Heinrich von Bülow called Grotekop

Coat of arms of the von Bülow

The knight Heinrich von Bülow also called Grotekop (* middle of the 14th century; † before 1395 or in 1415 ) was an economically very successful Mecklenburg nobleman and war captain of Duke Albrecht III. of Mecklenburg . Outside Mecklenburg he is still regarded today as the epitome of the robber baron , representing many others of his kind, because of his feistiness .

Origin and family

The von Bülow family is an old north German aristocratic family. Knight Heinrich von Bülow was mentioned for the first time in 1376 as a witness to a contract. Because of the location of its headquarters, Preensberg Castle , about ten kilometers east of Wismar and not far from the trade route to Rostock in the area of ​​today's municipality of Benz (near Wismar) , it was often given the additional name Preensberg for better differentiation . He was the son of the knight of the same name on Plüschow and had five brothers. He worked closely with all of them economically throughout his life.

Life

Heinrich von Bülow became known historically through an incursion into the Brandenburg town of Wilsnack in 1383. In the course of a dispute with the Bishop of Havelberg , he and other nobles burned the place down completely, including the church that existed at the time. Certainly unintentionally, with this destruction they promoted strong economic growth in Wilsnack, which lasted until shortly after the Reformation . The reason for this development was the discovery of three hosts intact from the fire . For more than 170 years, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims wandered on several pilgrimage routes to Wilsnack to the newly built Wunderblutkirche to visit the Holy Blood . In November of the same year, v. According to Hoinkhusens, there were gunmen from Wismar at Möllenbeck Castle. They tore down the wall, destroyed Breske and devastated Veldenze on the fourth day, "because of the renewed feeling that their special patron Hinrich von Bülow, otherwise known as the Grotekop, enjoyed from them."

In 1385 fate turned against him. The Mecklenburg Duke Albrecht III, at the same time King of Sweden, allied himself with the powerful Hanseatic city of Lübeck and, together with the latter and its Hanseatic cities Wismar and Rostock, prepared for a punitive expedition against the annoying road robbers that disrupted trade. Twenty castles of Mecklenburg knights were captured and destroyed by the allies under the orders of Lübeck's mayor Thomas Morkerke and councilor and war captain Hinrich Westhof , including Heinrich Preensberg's castle. The latter, like most of the others, must be imagined as erected in the shape of a moth . It was probably not rebuilt by Heinrich. Today we can hardly guess anything of this castle, named after the previous owners, the Knights of Preen . It is assumed that this damp place in the area could have been a settlement in Slavic times .

In 1389, knight Heinrich von Bülow was named as the war captain of the Swedish king (and ruler of Mecklenburg). Bülow's importance in the Mecklenburg power structure becomes clear when he, who already held Plau am See as a pledge together with his brothers, was put on record with them in 1391 because of the pledge of Neustadt-Glewe and Dömitz . By pledging them, the sovereign received in return the very high amount of 14,000 Lübische Marks for the time . From then on Heinrich is said to have taken up residence in the old castle in Neustadt-Glewe.

Also in the Mecklenburg Landfrieden of the year 1392 knight Heinrich was supposed to be accepted because of the Wilsnacker affair together with the archbishop of Magdeburg , to whom the diocese Havelberg was subordinate as a suffragan . The Grotekop refused, however, and tried to keep his close relatives out of this alliance. Even the Schwerin bishop Rudolf was unable to change his mind. The consequence of this peace was, against the background of Albrecht III's imprisonment, that the adventurous part of the Mecklenburg landed nobility turned to the Baltic Sea and came to the aid of the sovereign family as vital brothers . The supply of the city of Stockholm, which remained under the rule, was also to be ensured.

The information on the year of Heinrich's death is contradictory. If he died before 1395, he would not have lived to see his sovereign Duke Albrecht ransomed from captivity by Queen Margaret I of Denmark through the Treaty of Helsingborg (1395) .

literature

• Jakob Friedrich Joachim Bülow: With copper and many documents provided, historical, genealogical and critical description of the noble, Freyherr- and Countess family von Bülow . Korb, Neubrandenburg 1780 ( digitized version )
• Adolf v. Bülow: Bülow family book . 2 volumes. Schwerin 1911-1914

supporting documents

1. ^ Johann Heinrich von Hoinckhusen (approx. 1700 - approx. 1746), Mecklenburg genealogist, his work was later continued by Conrad Lüder von Pentz (1728–1782). See Lisch : year of the association for mecklenb. History and Archeology, Vol. 29 (1864), pp. 33–35.
2. ↑ Quoted from Adolf v. Bülow, Tab. I. Ast B. # 72, p. 45
3. ↑ Chronicle of the municipality of Benz on the location and the findings  ( 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.  
4. ^ Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume II: The district court districts of Wismar, Grevesmühlen, Rehna, Gadebusch and Schwerin. Schwerin 1898, reprint Schwerin 1992, p. 336. ISBN 3910179061