Johann (Nassau-Hadamar)

Johann von Nassau-Hadamar († before January 20, 1365) was the ruling Count of Nassau-Hadamar from 1334 to 1365 . In his documents he called himself: "Johann, by God's grace Count of Nassau, Lord of Hadamar".

ancestry

Johann was the eldest son of Count Emich I († 1334), the founder of the House of Nassau-Hadamar (older line) , and his wife Anna von Zollern-Nürnberg († after 1355), a daughter of Burgrave Friedrich III. from Zollern-Nuremberg . He followed his father in 1334 as Count of Nassau-Hadamar. At first he ruled alone, but from 1337 onwards he included his brother Emich II in the reign.

Life

Years of expansion

Johann initially continued his father's acquisition policy. In 1334 the Lords of Westerburg pledged half of the Schaumburg to him . Also in 1334 he bought Wittekind von Lichtenstein and his sons Werner, Johann and Widekind their share in Driedorf for 200 marks; his father Emich I. had already acquired the other part from the gentlemen von Greifenstein . But it was even more important when he succeeded on March 28, 1337, the office of Ellar with his "four cents ", numerous localities, the court as well as hunting, fishing and control over wood and fields with all income from Count Gottfried von Diez and his son Gerhard VI, who ruled for his father. to purchase Limburg money for 1450 Marks as a deposit. Gerhard VI. had married Johann's sister Jutta in 1324, who demanded her inheritance from her parents' property, but was then content with a sum of money.

Decline of the county

From around 1348, however, Johann's reign was primarily determined by alienations, pledges and fiefdoms of his property, which he undertook out of financial difficulties. The cause of his financial difficulties were probably the numerous feuds in which he participated and which mostly only brought in costs. Even his support for Charles IV against Ludwig the Bavarian and then against Günther von Schwarzburg was ultimately not profitable from an economic point of view. In 1347, Charles IV assigned him an annual pension of 400 guilders from the tax revenue of the city of Wetzlar as compensation for war costs , but this seems to have hardly been paid at all. In 1356 the emperor granted him a share of the Rhine toll at Oberlahnstein for a claim of 5000 guilders ; Another debt of 2600 guilders assumed by Charles IV from his relative, Archbishop Gerlach of Mainz , was also to be repaid from this duty in 1357. However, Johann received the corresponding payments only for a while, without being fully reimbursed for his costs.

Johann seems to have been inclined to Handel. In 1349 he supported Archbishop Gerlach of Mainz against his predecessor Heinrich III, who had been deposed by the Pope . from Virneburg . At the end of 1350 or beginning of 1351 he and his brother Emich participated on the side of his cousin Otto II von Nassau-Dillenburg in his feud with the brothers Gottfried and Wilderich III. von Walderdorff , in which Otto lost his life. His financial worries increased considerably when, in 1351, as an ally of the city of Limburg in their feud with the Lords of Hatzfeld , he was captured in a skirmish near Löhnberg and his freedom with a considerable ransom , the size of which is not known. had to buy. And in 1363 he supported Duke Stephan II of Bavaria in his dispute with Rudolph IV of Austria in their dispute over Tyrol .

Johann's alienation and alienation of family property began as early as 1347 when he gave a former Lichtenstein farm in Driedorf to the Lords of Mudersbach , who had been buying a lot in the parish of Driedorf since 1340 . The following year he sold them part of his income from that town. Also in 1348 he entrusted Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse with the town and parish of Driedorf with the courts and all accessories as fiefs; only the Lichtenstein estate was excluded. The farm in Gaudernbach bought by his father in 1325 went back to the previous owners in 1351, and the Frei von Dehrn family bought his vineyards and fruit slopes in Dietkirchen from him for 1350 marks in 1352 . The Lichtenstein estates and tithes in the parish of Driedorf went to his brother-in-law Gerhard von Diez in 1353 for 600 marks. In 1356 he gave the Archbishop of Trier Boemund II. Possessions in Nassau , Dausenau and Hadamar (the Schnepfenhäuser Hof and the Rödchen farm), the tithe in Horchheim and the Wildbann in the Sporkerwald and received them back as a fief. In 1358 Johann pledged the three villages near Worms from the inheritance of his grandmother Agnes von Leiningen-Landeck , wife of Otto I , to the Fulda Abbey for 800 pounds of Heller . The rule of Ellar , which Johann's father Emich acquired in 1337 as a pledge, was redeemed between 1356 and 1362 by Gerhard VII von Diez. In 1363 Johann sold half of the villages of Ems and Dausenau for 2000 guilders to Archbishop Kuno II of Trier and his court to the Hann in Esterau for 500 guilders to Dietrich von Staffel .

The family's Franconian property around Kammerstein Castle , which Emperor Karl had given him as an imperial fief in 1348 to indemnify him, was completely sold within a few years after the death of his brother Emich II (1359). Already on February 2, 1360, Johann sold Altdorf near Nuremberg and the associated places for 10,160 pounds of Heller to his cousin Albrecht von Zollern-Nuremberg with imperial permission . In 1361 he also sold Heroldsberg to this . In 1363 he sold his court in Nuremberg to a local patrician . In 1364 he finally sold Kammerstein Castle , the market towns of Schwabach and Kornburg and all of his remaining Franconian goods to Burgrave Albrecht for 15,400 pounds Heller.

Eberbach Monastery

In 1353, Johann is mentioned as the patron of the Eberbach Monastery in Eltville , although this is not entirely out of doubt. If so, then he was in any case not very successful in protecting the monastery from the hostile efforts of his brother Emich II, who deprived the monastery of considerable slopes in Hadamarschen lands.

death

Johann von Nassau-Hadamar died between November 12, 1364 and January 20, 1365.

Marriage and offspring

Johann was married to Elisabeth von Waldeck († before June 22, 1385) at the latest since 1331 . She was a daughter of Count Heinrich IV von Waldeck (1282 / 90-1348) and Adelheid von Cleve († after July 26, 1327). The two had ten children:

• Emich (1331-8 June 1343)
• Emich († March 24, 1358), canon at Mainz Cathedral
• Helena (around 1343, † around 1343)
• Johann († February 23, 1362); Together with his father, he sealed the Wittum prescription for his mother on May 10, 1361 and was therefore undoubtedly of legal age at that time, and died unmarried
• Heinrich († 1368), succeeded his father as Count of Nassau-Hadamar, died without legitimate descendants and probably unmarried
• Emich III. († 1394), followed his brother Heinrich as Count of Nassau-Hadamar (under guardianship)
• Anna († January 21, 1404), ⚭ around 1362 Ruprecht VII of Nassau zu Sonnenberg († 1390), ⚭ 1391 Diether VIII von Katzenelnbogen
• Elisabeth / Else († December 30, 1412), abbess to Essen in 1370 at the latest
• Elichin / Elisin († before 1416), ⚭ before 1364 Friedrich von Castell
• Adelheid († before June 22, 1385), ⚭ before 1370 Wilhelm von Castell

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Emich II. Had initially become a clergyman and was attested as a canon in Mainz and Speyer since 1328 . He probably left the clergy, presumably - if you take his later behavior into consideration - in strife and with lifelong hostility towards the clergy, and until his death on March 1, 1359, Johann was involved in the administration of the county. Most of the time, however, he stayed on the properties of the house around Kammerstein in Franconia, inherited from her mother Anna . (Arnoldi, Vol. 3, pp. 97-98; Wagner, pp. 44-45)
2. ↑ Gottfried von Diez († 1348) was considered incapable of government , so that Emich I von Nassau-Hadamar took over his guardianship from 1317 to 1332; after that Gottfried's son Gerhard VI ruled. (X 1343) instead of his father.
3. ^ Jacob Wagner: The regent family of Nassau-Hadamar: History of the Principality of Hadamar. First volume, second edition, Mechitharisten-Congregations-Buchhandlung, Vienna, 1863 (p. 11)
4. ^ Eduard Ausfeld:  Otto II. (Count of Nassau) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 707 f.
5. ↑ The information regarding these two emiches is confused.

literature

• Hellmuth Gensicke : State history of the Westerwald . 3. Edition. Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-922244-80-7 .
• Walter Rudersdorf: In the shadow of Ellar Castle . Ed .: Municipality of Ellar / Westerwald. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1967.
• Johannes von Arnoldi: History of the Orange-Nassau countries and their regents, Volume 1, Neue Gelehrtenbuchhandlung, Hadamar, 1799 (pp. 99-106) (digitized version )
• Jacob Wagner: The regent family of Nassau-Hadamar: History of the Principality of Hadamar. First volume, second edition, Mechitharisten-Congregations-Buchhandlung, Vienna, 1863 (pp. 45–50) (digitized version)
• Ernst Münch : History of the House of Nassau-Orange, Volume 2, Mayer, Aachen and Leipzig, 1832 (pp. 288–290) (digitized version )
• Karl Josef Stahl: Hadamar town and castle. A home story. Hadamar City Council, 1974.

predecessor	Office	successor
Emich I.	Count of Nassau-Hadamar 1334-1365	Heinrich