Heinrich von Alt-Lübeck

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich von Alt-Lübeck (* before 1066 ; † March 22, 1127 ) from the Nakoniden dynasty was an Abodritic velvet ruler who ruled over the Elbe Slavic tribes of the Wagrier , Polaben , Abodriten, Kessiner and Zirzipans from 1093 to 1127 .

After his return from exile in Denmark , Heinrich had the Abodritic velvet ruler Kruto, who lived in Wagrien , murdered in 1090 and, with Saxon support in the battle of Schmilau in 1093, also gained control of the Polabians and Abodrites. In the following period he extended his rule to the Oder and Havel and penetrated to Rügen in 1123/1124. The minting of his own coins, the elevation of Alt-Lübeck to his residence and the construction of a stone church are expressions of his supraregional claim to rule. When Heinrich, against the resistance of the anti-Christian and anti-Saxon opposition, began to proselytize the people who were firmly rooted in their pagan beliefs, he was murdered in 1127.

Under Heinrich, referred to in contemporary Saxon sources as " rex slavorum ", the Abodritic Empire reached its climax. In the more than 30 years of his rule, Heinrich succeeded in building a state of the Slavs between the expanding kingdoms of the Danes and the Germans. Inwardly, however, he was unable to permanently overcome the heterogeneous conditions, as is clear from the rapid collapse of the empire after his death.

Origin and youth

Heinrich came from the Danish royal family on his mother's side and the Abodritic ruling family of the Christian Naconids on his father's side, who presumably ruled over the Abodritic Empire since 931. His father, the Abodritic velvet ruler Gottschalk , died in 1066 in a revolt of the pagan Abodritic nobility. Through his mother Sigrid, a sister or daughter of the Danish king Sven Estridsson , he was also distantly related to the Saxon noble family of Billunger . Heinrich had an older stepbrother, Budivoj . Heinrich first grew up with his parents on the Mecklenburg , where he was brought up in the Christian faith in the presence of Bishop Johannes Scotus . Godfather was the Hamburg High Bailiff and Count of Hamburg, Heinrich I. In 1066 Heinrich fled with his mother from the rebels to his uncle Sven Estridsson at the Danish royal court.

Heinrich was married to Slawinia, the former wife of Krutos . He had at least four sons known by name Knut, Waldemar, Mistiwoj and Sventipolk as well as a grandson with his son Swinike.

Life

From Denmark, Heinrich invaded Wagrien in 1090 and began his career with the help of a woman, as the chronicler Helmold von Bosau reports. His opponent Kruto , leader of the pagan nobility, was married to Slavina. “Heinrich was neither lacking in wisdom nor cunning to protect himself. Mrs. Slavina, Kruto's wife, often warned him by telling him how to look after his life. Since she hated her husband, who had grown quite old, she finally came up with the plan to possibly marry Heinrich. As a result of the instigation of this woman, Heinrich invited the Kruto to a feast, and when he stumbled out of the room in which they had been drinking, intoxicated from all the drinking, a Dane struck him down with a battle ax and beheaded him with one blow. Heinrich, however, married Slavina and took over the land and rule. ”Heinrich's rule, however, initially only referred to Wagrien, but as Nakonide he asserted the ancestral sovereign rule over all Abodritic sub-tribes.

However, under a future rule by Henry, the Abodrites and Polabians saw the hated taxes coming up again and gathered an army. Heinrich, who had Denmark and Saxony behind him, defeated their contingent in 1093 in the battle of Schmilau . Helmold claims to have heard from eyewitnesses that it was the glare of the setting sun that blinded the Slavs so much that they could not see anything. After this victory, Heinrich conquered the Abodritic and Vagrian castles and made tribute to the sub-tribe of the Abodrites. In contrast to his father, he did not pursue a consistent missionary policy. He even seems to have left the pagan Abodritic princes in their offices. He restored peace in the country and chose Liubice as his preferred residence, as this place was exactly at the interface between the Mecklenburg, Wagrian and Polabian Abodrites.

In 1100 Heinrich fended off an attack by the Ranen on Liubice Castle and gradually made all Slavs living on the Baltic Sea subject to interest, including the Liutizen , Kessiner , Zirzipanen and Pomeranen . His power extended to the Brizanen and Stoderanen around Havelberg . With Adolf von Schauenburg , Duke Lothar III. around 1111 as Count for Holstein had installed, he lived on good terms. When his son Waldemar von Ranen was slain in 1123, he undertook a winter campaign across the icy Baltic Sea against the residents of Rügen , whose priests bought themselves free from the threatened retribution for an immense sum.

In 1126 Vizelin came to the "Slavic King" Heinrich in Liubice and asked him for permission to do missionary work in his country. Heinrich gave this permission and gave him the church in Liubice, "so that they could stay with him in safety and do God's work." Vizelin and his companions returned to Saxony to prepare for their stay in the Slavic region. Then they found out that Heinrich had died. In the chronicle of the Michaelis monastery in Lüneburg it is said that he was murdered and buried on the Lüneburg Kalkberg ; Helmold's silence makes that questionable.

swell

  • Helmold : Chronica Slavorum. Retransmitted and explained by Heinz Stoob . With an addendum by Volker Scior. In: Selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. (Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe 19), 7th edition 2008 (unchanged reprint of the 6th, compared to the 5th edition with a supplement in 2002), Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2008.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Der Ranenberg (Sage)  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ruth Bork: The Billunger with contributions to the history of the German-Wendish border area in the 10th and 11th centuries. PhD thesis phil. mach. Greifswald 1951, p. 157; Helmold calls him I, 34 a cognatus (relative).
  2. ↑ Günther Bock: The end of the Hamburg counts 1110. A historiographical construction. in: Oliver Auge, Detlev Kraack (ed.): 900 years of Schauenburger in the north. An inventory. Wachholtz, Kiel a. a. 2015, pp. 7–75, here p. 51.
  3. ↑ Joachim Herrmann: The Slavs in Germany: History and culture of the Slavic tribes west of Oder and Neisse from the 6th to 12th centuries . Akademie-Verlag, 1985, p. 484 .
  4. ↑ Helmold I, 34
  5. ↑ Helmold I, 46
  6. ↑ " Occius est etiam rex Heinricus Slauorum cuius corpus delatum Luneburg sepultumque in ecclesia Sancti Michaelis. "
personal data
SURNAME Heinrich von Alt-Lübeck
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Abodritic prince from the Naconid dynasty
DATE OF BIRTH before 1066
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1127