Mainzer Hofag from 1184

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Depiction of the Mainz court festival from 1184 in the Saxon World Chronicle , Northern Germany, first quarter of the 14th century, Berlin, State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Ms. germ. Fol. 129, fol. 112r

The Mainz court day of 1184 was one of Emperor I. Frederick Barbarossa on the front of Mainz in the mouth of the River Main lying island Maaraue occasion of Pentecost aligned court day . With its large number of visitors and its cultural pleasures, it represented a high point of the knightly way of life and the development of power of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

Preparations

In 1183, after successes in Italian politics and the submission of Henry the Lion at the beginning of the 1180s, Emperor Friedrich I announced a court day in Mainz for the following year. A city made of wooden buildings and tents was specially built for the farm day. In their midst, the emperor's palace and a church were built. Since the announcement of the Court Day was already made a year in advance, in addition to the visitors from the imperial areas north of the Alps, French, Spaniards, English, Italians and visitors from the Balkans were also able to arrive.

Festive events

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Modern concrete relief on the building of the Mainz University of Applied Sciences at Rheinstraße 19: Mainz Court Day Whitsun 1184

The Mainz Court Day began on May 20, 1184. On this Pentecost Sunday, the high mass was celebrated in the wooden church with the participation of the crowned imperial couple. The emperor's sword bearer was the Count of Hainaut . The Chancellor of the Count of Hainaut, Gislebert von Mons, claimed in retrospect that a dispute had broken out over the right to bear the sword among the most powerful princes and that it would ultimately have been left to the Count of Hainaut, as he was highly celebrated and related to many of the princes present . While the research partly followed this judgment and notes that the emperor wanted to show his favor to the count due to his strategic importance on the Lower Rhine, ritual research comes to a different conclusion. Since there is no evidence that the princes ever quarreled about this service before, it is assumed that the Count of Hainaut was imposed on the Count of Hainaut as a symbolic form of inclusion in the system of rulership, especially since he was elevated to the rank of imperial prince on the court day was made ( Gerd Althoff ).

Following the entry into the cathedral, a large banquet took place, during which the greats of the empire performed the court offices of tavern, treasurer, chamberlain and marshal.

On the following day Friedrich's two sons, Heinrich and Friedrich , received the sword from him personally . The emperor's sons and many princes, who followed their example and did not want to be inferior to them in this regard, then made gifts in the form of horses, precious clothes, gold and silver to the knights and minstrels. This was followed by a riding event called gyrum , where the knights showed their skills in swinging shields, banners and lances. The emperor and his sons were among the allegedly 20,000 participants. The next day the riding events continued. In the following week fighting games were to take place in Ingelheim . However, a storm caused several tents and the wooden church to collapse, resulting in fatalities among the celebrants. This was interpreted as a divine sign and the festival was not continued.

Political Actions

During the court day the emperor negotiated with Henry the Lion about an anti-French alliance with England, but this was unsuccessful. Another, far more symbolic political event was the dispute of rank of the Fulda abbot Konrad. According to the chronicler Arnold von Lübeck , during a gathering of the princes, it was his old right to sit on the emperor's left at the court assembly. Only the Archbishop of Cologne had long contested the exercise of this right . The emperor then asked the Cologne archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg , who felt duped by the emperor's territorial policy on the Lower Rhine, to grant the abbot's request. The Archbishop saw this as an attack on his position, which found expression in the form of the seating arrangements. Philip then asked to be allowed to move away from the festivities and to go to his inn, which amounted to a refusal to consent to his ritual degradation. A scandal ensued when numerous feudal men of the archbishop, including a brother of the emperor with the Count Palatine near Rhine, also asked to withdraw from the festivities.

Thereupon, according to Arnold, the emperor's son Heinrich jumped up and fell to the archbishop with the words: “ I beg you, dearest father, stay here and do not turn our joy into mourning ”. Philip was then allowed to take the place on the left of the emperor, while the Fulda abbot had to sit in one of the lower seats.

reception

The magnificence of the Mainzer Hoftag was praised in both chronicles and poetry. In the Eneas novel , Heinrich von Veldeke compared the farm day with the marriage between Aeneas and Lavinia . The chronicler Arnold von Lübeck established a connection with the banquet of King Ahasver . The poet Guiot de Provins also reported on the Mainzer Hoftag.

Due to the size of the number of participants and the effort involved, research sees the Mainz Court Day as a sure sign that Barbarossa wanted to put an end to his largely failed Italian policy and at the same time make it forget through a demonstration of his ruling power.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the seating arrangement as a ranking: Hans-Werner Goetz: The “right” seat. The symbolism of rank and rule in the High Middle Ages reflected in the seating arrangement. In: Gertrud Blaschitz, Helmut Hundsbichler, Gerhard Jaritz, Elisabeth Vavra (Ed.): Symbols of everyday life - everyday life of symbols. Festschrift for Harry Kühnel. Graz 1992, 11-47 pp. 11-47, especially pp. 29-32.
  2. ^ Arnold von Lübeck: Chronica Slavorum , III, 16.
  3. ↑ Gerd Althoff : The power of rituals. Symbolism and rule in the Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2003, p. 163.

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′  N , 8 ° 18 ′  E