Johann IV. Droste zu Hülshoff

Johann IV. Droste zu Hülshoff (* before 1381 ; † 1446 ) was a knight , councilor , mayor of the city of Münster and a large landowner. In 1417 he acquired Hülshoff Castle , which came into the possession of his family for almost 600 years, which from that time on called itself Droste zu Hülshoff .

Life

Origin and family

Johann IV. Was the eldest son of Alhard I. vondeckebrock and Christina von Cleihorst in the 8th known generation of his family. His younger brothers Everwin and Diederich (Dietrich) became canons in Münster; the youngest brother Alhard married without any descendants being known. Johann IV married Wobelia von Travelmann, who also came from a hereditary family and was wealthy. They had five children, the sons Johann V, Egbert, Alhard II and the daughters Kunigunde, Gerburgis and Margaretha.

Military service as a knight

As a young squire , Johann IV had to feud with the bishop of Münster in 1381 and as a knight in 1399 , he was also a vassal of the dukes of Berg and the counts of Ravensberg .

Councilor and Mayor of Münster

Johann IV. Was councilor in Münster and, like his grandfather Johann III. voneckenbrock , elected mayor in 1402, 1421 and 1431. At this time, the rich Hanseatic city was still gaining power from its sovereigns, the bishops of Münster, who had to swear to respect the rights of the city.

heritage

In 1402 Johann IV was enfeoffed by Bishop Otto IV von Hoya with his father's possessions in Everswinkel , Handorf , Telgte and Freckenhorst . He was also the owner of an Oberhof Varwerke near Havixbeck and numerous other estates in the Münsterland . From his mother he had u. a. inherited the Spielbrink farm in Handorf (Münster) and the Leussinghof in Billerbeck , with which the bishop enfeoffed him in 1426. The Spielbrink farm, an old property of the Cleihorst family, was built on only with a fisherman's house; on the other hand, the medieval Haskenau Castle at the confluence of the Werse and Ems rivers must have belonged to the property , because the family's documents speak of a Handorf Castle.

Acquisition of Hülshoff Castle

John IV himself made a significant contribution to increasing the property. Affected by the creeping disempowerment of the hereditary families in the city by the guilds , Johann IV first acquired a plot of land from Hülshove in 1414, which is now the northern part of the castle park. In 1417 he also bought the Tor Kulen house from his distant relative Jutta von Schonebeck, mentioned in a document as early as 1347, and the Oberhof (Mark) Hülshoff. According to the documents, there was only one house with thick walls on an island in the then still smaller house pond. On the first floor there was, probably since then, an immensely large knight's hall with Gothic windows and next to it an equally large kitchen with a colossal stove. In the kitchen there were always three long tables, one of which was called the gentleman's table, the second traveler's table and the third the builder's table . Even the "rule" stayed in the village in the evening. Next to the kitchen there was a cabinet with a bay window. All of this disappeared after a renovation in the 18th century. Today's outer bailey had a moat in the southern area, where the access was then. The family initially used the castle as a country residence, especially in the summer months. Johann IV was the first to adopt the name Droste zu Hülshoff , even if he still lived mostly in the city.

Succession on the goods

Unlike in later centuries, Johann IV did not inherit his very extensive possessions as a so-called majorate to the eldest son, but divided them up between his three sons: while his younger son Johann V. Droste zu Hülshoff was his successor at Hülshoff Castle the older son Alhard II. via his son Everwin II. von Droste zu Handorf became the progenitor of the branch lines of Droste zu Handorf , Uhlenbrock , zu Möllenbeck, zu Hofe, zu Klotinghoff and (starting from the Droste zu Uhlenbrock) in Danzig and Königsberg and (starting from the Droste zu Möllenbeck) the Droste zu Zützen ( Lausitz ). Egbert, who had inherited estates in Sendenhorst , Altenberge , Everswinkel , Greven and Nordwalde , was married to Christina von Kerckerinck and settled in a town courtyard in Münster . His sister Kunigunde married Heinrich von Drolshagen , his sister Margaretha Bernd von Kerckerinck at Haus Stapel .

literature

• Wilderich from Droste to Hülshoff : 900 years of Droste to Hülshoff . Verlag LPV Hortense von Gelmini, Horben 2018, ISBN 978-3-936509-16-8
• J. Holsenbürger: The gentlemen v. Eckenbrock (by Droste-Hülshoff) and their possessions. Münster iW 1869.