350).

ancestry

Heinrich II. Was the son of Heinrich the Younger , the "Reussen", and Countess Jutta von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg.

It was first mentioned in a document on February 14, 1301. In another document in 1302 he was referred to as Heinrich von Schwarzburg, which led Berthold Schmidt to suspect that his first wife Sophie was a countess from the Schwarzburg family .

After 1303, the death of his grandfather Heinrich I , during the three-year joint government with his older cousin Heinrich III. von Seeberg, Heinrich II was nicknamed "the Younger".

Division of 1306

When the two cousins ​​split up in 1306, Heinrich II received the rule of Greiz with Werdau , Reichenbach , Mylau , Ronneburg , Schmölln and Reichslehen in Pleißner Land . In the contract of December 31, 1306 of Bobenneukirchen , all bailiffs then agreed on their conditions in the Regnitzland .

From 1307 he was called Heinrich der Reuße and made the nickname a family name. His two younger brothers joined the Teutonic Order , the youngest Heinrich Reuss von Plauen zu Greiz in 1335 being Landkomtur von Kulm and from 1336 to 1338 Grand Komtur of the Teutonic Order .

The constant struggle for survival

In the years 1306/07 Heinrich II. Reuss and Heinrich III. von Seeberg stood at the side of the Wettins against King Albrecht I of Habsburg. On January 28, 1310, the Wettin margrave Friedrich der Freidige settled a dispute between the two cousins ​​on the one hand and the governors of Gera on the other. However, on January 7, 1312, Heinrich II. Reuss and all the other bailiffs appeared in person in Prague at King John of Bohemia in order to conclude a war alliance with him as imperial administrator against the margrave. When armed conflicts broke out on August 14, 1314 between Margrave Friedrich and the Burgrave of Nuremberg against Heinrich von Gera around Schleiz , Heinrich II. Stood on the Wettiner's side, while Heinrich III., Called the Tall One since 1312, on the side of the Geraer fought. On April 8, 1315, the new German king, Ludwig IV , the Bavarian, intervened in the dispute in favor of the bailiffs and appointed Heinrich II. Reuss, Heinrich the Langen and the two Gera bailiffs as judges over the Pleissner region and the cities Altenburg , Zwickau and Chemnitz . In addition, on May 17, 1316, the king confirmed all the rights, proofs of grace and freedoms bestowed on the bailiffs by his predecessors. On September 28, 1316, Friedrich gave in to an armistice and in the Treaty of Weißenfels of November 1, 1316 the bailiffs of Gera Schleiz with Saalburg and Burgk were allowed to keep, but waived the office of district judge. Under the mediation of Heinrich II. Reuss, a contract for the Hohenforst mine near Kirchberg was concluded on May 12, 1317 between the bailiffs of Gera, Heinrich III the Tall One , and himself and Margrave Friedrich.

Guardian of the margrave and prince

When after 1320 the state of health of Friedrich the Undeniable deteriorated, Heinrich von Schwarzburg and Heinrich II. Reuss were appointed guardians of Friedrich the Serious .

There must also have been very good relations with the king, because on January 22, 1323 Heinrich confirmed all his possessions and sovereign rights. A document dated August 15, 1324 shows that Heinrich was still thinking in terms of the family policy of the bailiffs of Weida. With this he wrote several goods in the area of ​​the Reichenbach parish to his "cousin" Heinrich von Gera, Commander of the Teutonic Order of Reichenbach.

While Heinrich von Schwarzburg took over the business in Thuringia after the death of the old margrave on November 16, 1323, Heinrich II became captain in Meißen, the Easter and Pleißner Lands. It was probably Heinrich II who established the family connection between the Wittelsbachers and the Wettins . His ward Friedrich became engaged to the king's daughter. When Heinrich von Schwarzburg died on a military campaign at the end of 1324, Heinrich II became the sole guardian of Frederick the Freid. This called him in April 1325 as "Captain of our country" and enfeoffed him with Waldeck Castle , some villages near Jena and the castle and town of Pölzig in Altenburg.

Heinrich II reached the height of his power when King Ludwig appointed him to the guardianship council of his son, Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg , who was also underage. In the following year, Ludwig awarded him the Reichsfeste Gleisberg an der Saale, today's Kunitzburg , gave him the Bergregal and the approval of the leanings with the Festivities Triptis , Ziegenrück and Auma by the Margrave. In July 1327 he accompanied him to several cities in the Brandenburg region.

First cracks

The policy of Heinrich III, the Tall One of Plauen, was completely different. His loose feudal relationship with the distant Count of Everstein offered him no protection from the Wettins. Probably Heinrich II's politics scared him, which is why he gave up his possessions to the Bohemian King John in 1327 and took them as a fiefdom. When Heinrich II submitted his first major account to Friedrich and Thuringian and Meissen lords and knights on February 20, 1328 in Buttelstedt , the discrepancies remained hidden. Was Heinrich taking advantage of his guardianship or was it just a nuisance to Friedrich, now 18 years old? The relationship with Ludwig, emperor since 1328, remained untroubled. In 1329 he transferred Treuen Castle, which was directly under the Empire, to him .

The Vogtland Golden Bull

On June 24, 1329, Emperor Ludwig Heinrich II gave Reuss and all the bailiffs of Plauen, Gera and Weida a gift of regalia, a document written on parchment with a gold seal, issued in Pavia in northern Italy . In this the emperor called the bailiffs "principales ministeriales" (prince-like servants). With this document, the bailiffs received the rights for the state army ban, the blood ban, for tax collection, for escort, hunting, fishing, mining and the right to coin. This document formed the foundation for the sovereignty of the bailiffs.

Break with the Wettins

It is not known when this document was received by the governors. But already on August 6, 1329 Heinrich II. Reuss asked the margrave to dismiss him as guardian. This step did not fit into the emperor's policy, but the break between Heinrich and Friedrich was there. This became very obvious when Heinrich gave up Stein Castle, later referred to as Posterstein , to the Bohemian King in September 1329 and then took it as a fiefdom from him. It was a direct affront to Margrave Friedrich. When in the middle of 1331 the Wettins drafted a formal indictment, presenting all the feuds made to Reuss in such a way that Heinrich would have persuaded Friedrich to do so, and that Heinrich even tried to kill the margrave, the breach was visible to everyone.

After armed conflicts had already taken place, on August 24, 1331 in Nuremberg an attempt was made to mediate with an imperial arbitration award. There was no longer any talk of an attack on the margrave, but Heinrich had to return all of the margrave's mortgages, was compensated in money and he was supposed to keep to the Reich for personal damage suffered. But it was not until August 1, 1332, that the dispute could be settled in Nuremberg, whereby it essentially remained with the imperial arbitration award.

Heinrich II. Reuss continued to look for possible allies. On September 7, 1332 he concluded a protection and defensive alliance against the margrave with Heinrich the Langen von Plauen and the bishop Heinrich von Naumburg . A short time later there was an uprising of the Count of Schwarzburg and Orlamünde and the cities of Erfurt and Mühlhausen against the margrave, which was joined by Heinrich II, Heinrich the Long and the Naumburg bishop and which only took place on June 29, 1335 with the peace treaty of Eisenach ended in favor of the margrave.

Timid rapprochement

On August 19, 1337, mediated by the emperor, a contract was concluded between all the Vogtlinien and the margrave, which ended the dispute over the Hohenforst mine near Kirchberg and recognized the bailiffs' rights. As before, Emperor Ludwig stood by his governors. On April 27, 1338 in the court camp at Frankfurt / Main, the emperor insisted on officially releasing Heinrich II Reuss from the guardianship of Frederick the Serious, nine years after they had actually parted ways. The margrave pledged the fortress Freyburg to Heinrich. When Margrave Friedrich acquired the castle and the county of Orlamünde in 1342, the so-called count feud broke out between the Wettins and a large league of princes and lords. On September 1, 1342, Heinrich joined the margrave and on September 6, he concluded a separate peace with the bailiffs, ensuring their neutrality. When the feud broke out again in 1343, Heinrich II. Reuss and the other bailiffs were not among the margrave's opponents.

The first political thoughts or actions of Frederick the Serious eldest son, Frederick the Strict , probably prompted Heinrich II Reuss, Heinrich the Elder von Weida and the two bailiffs von Plauen to write a letter to Charles IV , the Bohemian King, on October 15, 1349 and to write to Emperor of the Empire and to remind him that the Plauener had been the feudal men of the Bohemian king since 1327 and that Heinrich II had had Posterstein Castle of Bohemia as a fief since September 1329 . Just a good month later, on November 18, 1349, Friedrich the Serious died. Heinrich II. Reuss survived his former ward by 13 months. He died on December 18, 1350.

Marriage and offspring

Heinrich II was married twice.

1. ⚭ 1306 Countess Sophie von Beichlingen (* around 1288; † before 1335), daughter of Count Heinrich I of Beichlingen and Lohra (1252–1335) and Countess Oda von Honstein (1270-). Their children were

• Heinrich (* around 1313; †† after 1335); ⚭ () NN of Orlamünde

• a daughter, first documented mention 1324, ⚭ () NN Berka von Duba

2. ⚭ before 1335 Salome von Schlesien-Glogau (* around (1319); † after June 12, 1359), daughter of Duke Heinrich IV. Von Glogau (1292-1342) and Mechthild von Brandenburg (1296-1321). Their children were

• Mechtild (* around 1323 (?) In Plauen; † between November 22, 1340 and November 2, 1343); ⚭ Hermann VI., Lord of Schönburg-Crimmitschau, († June 7, 1382)

• Jutta (* around 1331 in Plauen, † after 1344); ⚭ (August 26, 1344 dispensation) Heinrich VI., Vogt of Gera, (* around 1332 in Gera; † after 1344)

• Heinrich III., "The elder" Reuss of Plauen (* around 1333 in Plauen; † before August 18, 1368); ⚭ I: Jutta von Hackeborn (* around 1343), daughter of Albrecht VI. von Hackeborn (1302–1368) and Rixa von Schrapelau (1315–1348); ⚭ II: (before March 4, 1355) Countess Agnes von Leisnig zu Penig († after December 6, 1359) daughter of Burgrave Otto I von Leisnig (1306–1363) and Countess Elisabeth von Altenburg (1325–1389)

• Heinrich IV., "The middle" Reuss of Plauen (* around 1335 in Plauen; † before October 1, 1370 in Lombardy)

• Heinrich V, "the younger" Reuss von Plauen (* around 1337 in Plauen; †† between January 13, 1398 and May 10, 1398); ⚭ I: (before December 20, 1387) Dorothea von Gera, (* around 1337 in Gera; † before February 12, 1410; ▭ in Cronschwitz), widow of Count Heinrich von Truhendingen (1320-1380); ⚭ II: Sophie von Gera (* around 1339 in Gera; † before February 12, 1411); Dorothea and Sophie are daughters of Heinrich V. Vogt von Gera (1308–1377) and Countess Mechtild von Käfernburg (1302–1376)

• Heinrich (around 1339; † young)

• Magdalene (* around 1341 in Plauen); ⚭ (around 1365) Count Günther XXII. von Schwarzburg (* around 1322 in Pinneberg; † July 4, 1382), son of Count Heinrich IX. von Schwarzburg (1290–1356) and Countess Helene von Holstein (1303–1341)

• Salome (* 1345/50; † after November 9, 1400); ⚭ (after 1358) Duke Johann I of Auschwitz (* 1308/10; † 1372), son of Wladislaus von Teschen-Auschwitz (1275 / 80-1324) and Euphrosyne of Mazovia (1292 / 94-1327)

• Dorothea , first documented mention on June 12, 1359, a nun in the Cronschwitz monastery

• Barbara , first documented on June 12, 1359, a nun in the Cronschwitz monastery

See also

• Reuss family list
• ( House Reuss )

literature

• Werner Querfeld: Greiz. History of a city. Mediatect-Verlag, Greiz 1995.
• Berthold Schmidt : History of the Reussland. Half volume 1. Kanitz, Gera 1923.
• Berthold Schmidt: The Russians. Genealogy of the entire Reuss family older and younger line as well as the extinct Vogtslinien zu Weida, Gera and Plauen and the Burgraves of Meißen from the House of Plauen. Weber, Schleiz 1903.
• Berthold Schmidt: Document book of the bailiffs of Weida, Gera and Plauen as well as their house monasteries Mildenfurth, Cronschwitz, Weida and the Holy Cross near Saalburg. Volume 1: 1122-1356 (= Thuringian historical sources . NF Vol. 2, 1 = Vol. 5, 1, ZDB -ID 548596-4 ). G. Fischer, Jena 1885.
• Friedrich Schneider: Selected documents on the general history of the Reußenland (= publications of the Thuringian State Archives Greiz. Issue 2, ZDB -ID 1149301-x ). Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1924.
• Volkmar Schneider (Red.): 800 years of Greiz City of Greiz in the Vogtland. 1209-2009. Festschrift of the city of Greiz on the return of the 800-year first mention and the 650-year naming as a city. The Lord Mayor, City of Greiz in Vogtland 2009.
• Hilmar Schwarz: The Wettins of the Middle Ages and their significance for Thuringia (= small series of publications of the Wartburg Foundation. Vol. 7). Special edition. Kranichborn-Verlag, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-930040-05-0 .