Johann von Morschheim

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Coat of arms of the Palatine noble family von Morschheim and von Morsheim
Coat of arms of Johann Morschheim and Ursula von Heusenstamm, for the 10th wedding anniversary, 1500

Johann von Morschheim , often also Morsheim (* around 1445; † January 25, 1516 in Worms ) was a nobleman in the service of the Electoral Palatinate .

Origin and family

He belonged to the Palatinate noble family von Morschheim , which had its ancestral seat in the place of the same name and was the son of the landed nobleman Heinrich von Morschheim († 1477), assessor at the Palatinate court , and his wife Mechthild nee. von Bettendorf († 1473), daughter of the Heidelberg mayor and Chamberlain Ulrich von Bettendorf († 1440). Both parents were buried in the Carmelite Church in Kreuznach . With Georg von Morschheim, the male line died out in 1651.

Live and act

From 1460 Johann von Morschheim studied at the Artistic Faculty of the University of Basel , in 1473 he appeared as a Baccalaureus Artium at the University of Heidelberg , only to return to Basel and in December 1474 to acquire the degree of a Magister artium . Around 1477 Morschheim entered the service of Count Palatine Johann I von Pfalz-Simmern , in 1480 he became his bailiff in Bad Kreuznach and in 1483 his court master. In 1485 he was a councilor to Elector Philipp von der Pfalz , who often entrusted him with important missions. From 1487 to 1499 he served as the Electoral Palatinate Vogt and Bailiff of Germersheim , 1494 and 1495 as Burggraf and Bailiff of Alzey .

In 1500 Johann von Morschheim went to the Electoral Palatinate Court in Heidelberg as court master of Prince Ludwig . In 1502 he became councilor of the Electorate of the Palatinate and in 1505 grand steward. On December 9, 1509 in Prague he was promoted to Knight of the Golden Spur . 1510 he visited in the wake of the now Elector Ludwig V. the Reichstag in Augsburg . Morschheim appears in 1512 as mayor in Oppenheim , from 1513 as assessor (judge) at the Imperial Court of Justice . In this capacity he died in high esteem, as imperial councilor , in Worms and was buried in the local Johanneskirche ; the epitaph has been handed down.

Johann von Morschheim had married Margarethe Horneck von Heppenheim († 1488) in 1477 and Ursula von Heusenstamm in 1490 . A total of 16 children resulted from both marriages, of which the son Johann Heinrich officiated from 1538–1544 as the Electoral Mainz Vitztum of the Rheingau .

Literary activity

In 1497 Johann von Morschheim wrote his “Mirror of the Regiment” , a mixture of allegorical prince's mirror and moral satire, but it was not published until 1515 in Oppenheim and had eight editions. The content is a biting, ridiculous poem in 997 verses, about contemporary court life, in the first part of which my own experiences at the Palatinate court were reflected. The action takes place at the court of the satanic, “unfaithfulness” who fell from heaven and who seized control of the earth after the fall of man. Their state, bursting with intrigue, bribery and falsehood, turns the ideal courtly image on its head. At the end of the book (from verse 513) there is an appeal by the author in which he asks the princes to create other conditions under their rule and to rule justly. The work is in the tradition of Konrad von Ammenhausen's “Schachzabelbuch” , the “racer” Hugos von Trimberg and resembles the “Ship of Fools” by Sebastian Brant , which was written around the same time .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the father's grave
  2. ^ Website of the mother's grave
  3. ^ Johann Goswin Widder : Attempt for a complete geographical-historical description of the electoral Palatinate on the Rheine , Volume 2, Frankfurt, 1786, p. 416; (Digital scan)
  4. ↑ Website on Alzey Castle
  5. ^ Website of the tombstone
  6. ↑ Digital edition "Spiegel des Regiment" (new edition, 1856)
personal data
SURNAME Morschheim, Johann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johann von Morsheim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nobleman in the service of the Electoral Palatinate, burgrave and senior bailiff, book author
DATE OF BIRTH around 1445
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1516
Place of death Worms