King's election of 1125

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The Saxon Duke Lothar von Süpplingenburg emerged victorious from the election of a king in 1125 and was in Aachen on September 13th after the election meeting in Mainz from August 24th to September 1st or 2nd under the leadership of Archbishop of Mainz Adalbert I. the king crowned.

To tradition

The Narratio de electione Lotharii Saxoniae ducis in regem Romanorum , which was written by an unknown eyewitness, probably a monk of the Göttweig monastery , where the manuscript containing the narrative was found, provides the most detailed account of the events during the election meeting . The manuscript dates from the middle of the 12th century, so it was made at least 25 years after the events. The detailed content of the report and the author's ignorance of the conflicts between the Hohenstaufen brothers Friedrich and Konrad on the one hand and the new King Lothar on the other hand indicate that the original narrative must have been written before the end of 1125 and that the surviving version is a copy of it is. Furthermore Ordericus Vitalis and Otto von Freising report on the events during the election meeting.

prehistory

The former advisor to the last Salian emperor Heinrich V , Adalbert, had come into opposition to the latter in the course of the investiture dispute at the latest in the course of 1112 and had contacted the Saxon prince opposition. After three years of imprisonment, he continued his resistance against Heinrich V until he reached an agreement with the emperor after the Worms Concordat of 1122, while the Saxon Duke Lothar was still in open conflict with the Salians and Staufers.

Heinrich V died on May 23, 1125 after he had chosen his nephew, the Swabian Duke Friedrich II, to be his personal heir, but had entrusted the imperial insignia to his wife Mathilde to be kept on the Trifels until the election meeting. As chancellor and highest-ranking prince, Archbishop of Mainz Adalbert I was responsible for preparing and leading the election assembly. At the funeral ceremonies, which presumably took place in Speyer in June , the election meeting was scheduled for August 24th. The letter of invitation that reports on this announcement clearly shows the anti-salary tendency of the archbishop, who strived for a free election, i.e. did not want the inheritance claims of the Staufer Duke Friedrich to be asserted. Otto von Freising and Ordericus Vitalis report that Adalbert appropriated the imperial insignia from the imperial widow Mathilde in the run-up to the election meeting.

The candidates

As a type of call was the novel, the first time in 1095 at a Abtswahl in Adalbert Monastery Zwiefalten occupied, Electio per compromissum determined, and accordingly 10 per electors from the provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia and Saxony charged with agreeing on a candidate. Since the 40 electors could not seem to agree, three candidates were chosen with Friedrich von Schwaben, the Saxon Duke Lothar and Margrave Leopold of Austria . Otto von Freising reports on a fourth, Karl von Flanders , who, however, refused the offer. Friedrich, who, as the nephew, partisan and personal heir of the last Salier emperor, was able to make the most concrete claims to the throne, was considered a favorite. But even the powerful Duke Lothar, as a long-time opponent of the emperor, who was unpopular with the clergy, could raise his hopes. Leopold was also connected to the Salier family through his wife Agnes von Waiblingen , a daughter of Heinrich IV , and was supported by the southern German clergy.

Course of the election meeting

Friedrich, who was camped outside the city of Mainz, initially did not appear at the election meeting. After determining the three candidates, the election officer turned to Lothar and Leopold to ask them whether they were willing to recognize one of the other candidates as king. Both affirmed and announced at the same time that they would not stand for candidacy. In doing so, they showed their humility and affirmed that they were worthy to be elected king. The Narratio According to Friedrich assumed he would remain after the abandonment of the two competitors as the only candidate, so he moved in the following day of victory in the city in order to be elected by the princes. After Friedrich's arrival, Adalbert repeated the previous day's questions, but when he turned to Staufer, added the question of whether he was willing to forego the designation of a successor in order to enable free elections in the future. Friedrich left this question unanswered and returned to his camp for consultation with his allies, and was thus eliminated as a candidate. When Lothar was subsequently proclaimed king by his supporters in a tumultuous act, the residents of the city waiting outside tried to celebrate the new king. At the same time, many Bavarian princes protested against Lothar's uprising, which took place without a unanimous vote, and threatened to leave the assembly. Adalbert then had the gates locked to prevent the Mainz city population from legally acclaiming Lothar and at the same time the Bavarian princes from leaving the electoral assembly. After silence had been ensured by one of the papal legates present , the Bavarian bishops declared that they would not be able to make a decision without their Duke Heinrich the Black , who had stayed away from the assembly since Friedrich's departure. Presumably three days later the assembly met again and Lothar was unanimously elected king by the princes, among whom this time Henry the Black stayed. The princes paid homage to the new king two days later, before the Archbishop of Cologne, Friedrich I von Schwarzenburg , crowned him on September 13 in Aachen. By the end of the year, however, a break between the king and the Hohenstaufen brothers Friedrich and Konrad became apparent.

Sources and regesta

literature

  • Hermann Kalbfuß, On the emergence of the "Narratio de electione Lotharii" , in: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Vol. 31 (1910), pp. 538–557.
  • Ulrich Nonn , Geblütsrecht, Wahlrecht, Königswahl: The election of Lothar of Supplinburg 1125 , in: History in Science and Education, Vol. 44 (1993), pp. 146–157.
  • Ulrich Schmidt, Election of the King and Succession to the Throne in the 12th Century , Cologne / Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-412-04087-8 .
  • Bernd Schneidmüller , 1125 - Unrest as a political force in the medieval empire , in: Staufer & Welfen. Two Rival Dynasties in the High Middle Ages, ed. by Werner Hechberger, Regensburg 2009, pp. 30-49, ISBN 978-3-7917-2168-2 .
  • Heinz Stoob , On the election of Lothar of Saxony as a king in 1125, in: Historical research for Walter Schlesinger , ed. by Helmut Beumann, Cologne / Vienna 1974, pp. 438–461, ISBN 3-412-10474-4 .
  • Ludwig Vones , the failed kingmaker. Archbishop Adalbert I of Mainz and the election of 1125 , in: Historisches Jahrbuch, Vol. 115 (1995), pp. 85-124, ISSN  0018-2621 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Stoob, On the election of Lothar of Saxony as a king in 1125 , in: Historical research for Walter Schlesinger , ed. by Helmut Beumann, Cologne / Vienna 1974, pp. 438–461, here p. 444.
  2. ^ Wolfgang Petke , Chancellery, Chapel and Royal Curia under Lothar III. (1125–1137) , supplements to JF Böhmer, Regesta Imperii. Vol. 5, Cologne / Vienna 1985, p. 273.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Petke, Chancellery, Chapel and Royal Curia under Lothar III. (1125–1137) , supplements to JF Böhmer, Regesta Imperii. Vol. 5, Cologne / Vienna 1985, pp. 278-279.
  4. ↑ Otto von Freising, Gesta Frederici seu rectius cronica / Die Taten Friedrichs or more correctly Cronica , ed. by Franz-Josef Schmale, 2nd edition, Darmstadt 1965, p. 156; Ekkehard von Aura, Frutolfi et Ekkehardi chronica necnon anonymi chronica imperatorum / Frutolf and Ekkehard's chronicles and the anonymous imperial chronicle , trans. and ed. by Franz-Josef Schmale and Irene Schmale-Ott , Darmstadt 1972, p. 374.
  5. ↑ Otto von Freising, Gesta Frederici seu rectius cronica / Die Taten Friedrichs or more correctly Cronica , ed. by Franz-Josef Schmale, 2nd edition, Darmstadt 1965, p. 156; Ordericus Vitalis, The ecclesiastical history of Orderdic Vitalis. Books XI, XII and XIII , ed. by Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford 1978, pp. 360-367, here pp. 360/362.
  6. ↑ Narratio de electione Lotharii Saxoniae ducis in regem Romanorum , ed. by Wilhelm Wattenbach, MGH. SS XII, Hannover 1856, pp. 509-512, here p. 510.
  7. ↑ Otto von Freising, Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus / Chronik or the history of the two states , ed. by Walther Lammers, 3rd un. ed., Darmstadt 1974, pp. 528-529, here p. 528.
  8. ↑ Ulrich Schmidt, Election of Kings and Succession to the Throne in the 12th Century , Cologne / Vienna 1987, p. 43.
  9. ↑ Narratio de electione Lotharii Saxoniae ducis in regem Romanorum , ed. by Wilhelm Wattenbach, MGH. SS XII, Hannover 1856, pp. 509-512, here p. 510.
  10. ↑ Ludwig Vones, The failed kingmaker. Archbishop Adalbert I of Mainz and the election of 1125 , in: Historisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 115 (1995), pp. 85–124, here pp. 101–102.
  11. ↑ Ulrich Nonn, Geblütsrecht, Wahlrecht, Königswahl: The election of Lothar von Supplinburg 1125 , in: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Studium , Vol. 44 (1993), pp. 146–157, here p. 156.
  12. ↑ Narratio de electione Lotharii Saxoniae ducis in regem Romanorum , ed. by Wilhelm Wattenbach, MGH. SS XII, Hannover 1856, pp. 509-512, here pp. 510-511.
  13. ↑ Bernd Schneidmüller, 1125 - Unrest as a political force in the medieval empire , in: Staufer & Welfen. Two Rival Dynasties in the High Middle Ages , ed. by Werner Hechberger, Regensburg 2009, pp. 30–49, here p. 41.