Löwenstein (noble family)

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Coat of arms of those von Löwenstein

Löwenstein is the name of an old Hessian noble family with the ancestral home in Bischhausen . The part of the family who are wealthy in Hesse is still registered with the Knighthood of Althessia .

The "von Löwenstein zu Löwenstein" are not related to the Princely House of Löwenstein-Wertheim .

history

The family first appeared in a document with Wernher de Biscopeshusun in 1160 , when they were still living in "Biscopehusen" (today's Bischhausen in the north Hessian Schwalm-Eder district ). This Wernher I von Bischofshausen (not to be confused with the noble family of the same name Bischoffshausen) moved from Bischhausen to Ortberg near Oberurff-Schiffelborn , which is now a part of Bad Zwesten, about 4 km northwest and strategically better .

Ascent

Löwenstein Castle around 1632
Löwenstein castle ruins today

His grandson Wernher II von Bischofshausen built Löwenstein Castle there in place of the previous family seat , which is first documented in 1253. In honor of his wife Gertrud von Itter , who had a lion in her coat of arms, he named the castle Löwenstein, and the descendants named themselves after this new ancestral seat of the family. The reliable line of tribe begins with the knight Herrmann von Bischofshausen, who appears in a document from 1251 to 1282 and who appears on April 30, 1280 as Hermann von Löwenstein zu Löwenstein.

The Löwensteiners reached their peak as early as the 13th century when they were among the most influential and wealthy families in northern Hesse. During the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession , which began in 1247, Wernher II succeeded in gaining considerable influence in northern Hesse through early partisanship for Duchess Sophie von Brabant and her underage son Heinrich , because Sophie appointed him temporary governor of the region. This made it necessary to expand the family seat on the Ortberg appropriately. The Löwensteiner Grund comprised the villages of Kerstenhausen, Zwesten, Betzigerode, Oberurff, Niederurff, Schiffelborn, Wickershof, Reptich, Römersberg, Gilsa and Bischhausen, covered and dominated by Löwenstein Castle.

Fragmentation and decline

Wernher II himself laid the foundation for the decline of the family by dividing the property among his sons. Heinrich called himself "von Löwenstein-Schweinsberg" after his marriage to Giesela von Schweinsberg, Werner after his marriage to Guda, Countess of Westerburg, "von Löwenstein-Westerburg", and Hermann after his marriage to Hedwig von Romrod "von Löwenstein-Romrod" . Bruno, the fourth son, became a canon in the Fritzlar monastery of St. Petri . However, the three lines remained jointly owned by the castle as gan heirs , lived in it well into the 14th century, and expanded it extensively. The Löwenstein-Westerburg line died out in 1492, the Löwenstein-Schweinsberg line with Franz Caspar in 1644.

In the disputes between the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse in the 13th to 15th centuries , the Löwensteiners tacted very flexibly. They opened their castle to each of the two parties as well as the Count of Waldeck at different times and were on good terms with all sides.

Assassination of Friedrich of Braunschweig

Gotfried von Löwenstein was declared a member of the Bengler Knight League in 1391 . He or another Löwensteiner was involved in the assassination of Duke Friedrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg on June 5, 1400 , who two weeks earlier had been proposed as the anti-king of the unloved Wenzel at the Fürstentag in Frankfurt am Main , but had been rejected by the three clerical electors . Friedrich was on his way home from Frankfurt to Braunschweig when he found him near Fritzlar Count Heinrich VII von Waldeck , Konrad von Falkenberg , Friedrich III at today's village of Kleinenglis near Fritzlar . von Hertingshausen and others lay in wait and killed him. The so-called Kaiserkreuz von Kleinenglis has stood at the crime scene for centuries .

Robbery knighthood

The location of Löwenstein Castle was ideal for monitoring the trade route from Kassel to Frankfurt, which later lords of the castle used for lucrative highway robbery. So are z. B. 1438 and 1439 raids by Johann von Löwenstein-Schweinsberg attested. This was a clear decline compared to the generation of the burger farmer Wernher II. One possible motive for the raids was revenge for the defeat in the Mainz-Hessian War of 1427, in which the Löwensteiners had been on the defeated Mainz side.

Towards the end of the 16th century, the lords of the castle moved to their estates in the area and the castle began to deteriorate. To this day, the ruins belong to the von Löwenstein zu Löwenstein family, who are based on Gut Wickershof near Jesberg .

coat of arms

Blazon : “Divided by silver and red, inside a gold crowned lion in mixed up colors. On the looking gold-crowned helmet with red-silver covers, seven alternating red and silver ostrich feathers. "

Name bearer

Bourgeois descendants

The name Löwenstein is still very common in Northern Hesse today. It goes back to the "bourgeois" branch of the family that originated in Niederelsungen (Kassel district) in the 16th century , the progenitor of which is Henne von Löwenstein, the illegitimate son of Johann von Löwenstein, usually known as "Henne Halber von Löwenstein".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Original in the Marburg State Archives, Hersfeld Abbey
  2. ^ Original in the Marburg State Archives, Haina Monastery
  3. ^ Original in the Marburg State Archives, Haina Monastery
  4. ↑ Schandbrief Johanns von Löwenstein against Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse, 1438 ( Memento from August 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

literature

Web links