Peaceful alliance Maas-Rhein

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The Landfriedensbündnis Maas-Rhein was one of the many regional alliances that had been formed to implement the imperial land peace , taking into account territorial needs and dependencies. The alliance, which was founded in 1351 after a long period of preparation, initially included the Free Imperial Cities of Aachen and Cologne as well as the Archbishopric of Kurköln and the Duchy of Brabant . It was based on the legal foundations of the current state peace and transferred these to its sphere of activity.

prehistory

The maintenance of order and peacekeeping in the Holy Roman Empire forced individual territorial lords and cities to take short-term and locally limited measures. In order to better represent their legal claims and to be able to resolve conflicts more quickly, in 1254 Aachen and 58 other cities joined the newly founded first Rhenish City Association , whose legal basis was based on the Mainz Landfrieden of 1235. Aachen then signed another peace alliance in 1275 with Archbishop of Cologne Siegfried von Westerburg for the area between Andernach , Neuss , Liège and Roermond , who in turn signed a friendship treaty with the city of Cologne and four years later the Pingsheim Peace Treaty .

The German kings also repeatedly intervened in the general peace policy, such as King Ludwig the Bavarian , who had founded an alliance for seven years in 1317 , as well as King Ludwig , King John of Bohemia , the Archbishops of Mainz and Trier , as well as the cities of Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Speyer, Oppenheim, Frankfurt, Friedberg, Gelnhausen, Wetzlar and Aachen belonged.

Finally, after several years of negotiations, the cities of Aachen and Cologne as well as the Archbishop of Cologne Wilhelm von Gennep and Duke Johann III decided on May 3, 1351 . Brabant the peace alliance Meuse-Rhine to start, the first for ten years in the area between the Meuse and Rhine from Andernach to Xanten should apply. This treaty of 1351 served from then on as a template for many subsequent peace alliances throughout the empire, which have now been concluded with ever shorter deadlines.

On February 22, 1352, the actual Maas-Rhine land peace was sworn. Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg for his diocese Trier and the county of Luxembourg is named in the first place in various documents as the initiator of this peace . In the same year Charles IV , King of Rome and King of Bohemia, confirmed the peace in the country ... in Dutzschen and Welschen Landen ... tzwuschen Ryn and Mase and elsewhere. The following are named as co-summoners in the establishment certificate: Ruprecht, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria , Wilhelm, Margrave of Jülich? , Cuno von Falkenstein , provost and guardian of the monastery in Mainz, Dietrich, Graf von Loon, Lord von Heinsberg and Blankenberg , Gerhard, Graf von Berg and Ravensberg , and Johann, Graf zu Solms . On August 22nd, the councils of the cities of Frankfurt, Friedberg, Wetzlar and Gelnhausen joined.

The Maas-Rhein Landfriede of 1352 was concluded for two years and applied to the area within a border from Bingen am Rhein - up the Nahe, via St. Wendel - to Thionville in Lorraine - the western border of Luxembourg northwards - via Stavelot (Stablo) - Mönchengladbach - then eastwards Düsseldorf - Wipperfürth - southwards via Limburg (Lahn) to Eltville am Rhein - and again Bingen.

In the time of peace, all people within this area should be protected from crimes such as robbery, pillage, arbitrary seizure, all violence, and more. The special occasion was the "acute lack of peace on the roads on water and on land, robbery, fire, murder and capture". to curb arbitrary feuds of the lower nobility. The court and judgments were dealt with by the State Peace Commission. Johann I von Schleiden († 1379/81) was appointed by the king as superior and presiding judge . The equal partners of the peace sent a knight or wollgeborn one to the state parliaments, which without regard to the person na yren best senses resembled deme poor and deme rich, nymanne to love nor to suffer . The court met every Monday after the quarter days in Koblenz am Rhein.

Content and development

The Maas-Rhein peace alliance primarily served to protect traveling merchants, pastors and pilgrims. The negotiation and jurisdiction competence in all disputes between the contracting parties was determined on a subsidiary basis. Initially, the sovereign or the city whose subjects or citizens had violated the peace were responsible for punishing breaches of the peace . As the next higher instance, the jury of the Landfriedensbündnis could then be invoked, which consisted of three jurors from each of the four allies, who met at the beginning of each month alternately in Aachen, Cologne, Lechenich and Kerpen and to whom the supreme command over theirs if necessary sending military troops. The first well-known jurors from Aachen included lay judges Gerhard Chorus , Christian Lewe and Johann Chorus, and from Brabant Reinhard von Schönau .

In order to achieve their goals, their own troops could be set up to fight robber barons with violence. To this end, Kurköln and Brabant undertook to provide 50 armed knights and servants each to combat everyday violence and, in the case of special needs and sieges, up to 250 riders and 50 riflemen, the city of Cologne 25 and 150 riders and 50 riflemen respectively, and the city of Aachen 20 or 100 armed men on horseback and 100 riflemen. Further members could join the peace alliance if necessary or permanently, such as 1352 Johann von Valkenburg, Herr von Born and Sittard, or 1354 Dietrich II von Loon, Count zu Heinsberg and Blankenberg, but this only concerned the troop strength and not one Expansion of the jury. On February 20, 1354, the Maas-Rhein peace alliance received from King Charles IV. Permission to use his king's banner and the imperial banner on their campaigns to enforce the peace.

The most historically significant missions of the Landfriedensbündens were among others:

  • The siege of Gripekoven Castle in 1353/54. From this castle, renegade knights are said to have carried out their raids and supported an uprising of the Jülich knighthood, which put the reputation and the existence of the Duchy of Jülich into question. After a prolonged siege of the castle, which finally ended with its surrender with the granting of free withdrawal of the besieged, the castle was then razed to the ground.
  • The capture of Hemmersbach Castle in 1366. Due to an inheritance dispute with his half-brothers, the Dukes of Brabant and Jülich, Johann Scheiffart von Merode, Herr zu Hemmersbach, resorted to self-help and stopped the merchant trains from passing through his territory. As a result, the castle was taken by the troops of the peace alliance and partially destroyed
  • The siege of Stolberg Castle in 1375. The country teams stationed at Stolberg Castle tyrannized the area with raids. As a result, all buildings were razed and made uninhabitable in an execution of the peace .
  • Siege of Dyck Castle in 1383. Gerhard von Dyck was accused of robber baronism, and the allied troops forced him, after successfully taking his castle, to destroy the stronghold at that time.
  • The siege of Reifferscheid Castle in 1385. The alliance accused Johann V. von Reifferscheid of numerous raids in the near and far surroundings and of breaking the peace. The siege itself was initially unsuccessful and the Alliance troops withdrew after three months of unsuccessful things. Nevertheless, the peace alliance was able to commit Johann V. von Reifferscheid to an eight-year peace treaty.

In the meantime, in 1364, the peace alliance was extended by the Duke of Brabant and Limburg, Wenceslaus of Luxembourg and the city of Aachen for another five years, with the number of jurors increased to six per contracting party. A year later this was joined by the previous allies, Kurköln under Archbishop Engelbert III. von der Mark and the city of Cologne as well as several knights and in 1366 the city of Neuss . The next contract extension followed in 1369, this time with 65 nobles and knights from the Duchy of Limburg .

When it was renewed in early 1375 by Duke Wenzel von Brabant, Duke Wilhelm II. Von Jülich , Friedrich III. From the Saar to become Kurköln and the representatives of the cities of Aachen and Cologne, this time only a four-year term was set. In addition, the alliance decided to set up a customs post for each administrative district on defined trunk roads. Graduated customs duties were collected there for clearly defined merchandise, only consumer goods for personal use remained duty-free. The fees collected were distributed proportionally among the allies. Should a trader steal his goods, he would receive compensation from the customs revenue, but should a trader try to bypass the customs post, his goods were confiscated, which then went to the common alliance treasury.

The next contract extension of the alliance took place on All Saints' Day in 1378, this time again for five years, whereas from the next extension in April 1383 a term of only three years was set. After 1387, the Maas-Rhine peace alliance no longer appeared significantly and an extension no longer seems to have been carried out, since it is subsequently no longer mentioned in this constellation in any source. At the latest with the conclusion of the Eternal Peace of 1495, with which every feud, including the one previously permitted, was rejected and any further use of the feudal and fist law was declared a breach of the peace, opened up through the simultaneous introduction of the Imperial Court Council , the Imperial Court of Justice and the Possibility of subject trials , new ways of resolving conflicts peacefully through legal channels.

literature

  • Richard Pick : The history of the Landfriedensbundes between Meuse Rhine 1375. In: Annals of the historical association for the Lower Rhine. Volume 45, 1886, pp. 159-161.
  • Fritz Joseph Kelleter: The Landfriedensbünde between Meuse and Rhine in the 14th century (= Münster contributions to historical research. Volume 11). Schöningh, Münster 1888, OCLC 868262395 (dissertation University of Münster 1988).
  • Luise Freiin von Coels von der Brügghen : The accession of the knighthood of the Duchy of Limburg to the peace between the Meuse and the Rhine in 1369. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association . 62, 1949, pp. 77-82.
  • Eberhard Quadflieg: About the procedure of the state peace unions between Meuse and Rhine in the 14th century. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association. 77, 1965, pp. 30-50.
  • Claudia Rotthoff-Kraus: The political role of the peace agreements between the Meuse and the Rhine in the second half of the 14th century (= supplement to the journal of the Aachen history association. Volume 3). Aachener Geschichtsverein, Aachen 1989, ISBN 3-9802705-0-5 (Dissertation University of Bonn 1989).
  • Martina Stercken : Kingship and territorial powers in the Rhine-Maasland rural peace of the 14th century (= Rheinisches Archiv. Volume 124). Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-412-00289-5 (dissertation University of Bonn 1987/1988).
  • Isnard Frank (Ed.): Balduin von Luxemburg 1285-1354. Festschrift on the occasion of the 700th year of birth. Mainz 1985. Here in particular: Marlene Nikolay-Panter: State peacekeeping under Baldwin of Luxembourg. Pp. 341-355.

Web links

Wikisource: Aachen city accounts from the XIVth century / Landfriedensbund Destruction of the robbery castle  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some of the cities mentioned are possibly a confusion with the later agreed, as Rhine-Maas country peace.
  2. ↑ Also known as "Niederlothringischer Landfrieden" according to TJ Lacomblet, document book for the history of the Lower Rhine , 1853, vol. 3, no. 496
  3. ↑ on this: W. Günther, Codex Diplomaticus Rheno-Mosellanus, Part III, Section II, No. 396, 397, 398, 399, 400
  4. ↑ Participation in a land peace meant the transfer of sovereign rights to a land peace commission. A time limit was therefore not unusual.
  5. ↑ M. Nikolay-Panter quotes the erection document in: Landfriedenschutz ..., p. 348
  6. ↑ Detailed description: Marlene Nikolay-Panter, Landfriedensschutz under Balduin von Trier, in Balduin von Luxemburg 1285-1354, pp. 341–355
  7. ↑ The capture of Hemmersbach Castle ( Memento from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Destruction of Dyck Castle , in: Josef Laurent : Aachen city accounts from the XIV century. Wikisource, p. 53.
  9. ^ Siege of Reifferscheid Castle , in: Josef Laurent: Aachen city accounts from the XIV century. Wikisource, pp. 56-66.
  10. ↑ Knights Adam Eder Stein joins the peace alliance Meuse-Rhine
  11. ↑ Customs of the Landfriedensbund , in: Josef Laurent: Aachen city accounts from the XIV century. Wikisource, p. 51.