Kyburg (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the Kyburger in the Zurich coat of arms roll (approx. 1340)
Count of Kyburg in the book of arms of St. Gallen abbot Ulrich Rösch, 15th century
The (turned) coat of arms of the Counts of Kyburg in the Stumpfschen Chronik of 1548

The Counts of Kyburg (also out of date Kiburg ) were a noble family belonging to the imperial high nobility and whose main rulership was in what is now northern and eastern Switzerland. The Kyburgs were an older branch of the Counts of Dillingen , who named themselves after the Kyburg in today's Canton of Zurich . After the Kyburg male line died out in 1263, the Habsburg family branch Kyburg-Burgdorf or Neu-Kyburg emerged through female succession . Gotfrid is considered the ancestor of the Kyburg family .

history

The great aristocratic rule in Switzerland around 1200

The Counts of Dillingen in Bavaria acquired possessions in what is now eastern Switzerland in the 11th century. Through the marriage of Hartmann von Dillingen († 1121) with the heir daughter Adelheid von Winterthur-Kyburg , they came to extensive possessions and territorial claims in Thurgau , including Kyburg . The origin of Adelheid is controversial in historical research. She could have been an heir to the Counts of Grüningen-Winterthur or a Winterthur branch of the Counts of Nellenburg . She was probably the daughter of Adalbert , the last Count of Winterthur , who died in 1053 with his brother, the imperial standard- bearer Werner II of Winterthur , in the battle of Civitate against the Normans .

Hartmann von Dillingen's grandchildren divided their property. Hartmann III. von Dillingen took over ownership in Switzerland as Hartmann I. von Kyburg . The Kyburger were allies of the dukes of Swabia from the Staufer family . The connection was probably reinforced by Hartmann's marriage to Richenza von Baden-Lenzburg in the middle of the 12th century. After the Counts of Lenzburg died out in 1172/1173 , the Kyburgs inherited parts of the extensive Lenzburg possessions in what is now Switzerland and southern Germany together with the Staufers and the Zähringers . How extensive the inheritance was is uncertain and was probably also controversial at the time. In any case, it is certain that the Kyburgers came into possession of the Lenzburg property in Gaster , on Lake Walen and around Baden. The Lenzburg bailiwicks of the Schänis and Beromünster monasteries are later also in the hands of the Kyburgs.

The extinction of the dukes of Zähringen in 1218 gave the Kyburgs another opportunity to expand their property, as Anna von Zähringen , the sister of the last Zähringer, Berchtold V , the wife of Ulrich III. von Kyburg († 1227) was. In the inheritance disputes with other noble families who were related to the Zähringen, Ulrich III. claim for themselves the left-bank possessions of the Zähringers in today's Switzerland. These included goods in what was then Zurichgau in the Duchy of Swabia and in Aargau in the Kingdom of Burgundy , including the cities of Freiburg im Üechtland , Thun and Burgdorf . The Kyburger's claims to rule from this inheritance could not be enforced everywhere, for example, they lost the city of Zurich and the bailiwick over the St. Gallen monastery . Around the middle of the 13th century, the Kyburgers turned against the Staufers and became the mainstay of the papal-anti-Staufer coalition in what is now Switzerland. In the dispute between the Pope and the Crown, Hartmann the Elder turned away from Emperor Friedrich II and moved to the papal camp. They were also joined by the barons of Wart , who now leaned closely on the Kyburger.

Kyburg Castle and Village in the Canton of Zurich

The Counts of Kyburg founded the cities of Winterthur , Frauenfeld , Diessenhofen , Zug , Baden (1230), Aarau , Lenzburg , Mellingen , Sursee (1250), Weesen (1250), Laupen , Kyburg , within their sphere of influence in the 12th and 13th centuries . Richensee and Huttwil . In the Winterthur area they founded the Heiligenberg Monastery in 1225 , which became their burial place, and in 1233 they founded the Töss Monastery . The Kyburger became one of the most powerful aristocratic families in what is now Switzerland and were accordingly in stiff competition with the Rapperswil , Habsburg and Savoy , who also tried to expand and consolidate their dominions at the same time. In the Kyburger Urbar (around 1260) the Counts of Kyburg recorded their rights and claims in writing; this document is one of the earliest administrative documents in German-speaking Switzerland, although it has only survived in fragments.

The childless Count Hartmann IV transferred the western part of his property with the Reuss as the border to his nephew Hartmann V. von Kyburg in 1250/1251 . With the support of the Habsburgs, he tried to assert himself against the city of Bern and the Savoy from his dominion in Burgdorf . After the deaths of Hartmann V in 1263 and Hartmann IV in 1264, the only heir, Anna von Kyburg, was still a minor. Rudolf I von Habsburg , whose mother Heilwig von Kyburg was a daughter of Ulrich III. was, took over the guardianship and thus also the administration of the dominion. By 1273 Rudolf I was even able to assert himself against the claims of the Savoy, who had well-founded claims about Hartmann V's widow, Margarethe von Sayoyen.

Anna's marriage to Eberhard I von Habsburg-Laufenburg resulted in the new dynasty of the Counts of Kyburg-Burgdorf and Neu-Kyburg in 1273 from part of Hartmann IV's property .

coat of arms

The older coat of arms of County Kyburg
The younger coat of arms of County Kyburg after 1264

Representations of the coat of arms on seals have been preserved from the 13th century (before the old Kyburger died out in 1264). A description of the old coat of arms can be found in the Clipearius Teutonicorum by Konrad von Mure (around 1264) as in black, a slanted yellow bar separates two yellow lions .

In the Zurich coat of arms (around 1340) and Gerold Edlibach (around 1490) the golden lions are depicted on a red background. This is the coat of arms of the Neu-Kyburger (after 1273). The blazon of the Kyburg coat of arms reads: In red a golden sloping bar, accompanied by two striding golden lions .

The importance of the lions probably goes back to the two families from which the county arose, namely from the merger of the two equal aristocratic families of the Lords of Winterthur (Adelheid, the daughter of Adalbert) and those of Dillingen ( Hartmann I. von Dillingen ) .

The Kyburg coat of arms served as the basis for numerous modern Swiss coats of arms, such as the coat of arms of the Canton of Thurgau , the Bailiwick of Gaster and the cities of Winterthur , Diessenhofen , Andelfingen and Kyburg .

family members

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman W. Brüschweiler, family table of the houses Lenzburg, Kiburg and Dillingen pp. 108-109; in: History of Wettingen
  2. ↑ Kaspar Hauser: The barons of Wart. P. 11.
  3. ↑ Peter Niederhäuser. Between Swabia and Burgundy: A new look at the Counts of Kyburg. Heimatspiegel, December 2014. (Supplement to the Zürcher Oberländer / Anzeiger von Uster)
  4. ↑ "Herrgott ( Genealogia diplomatica ) provides the images of some Kyburgian seals that were found on documents from 1240–1262. [...] Hartmann von Dillingen's seal is preserved on a document from 1220, a shield with horizontal stripes and four lions . " Franz Ernst Pipitz, The Counts of Kyburg (1839), 27–30 .
  5. ↑ Kiburg in nigro Gilvan tabulam fore Ponis, obliquansque duos gilvos Secet illa leones verse 34 , ed Paul Ganz (1899). see: Peter Ziegler: The municipal coats of arms of the Canton of Zurich, Antiquarian Society in Zurich, coat of arms drawings by Walter Käch and Fritz Brunner . Zurich 1977, p. 67 . The shape with the black escutcheon was adopted as its coat of arms by the Kyburg community in 1926 .
  6. ^ «This is how the copist of the Kyburg family tree and the Tschudische Wappenbuch describe it. Lord God: Est autem Kyburgensis clypeus coccineus, quem balteus permeat aureus, utrinque comite leone metalli eiusdem . " ["The Kyburg shield is scarlet, crossed by a golden bar, accompanied on both sides by lions in the same metal"] Franz Ernst Pipitz, Die Grafen von Kyburg (1839), p. 28 , fn. 1.

literature

  • Heinz Bühler et al .: The Counts of Kyburg. Kyburger conference 1980 in Winterthur . (= Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages 8). Basel 1981, ISBN 3-530-49951-X .
  • Alfred Häberle: The Counts of Kyburg in documents. Your cities and church foundations . Winterthur 1980.
  • Karl Keller: The cities of the Counts of Kyburg. Materials on the city of the High Middle Ages. Anniversary exhibition 800 years of the city of Winterthur . Winterthur 1980.
  • Martin Leonhard, Franziska Hälg-Steffen: Kyburg [Kiburg], from. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Jürg Leuzinger: The Kiburger and the Oberaargau. Rise, rule and decline of a count's house . In: Jahrbuch des Oberaargaus 52 (2009), pp. 83–118.
  • Martin Lory: The coinage of the Kyburger . In: Helvetische Münzeitung 18 (1983), pp. 151–155.
  • Werner Meyer : Castles of Switzerland. (Volume 5), Silva Verlag. Zurich 1983.
  • Peter Niederhäuser (ed.): The Counts of Kyburg: A nobility story with breaks. (= Communications from the Antiquarian Society in Zurich, vol. 82). Chronos, Zurich 2015. ISBN 978-3-0340-1271-3
  • Ernst Rieger: The document system of the Counts of Kiburg and Habsburg. With special emphasis on the inner Swiss, Zurich and Thurgau landscapes. From the estate, ed. by Reinhard Härtel. 2 volumes. (Archives for Diplomatics 5), Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-412-04082-7 .

Web links

Commons : Kyburg  - collection of images, videos and audio files