Konrad von Hochstaden

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Tomb of Konrad von Hochstaden in the Johanneskapelle of Cologne Cathedral
Konrad von Hochstaden on a mosaic in Cologne Cathedral

Konrad von Hochstaden , also Konrad von Are-Hochstaden (* around 1205 ; † September 28, 1261 ) was Archbishop of Cologne as Konrad I from 1238 to 1261 .

Origin and education

He was the son of Count Lothar I von Are-Hochstaden and his wife Mathilde von Vianden and blood related to the imperial family of the Staufer . He had two brothers, of whom the older, Lothar II (* 1216; † 1246), received the county of Hochstaden. After his death and that of his son Theodorich on April 16, 1246, this was given by Konrad's brother Friedrich to the Archbishopric of Cologne for the purpose of incorporation. The younger brother, Friedrich, was provost of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, then provost in Xanten and founder of the Xanten Cathedral . Two of Konrad's four sisters (including Margarete von Hochstaden ) were women religious.

Maybe Konrad studied in Paris. In any case, his brother Lothar made him pastor of Wevelinghoven . Initially provost of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, probably also Cologne canon since 1226, he tried to dispute the cathedral provost of Cologne cathedral provost Konrad von Bueren since 1234, although he did not shrink from violence.

Political activity

Archbishop of Cologne

He was elected Archbishop on April 30, 1238 as the successor to Heinrich I von Müllenark . By the time he was elected, Konrad von Hochstaden had usurped the office of Provost . In order to emphasize his request, he had the rightful provost of the cathedral banished . This initiated a process before the Roman Curia , which Konrad quoted to Rome without Konrad complied with the request. Thereupon Konrad was excommunicated from Rome and the interdict was imposed on all places where Konrad was staying. After his election, Konrad settled his dispute with the provost and left him in office.

At the beginning of August he was enfeoffed with the regalia of the empire by Emperor Frederick II in the camp in Brescia and immediately showed himself to be friendly to the Hohenstaufen through his support for the election of the Aachen provost Otto von Eberstein as Bishop of Liège. But in the spring of the following year he converted to the papal party, for which certainly not just the financial support of Pope Gregory IX. was responsible, because with the archbishopric, Konrad also assumed enormous debts of his predecessor with Italian bankers. In his territorial wars with Brabant , Jülich , Sayn , Limburg and Berg between 1239 and 1244, tangible self-interests and imperial interests mingled accordingly. These reached a low point with the defeat in the Battle of Lechenich , which brought him into captivity at Jülich Castle Nideggen from February to November 1242 , which he nevertheless passed victoriously and with an increase in power.

After the bishop of Münster, Ludolf von Holte , ordained him as a priest , he was ordained a bishop shortly afterwards on October 28, 1239 and received the pallium from the Pope in February 1244 .

Establishment of the opposing kings

In the mid-1240s Konrad von Hochstaden was without a doubt the most powerful prince of the empire and was able to afford the establishment of an anti - Staufer counter-kingship without the selection of the candidates in any case being his merit. This applies at best to William of Holland , but hardly to Heinrich Raspe and Richard of Cornwall . What was decisive, however, was that he could make himself heard with his point of view, without the consent and coronation of the Archbishop of Cologne there would be no valid king's elevation. In March 1249, the clergy and people of Mainz made him the successor of the late Archbishop of Mainz Siegfried III. elected by Eppstein . He refused this office at the papal request, for which he was rewarded with the dignity of a legate for Germany. However, this was not extended to him by Pope Innocent IV .

In the years 1254 and 1255 tensions arose between him and King Wilhelm, who increasingly sought to evade the direction and tutelage of his protector and to use the newly founded Rhenish City Association as an instrument for his real royal rule. Concerned papal warnings suggest that the archbishop is planning to depose the king. The looming rift with the King and Curia had stimulated the Rhenish and Westphalian territorial lords , the Count of Jülich and the Bishop of Paderborn , who were dissatisfied with the predominance of power of the Archbishop-Duke of Cologne , to form an anti-Cologne coalition, which Konrad was able to master quickly and in the October 1243 the Count of Jülich, just as in August 1256 the Bishop of Paderborn was able to force recognition of his superior and prominent position. In doing so, Konrad von Hochstaden did not use his ducal power in the sense of a mere restoration of power, but to develop an undisputed and effective supremacy over independent and independent territorial rulers, which was intended to ensure peace in the country .

Confrontation with the city of Cologne

In this context, the so-called "Little Arbitration" can be seen, which ended the dispute between the archbishop and the city in 1252 over the right to a new, inferior coin. Albertus Magnus was appointed as referee among others . In 1258, Albertus Magnus came to another arbitration award in a dispute with the Cologne patricians in the "Great Arbitration", in which Albertus Magnus the archbishop had the highest spiritual and secular power, but the city had a certain separate jurisdiction with lay judges (= judges ) and public officials. But Konrad was able to break the power of the urban patriciate as early as 1259 by installing new aldermen from the guilds instead of the aldermen from the patriciate. With this he skillfully played the guilds against the patricians and in this way regained control of the city. He brutally put down a patrician uprising in 1260 and locked those involved in Godesberg, unless he had them sentenced to death.

On May 7, 1259 he granted the city the right to stack . Every foreign merchant who transported his goods across the Rhine had to offer them for a fixed period in Cologne.

Extension of the archbishopric

The death of the last Count of Are-Hochstaden, his nephew, provided him with an enormous expansion of the archbishopric. After reaching an agreement with his younger brother Friedrich and relatives, he was able to add the aforementioned county to the archbishopric in 1246. He also succeeded in acquiring further areas of the County of Sayn from 1248. By founding cities and surveys, as well as the introduction of modern territorial administrations, he succeeded in securing this property complex, which was enormously expanded in a few years.

Konrad von Hochstaden died in 1261 and was buried in a prominent place in the ambulatory of Cologne Cathedral, the cornerstone of which he laid in 1248. His tomb in the Johanneskapelle is one of the most important bronze works of the 13th century.

Adaptations

literature

Web links

Commons : Konrad von Hochstaden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See wording of the deed of donation in: http://www.wingarden.de/woeng/artikel/vordereifel/t05-1246.html
predecessor Office successor
Heinrich I. von Müllenark Archbishop of Cologne
1238–1261 		Engelbert II of Falkenburg
personal data
SURNAME Konrad von Hochstaden
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Konrad I of Cologne; Konrad von Are-Hochstaden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Archbishop of Cologne (1238–1261)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1205
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1261