Kronberg feud

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Defeat of the Frankfurters in the Battle of Eschborn in 1389
(oil painting on wood, around 1500, today in the Frankfurt Historical Museum )

The Kronberg feud led the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt am Main in the city ​​war of the Second Rhenish League of Cities in 1389 against a number of nobles from the surrounding area, including Ruprecht II of the Palatinate , the young Ulrich V of Hanau and a large number of lower nobles, such as the Knights of Kronberg . The feud became famous because of the Battle of Eschborn , in which the imperial city suffered the greatest military defeat in its history on May 14, 1389.

prehistory

Historicizing view of Frankfurt am Main in the 14th century, 1860
( chromolithography by Johann Friedrich Anton Rau )

In the late Middle Ages , the prosperous imperial city of Frankfurt increasingly came into conflict with the nobles of the surrounding area. As early as 1344, the city had the right to enter into alliances through the royal privilege of Ludwig of Bavaria , and since 1356 it was entitled to military self-defense. The reasons for disputes were numerous: sovereigns like Ulrich III. von Hanau tried to strengthen their influence in the city. In 1363 the Frankfurt patrician Siegfried zum Paradies was able to acquire the Hanau pledge through the office of the Reichsschultheissen . In 1372 the council had Emperor Karl IV pledge the mayor's office to lay judges, mayors, citizens and the city council of Frankfurt am Main for a transfer fee of 8,800 gulden . Together with the acquisition of the Frankfurt city forest in the same year, this step finally secured the city's independence from the regional territorial lords.

Frankfurt's foreign policy at that time was based on the alliances with the Wetterau imperial cities of Wetzlar , Friedberg and Gelnhausen , which were renewed again and again between 1285 and 1374 , and regular participation in armed alliances against peace breakers from the lower nobility, whose economic decline began at this time.

Many knights in the area were tempted to attack merchants who were on their way to the Frankfurt fair . This resulted in the so-called robber baronism . The city could respond to this threat to its interests in two ways: either it took up the feud and returned the hostilities, or it took the nobles into their service, which was often used as a means of settling longer feuds.

If one opted for the feud, the measures could range from simple raids by Frankfurt soldiers on opposing property to large-scale punitive actions with the storming of castles. In numerous cases the city had attacked or destroyed castles from which robberies emanated, for example in the Falkensteiner Feud 1364-66, the Schelmenburg 1381/82, the Bommersheim Castle in the spring of 1382 or Tannenberg Castle (1399) and many more. "Bounties" were also exposed, for example. For example, on June 14, 1377, the city of Frankfurt granted rewards of 100 guilders each for the capture of Ulrich von Cronberg, his sons Philipp and Frank, and Emmerich Kobel and Henne von Reifenberg (among others). Any previous mediation by the Archbishop of Mainz, in whose service Ulrich von Cronberg served as Vice Cathedral from 1354 to 1386 , had obviously failed.

However, these actions often contributed to aggravating hostilities. To make matters worse, many of the lower nobility in the region were connected to one another through relatives, inheritance in castles and shared property, and the feud was never announced to any one person. Between 1381 and 1425 Frankfurt was involved in at least 229 feuds, which corresponded to an average of five newly declared feuds annually.

Many of these feuds were announced due to the alliance obligation of the second Rhenish city federation, which was merged with the Swabian city federation to form the southern German city federation in 1381 . Larger and smaller nobles had joined forces with the Lion since 1379 , but it no longer existed in 1389.

During the city war in autumn 1388, Frankfurt's situation deteriorated significantly. After the battle of Döffingen lost for the Swabian cities in August 1388, the cities near Worms suffered another defeat against Ruprecht von der Pfalz in November. Frankfurt contingents were involved in both battles. On February 16, 1389, Ulrich von Hanau, Johann, Walther and Frank von Kronberg as well as Cuno von Reifenberg declared the feud as an assistant to the Count Palatine of the city. By May 11, the city received another 200 letters of rejection from helpers of the named or the Count Palatine. No support was to be expected from the other members of the association of towns.

course

Preparation and campaign to Kronberg

Entrance to Kronberg Castle

In view of these unfavorable conditions, the city did not remain idle: The Niddabrücke near Nied was demolished and the castles in Bergen, Bonames and Rödelheim reinforced with teams. Mercenaries went out and burned Wallau down. On the other hand, the Kronbergers captured several Sachsenhausen houses in the vineyards, but were unable to penetrate Sachsenhausen .

In March 1389 the Frankfurt council sent messages and requests for aid to the allied cities, but without success. A group of eleven journeymen led by fire rifleman Heinrich Becker from Niedererlenbach were sent to the Kronberg Forest to cut down or peel trees. The destination was probably the chestnut groves that still exist today, and a (Kronbergian) farm in Wallau and a house in Höchstadt were burned.

In May 1389 the city decided to launch a major offensive. A citizen contingent of around 1500 to 2000 men was equipped together with a few mercenaries and sent on May 13 against Kronberg Castle , which was considered the seat of several robber barons. The armed force consisted of members of the noble council families with their servants, including Johann, Herrmann, Henne and Siegfried von Holzhausen , Henne von Glauburg , Henne and Heinz Frosch , Contze zum Römer , Hene von Marburg , Heinrich Wysse zum Rebstock , Wigel Weidenbusch and Rule Schweinheim and the Schultheiss Winther von Wasen . The large number of foot troops was made up of the individual guilds, who carried their guild flags and were under the orders of the senior mayor Jeckel Lentzel . The troops were commanded by city governor Philipp Breder von Hoenstein (Hohenstein) and moved out under the city banner (black double-headed eagle in the red field).

In order not to be seen too early by the tower guard of the castle, the troops marched after the Nidda crossing at Rödelheim via Sulzbach and Niederhöchstadt . Although the castle was only weakly manned, the Kronbergers made a sortie. They were repulsed and some of them were captured. At least it was possible to send messengers to the Count Palatine in Oppenheim . While the Frankfurter force included the castle, 150 were glaives Electoral Palatinate rider and also a hanauisches auxiliary contingent deployed. The news made it dangerous to continue the attacks, which is why the Frankfurters camped on May 13 and 14 on Kronberg territory, sent their prisoners to Frankfurt and drove the arson and peeling (on fruit and chestnut trees) in the forest southwest of Kronberg away.

Battle of Eschborn

On May 14, 1389, the combined armed forces of the Palatinate, Hanau and Kronberger, after Kirchner a total of about 400 sticks , attacked the Frankfurter near Eschborn. The numerically larger urban contingents proved to be clearly inferior to the Kronbergers and their allies, including aristocratic professional soldiers . The Limburg Chronicle (from 1617) reports:

“There were those who left Frankfurt with more than 1,500 well-equipped people with hoods, harnesses and greaves and met the enemies in front of Kronberg. The enemies were those of Kronberg. They had around 100 knights and servants and the crew of the Kronberg patch. And they beat the Frankfurters, so that more than 100 were slain and more than 600 were captured. So the little bunch knocked down the big bunch. That was not a miracle, for the large group fled and the small group argued. […] O Frankfurt! Frankfurt! Remember this battle! "

According to Kirchner, the Frankfurters kept their limbs in good order during the first meeting and threw back the Kronberg onslaught. It was not until the attack of the Palatinate riders, who had sun and wind behind them, that one wing of the city's armed forces wavered. Finally the Kronbergers captured at the first meeting succeeded in seizing their weapons and turning them against their guards; their renewed attack, this time in the rear of the Frankfurters, led to an irregular flight of the Frankfurt infantry, which eventually also carried away the Frankfurters.

The Frankfurters had 40 to 100 dead, several wounded and at least 612 prisoners to mourn. Three rescue vehicles and the city banner (black double-headed eagle on a red background, then because of the loss of a white eagle on a red background) were lost. The prisoners also included councilors and members of the guilds who were forcibly recruited, mainly butchers, locksmiths, shoemakers and all the town's bakers. The relatively small number of people killed compared to the prisoners can be explained by the irregular flight and the fact that a ransom could be demanded for the latter. The fact that the Kronbergers and their allies did not immediately attack the city, which had lost most of its defenders, may be due to the falling night.

consequences

Kronberg took 612 prisoners, of which 218 were taken to Kronberg, 166 to Hanau, 89 to Windecken, 110 to Babenhausen, 27 to Umstadt and 2 (winter from Wasen and Rule from Schweinheim) to Lindenfels. In order to release the prisoners, Frankfurt had to reduce the sum of 73,000 guilders well from gold and muntze swer from weights (probably related to the so-called Rheinische Gulden Mainz or Frankfurt coinage; rough weight 3.543 g, fineness 23½ carats, fine weight 3.469 see gulden ) Name of numerous guarantors: payable in 6 dates the first martini 1389 with 13,000 fl and then every year up to Walpurgis 1394 12,000 fl . In addition, there was Frankfurt's share of 60,000 guilders in reparation claims by the city union as well as claims from injured villagers and the lower nobility. Overall, the debt was about twice the average annual income of the city that had no cash. The debts taken on to cover the liabilities were therefore not fully repaid over 100 years later.

It will have been particularly important for the city's treasury that the trade fairs could take place undisturbed. Frankfurt later concluded alliance agreements with the former opponents of the Kronberg feud. Ulrich von Hanau granted the city the right to open its castles in 1394 in the event of a joint war with mutual aid. Also in 1394 the city committed Hartmut von Kronberg for two years as bailiff of Bonemese , Nieder-Erlenbach , Durckelwyl , Sultzbach and Soden with residence in the castle of Bonemese. In 1395 she made an alliance with Johann von Cronberg. In 1398, Frankfurt secured King Wenzel's privilege to build the Frankfurter Landwehr , which protected the direct area in front of the city in the event of minor armed conflicts.

The participation in feuds did not decline in the period that followed, with the city only appearing twice as the initiator of the feud. The city was declared the other 107 times. The opponents probably knew exactly about the weakened situation in the city. In the future, however, Frankfurt relied more heavily on the power of money and treaties instead of military means, gradually integrating the surrounding nobles into a network of mutual dependencies and obligations that ultimately effectively protected the city's interests, especially the trade routes and trade fairs .

Domestically, the council, consisting of a majority of patricians , had King Wenceslaus approve a constitutional amendment in 1390. The council was enlarged from 43 to 63 members, of which only 21 formed the sitting council , a kind of executive branch , alternately for one year . Since the councilors were only “rewarded” with attendance fees if they were actually present, this was an effective cost-saving measure. The remaining councilors, as legislators, were consulted on important decisions. From 1396, as a result of revenge , three instead of two mayors were elected annually, one from the lay judge's bank , one from the community and one from the guilds . It was not until 1408 that the crisis as a result of the Kronberg feud was overcome to such an extent that the city - apparently with the consent of the citizens - gave up its "emergency constitution" and returned to the previous constitution. This happened through the collective resignation of 20 councilors. The office of third mayor was also dropped in the future.

There were or are various pictorial representations of the battle of Eschborn. In a division of inheritance from 1434, the wirckt duoeh that the stridt is called is mentioned. The large clock-old carpet mentioned by Lersner, on which the battle was wrought, was no longer included in the inventory list of the castle drawn up in 1692, but a large description of the battle between the Frankfurters and Kronbergers , probably around 1500 in memory of the Battle (this copy hangs in the castle to this day) as well as another one that has been in the Historical Museum since the beginning of the 19th century after it ended up with Johann Karl von Fichard after the revolutionary turmoil and the dissolution of Kurmainz initially transferred to the city library. Another copy was found in the estate of the historian Benedict Jacob Römer-Büchner (today at Assenheim Castle ), although it is assumed that it was a work commissioned by the Elector of Mainz in 1728.

After a Frankfurt forecast a knight of Kronberg has the dog-eared as a result of an incident in the battle his coat of arms crest added. After his horse was stabbed, he is said to have sat on a donkey for lack of another available mount, which kicked out and carried him in shock into the midst of the battle, which supposedly led to the victory of the Kronbergers. In fact, some of the Knights of Kronberg did not show donkey ears, but rather so-called heraldic buffalo horns on their helmets in their coat of arms .

Slate forest

Slate forest

In 2014, the Hamburg artists Ulrich Genth and Heike Mutter planted twenty-six trees in a sloping field. The trees are held in an inclined position by steel brackets of different shapes. The work of art slate forest is intended to commemorate the battle of Eschborn.

literature

  • Friedrich Bothe : History of the city of Frankfurt am Main . Unchanged reprint of the 3rd, extended edition from 1929. Mohnkopf Reprints Wolfgang Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-8035-8920-7 , esp. P. 57.
  • Konrad Bund: Frankfurt am Main in the late Middle Ages 1311–1519. In: Frankfurter Historische Kommission (Ed.): Frankfurt am Main - The history of the city in nine contributions. (=  Publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XVII ). Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4158-6 .
  • Walter Gerteis: The unknown Frankfurt. 8th edition, Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-920346-05-X , pp. 145-148.
  • Achilles Augustus von Lersner : The far-famous Freyen imperial election and trade city of Franckfurt am Mayn Chronica Volume 1 and 2, Frankfurt am Main 1706 and 1734 (online)
  • Anton Kirchner : History of the City of Frankfurt am Main. First part. Commission of the Jägerische and Eichenbergische Buchhandlungen, Frankfurt am Main 1807 ( online ).
  • Georg Ludwig Kriegk : Frankfurt civil dispute and conditions in the Middle Ages. A contribution to the history of the German bourgeoisie based on documentary research. JD Sauerländer's, Frankfurt am Main 1862 ( online ).
  • Georg Ludwig Kriegk: History of Frankfurt am Main in selected representations. Heyder and Zimmer, Frankfurt am Main 1871.
  • Elsbet Orth : The feuds of the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main in the late Middle Ages. Feud law and feud practice in the 14th and 15th centuries. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1973 ( Frankfurter Historische Abhandlungen 6), esp.p. 165.
  • Benedict Jacob Römer-Büchner : Defeat of the citizens of Frankfurt before Cronenberg 1389. In: Archives for Frankfurt's history and art . New series, first volume, self-published by the Association for History and Classical Antiquities in Frankfurt am Main in commission from Heinrich Keller, Frankfurt am Main 1860, pp. 132-160 ( online ).
  • Martin Romeiss: The military constitution of the imperial city of Frankfurt a. M. in the Middle Ages. In: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art. Fifth episode, second volume, issue 41, Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1953, esp.p. 24.
  • Fred Schwind : 1389 - The defeat of Kronberg, Eschborn: urban self-assertion in a dynastic environment. In: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art. Volume 63, Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 15-42.
  • Arthur Wyss (Hrsg.): The Limburg Chronicle of Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen. In: Society for older German history (Hrsg.): German chronicles and other history books of the Middle Ages. Fourth volume, first section, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 1883 ( online ).
  • Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau, city and country. Cultural history and chronicle of a Franconian-Wetterauischen city and former county with special consideration of the older time. Unchanged reprint of the increased edition from 1919. Hans Peters, Hanau 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2 , esp. Pp. 43–45.

Individual evidence

The literature given in the bibliography is given in abbreviated form.

  1. ↑ Reinhard Friedrich: The destruction of Bommersheim Castle by the Rhenish Association of Cities in 1382 , in: Actes du colloque international de Graz (Autriche), 22-29 août 1998, o. O., 2000, pp. 83-90.
  2. ↑ STAD R11 REM No. 26 [34], in: Die Regesten der Mainz Erzbischöfe nach 1374/75, URI: http://www.ingrossaturbuecher.de/id/source/2460  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed August 7, 2013)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ingrossaturbuecher.de  
  3. ↑ Figures from Orth 1973, p. 163.
  4. ↑ Schwind 1997, p. 16 with further literature.
  5. ↑ after Orth 1973 p. 165, after Zimmermann 1919 p. 44 on January 8, also in Romeiss 1953 p. 24; Schwind 1997 p. 33 differentiates more precisely between Ulrich von Hanau's feud letters and the letters from Kronberger that had already been sent.
  6. ^ Heinrich Reimer : Hessisches Urkundenbuch. Section 2, document book on the history of the Lords of Hanau and the former province of Hanau. Vol. 4, 1376-1400. Publications from the Royal Prussian State Archives, Hirzel, Leipzig 1897 No. 475.
  7. ^ Heinrich Reimer: Hessisches Urkundenbuch. Section 2, document book on the history of the Lords of Hanau and the former province of Hanau. Vol. 4, 1376-1400. Publications from the Royal Prussian State Archives, Hirzel, Leipzig 1897 No. 476.
  8. ^ Römer-Büchner in Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, pp. 134f.
  9. ↑ Kirchner 1807, p. 303ff.
  10. ↑ Wyss 1883, p. 80, No. 147 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Schwind 1997 p. 34.
  12. ^ Römer-Büchner in Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, p. 136.
  13. ^ Römer-Büchner in Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, p. 137.
  14. ^ Römer-Büchner in Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, pp. 148ff.
  15. ↑ on the purchasing power of that time: around 1400 the purchase price for a cow was about 2 gul, for a riding horse 10 gul (Herbert Rittmann: Auf Heller und Pfennig Battenberg Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-87045-117-3 , p. 19.)
  16. ↑ The town clerk Melchior Schwarzenberger († 1529) complains that in his time debts had to be paid that were incurred due to the defeat in 1389. MS dipl. Uffenbach. II 107. (quoted by Römer-Büchner in Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, p. 148).
  17. ↑ Lersner II, 1734.
  18. ↑ Figures from Orth 1973, p. 166.
  19. ^ Würzburg Bavarian State Archives MRA 7786 p. 158; Klaus Graf : “The nobility that purger meets hate”. Enemy images and conflicts between the urban bourgeoisie and the rural nobility in the late Middle Ages . In: Noble and bourgeois cultures of remembrance of the late Middle Ages and early modern times . Edited by Werner Rösener (=  forms of memory 8). Göttingen 2000, pp. 191-204, here p. 200 ( online ).
  20. ^ List of the Imperial Commission on the legacy of the last Count Kraft Adolf Otto to reside in Kronberg Castle, who died in 1692 (quoted from Ronner).
  21. ↑ Römer-Büchner in: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 1, Frankfurt 1860, p. 140: "We received it from Mainz in 1853 and [it] is now incorporated into our collection."
  22. ↑ Wolfgang Ronner : Das Assenheimer Bild von Frankfurt's defeat 1389, remarks on the rediscovery of a forgotten painting in: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , Volume 61, Frankfurt am Main 1987, pp. 97ff.
  23. ^ Helmut Bode: Frankfurter Sagenschatz. Legendary and fabulous stories from the sources and older collections as well as the Lersner Chronicle, retold by Helmut Bode. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt a. M., Second Edition 1986, pp. 72-74.
  24. ↑ Slate forest on the side of the regional park ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.regionalpark-rheinmain.de
This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 5, 2011 in this version .

Coordinates: 50 ° 9 '24 "  N , 8 ° 34' 27.1"  E