Henry VII of Kranlucken

Coat of arms of the Fulda abbot Heinrich von Kranlucken

Heinrich von Kranlucken (* 1303 in Salzungen ; † February 16, 1372 in Fulda ) was Prince Abbot of Fulda from 1353 to 1372 .

origin

Heinrich von Craluc came from the lower Buchon nobility, an originally Fulda ministerial family that had its headquarters in the small village of Kranlucken near Geisa in the Rhön . A Winhold von Craluken is attested as a witness of a deed of gift on September 28, 1197 as the first of the sex. The family seat was a modest Fulda Dienstmannenburg on the outskirts of Schleid , in today's Schlossstrasse 1-4. The family had the carrion crow in their coat of arms: Craluc is said to have originally designated a crow's hole. Gerlach, Berthold and Beck von Kranlucken are mentioned in 1371 as brothers of the Fulda prince Heinrich. Heinrich's father was probably in the service of the former Allendorf an der Werra around the Allendorf monastery in today's Bad Salzungen.

Election as prince abbot

Heinrich von Kranlucken was on September 22, 1353 as the successor to the late Prince Abbot Heinrich VI. von Hohenberg was elected Abbot of Fulda as Heinrich VII. He was previously provost of the women's monastery Allendorf (Aldendorf) on the Werra , first mentioned in 1272 , in what is now the monastery district of the city of Bad Salzungen . Since none of the original candidates could achieve the required number of votes, a compromise election was agreed. The election was the first of an abbot from Fulda, who is known to have previously drawn up a surrender that the electorate had to swear to comply with in the event of his election. After the election, Heinrich himself traveled to Pope Innocent VI for papal confirmation . to Avignon . The Cardinal Bishop Bertrand de Déaulx awarded him the title of abbot on November 24th. On this occasion Heinrich presumably tried to get the Curia to be dispensed with from the obligations of election surrender. The later Emperor Charles IV granted him the investiture and confirmation of Fulda rights and possessions in Trier in 1354 .

Heyday

For a long time Heinrich VII was the last abbot of Fulda, whose term of office initially had a certain outward glory. At the turn of the year 1355/1356 he stayed for a long time at the court of Emperor Charles in Nuremberg, and in the following years he succeeded in obtaining a number of privileges for himself and his monastery. The most important of these was the appointment as "Arch Chancellor of the Empress" on June 1, 1356, an honorary title that linked to old privileges of the Abbot of Fulda, which have been controversial for centuries and have not been exercised since the Salian emperors, and which has now been re-certified in a golden bull has been. As Arch Chancellor of the Empress, the Fulda abbots had the right to sit directly to the left of the Emperor at court and imperial meetings in Mainz. In addition, there was now the right to hold, put on and take off the crown of the Empress or Queen at the coronation and on all festive occasions when she appeared in full regalia . This new dignity led Heinrich to the imperial court from November 1356 to at least February 1357, in summer and autumn 1358, and again in spring 1361 for a longer period of time, and brought many imperial favors to the Fulda monastery. In 1360 the prince abbot received the right to have the imperial banner carried forward to his army .

Conflict and loss of power

Nevertheless, Heinrich also had to struggle with considerable difficulties. He lost two major feuds in 1356 and 1361 against Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse and his son Otto the Schütz , which involved territorial claims. In 1359 the Landgrave and his son occupied the city of Hünfeld for eight days during a nightly attack using scaling ladders . In 1361 Otto conquered the "castrum Rosdorff", Rossdorf before the Rhön ( Schmalkalden district ). Peace could not be concluded until 1362.

Heinrich is even said to have been involved in the early death of Magdeburg canon Otto von Hessen (1341-1357), son of the Landgrave brother Ludwig , who was supposed to succeed his uncle Otto there but died at the age of 16, allegedly by one poison attack initiated by Heinrich von Kranlucken. The same was said when in December 1366 the son of the Landgrave and co-regent Otto der Schütz died prematurely in Spangenberg .

At least as important were the increasingly serious rifts between the abbot and the convent, as Heinrich tried to undermine obligations from his electoral surrender. The monks accused him of squandering the property of the monastery and appointed 1365 agents who were to file a complaint against the abbot with the curia on behalf of the convent. In the dispute, which at times even degenerated into open combat, it was only superficially about the abbot's debt economy and in truth about his removal. Heinrich's main opponent in the convent was Konrad von Hanau , who had been a monk and priest in the Fulda monastery since 1353, and who became his successor after Heinrich's death. The dispute was settled in 1366, but Heinrich had to submit to a commission to decide on the usefulness of an enterprise. This was the beginning of a process in the course of which the rights of the Fulda abbot were increasingly curtailed in favor of the convent.

death

Heinrich von Kranlucken died on February 16, 1372 and was buried two days later in the church of the Frauenberg monastery in Fulda . His successor was Konrad von Hanau.

literature

Michael Mott : Arch Chancellor of the Empress through a golden bull; in: "Fuldaer Köpfe" or "Menschen Our Heimat", Fulda 2011, pp. 151–153; ISBN 978-3-7900-0442-7

Web links

• Fulda heads: Prince Abbot Heinrich VII;
• http://www.kranlucken.de/geschichte.html#Heinrich%20VII

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry VI. from Hohenberg	Prince Abbot of Fulda 1353–1372	Conrad IV of Hanau