Königssondergau

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The Königssondergau (also "Königssundragau"), often incorrectly equated with the Rheingau , was located on the north bank of the Upper Rhine in the area around Wiesbaden and was roughly based on the former Roman administrative district Civitas Mattiacorum . The name "Kunigessuntera" is first recorded in 819. A main courtyard ("fiscus") with a higher official was located in today's Wiesbaden, sub-courtyards were in Biebrich and Mosbach (today part of Wiesbaden-Biebrich).

The Gau was probably created at the beginning of the reign of Charlemagne (after 771) as the property of the Frankish king and his heirs. As a result, the former Alemannic Rheingau was divided into three parts, because the Königssondergau was now located between the “Unterrheingau” (which subsequently kept the name Rheingau) and the Upper Rhineau south of the Lower Main.

The Königssondergau originally comprised in the west, beginning on the Walluf , the area of Bärstadt and Kemel and extended further east to Eppstein and Hofheim , with the Schwarzbach near Kriftel as the eastern border. In the north, the Taunus ridge and the former Roman Upper German-Raetian Limes formed the border. The southern border was the Rhine. Neighboring in the west were the Unterrheingau, in the northeast of the Niddagau , in the east of the Maingau , and in the southwest of the Oberrheingau.

The administration of the Königssondergau was in the hands of the district count , whose royal farmyard (" curtis ") was located near today's Wiesbaden City Palace (Hessian Landtag). In the 9th / 10th In the 19th century a residential tower ("castrum", tower castle ) was built instead , which was expanded into a castle in the Middle Ages.

The income from the Königssondergau belonged to the Frankish king, who used it to finance his court. Parts of the district, villages and castles were given as fiefs to deserving followers. In the course of time, parts of the Archdiocese of Mainz were given as gifts (for example the places Oestrich , Geisenheim , Rüdesheim am Rhein and Lorch in the Veronese donation from Emperor Otto II in 983 ) or sold to other owners. King Otto III. Biebrich and Mosbach gave the monastery Selz in Alsace in 991 . Donations and grants of fiefs also benefited nobles and counts, and as early as the 12th century the House of Nassau held count rights in and around Wiesbaden. Heinrich II. The Rich, ruling Count of Nassau from 1198–1251, received the Imperial Bailiwick of Wiesbaden and the Königssondergau as an imperial fief in 1214 . The Lords of Eppstein also invaded the Königssondergau by using bailiwick rights , purchases and inheritances, where they became opponents of the Counts of Nassau.

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