Ludwig II (goat grove)

Ludwig II of Ziegenhain († after 1289) from the family of the Counts of Ziegenhain was Count of Ziegenhain and Nidda zu Nidda from 1258 until his death .

origin

Ludwig was the only son of Count Gottfried IV (* 1189; † 1257/58) von Ziegenhain and Nidda zu Nidda and his wife Lukardis (Luitgard) von Dürn († after 1271).

Gottfried IV had ruled the two counties Ziegenhain and Nidda, inherited from his father Ludwig I, nominally together with his younger brother Berthold I , and the two had notarized and sealed them together. De facto , however, they had divided rulership, with Gottfried remaining in the county of Nidda and Berthold in the county of Ziegenhain .

Count of Nidda

Division of the counties of Nidda and Ziegenhain

When Ludwig succeeded his father, this arrangement remained between him and his uncle Berthold, but with Berthold's death in 1258 the previous harmony between the two branches of the family also ended. Since each side also had multiple free float within the territory of the other, a dispute broke out almost immediately after Berthold's son Gottfried V took office . In the same year the two counties were formally divided and an exchange of territory brokered by Archbishop Gerhard I of Mainz, Bishop Simon I of Paderborn and Abbot Heinrich IV of Fulda, who at that time was also Abbot of Hersfeld and thus feudal lord who was the goatherd for parts of both counties. Ludwig received the county of Nidda and the Neustadt office , gave up the bailiwick in Gemünden an der Straße in exchange for the court in Rodheim and Widdersheim , and had to give up his claims to Staufenberg , Rauschenberg , Treysa , Burg-Gemünden , Schlitz and Lißberg . Gottfried V was to be free to redeem the Vogtei of the Fulda monastery through Gottfried IV to Ludwig II with 175 marks of silver from Ludwig. Gottfried was allowed to build in Nidda and Ludwig in Ziegenhain, but none to harm the other.

As a result, the two still often acted and sealed together, especially in the case of gifts and sales of goods and income to the Haina monastery and the Johanniter in Nidda, but the separation of the two counties deepened very quickly, especially since there was still trouble Ownership of the Niddaer line in the area of ​​the county of Ziegenhain existed.

Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession

The drifting apart was also evident in the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession . In order to maintain his independence in view of the claims to power of Sophie von Brabant and her son, Heinrich I , who was proclaimed Landgrave of Hesse in 1247 , Ludwig sided with the Archdiocese of Mainz , while Berthold I and after him Gottfried V. of the Landgrave were more exposed and therefore had to pursue a risky swing policy. Nidda and Ziegenhain therefore found themselves several times on different sides in this long conflict. In Neustadt around 1270 Ludwig built a castle to protect against Marburg in Hesse ; However, this was conquered in 1273 by the Landgrave's troops, who in the same year also had Gottfried V's castles in Staufenberg and Burg-Gemünden (Gemünden an der Straße) conquered and destroyed. Ludwig was also in the Mainz camp in 1288 when he lent 350 marks to Archbishop Heinrich II von Isny .

Slow loss of possession

In the early years of his rule, Ludwig was not only anxious, but also financially able to round off his property. In 1259 he bought their part of Nidda Castle from Count Werner II of the Rhine († 1268) and his son Siegfried I († around 1303). But soon afterwards a gradual loss of property began. In 1263 he had to renounce his rights to Hornberg Castle near Neckarzimmern in favor of the Speyer diocese , which he inherited from his mother. Numerous donations and sales to the Haina monastery reduced the count's income over the years. Probably for lack of money, he sold the Johannitern zu Nidda between 1264 and 1286 considerable property in the city and the county, such as B. in 1268 the Brungesroda estate (Ruppelshof), in 1278 the villages Nieder-Loisa ( Unter-Lais ) and Igelhausen , and in 1284 the forest in Herlesberg. Also out of financial difficulties, he sold the small village of Münchhausen near Stadtallendorf to the Teutonic Order in Marburg in 1274 and in 1279 pledged the bailiwick of the Fulda monastery for 400 marks to the abbot of the monastery, Bertho IV. Von Bimbach .

Marriage and offspring

From Ludwig's marriage to Sophie von der Mark there were three children known by name:

• Engelbert I (attested to in 1289; † 1329), Count of Nidda; ⚭ 1286 Heilwig von Isenburg
• Gottfried († probably 1313), Canon in Mainz
• Elisabeth / Elsa, ⚭ before September 17, 1299 Philip IV of Falkenstein-Münzenberg

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Ludwig's death year is unknown: he was still alive in 1290, but in 1294 his wife Sophie is attested as a widow.
2. ↑ Inheritance dispute between Count Ludwig II and Gottfried V, Regest no. 78. Regest of the Counts of Ziegenhain. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
3. ↑ Alliance between Heinrich I and Count Gottfried von Ziegenhain, Regest no. 81. Regest of the Landgraves of Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
4. ↑ Burgenlexikon: Nidda ( Memento of the original dated February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ During a dispute with Gottfried V. von Eppstein († 1339) because of the church set of the parish of Crutzen ( "Krutzen, City of Frankfurt am Main". Historical local dictionary for Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).) He was accused of Heinrich to have murdered von Romrod .

literature

• Martin Röhling: The story of the counts of Nidda and the counts of Ziegenhain. (Niddaer Geschichtsblätter booklet 9) Niddaer Heimatmuseum eV, Nidda, 2005, ISBN 3-9803915-9-0 .