Kalenberger Cent

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The Kalenberger Zent was a court centre in the southeastern Westerwald . After several changes of ownership, it developed into the core area of ​​the County of Nassau-Beilstein and from there to the Beilstein office .

history

The Kalenberger Zent comprised the parts of the county on the middle Lahn of the Oberlahngau located to the right (north) of the Lahn in the Westerwald . The lower courts of Beilstein , Mengerskirchen , Eigenberg and probably initially also Löhnberg (Heimau court) belonged to it. The seat of the court was probably the Kalenbergskopf south of Nenderoth .

The early history of the Zent is largely unknown. When Count Werner died in Oberlahngau, the Kalenberger Zent, ​​together with the Haigergau and Herborner Mark, had been separated from the county on the middle Lahn. The empire presumably took over sovereignty after the fall of Duke Eberhard . The manorial rule lay with the diocese of Worms , which was richly wealthy on the Lahn, from the Conradinian possession.

From the 12th century, the Landgraves of Thuringia owned the area as an imperial fief. Presumably it had come to them from the legacy of the Gisonen in 1137. The Thuringian counts gave the fiefdom of the Herborner Mark, the Kalenberger Zent and the Heimau court to the Counts of Nassau as an afterfief . The Nassau fiefdom is only attested for 1231; but it probably already existed around 1159/79. The manorial rights were in the possession of the Lords of Merenberg , who they had probably acquired as bailiffs of the Worms diocese. The Lords of Beilstein served as the Merenbergs' regional tenants.

From 1227 the Counts of Nassau pushed the Lords of Beilstein to Lichtenstein . However, the Beilsteiners were able to retain considerable manorial rights. They only sold these to Nassau in 1395, but revoked the sale in 1400 and finally sold the rights to the Runkel house in 1406 . This sale resulted in repeated disputes between the Nassau-Beilstein House and the Westerburg House, which had emerged from the Runkel House .

To secure their position, the Nassauer expanded their position in the Kalenberger Zent. The castles Mengerskirchen and Eigenberg were built under Johann von Nassau-Dillenburg and city rights were obtained for the places Beilstein, Mengerskirchen and Löhnberg. In 1310 Johann was able to acquire the manorial rights from the Merenberg bailiwick of Worms.

As early as 1325 Heinrich von Nassau transferred the rule to the Electorate and received it back as a fief. When the estate was divided among his sons in 1343, the Kalenberger Zent and the rule of the Westerwald fell to his younger son Heinrich I von Nassau-Beilstein and henceforth formed the county of Nassau-Beilstein.

Count Johann von Nassau-Beilstein pledged the Kalenberger Zent in 1413 to Nassau-Saarbrücken (Weilburg) . However, the redemption succeeded before 1425. His son Heinrich IV. Von Nassau-Beilstein issued the first written court order for the Kalenberger Zent in 1492. This brought about the transition to Roman law, which formed the basis on which the Beilstein office developed from the center.

Places in the Kalenberger Zent

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literature