Hermann von Sulz

Hermann von Sulz also Hermann VI. von Sulz (* (?); † 1429 at Balm Castle ) was a count and bailiff in Upper Austria and captain of the four forest towns . He was the progenitor of the Klettgau line of those von Sulz.

Life

Count Hermann came from the noble family of Count von Sulz from Sulz am Neckar with the seat at Castle Albeck , his father was Rudolf I von Sulz (* before 1349, † 1406) and his mother Anna von Waldburg († 1385 or 1406). He was related to Count Johannes II von Waldburg , but also became friends with him, as an episode there shows.

By marrying his son, he "arranged" the Klettgau line of von Sulz. His ancestors once owned estates in Swabia and the county of Baar . They left this to the Reich in favor of the Fürstenberg family and in return received the hereditary office of President of the court in Rottweil , a highly respected and appropriately rewarded position. He was a determined and ambitious man who used all means to achieve his goals.

He was married to Margaretha von Hohenberg-Rottenburg , († February 26, 1419), a daughter of Count Rudolf III. von Hohenberg († November 30, 1389), the last count of the Hohenberg-Rottenburg line and the Ita von Toggenburg .

Margaretha had married Margrave Bernhard I of Baden in 1384 , the marriage - from which no children came - was divorced in 1393. The heiress von Hohenberg then married Hermann von Sulz, with which he became involved in the turmoil surrounding the Hohenberg inheritance when her father died in 1399. Hermann put his claims back in favor of the Habsburgs and in return was probably appointed bailiff in 1406 by Duke Friedrich in Breisgau and in 1407 for the entire foothills , making him one of the most influential aristocrats in southern Germany. Hermann thus opened the way for his house for the marriage contract signed on July 6, 1408 with the House of Habsburg-Laufenburg , which secured the Sulzers a new power base in Klettgau for almost 300 years . Hermann and Agnes, the widow of the last Count of Habsburg-Laufenburg, Johann , signed this contract for their children, Rudolf von Sulz and Ursula von Habsburg-Laufenburg.

Hermann had three children with Margaretha:

• Rudolf III. ⚭ Ursula von Habsburg-Laufenburg
• Anna von Sulz ⚭ 1406 Friedrich von Hohenzollern
• Half Count Heinrich von Sulz ⚭ 1. Ursula ⚭ 2. Quiteria von Münsingen

Sulz-Klettgau line

In the week before St. Urban Day in 1408, Count Johann von Habsburg died at Balm Castle not far from Lottstetten , leaving behind an unmarried daughter entitled to inheritance: Ursula von Habsburg-Laufenburg. Her mother was Reza von Habsburg-Laufenburg (née Agnes von Hohen-Landenberg, who received the marriage privilege from the emperor because the von Hohen-Landenberg were "only" knights). She now received many visits from suitors willing to marry who wooed the daughter. So did Hermann von Sulz, but not for himself, but for his son, Rudolf III. from Sulz . The marriage was contractually concluded on Ulrichstag 1408. The agreement stipulated that the actual marriage should take place two years later on the day and that the Landgraviate of Klettgau with the rule of Rottemberg (Lower Alsace) and the rule of Krenkingen would pass to Count Rudolf, but the widow kept Balm Castle as a widow's seat. Hermann von Sulz died in 1429 at Balm Castle.

Seat Castle Balm

Balm Castle near Lottstetten based on an old drawing: After the destruction, the people of Schaffhausen carry the bell of the castle chapel to Schaffhausen (Fronwaagturmglocke)

His son Rudolf III. von Sulz lived at Balm Castle with his wife Ursula and three sons (Johann, Ludwig and Alwig) until his early death. Countess Ursula and her underage sons Ludwig and Alwig lived there until the castle was destroyed and captured by the Schaffhausen family in 1449. (Johann took over the office of court judge in Rottweil). Schaffhausen later paid ten thousand guilders as compensation under imperial pressure, but insisted that Balm Castle should never be built again. Countess Ursula lived in Waldshut until her death (1456) .

Umbrella bailiff over the Rheinau monastery

Count Hermann had tacitly assumed that his son would also receive the umbrella bailiwick of the Rheinau monastery with the marriage, but the abbot placed himself under the protection of the Duke of Austria . Hermann had previously been involved in the Battle of the Stoss in the Appenzell War, under the leadership of the Duke. After the Abbot Henry had died, Hugo was of Almishofen new abbot of Rheinau, even this fell out with Hermann and followed lengthy disputes, though was on the Council of Constance after the flight of the Pope and after the Duke in imperial ban fell, Hermann again get the umbrella bailiwick, the abbot was imprisoned. But even under Abbot Hugo's successor, Abbot Eberhard, the disputes continued, Abbot Eberhard was related to Schaffhausen through relatives, and these disputes were beneficial for strengthening the Confederation . It was not until Alwig X. von Sulz, who can be regarded as the keeper of the Klettgau, that the quarrels were stopped.

literature

• Joseph Bader , Die Grafen von Sulz , in: Badenia, 1840

Web links

• Peter Niederhäuser : The Counts of Sulz between Confederates and Habsburgs ; Lecture to the Working Group for Historical Regional Studies on the Upper Rhine eV on January 17, 2003 online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://genealogy.euweb.cz/waldburg/waldburg1.html#J2
2. ↑ s. Niederhäuser
3. ↑ Joseph Bader, Die Graf von Sulz , in: Badenia, 1840.