Ludwig Vergenhans

Portrait from Ludwig Vergenhans' Epitaph.

Ludwig Vergenhans (* around 1425/30 probably in Justingen ; † November 18, 1512 in Stuttgart ) was a German legal scholar, cleric and diplomat . He was one of the closest advisers to Count Eberhard V and later Duke Eberhard I in the beard of Württemberg. As a doctor in ecclesiastical and secular law ( doctor utriusque iuris ) he was the first academically trained Chancellor of Württemberg, initially in 1481/82 for the Stuttgart part of the county of Württemberg , which was divided up to 1482 , then from 1482 to 1496 for the entire Württemberg. As early as 1480 he was councilor of Württemberg for life and from 1497 councilor to King Maximilian I , the later emperor. In 1483 he was elected provost at the Heilig-Kreuz-Stift in Stuttgart for life .

Life

Coat of arms from Ludwig Vergenhans' epitaph.

Epitaph by Ludwig Vergenhans in the collegiate church of Stuttgart .

It is assumed that the place of birth of Ludwig Vergenhans is mostly Justingen in the Swabian Alb. Vergenhans was the son of a Württemberg servant of the knightly class and brother of the Tübingen University Chancellor Johannes Vergenhans, who was in office from 1483 to 1509 . A relationship to the Württemberg count house is not certain. After his doctorate to the magister artium in an unknown place before October 25, 1467 and after his associated legal studies in Pavia and Ferrara, he received his doctorate on December 22, 1469 in Ferrara to doctor utriusque iuris .

He began his career even before his doctorate in 1467 at the latest as court master in the service of Count Ulrich V from Stuttgart and Ulrich's sons, Count Eberhard VI. and Count Heinrich. When after the death of Count Ulrich V in 1480 the government in the Stuttgart part of Württemberg from Count Eberhard VI. was taken over, Vergenhans got a tenure as a Württemberg councilor for life in the same year. In 1481 he was given the chancellery for the Stuttgart part of the country, and since 1482 for the whole of Württemberg. Even as a formal director of the law firm, his connection to the law firm remained loose, he belonged to the sphere of government and retained his position as a councilor. With Vergenhans, a lawyer trained at a university entered the Chancellery for the first time.

Vergenhans held numerous ecclesiastical offices and benefices. In 1483 he was elected provost at the Heilig-Kreuz-Stift in Stuttgart for life, the most important monastery in Württemberg at the time. He played a major role in the conclusion of the Münsingen Treaty of 1482, which led to the reunification of the Württemberg regions. In it, Count Eberhard VI waived. practically on his 1480 started government in the Stuttgart part of the country in favor of the Urach Count Eberhard V. im Bart. In return, he received the right to government in the entire Württemberg after his death and a residual rule with a pension, finally in the Stuttgart Treaty of 1485 only an increased pension and Nürtingen Castle. Soon, however, Vergenhans came into confrontation with Eberhard VI, who subsequently regretted his temporary resignation from the government.

When he took over the government as Duke Eberhard II after Eberhard's death in Bart in 1496, Vergenhans lost the Chancellery because of his contribution to the reunification of Württemberg. This was now passed on to Gregor Lamparter. Therefore, in 1497 he was ready to take over the office of royal councilor for King Maximilian I, the future emperor, and has since performed important missions for Maximilian.

Vergenhans died on November 18, 1512 in Stuttgart and was buried in the chapel he had donated on the small tower of the Stuttgart collegiate church. His red marble tomb with a representation of the provost in a chasuble is now in the choir of the Stuttgart collegiate church.

literature

• Anton Nägele: Dr. Ludwig Vergenhans in the service of the Counts and Dukes of Württemberg. In: Württemberg quarterly for regional history. Neue Episode Vol. 41 (1935), pp. 32-82 ( online ).
• Gustav Wais (ed.): The Stuttgart collegiate church. With a building history by Adolf Diehl. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1952, pp. 48 f., 85 f. (to the illustrations no. 58–60).
• Oliver Auge: Stift biographies. The clerics of the Stuttgart Heilig-Kreuz-Stifts (1250–1552) (= writings on Southwest German regional studies. Vol. 38). DRW Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2002, ISBN 3-87181-438-5 , pp. 508-530 (= No. 299).
• Karl Konrad Finke: From the clerk to the chancellor: First Württemberg chancellor until 1520. In: Swabian homeland. Vol. 63 (2012), pp. 302–308 (with illustration of the tomb of Vergenhans in the Stuttgart collegiate church).