Johann III. (Nassau-Saarbrücken)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Head of the reclining Count Johann, detail of his epitaph on the tumba in the collegiate church of St. Arnual

Johann III. von Nassau-Saarbrücken (partly also counting Johann II. ) (born April 4, 1423 in Kirchheimbolanden ; † July 25, 1472 in Vaihingen ) was Count of Saarbrücken .

family

He was a son of Philip I of Nassau-Saarbrücken-Weilburg and Elisabeth of Lorraine . An older brother was Philip II , a younger sister was Margarethe .

Life

He lost his father as a child. The mother initially took over the reign for him and his brother. She could not easily preserve the legacy. Johann was brought up at times in Paris . After the brother came of age in 1438, the mother signed a contract with her sons about her future lifestyle. Until Johann came of age in 1442, it kept the state administration. After that, the brothers signed a partition agreement in which Johann received the county of Saarbrücken and Philipp the holdings of Nassau-Weilburg on the right bank of the Rhine . Kirchheim and the gentlemen on the Gaue and in front of the Donnersberg remained in the possession of both brothers. This is how the Nassau-Weilburg and Nassau-Saarbrücken lines came into being. Friedrich III. enfeoffed Johann at the Reichstag in Frankfurt in 1442 with the imperial fiefs.

Johann's possessions also included Commercy and Moley, as well as other Barian fiefs. As early as 1444 Johann sold his shares in the Commercy rule for 42,000 guilders to Margrave Louis de Pont-à-Mousson, the son and governor of the Duke of Lorraine and Bar. On the other hand, he acquired the pledge for Saargemünd . Their replacement took place only twenty-five years later.

Johann established good relationships with neighbors Lorraine, the Metz bishopric and the city of Metz . A big problem in his day was the unsafe roads caused by highway robbers. In 1441 Count Johann renewed older escort agreements with the Bishop of Strasbourg and with the Counts of Bitsch and Veldenz .

With Friedrich von Bitsch he fell into the office of Nanstein in 1451 . Together with Elector Friedrich von der Pfalz , Lützelstein Castle was conquered in 1452 after a long siege. The County of Lützelstein then came to the Electoral Palatinate .

The feuds with Pfalz-Zweibrücken, some of which were carried out together with his brother, were more protracted . Initially, Johann tried to maintain good relationships and various contracts were concluded. The open conflict began in 1452 with the attack by Count Palatine Stephan on Saarbrücken and Diemeringen . The conflict was temporarily settled through the mediation of Brother Philip. In 1455 the brothers Philipp and Johann concluded a protection and defiance alliance with Count Palatine Ludwig the Black .

He was engaged to his first wife, Johanna von Loon-Heinsberg, who was still a child at the time, a niece of his brother's wife, as early as 1450. The marriage took place in 1456 when she came of age. His wife was the inherited daughter of Johann IV. Von Loon and Johanna von Diest. By marrying he had the prospect of taking possession of the rule of Heinsberg and the property of the Lords of Diest on the Maas and the Lower Rhine . Before the marriage took place, he was given control of the property of his future wife in 1455. There was a dispute between him and his brother Philipp over ownership of the Löwenburg estate , to which his wife also asserted inheritance claims. Finally, an amicable agreement was reached. He now called himself Herr zu Heinsberg, Diest and Sichem and Burgrave of Antwerp. There were also 1,460 fiefdoms in the Liège area . About the Heinsberg possessions there were errors with Johann IV. Von Nassau-Diez , whose wife also had inheritance claims to it.

In 1460 there was a feud with Count Palatine Ludwig the Black of Zweibrücken. The brother Philipp was captured during an attack on Kirchheim. Johann's attempt to free him failed. Johann besieged Meisenheim , the Duke's preferred residence. Karl von Baden brokered an end to the conflict in 1461.

In the dispute over the occupation of the Mainz archbishop's chair ( Mainz Stiftsfehde ), the brothers supported their relative Adolf von Nassau, also on behalf of Emperor Friedrich III. and Pope Pius II during the expulsion of the deposed Diether von Isenburg . The war that then broke out was also directed against the Elector Friedrich von der Pfalz, who supported Isenburg. An army of the allies marched on Heidelberg , but was completely defeated on June 30, 1462 near Seckenheim . Adolf von Nassau with his allies from the House of Nassau, including Johann and Philipp, took Mainz by storm on October 28th . Diether von Isenburg had to flee the city and lost his rule.

As a result, events developed more peacefully and Johann and his wife traveled to the Dutch possessions in 1463. The marriage of his daughter Elisabeth to Wilhelm von Jülich-Berg , a son of Duke Gerhard von Jülich-Berg, was also arranged. In 1466 there was a provisional settlement with Johann IV of Nassau-Diez regarding the Heinsberg possessions. Since 1467 Johann was a member of the council of Kurmainz and guardian of the archbishopric. In 1469 Emperor Friedrich III challenged him. to participate in the Reichstag in Regensburg.

In 1470 Johann renewed the feud with Ludwig the Black. Johann disregarded an order from the emperor to refrain from doing so. First of all, the Count Palatine invaded the Köllertal . In return, Johann and Elector Friedrich von der Pfalz conquered Lambsheim , the Liningian residence Dürkheim in 1471 and threatened the Veldenzian residence Meisenheim and forced Ludwig to give up. In the same year both sides reconciled at Heidelberg Castle .

After the feud was over, he invited his allies to Saarbrücken and held a major tournament in September 1471. In November 1471 the robber barons seat of Burg Ober-Wasenstein was conquered.

Tumba (left) with the coat of arms of Johann and his wives

Johann died on a trip to see his second wife's relatives in Württemberg. His widow donated a tomb in the collegiate church of St. Arnual , which is considered an important work of the late Gothic in Saarland. A figure of the count lies on a tumba , to the right and left accompanied by the figures of his two wives.

Marriages and offspring

Johann had offspring from two marriages and extramarital relationships.

Her first marriage to Johanna von Loon-Heinsberg (1443–1469) in 1456 resulted in two daughters:

The posthumously born son and successor emerged from the second marriage with Elisabeth (1447–1505), daughter of Count Ludwig I of Württemberg-Urach , in 1470 :

In addition, Johann fathered illegitimate children:

  • Johann († 1463)
  • Magister Johann von Nassau, Canon and Curator of St. Arnual († 1494)
  • Heinrich of Nassau († 1514)

literature

  • Ernst Joachim:  Johann II of Nassau-Saarbrücken . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 262 f.
  • Friederich Köllner : History of the former Nassau-Saarbrück'schen country and its rulers. Part 1. Saarbrücken 1841, pp. 200-218, digitized
  • Bernd Gölzer: Count Johann Ludwigs von Nassau-Saarbrücken diary and calendar 1509 . In: Saarländische Familienkunde, Volume 12, Saarbrücken 2014, pp. 335–354

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Bernd Gölzer: Count Johann Ludwigs von Nassau-Saarbrücken diary and calendar 1509 . In: Saarland family studies. Volume 12, Saarbrücken 2014, pp. 335–354.
predecessor Office successor
Philip I. Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken
1442–1472 		Johann Ludwig
personal data
SURNAME Johann III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johann III. from Nassau-Saarbrücken; Johann II of Nassau-Saarbrücken
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Saarbrücken
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1423
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirchheimbolanden
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1472
Place of death Vaihingen