Klingenberg (noble family)
The lords of Klingenberg were a south German noble family. In the 13th and 14th centuries they played an important role in Thurgau and Hegau . The process of adjustment in the late Middle Ages was not mastered by the family, so that the height of its power development was followed by a rapid decline until the family died out in 1583 with the death of twelve-year-old Hans Georg von Klingenberg.
history
The original center of the Klingenberger was in the area around Homburg in today's Swiss canton of Thurgau with the Klingenberg Castle (now a castle).
Their origin is unclear. There may have been relationships with the Lords of Steckborn, Rosenegg and Mülheim , who around 1260 also owned fiefs of the Bishops of Constance around Homburg.
The Klingenbergers were initially in the service of the Bishops of Constance, then the Counts of Kyburg and later the Habsburgs .
The house is occupied for the first time with Heinrich von Klingenberg, who appeared as a witness for the Bishop of Constance in 1200. His son, also called Heinrich, was the first non-Zurich provost at the Grossmünster from 1271 . The Feldbach Monastery was sponsored by them and over the years took on several female family members.
Along with the Lords of Landenberg , they were one of the leading families in the region. Heinrich von Klingenberg was bishop of Konstanz, abbot of Reichenau monastery and chancellor of the empire from 1293 to 1306 . His brother, Ulrich von Klingenberg, was Austrian bailiff of Mengen and Sigmaringen from 1296 to 1302 and imperial bailiff of Constance in 1303. Another brother, Konrad von Klingenberg , was provost of Bischofszell from 1294 to 1300, provost of the cathedral in 1301 , bishop of Brixen 1322–1324 and bishop of Freising from 1324–1340 .
The fourth brother, Albrecht, who, like his brother Ulrich, was also temporarily bailiff in Constance, acquired Hohentwiel Castle on February 16, 1300 for 940 silver marks from Ulrich von Klingen . From then on, the Hohentwiel became the family's center of life.
The 14th century was marked by the decline of the less powerful aristocratic families. On the one hand, external conditions led to a loss of income, on the other hand, many noble houses could not assert themselves next to the emerging territorial states. These little aristocrats tried to escape this by offering themselves to these territorial princes as "officials", then called councils. For the Klingenbergers, the Archduchy of Austria and Württemberg , but also the royal / imperial court of the empire , offered themselves .
The climax was reached under Caspar von Klingenberg († 1439), captain of the knight society of Sankt Jörgenschild and imperial councilor to Emperor Sigismund : Hohentwiel with the towns of Arlen and Worblingen , the towns of Blumenfeld , Möhringen and Dettigkofen, the inheritance of half of Bürglen , Goods and tithe rights distributed over the Hegau, Thurgau and the Untersee . The Klingenbergers had been able to lend the king money and therefore had liens on the imperial taxes of Ravensburg , Memmingen , Biberach an der Riss , Kaufbeuren , Buchhorn and Leutkirch . This was also the reward for military service. Representatives of the Klingenbergers can be found as fallen in many battles at that time: Heinrich von Klingenberg, who owned the important rule of Litschau in the Waldviertel in Lower Austria and was hereditary bailiff of the Eisgarn collegiate monastery , died on August 26, 1346 in the battle of Crécy , Sigmund von Klingenberg on July 9, 1386 in the battle of Sempach , together with Martin Malterer , Hans' brother-in-law, called Schoch von Klingenberg, who in turn fell on April 9, 1388 in the battle of Näfels . His nephew Hans von Klingenberg, Ritter zu Stein, to whom we owe a description of this battle in the so-called Klingenberger Chronik, also took part in this battle. On June 17, 1405, Hans von Twiel, Schoch's son, fell in the Battle of the Stoss . The grandson of Caspar von Klingenberg, also called Caspar, died in the Swabian War in 1499 near Rielasingen .
In addition, in 1433 Caspar von Klingenberg acquired the Hohenklingen lordship with the town of Stein am Rhein and the St. Georg monastery there from the Lords of Klingen .
The Klingenbergers also went under the service law of the Sankt Gallen monastery in order to receive lower and upper tribe homes including the associated church set .
After the death of Caspar von Klingenberg, the captain of the Knight League with the Saint George's Shield , the family began to decline. Due to the real division, there were sometimes up to five families on the Hohentwiel. It was agreed that the gates would be locked with five keys so that no one would gain access without the consent of the other families. In 1443 Bürglen had to be sold, in 1447 the Eggen bailiwick . In 1457 Stein am Rhein and Klingenberg Castle were sold. In 1538, the Hohentwiel was finally handed over to Württemberg, which Ulrich von Württemberg had acquired under reservation of return in 1521, and the Bibermühle was sold to Stein am Rhein.
With the death of the twelve-year-old Hans Georg von Klingenberg in 1583, the family died out.
literature
- Martin Leonhard: Klingenberg, from. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Harald Derschka : Die Ministeriale des Hochstiftes Konstanz ( Konstanz Working Group for Medieval History: Lectures and Research ; Special Volume 45). Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-7995-6755-0 , pp. 147-158.
- Casimir Bumiller, Hohentwiel, The history of a castle between everyday fortress life and great politics , Constance, 2nd edit. Ed., 1997; ISBN 3-7977-0370-8 .
- J. Kindler von Knobloch: Upper Baden gender book , Heidelberg 1905, Volume 2, pp. 299-306 (with family tree) online
- Rudolf Wigert: Homburg and the former lords of Klingenberg . In: Thurgau contributions to patriotic history . Volume 43, 1903, pp. 4-69. Digitized
Individual evidence
- ^ Christoph Tepperberg, "The Lords of Puchheim in the Middle Ages", page 47; Dissertation to obtain a doctorate at the humanities faculty of the University of Vienna, autumn 1978
See also
The Klingenberger and the Hohentwiel
