Johann I (Nassau)

Johann I of Nassau-Dillenburg (* around 1339 ; † September 4, 1416 in Herborn ) was Count of Nassau-Dillenburg from 1350 to 1416 .

Life

Johann was the son of Adelheid von Vianden and Count Otto II von Nassau-Dillenburg from the house of Nassau-Siegen , who died in 1351. At the age of 11, Johann Otto became his successor. Based on evidence in documents and files in which Adelheid was addressed as Mistress Nassau in 1360, it is assumed that he was initially under the tutelage of his mother.

Johann was the founder of the knight association " Gesellschaft von der alten Minne ", with which he created a following in the disputes with the Hessian landgrave over the Itter rule and around Driedorf . In 1386 he acquired the county of Diez . He ended a protracted feud with Count Johann von Katzenelnbogen over possession of the extinct elder line Nassau-Hadamar in 1408 with a truce brokered by Archbishop Johann in Boppard of Mainz .

In 1392 he issued a new monastery order for the Premonstratensian Abbey of Keppel , which his widowed mother presided over as abbess ; thereafter only daughters of the nobility were allowed to be accepted.

Johann reached the high age of 77 for his time. Due to the early beginning of his term of office, he was ruling count for a total of 66 years, one of the longest terms of office of a medieval regent.

Today the secondary school in Dillenburg is named after him as the Johann von Nassau School.

Marriage and offspring

In 1357 he married Margarethe von der Mark, daughter of Adolf II von der Mark and Margarete von Kleve . He had the following children with her:

• Adolf (1362–1420), Count of Nassau-Dillenburg 1416–1420
• Johann II (around 1365–1443), Count of Nassau-Dillenburg 1420–1443
• Engelbert I (1370–1442), Count of Nassau-Dillenburg 1420–1442
• Heinrich († after 1401)
• Johann III. († around 1433)

literature

• Ernst Joachim:  Johann I of Nassau-Dillenburg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 250 f.