Kalkum feud

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The Kalkum feud was a late medieval dispute between Bergisch knights and the citizens of Cologne , which was carried out in two feuds declared shortly after one another . While only the Duke von Berg was involved in the first feud, his son and the Archbishop of Cologne were also involved in the second. The first feud lasted from 1398 to 1402, the second from 1404 to 1406.

prehistory

The trigger for the dispute was the robbery of Bergischer knights against Cologne merchants and their possessions outside Cologne as well as the capture and execution of members of the noble family von Kalkum who were involved in such attacks by the Cologne.

First Kalkum feud

The capture and imprisonment of the knights Hermann von Goch and Goswin von Kemnate by the Cologne people in 1395 was the cause of the first feud. Both belonged to the family of the Lords of Kalkum (also written Calcum , Caelcheim or Calcheym ). Because of this imprisonment in Cologne, the brothers Conrad and Wilhelm von Calcheym intervened in writing with the Cologne Council.

In addition to these two relatives of the detainees, other Bergische knights joined this objection. In the negotiations that followed, Duke Wilhelm of the Cologne was called in on this matter. In all of the responses from Cologne residents to this incident, the city council stated that the two knights had been arrested for "some incidents" affecting the Cologne residents and that "no wrong would be done to them". After lengthy attempts to bring the matter to a peaceful end, since no satisfactory solution could be found for both sides, the prisoners from Cologne were brought to justice. On April 26, 1398 there was a trial against Goswin von Kemnate and on May 4th the trial against Hermann von Goch followed. The sentences for both of the accused were the same and read "Execution by the sword". Thereupon the judgments were carried out on May 7, 1398 and the two knights beheaded.

Because of this beheading, the first feud letter from the brothers Zeris and Adolf von Kalkum and some other members of the family was handed over to the Cologne residents on December 20, 1398. Another feud letter followed on September 25, 1399, as other Bergische knights joined this feud. Several attempts were made to end the feud amicably. The Cologne residents also sent another letter to Duke Wilhelm in order to defuse the feud with his help. The Duke also managed to get Zeris of Kalkum to declare a fourteen-day period of peace on July 31, 1400, and renew "atonement negotiations" with the Cologne residents. However, these initially did not lead to a positive result.

In the meantime the Kalkumers managed to win over forty other knights from the Bergisch and Niederrhein region as supporters for their feud. On November 13, 1400, these new comrades-in-arms of the Kalkumer sent another feud letter to Cologne. Despite this further feud, efforts to bring the matter to a peaceful end continued. The Duke informed the people of Cologne in a letter dated December 4 that it had been agreed with Zeris von Kalkum to end the feud. This defuse of the feud led to Zeris on December 13, 1400 and Conrad and Wilhelm von Kalkum on August 12, 1401 declaring an end to the feud in writing.

With these written commitments, however, the feud was not over. In a letter dated June 5, 1402, Conrad von Kalkum revoked his promise to end the feud. The negotiations were therefore continued and it was now finally possible to reach an amicable solution. In a letter dated June 16, Conrad, Wilhelm and Zeris von Kalkum confirmed the acceptance of the offered atonement by the people of Cologne with the payment of 56 guilders. Zeris von Kalkum also confirmed receipt of the money in writing on the same day. Adolf von Kalkum had died in the meantime, so that he did not live to see the end of the dispute. Another atonement from Ritter Gerad von Reymscheit followed on June 10, and the first feud between the Knights of Kalkum and the city of Cologne ended after four years without a war.

Second Kalkum feud

Only two years after the first feud in the wake of the execution of members of the family of the Lords of Kalkum could be ended without acts of war, there was another feud between the Knights of Kalkum and the city of Cologne. The trigger was again the capture and execution of a "Knight of Kalkum" by the Cologne people.

Ludelein, one of the sons of the nobleman Arnold von Kalkum, was arrested and arrested by their mercenaries during an attack on merchants in the vicinity of the city of Cologne in 1404 . He pretended to be Herr von der Tacken from Duisburg. Under this name he was not recognized by the Cologne residents as a member of the Lords of Kalkum and the name was not included in the Cologne feud register. He was therefore viewed as a common highwayman and sentenced and executed.

After knowledge of this incident with execution, the father Arnold and his further son Wilhelm filed a lawsuit in Cologne for the inadmissible killing of the son or brother. The people of Cologne defended themselves by pointing out that they were unaware of having captured and sentenced a member of the von Kalkum family, and referred to the jury of the high court. The Kalkumers did not agree with these statements and continued to regard the matter as an inadmissible act by the Cologne residents. They also refused to negotiate with the lay judges.

On August 21, 1404 the brothers Heinkin, Wilhelm and Heinrich von Kalkum sent a feud to Cologne about the execution. On the same day two more feuding letters followed from allied knights of the von Kalkum family. One of the allies was the nobleman Johann von Redinghoven . The negotiations that followed led on September 3, 1404 to a temporary peace agreement until October 7, and various other extensions until May 5, 1405, although on November 15 there was another feud from new allies of the Kalkumers with regard to Arnold von Kalkum was sent. In the meantime, on February 28, 1405, Wilhelm and Peter von Kalkum and Johann von Redinghoven had also declared an armistice in writing.

In the meantime, the feud intensified considerably, since the son of the ruling Duke von Berg now also supported the Kalkumers. This son, Count Adolf von Ravensberg , had a dispute with his father, Duke Wilhelm von Berg . He tried to disempower him after his lost battle of Kleverhamm and had therefore imprisoned him at Schloss Burg since November 1403 . Since the Duke supported the Cologne people in this feud, the son chose the opponent's side, as he was already in a dispute with Cologne.

This dispute concerned excessive customs duties and taxes in the area of ​​the Duchy of Berg, which followers of the Count of Cologne had imposed on traders and which have now been reclaimed. These inadmissibly high taxes stood in contrast to valid agreements between Count Adolf and the Cologne residents. Count Adolf had become an honorary citizen of Cologne on April 30, 1403 and had promised not to take any measures that would conflict with the interests of the Cologne residents.

After the objection from Cologne, Count Adolf sent three of his followers to Cologne as negotiators. However, the negotiations did not lead to an agreement and the attacks on the Cologne residents in the entire Duchy of Berg and even in Kurkölner areas continued. In addition, Arnold von Kalkum, with the approval of Count Adolf, continued to harass the merchants between Neuss and Bonn on land and on the Rhine with the pressure of taxes.

In the meantime, the Archbishop of Cologne, Friedrich III. von Saar became involved in the conflict, as he supported the duke against his son and there were also attacks in Kurkölner areas. On August 30, 1405, the archbishop asked the people of Cologne to conclude an alliance with him against Count Adolf and the Kalkumers. Since the attacks had not ended despite negotiations, the Cologne residents concluded this alliance with the Archbishop of Cologne on September 14th. A declaration of war on Count Adolf von Ravensberg, Knight Arnold von Kalkum and their comrades-in-arms followed on September 18, 1405. Another brief attempt to resolve the matter through negotiations without war measures failed.

The archbishop's and Cologne's mercenaries then invaded the Berger areas north of Cologne and covered them with robbery, pillage, destruction and murder. Parts of the city of Ratingen were burned down and the rest occupied, Arnold von Kalkum's “house” was completely destroyed, Burg Castle was conquered and the city of Solingen was occupied.

After a few weeks of warlike acts, the mercenaries largely withdrew from the attacked areas by the beginning of 1406, but Solingen remained in the possession of the archbishop for some time. The peace negotiations on March 15, 1406 led to the conclusion of peace with Count Adolf and his followers. In return, Count Adolf received a promise from the Archbishop on March 28, 1406 to appoint him Marshal of Westphalia. Knight Arnold von Kalkum also came to an agreement with the Cologne-based company after further negotiations. Arnold confirmed the acceptance of the atonement and thus the end of the feud with a letter dated October 23, 1406.

This marked the end of the second feud , as the main feud leader accepted the offered atonement. But some members of the Kalkum family and their comrades-in-arms were not satisfied with the atonement achieved for ending the feud. On October 31, 1406, Peter von Kalkum sent a new feud letter, which again referred to the execution of his brother. By the end of 1407, however, other supporters of the Kalkumers, who had not yet joined the lifting of the feud, withdrew from the feud by accepting the peace agreement of March 1406. On January 5, 1408, the bastard brothers of the executed man, Heinrich, Evert and Ailf von Kalkum, also sent another feud letter. Peter von Kalkum had also not yet reached an atonement with the Cologne residents by 1409.

Conclusion

The Kalkum feuds were typical events of the late Middle Ages, which were caused by the partial impoverishment of the lower nobility and especially the knighthood. At that time, the feud was a permissible form of self-help that was used when one could not otherwise achieve “one's rights”. The meaning of the second feud differed from a “normal feud”, since the involvement of the later Duke Adolf von Jülich-Berg included additional territorial aspects in the feud that went beyond the actual cause of the feud and became one locally limited and brief war in the northern areas of the Duchy of Berg.

literature

  • Heinrich Ferber : The Calkumschen feuds with the city of Cologne , in: Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein (Ed.), Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine - Yearbook of the Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein, 8th volume, Düsseldorf 1894, pp. 55-72 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ferber, Heinrich , in: Die Calkumschen feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [62] 55. Online version
  2. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [63] 56. Online version
  3. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: The Calkumschen Feuds with the City of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [64] 57. Online version
  4. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [66] 59. Online version
  5. ^ A b Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [67] 60. Online version
  6. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds mit der Stadt Köln, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [68] 61. Online version
  7. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: The Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [69] 62. Online version
  8. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [70] 63. Online version
  9. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, pp. [71 + 72] 64 + 75. Online version
  10. a b Ferber, Heinrich, in: The Calkumschen Feuds with the City of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [73] 65. Online version
  11. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds mit der Stadt Köln, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, pp. [72 to 75] 65 to 67. Online version
  12. Ferber, Heinrich, in: Die Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [75] 68. Online version
  13. Axel Kolodziej : Duke Wilhelm I. von Berg (1380–1408) , Bergische Forschungen, Volume 29, Neustadt an der Aisch 2005, p. 347.
  14. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: The Calkumschen Feuds with the city of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [76] 69. Online version
  15. ^ Ferber, Heinrich, in: The Calkumschen Feuds with the City of Cologne, from: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine / Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein , 1894, Volume 8, p. [78] 71. Online version
  16. ^ Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein, in contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine; The manors in the Amte Angermund , 1893, 7th volume, p. [109] 104. Online version

Remarks

  1. In the Middle Ages, captured highwaymen who belonged to the common people were sentenced and executed. On the other hand, members of a feuding noble family who were apprehended for mugging were not normally sentenced to death.
  2. So far it was assumed that the "Mr. Arnold's house" mentioned in the Koelhoff chronicle meant the moated castle in Kalkum, the predecessor of today 's Kalkum Castle . According to recent investigations, the burned down "Mr. Arnold's house" is not the Kalkum castle, but the Remberg house (Dietmar Ahlemann: House Remberg , in: Bürgererverein Duisburg-Huckingen eV (Hrsg.), Heimatbuch (Volume III), Duisburg 2015, pp. 175–196. Sabine Merz: Burg Remberg - Mr. Arnold's house and the Kalkumer feud . In: Nordbote . Vol. 27, No. 7, April 25, 2014, p. 14 ( PDF ; 12.2 MB )).