Hoyer I. von Mansfeld

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Hoyer I. Graf von Mansfeld (also called Hoyer the Great ; † February 11, 1115 near Welfesholz ) was Field Marshal Emperor Heinrich V and the first member of his family, the Count of Mansfeld , who named himself after the ancestral castle in the city ​​of the same name .

Although Hoyer I was not the first person to bear this first name in his family, it was probably given this name by early historians because it was the beginning of the continuous transmission of family history. For this reason he is sometimes also called Hoyer II or even Hoyer III in historiography. called.

Life

Hoyer's father was also called Hoyer von Mansfeld. In 1069 he had probably received northern Hassegau as a county through the favor of Heinrich IV . He acquired Wimmelburg as his own property after he had married Christina, the daughter of Siegfried II .

Hoyer I von Mansfeld was a loyal supporter of the Salier emperor Heinrich V, for whom he was his supreme general against the Saxon aristocratic opposition (including Archbishop Adalbert I of Saarbrücken , Landgrave Ludwig der Springer and Saxon Duke Lothar of Supplinburg, who later became Emperor Lothar III. ) Fought. In a first battle on March 9, 1113 near Warnstedt near Quedlinburg , the imperial army under the leadership of Mansfeld succeeded in defeating the rebels.

But the resistance formed anew only a little later. On February 10 and 11, 1115, the decisive battle at Welfesholz took place , during which Hoyer I was killed in a duel with Wiprecht von Groitzsch . Contemporary chroniclers referred to the meeting of Saxons and imperial knights as proelium famosissimum illud nostrae aetate , which roughly translated means the greatest meeting of our age . The battle was lost for the imperial and Heinrich V had to leave Saxony.

Hoyer's corpse was buried in the Mansfeld Monastery, which his family had donated. In the event of a victory, Henry V would have made him Duke as a reward for his services.

Theodor Körner later wrote the folk tale Graf Hoyer von Mansfeld or the Battle of the Welfesholze , which tells of the battle.

The Hoyerstein

The Hoyerstein

There are still legends surrounding the battle of the Welfesholz , for example the one about the so-called Hoyerstein not far from today's village of Welfesholz on the outskirts of the town of Gerbstedt . It is a simple monument in the form of a natural stone with a hole the size of a fist.

On the eve of the battle, Hoyer I is said to have stuck his fist through this stone, confident of victory, and said the following words.

“I, Hoyer, unborn,
haven't lost a battle yet.
As much as I reach into this stone,
this battle must also be mine "

- Hoyer I.

This saying is carved into a plate in the base of the monument in memory of the imperial general and his last battle.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Seidel, p. 91
  2. ↑ nhv-ahnenforschung.de: 15 18756 Siegfried II , accessed on February 27, 2010
  3. ^ Theodor Körner, Karl Streckfuss: Theodor Körner's all works , Nicolai, 1838, p. 50

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hoyer I. von Mansfeld
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoyer the Great
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German field marshal of the emperor Heinrich V.
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1115
Place of death at Welfesholz