Jan from Chotěmice

Jan von Chotěmice (also Johann von Chotiemitz, called von Fürstenberg ; Czech Jan / Janek / Janko z Chotěmic , also Jan Svídnický z Chotěmic , also Jan z Chotěmic na Fürstenštejně ; Latin Janco de Chotiemicz , also Jankonis de Swidnicz was ; † after 1442 ) a Bohemian nobleman and a retainer of Kings Wenceslaus and Sigismund . From 1407 to 1412 he was Governor of the Bohemian Hereditary Duchy of Schweidnitz-Jauer and from 1408 to 1413 Governor of the Hereditary Duchy of Wroclaw .

Life

Jan or Janko came from a Vladiken family that has been documented in Chotěmice in southern Bohemia since 1381. Although the family was impoverished, Jan achieved social advancement through the favor of King Wenceslaus. In 1392 he married Margarethe / Markéta, a daughter of the wealthy Hans / Hanuš Probischst [h] a ( Probist [h] ain ) in Silesia , who presumably gave birth to a son Georg / Jiří and a daughter who before 1430 with Herrmann the Elder. J. von Czettritz ( Heřman z Cetryc ) was married to Schwarzwaldau . In 1395 at the latest, Jan was appointed sub-captain of the Hereditary Duchy of Schweidnitz-Jauer by King Wenceslaus. In 1400, for 4,000 shock, he bought Prague groschen , which surely came from his wife's dowry , Fürstenstein Castle and the city of Freiberg , which belonged to the Fürstenstein castle district with some associated villages. After he was appointed governor of the Hereditary Principality of Schweidnitz-Jauer in 1407 as the successor to Benesch von Chusnik ( Beneš z Chousníka , † 1410) and a short time later he was appointed to the royal council, he resided on the prince stone. In 1412 he donated a hospital to the city of Freiberg. Since Jan had lent King Wenceslaus money several times, he pledged the town of Bolkenhain to him in 1412 . He was last mentioned as governor of Schweidnitz-Jauer in 1412. For a significant sum of money, he renounced the office of governor of the Hereditary Duchy of Breslau in 1413.

He then turned to the acquisition of properties in his Bohemian homeland. As early as 1413 he acquired the episcopal estate Dřevčice near Brandeis from Konrad von Vechta and two years later the episcopal lordships of Pilgrams and Roth Retschitz . In addition, he enlarged his Bohemian possessions with the acquisition of Wlaschim and Načeradec as well as some houses in Prague. This made him one of the richest members of the lower nobility in Bohemia before the Hussite Wars .

Although he had signed the protest letter of the Bohemian nobles against the burning of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415 , he continued to profess the Catholic faith. In 1417 King Wenzel transferred part of the annual royal Schweidnitzer income to him to repay a loan. In the same year King Wenzel's brother, the intended heir to the throne Sigismund, in his capacity as Roman-German king in Constance, confirmed the privileges granted by Wenzel in Bohemia and in the hereditary principality of Schweidnitz-Jauer.

As can be seen from several regests , after King Wenzel's death in 1419, Jan worked as a busy councilor in the diplomatic service of his successor Sigismund. With a document issued on November 25, 1420 in Čáslav , with which he called on the Breslau and Neumarkter to fight against the Hussites , he appointed “Janko v. Chotiemitz gen. V. Fürstenstein ”to his proxy.

After the conquest of the East Bohemian town of Chotěboř by the Taborites at the end of 1420 , Jan von Chotěmice took part in the siege of Chrudim on August 28, 1421, which is said to have been led by Duke Henrich X. "Rumpold" of Glogau and in which, among others, the noble Johann Městecký from Opočno and Puta d. J. von Častolowitz were involved. Since he did not feel called to military service, he left Bohemia and stayed mainly in Silesia during the Hussite Wars.

In 1422 Jan signed a contract with the Teutonic Order as one of the three royal representatives . At the end of the year he negotiated as royal commissioner with the council of Breslau, Namslau and other Silesian cities for military aid and assistance in the fight against the Hussites. A document issued in Ofen on August 10, 1425 shows that King Sigismund pledged the chancellery of the Principality of Wroclaw to him for 1300 Hungarian guilders . A week later he gave him permission to mortgage the firm on the same terms. A short time later he handed it over to Michael Banck, a citizen of Wroclaw. Since Jan was obviously interested in possessions in the Principality of Schweidnitz, where his wife's married property was located, King Sigismund gave him the Schweidnitzer road toll in 1429 . From 1430 he owned the castle and rule of Fürstenstein together with his son-in-law Hermann von Czettritz. In 1434 he acquired the Schweidnitzer Vogtei for himself and his heirs , but one year later it was again owned by the city of Schweidnitz. To compensate, he presumably acquired the lucrative Principality Chancellery of Schweidnitz-Jauer around this time.

After the Hussite Wars, Jan asserted his claim to his Bohemian possessions, which he had lost to the Taborites . As early as 1436 he was recorded as its legal owner. On November 9, 1437, King Sigismund pledged him the royal mint in Schweidnitz, which had previously been in the possession of the city of Schweidnitz, for 1,600 shock Prague groschen . To compensate, he transferred little profitable lands to the king worth 1000 shock Prague groschen, the rest of which he paid in cash.

It is not known when and where Jan von Chotěmice died. He was last mentioned in 1442 when part of Vlašim was sold to Nicholas I Trčka of Lípa .

literature

• Karel Castelin: Janek z Chotěmic a mincovna svídnická [Jan of Chotěmice and the Schweidnitzer Mint]. In: Numismaticke listy , issue 21, year 1966, pp. 147–156
• Hugo Weczerka (Hrsg.): Handbook of the historical places . Volume: Silesia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 316). Kröner, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-520-31601-3 , p. 112.

Web links

• History of Chotěmice (Czech)
• Regests of King Sigismund

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Hospital St. Johannes ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Polish) 
3. ↑ Hussites in the Chrudim area (Czech) ( Memento from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Sigmund RI XI n. 12177  ( 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.  
5. ↑ Sale of Vlašim (Czech)