Konrad von Querfurt († 1202)

The poet, accompanied by Chancellor Konrad von Querfurt, presented the Emperor Heinrich VI. the work

Konrad von Querfurt (* around 1160; † December 3, 1202 in Würzburg ) was an important church prince of the late 12th century. He was Bishop of Hildesheim (1194–1199) and Bishop of Würzburg (1198–1202) and served two kings as Chancellor (1194–1201).

Life

Origin and advancement

Konrad was a son of the Magdeburg burgrave Burchard II from the house of Querfurt and Mathilde von Gleichen , a daughter of Count Lambert I. zu Tonna.

Konrad attended the cathedral school in Hildesheim and later studied with Lothar von Segni, who later became Pope Innocent III. , in Paris. In 1182 he received a canon position in Magdeburg; In 1188 he became a member of the royal chapel and provost in Goslar . In 1190 he became provost in Magdeburg and in 1194 at the Marienstift in Aachen .

Chancellor Heinrich VI.

On the Sicily train of Henry VI. His chancellor Sigelo died in 1194 and Konrad, once one of the emperor's tutors , was appointed as his successor. The following year Konrad was also elected Bishop of Hildesheim .

In 1196 the emperor appointed him general legate for Apulia, Italy and Sicily. He played a key role in the enforcement of Hohenstaufen rule in southern Italy and Sicily. At his instigation, Petrus de Ebulo wrote his Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis , the illustrated verse epic in which the events are depicted and the merits of Konrad are appropriately recognized (see the illustrations in the only manuscript Bern, Burgerbibliothek Codex 120 II, fol.139r; fol 144r; fol.145r).

crusade

In 1197 Konrad was one of the leaders of the so-called German Crusade together with Heinrichs Reichsmarschall Heinrich von Kalden . During the siege of Toron Konrad received news that both Emperor Heinrich in Sicily had malaria and Pope Celestine III. had died. Thereupon he had the siege broken off and prepared to return home, because he feared a controversy over the throne because of the young age of Heinrich's son Friedrich II, although he had been designated as his successor since 1196.

Before his departure, on March 5, 1198, Konrad was involved in the transformation of the hospital association founded in the Akko camp into the Teutonic Order . Pope Innocent III gave his approval to this transformation of the hospital cooperative in 1198.

In the middle of 1198 Konrad met in Thuringia with Philipp von Schwaben , the brother of Heinrich VI., Who had been elected king by the Staufer party in the double election of 1198 and who confirmed him as Chancellor. A minority chose the Guelph Otto IV.

Bishop of Würzburg

While he was still in the Holy Land, Konrad was also elected Bishop of Würzburg . Pope Innocent III, who was on the side of the Guelph Otto IV, accused him of accumulating offices and asked him to give up his new diocese again. However, since Konrad refused, he was excommunicated the following year . After giving up the diocese of Hildesheim in 1199, Konrad also renounced Würzburg and traveled to Italy to apologize to the Pope. The Pope granted him absolution and confirmed him as Bishop of Würzburg.

After visiting the Pope, Konrad switched to the Guelph Otto IV. In the course of the conflict between the Staufers and Guelphs , Konrad fortified the Marienberg Fortress in Würzburg and founded the city of Karlstadt in 1200 to defend the territory of the Würzburg diocese against the Counts of Rieneck . The city was planned according to the Italian model with an almost rectangular floor plan.

After Konrad's mayor Eckard was slain by members of the Ravensburger ministerial family , Bishop Konrad had their court in Würzburg destroyed and imposed a heavy fine on them. The Ravensburger had hoped for impunity due to their relationship to Heinrich von Kalden and now began to intrigue against Konrad via the Reichsmarschall at the royal court. King Philip began to distrust his chancellor because he had got his bishopric back from the Pope so quickly and switched to the side of the Guelphs.

Thereupon Konrad withdrew from imperial politics and devoted himself to the administration of his diocese, whereby he was characterized by great acumen and his organizational talent. On December 3, 1202, however, he was murdered in Würzburg by Bodo von Ravensburg and Heinrich von Falkenberg on the way to the cathedral . Konrad was buried in the cathedral crypt. As a reminder, a light stick was erected at the site of the murder at Würzburg Cathedral . This is sometimes referred to as the oldest verifiable death lamp in Germany, although according to Franz Hula it is not a death lamp.

reception

Konrad as the 26th Bishop of Hildesheim on a painting with medallions depicting all Hildesheim bishops up to the end of the 18th century; Latin inscription: "He set out for Jerusalem on the crusade."

The Würzburg episcopal murder is the theme of the historical play Broken Wings written by the dialect poet Reineldis Roth , which has been performed every summer in Erlabrunn since 1995 .

literature

• Theodor Münster: Konrad von Querfurt, imperial court chancellor, bishop of Hildesheim and Würzburg , dissertation at the University of Leipzig, printed by Angerstein in Wernigerode 1890
• Alfred Wendehorst :  Konrad I. von Querfurt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 504 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Peter Wehner: Konrad I von Querfurt: Kaiserl. Imperial Chancellor, Bishop of Würzburg 1198–1202, founder d. City of Karlstadt , revision. by Wolfgang Merklein, ed. by d. Volkshochsch. Karlstadt 1980.
• Gerhard Bach: Konrad von Querfurt, Chancellor Heinrich VI., Bishop of Hildesheim and Würzburg , published by the Diocese of Hildesheim 1988
• Peter Kolb, Ernst-Günther Krenig (Ed.): Lower Franconian history . Würzburg 1989. pp. 351-356.
• Scientific Association for the German Order eV and Historical German Order Compaigne to Mergentheim 1760 eV (Hrsg.): 1300 years of Würzburg - signs of history, images and seals of the bishops of Würzburg . Issue 23. Lauda-Königshofen 2004, p. 19.
• Johanna Rudolph (Ed.): Konrad von Querfurt and the time of the Staufers (conference volume on the occasion of the exhibition "Konrad von Querfurt and the time of the Staufers" in the Museum Burg Querfurt). Museum Brug Querfurt, Querfurt 2003.

Web links

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

• Literature by and about Konrad von Querfurt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography (genealogie-mittelalter.de)
• http://www.bruche-schwingen.de/chronik.html

Remarks

1. ^ Theo Kölzer, Marlis Stähli (ed.): Petrus de Ebulo. Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis . Codex 120 II of the Burgerbibliothek Bern. Text revision and translation by Gereon Becht-Jördens . Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1994.
2. ^ Josef Dünninger: wayside shrines in Franconia in: Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 4 , 1952, p. 32

predecessor	Office	successor
Berno	Bishop of Hildesheim 1194–1199	Heribert von Dahlem
Gottfried II.	Bishop of Würzburg 1198–1202	Heinrich IV of Heßberg