Leden
The Leden family was a patrician and aristocratic family that had their headquarters in Ledenhof in Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) and in Ledenburg Castle near Nemden ( Osnabrück district ).
In the Middle Ages, the wealthy family provided a mayor and two second mayors for the old town of Osnabrück.
history
The von Leden family probably originally came from Tecklenburg . She settled in Osnabrück in the 14th century and gained wealth through long-distance trade. In 1358 Johann Leden was named as a wine merchant. Since 1390 the family had the head of a unicorn in the seal coat of arms. The goldsmith Heinrich Leden, who also worked as a banker, contributed to the prosperity in the middle of the 14th century.
In the Osnabrück region the family acquired extensive possessions, such as the holdings of the Lords of Holte with 34 hereditary estates and the ruins of the Holter Castle . In the 15th century the family belonged to the nobility and gave the then New Castle Holte near Nemden its name Ledenburg .
The three most important members of the family were called Heinrich von Leden. Little is known about the life data of the three Heinrich generations because the family's written estate was destroyed in the fire of the Ledenburg in 1618. The first Heinrich, married to Gertrud Thole, was named mayor of Osnabrück in 1434. His son Heinrich, married to a daughter of Johann von Schelenburg von der Schelenburg , was mayor of Osnabrück, as the second next to Ertwin Ertmann (1430-1505). From 1505, the second mayor was his son Heinrich, who had six children with Margarete von Bar († 1576). These were the sons Jobst († 1550) and Nikolaus († 1557) as well as the daughters Gertrud, Benedigte, Margarethe (1516–1608) and Elisabeth.
This third Heinrich in a row, who was involved in the siege of Neuss as a young knight , was granted extensive privileges by the German King Maximilian I in 1499 in gratitude for his services . The privileges included the exemption from contributions and jurisdiction, as well as the guarantee of the inviolability of his homes for his descendants, with which the von Lehden family could grant asylum . The only exceptions to this protection were " those who violated the Roman Empire and its majesty or gave advice and help to the rebels, and those who are expressly determined by law because of the magnitude of their crimes" .
The third Heinrich von Leden was mentioned for the last time in 1548. His grave in his patronage church in Holte, a district of Bissendorf , was lost. Heinrich's tombstone is in front of the entrance to the sacristy. The epitaph of his widow, who outlived him by more than 25 years, is on the outside of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bad Essen .
Heinrich's son Jobst died single. With the death of Jobst's brother Nikolaus, who had inherited his father Heinrich, the von Leden family died out in the male line in 1557. The daughter Margarethe married Herbort von Pladiese (1519–1589); she inherited the Ledenburg and the patronage of the Holter Church. She also inherited a third of the Ledenhof; Another third each went to the sisters Gertrud, who was married to Johann von Ledebur († 1581), and Elisabeth, who had married into the von Flickensolt family. The three sisters used the Ledenhof as a city apartment.
The Ledenburg finally came to the Gesmold branch of the von Hammerstein family and through marriage to the von Münster family .
The imperial privileges of 1499, on which the descendants invoked until the early 18th century, led to multiple conflicts with the city of Osnabrück. In 1664, Rotger Gerhard von Diepenbrock, who shot and killed a citizen of Osnabrück Neustadt in a dispute, sought refuge in the Ledenhof, but was eventually handed over to the Prince-Bishop.
coat of arms
The coat of arms shows a black unicorn head in silver with a lowered horn. The shield figure on the helmet with black and silver covers .
literature
- Hermann Rothert : History of the city of Osnabrück in the Middle Ages in communications from the Association for History and Regional Studies of Osnabrück , Volume 58, Osnabrück 1938, page 15 f.
- Rudolf vom Bruch: The knight seats of the Principality of Osnabrück . H. Th. Wenner, Osnabrück 2004 (first edition 1930), ISBN 3-87898-384-0
- Roswitha Poppe: The Ledenhof in Osnabrück , local history of the Osnabrück region in individual examples, Issue 3, H. Th. Wenner, Osnabrück 1978, ISBN 3-87898-127-9
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roswitha Poppe: Der Ledenhof in Osnabrück , page 16, translation of the document from the Osnabrück State Archive based on the original in the Ledenburg archive, document no.69
- ↑ Max von Spießen: Book of arms of the Westphalian nobility, with drawings by Professor Ad. M. Hildebrandt, p. 80, 1st volume, Görlitz 1901-1903 - digitized