Henry VI. from Rottenburg

Count Heinrich VI. von Rottenburg (* 2nd half of the 14th century; † April / May 1411 ) was the leader of an opposition of the Tyrolean nobility against Duke Friedrich IV of Austria . He is considered one of his most famous political opponents. The Rottenburg feud that led to his fall is named after him.

origin

Henry VI. von Rottenburg came from the family of the Counts of Rottenburg , who at the beginning of the 15th century were considered the most powerful aristocratic family in the County of Tyrol . His father Heinrich V. von Rottenburg (* around 1343, † around 1400) was court master and captain on the Adige . He built on the already important position of his family through important acquisitions and pledges, parish surveys and the like. In 1386 he made a foundation for the Stams monastery .

Life

After the death of his father around 1400, Count Heinrich took over the management of his family. Like this and his ancestors, he held important offices in the County of Tyrol, including that of captain on the Adige and burgrave at Tyrol Castle . In 1404 he founded a hospital near his castle in Kaltern. 1407 he founded the noble community, as Falk Federation has gone down in history and legend. This was directed against Duke Friedrich IV, who had meanwhile taken control of Tyrol.

In 1407 Heinrich came into conflict with Niklaus Vintler von Runkelstein because of a pledge . He conquered the Rendelstein Castle , which he had to return to the Vintlers under pressure from the Duke .

In 1410 the Rottenburg feud broke out, which ended for Heinrich with the loss of his numerous possessions. Heinrich, who eventually became Duke Stephan III. von Baiern-Ingolstadt provided the pretext for a war to regain the County of Tyrol, was arrested for high treason and only released again in 1411. With his death only a few months later, the Rottenburgers died out in the male line.

Marriage and offspring

Heinrich had been with Agnes (* around 1385; † between 1427 and 1436), a daughter of Count Albrecht III , since around 1404 . von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg-Bludenz , but had no male descendants from this marriage. Agnes von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg-Bludenz (also identified as Agnes von Kirchberg) married Count Eberhard VI after his death around 1415. von Kirchberg († 1440), who is documented as court master of the Counts of Württemberg around 1431 . At the time of her second marriage, Agnes was considered a wealthy widow; unlike legends, she had survived Heinrich's fall relatively lightly. From her second marriage, Agnes had several sons and daughters who were married to important noble families: the Fürstenbergers , the Counts of Tengen-Nellenburg and the lords of Zimmer zu Messkirch . Her daughter of the same name, Agnes von Kirchberg the Younger, married Count Ulrich IX around 1435. von Matsch († 1481) and was the mother of Count Gaudenz von Matsch .

Countess Barbara von Rottenburg († 1462), the daughter of Heinrich and Agnes, married Bero I. von Rechberg-Mindelheim († 1462) around 1430 . She was an ancestor of Bauernjörg .

Legends

• Heinrich's fall and his death shortly thereafter are likely to be the reason why it is repeatedly claimed that he was allegedly poisoned or killed. But there is no serious evidence that he was actually murdered; it is obviously a matter of legend.
• Since the family of the Counts von Rottenburg died out with him, he was later referred to as Heinrich the Last .
• As with other aristocratic opponents of Duke Friedrich of Austria, so z. B. the Lords of Starkenberg , legends may have developed around Heinrich's person in which he gets off very badly as the "political loser". Two anecdotes (including the anecdote of the three diseases ) have been handed down about him in writing, announcing his fall.

memory

• Today the Rottenburger Platz in Kaltern reminds of Heinrich and his family .
• The hospital in Kaltern, founded by Heinrich, later became a retirement home: the Heinrich von Rottenburg Foundation for the elderly .

literature

• Claudia Feller: Heinrichs von Rottenburg's account book - A testimony to aristocratic rule and economic management in late medieval Tyrol , Böhlau, Vienna / Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-59122-4 .
• Gottfried Kompatscher: People and rulers in historical saga. On the mythization of Frederick IV of Austria from the 15th century to the present . (Contributions to European ethnology and folklore. Series A, Texts and Studies 4). Frankfurt am Main [u. a.]: Lang 1995, pp. 96-102. ISBN 3-631-45877-0 .

Web links

• Website of the Altenstiftung zum Heinrich von Rottenburg
• Klaus Brandstätter : Austrian War, 1410-1413 . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria , August 17, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ^ Claudia Feller: Heinrichs von Rottenburg's account book. ( online, p. 81. )
2. ↑ http://notburga-gemeinschaft.at/notburga-3-2/die-rottenburger/ , viewed on February 12, 2017
3. ↑ http://www.ah-kaltern.it/de/unser-haus/geschichte
4. ↑ Klaus Brandstätter: Austrian War, 1410–1413 , Link: http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Österreichischer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. War, accessed February 12, 2017  
5. ↑ In order to protect his wife and daughter from the risk of complete expropriation by Friedrich IV, Heinrich von Rottenburg had expressly recommended both of them to him in his function as sovereign shortly before his death. In fact, the Duke made sure that Agnes kept the Rattenburg fortress on her second marriage, to which Heinrich had committed her home tax and morning gift, and Ute Monika Schwob: "Mistresses" in Tyrolean sources. On the legal and social position of noble women in the Middle Ages , in: Egon Kühebacher (Hrsg.): Literature and fine arts in the Tyrolean Middle Ages. The Iwein frescos by Rodenegg and other evidence of the interaction between literature and the fine arts (= Innsbruck contributions to cultural studies. Germanistic series 15), Innsbruck 1982, p. 170
6. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister: The five daughters of Count Albrecht III. from Werdenberg-Heiligenberg-Bludenz. In: Bludenzer Geschichtsblätter 2009, issue 90 + 91, pp. 41–44
7. ^ Claudia Feller: Heinrichs von Rottenburg's account book. P. 74 and Karl Heinz Burmeister: The five daughters of Count Albrecht III. from Werdenberg-Heiligenberg-Bludenz. In: Bludenzer Geschichtsblätter 2009, issue 90 + 91, p. 43
8. ↑ Gottfried Kompatscher: People and rulers in the historical saga. On the mythization of Frederick IV of Austria from the 15th century to the present. (Contributions to European ethnology and folklore. Series A, Texts and Studies 4). Frankfurt am Main [u. a.]: Lang 1995, pp. 88-96
9. ↑ http://www.ah-kaltern.it/de/unser-haus/geschichte