List of the bailiffs of the Essen monastery

The tasks of the bailiffs of the Essen Abbey have changed significantly in the more than nine hundred year history of the Abbey .

history

The Bailiwick was, as in many convents and monasteries, for the respective incumbents an important source of income and also offered the opportunity to exercise influence on the pen. It can be assumed that the first bailiffs of the monastery came from the founding family around Altfried . After this became extinct, the monastery possibly fell to the Diocese of Hildesheim before it gained imperial immediacy . During the first period of imperial immediacy, the king was also a canon bailiff, who usually used local nobles as subordinates. Because of this, there were at times several bailiffs in Essen at the same time, Ezzo , for example, was only bailiff over parts of the monastery area. In the 11th century the Counts of Werl then appear as the Essen bailiffs. From 1164 the office fell to the Counts of Altena . After the Isenberg feud, the Vogtsamt fell to the Archbishops of Cologne in 1225 . He managed the abbess Berta von Arnsberg and Beatrix of Holte choosing King Rudolf I . to enforce the Vogt. Weakened by the battle of Worringen in 1288, the abbesses managed to make the bailiwick an electoral office for a long time. This was a prerequisite for the abbesses to be able to expand their sovereign rights. It was only in the course of the "third abbess dispute" in 1495 that Duke Johann II of Kleve was able to assert the hereditary position of the office. From the dukes of Kleve, the bailiwick fell to Brandenburg and Prussia in 1609/1648 .

List of bailiffs since the 12th century

Bailiffs of the Essen monastery were successively the rulers of the houses:

Haus Berg (? –1160; inheritance from Haus Berg)

• the Counts of Berg

Haus Berg-Altena (1161–1180; 1180 inheritance from Haus Berg-Altena)

• 1161–1180 Eberhard I von Berg-Altena

Altena-Isenberg House (1180–1225; 1225 confiscation of Isenberg's rights after the murder of imperial administrator and Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne , Count von Berg)

• 1180–1209 Arnold von Altena
• 1209–1225 Friedrich von Isenberg

As an imperial fief, the bailiwick fell back to the empire, Friedrich's successor was the imperial ministerial and bailiff of Aachen Arnold von Gymnich. Later the bailiwick came to the archbishops of Cologne.

Archbishops of Cologne (1238–1274)

• 1238–1261 Konrad I of Hochstaden
• 1261–1274 Engelbert II. Von Falkenburg

After Engelbert's death, the Essen abbess Berta von Arnsberg exercised the right of the monastery to freely elect a bailiff in order to propose bailiwick to King Rudolf von Habsburg . This initially assigned the subordinate to the Archbishop of Cologne, later the subordinate fell to the House of Mark.

House of the Mark (from 1288–1609)

Counts of the Mark

• 1288–1308 Eberhard II.
• 1308–1328 Engelbert II.
• 1328–1347 Adolf II.
• 1347-1391 Engelbert III.
• 1391-1394 Adolf III.
• 1394-1398 Dietrich

Counts of Kleve-Mark (from 1417 dukes of Kleve and counts of the Mark, and from 1445 lords of Lippstadt as condominium with noblemen to Lippe )

• 1398–1448 Adolf IV (inheritance dispute with Gerhard until 1437, Vogteirecht: unclear whether it was perceived by him or Gerhard)
• 1437–1461 Gerhard , Count von der Mark zu Hamm
• 1448–1481 Johann I (follows his father Adolf IV in 1448 and receives full rights over the Mark back in 1461. From 1461 at the latest, then also Vogt in Essen)
• 1481-1521 John II. , The Pious

Dukes of the United Duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg , Counts of the Mark and Ravensberg, Lords of Ravenstein and Lippstadt as a condominium with the noblemen to Lippe

• 1511–1539 Johann III. , the peaceful one
• 1539–1592 Wilhelm V , the Rich (1438–1443 also Duke of Geldern )
• 1592–1609 Johann Wilhelm , the Good (dies childless and spiritually deranged)

House of Hohenzollern : (from 1609 / 1648–1803: Elector of the HRR, Margraves of Brandenburg , Dukes of Kleve, Counts of the Mark and Ravensberg, Lords of Lippstadt as condominium with the noble lords of the Lippe)

• 1609–1619 Johann Sigismund ;
• 1619–1640 Georg Wilhelm
• 1640–1688 Friedrich Wilhelm , known as the Great Elector
• 1688–1713 Friedrich I. King in Prussia from 1701
• 1713–1740 Friedrich Wilhelm I , called the Soldier King
• 1740–1786 Friedrich II. From 1772 King of Prussia, known as Friedrich the Great, Friedrich the Sole or the Old Fritz
• 1786–1797 Friedrich Wilhelm II. , Called the fat Lüderjahn (meaning: "good nothing")
• 1797–1840 Friedrich Wilhelm III. , last Vogt, 1803 secularization of the monastery and incorporation into Prussia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jan Gerchow : Food . In: Werner Paravicini (Hrsg.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire , Vol. 1: A dynastic-topographical handbook , part. 1: Dynasties and courts . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2003, ISBN 3-7995-4515-8 , pp. 708-712, here p. 709.
2. ↑ Internet portal "Westphalian History": Battle of Worringen , accessed on August 28, 2010.