Mansfeld (noble family)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Family arms of the von Mansfeld family
Mansfeld county around 1250 (orange)
The county with the place of birth and death of Luther Eisleben (center, left) in 1519

The Counts of Mansfeld belonged to the oldest German noble families. Presumably as early as the middle / end of the 10th century they owned the Mansfeld rule , where they first appear in a document in 1050. The county was one of the 1500 Saxon and 1512 the Upper Saxon Circle to.

1069 the Mansfeld of King were Henry IV. To Gaugrafen in northern Hassegau appointed, including Eisleben was one which from this point in their possession remained. After the male line of the original Mansfeld Counts died out in 1229, their possessions fell to the Lords of Querfurt , who now also bore the title of Mansfeld Counts. Ruprecht von Querfurt was Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1260 until his death in 1266 ; Gebhard von Mansfeld was Archbishop and Elector of Cologne from 1558 to 1562 .

The possessions, until the mediatization by Kursachsen and Magdeburg in 1580, were directly imperial county, were in the northern part of the Hassegau on the eastern edge of the Harz . This roughly corresponded to the later district of Mansfelder Land and parts of the districts of Merseburg-Querfurt and Sangerhausen , so today it is largely in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz in Saxony-Anhalt .

In 1594 the governor of the King of Spain in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Count Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld -vorort, was elevated to the rank of imperial prince. In 1696 this dignity was also bestowed on the Austrian field marshal Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld .

In 1780 the house in the male line went out. The Central German feudal estates , which had been mediated since 1580, were confiscated by the feudal lords and divided between Electoral Saxony and Prussia; the Bohemian allodial possessions fell to the princes Colloredo- Mannsfeld.

history

middle Ages

The city of Mansfeld was first mentioned in a document in 973. Historians assume that the Mansfeld family of counts can also be dated to this time.

First Mansfeld tribe

Mansfeld Castle

With Hoyer von Mansfeld, Count in Hassegau, the first Mansfeld was mentioned by name in 1050. He was married to Christine (von Sangerhausen), a daughter of Siegfried III, a count from Saxony. Hoyer is considered to be the real ancestor of the family, although it was only with his son Hoyer I von Mansfeld that a continuous tradition of family history began. It was also Hoyer I who was the first of his family to bear the title of Count von Mansfeld . He fell as general of Emperor Heinrich V in 1115 in the lost battle of the Welfesholz .

In the year 1069 the Mansfeld of King were Henry IV. To Gaugrafen appointed in the northern Hassegau. They received this office as the successor to the Wettins , who had rebelled against the king. This also included the Eisleben crown estate, which existed until the end of the 12th century (still verifiable in 1154) , which, after an interruption, appeared as a fiefdom of the bishops of Halberstadt from the 13th century, during the allodial possession of Archbishop Wichmann von Seeburg (suburbs) in 1192 the Archdiocese of Magdeburg fell and was loaned by this to the counts.

The Mansfelder were economically very successful in their early years, not least because of the mining and minting rights they owned. The wisely invested profits from their ironworks and mines, as well as military skill paired with loyalty to the imperial family secured a strong position at the imperial court as well as political and economic influence.

Second Mansfeld tribe (Lords of Querfurt )

Obelisk in the Annenkirche (Eisleben)

In 1229, Burchard I, the last male Mansfeld, died. Through his heir, Sophia von Mansfeld, married to Burchard II. Von Querfurt, the count's possessions came to the noble lords of Querfurt , who from then on also carried the title of Count Mansfeld. From 1246 the male members of this Mansfeld-Querfurt tribe called themselves only Counts of Mansfeld .

Burchard III. from the house of the Counts of Querfurt-Schraplau was Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1307 to 1325 . His nieces, the sisters Agnes and Margarete von Querfurt-Schraplau officiated from 1354-1362 and 1376-1379 as abbesses of the Imperial Abbey of Quedlinburg . Count Albrecht, Canon of Merseburg, was elected Counter-Bishop of Halberstadt from 1345-1356 .

The county of Mansfeld, Blaeu Atlas 1645

Although the economy flourished in the entire county and the county's territory expanded through acquisitions and clever marriage policies, serious problems were already looming in the first half of the 15th century. Not only the strengthening of the economy (especially mining, smelting works and trade), but also the imperial immediacy aroused the desires of the neighbors Magdeburg , Halberstadt and Wettin Saxony . Furthermore, the wealth of children of the Mansfeld counts had a negative impact on the distribution of inherited goods, finances and rights, and to the detriment of the count's abundance of power in local and state-political terms. Since no count had fewer than six children (some even 22), there were two inheritance divisions. The first (1501), after the death of Volrad III, split the Mansfeld house into the counts of Mansfeld-Vorderort, -Mittelort, and -Hinterort. Their common rule over the county, often combined with legal, economic and religious disputes within the family, and the enormous costs of maintaining the families, put a great strain on the lives of the common people in the county.

Numerous marriages connected the Mansfeld with the Ascanians as well as with Thuringian dynasty families such as the Counts of Weimar-Orlamünde , Stolberg , Lobdeburg , Leisnig , Reuss , Schwarzburg , Arnstein , Hohnstein , Beichlingen , Schönburg and also with ducal houses like the Brunswick-Lüneburgers , the Oldenburgers , the houses Holstein-Denmark, Pomerania-Stettin , Hessen-Marburg , Nassau-Weilburg . After Count Wolfgang's conversion to Catholicism in 1627, his descendants also marries with Bohemian and Austrian families such as Dietrichstein , Trautson , Harrach or Auersperg .

Modern times

Mansfeld , copper engraving around 1650
Mansfeld Castle today

The time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation brought new turbulence to the Mansfeld region. While a large part of the members of the Vorderorter Linien (especially Hoyer VI. Von Mansfeld ) remained loyal to the Catholic faith, the former representatives of the Mittelorter and Hinterorter Linien, Gebhard VII. And his son Jobst I and Albrecht VII. - not least through the close friendship with Martin Luther - ardent advocates of Protestant teaching. Already in 1525 they introduced the evangelical creed into their possessions. Jobst I and Albrecht VII were also among the signatories of the Augsburg Confession of Faith in 1530 . Yet they treated their subjects no better or worse than their Catholic relatives did. When the peasant wars devastated large parts of Mansfeld County, Albrecht VII had the peasant revolts that had flared up in a bloody and ruthless way. The turmoil of the Reformation Wars even meant that related Mansfelders faced each other as opponents.

Ernst II von Mansfeld-Vorderort (1479–1531) had 22 children, including the later governor of the Netherlands Peter Ernst I and the later archbishop and elector of Cologne, Gebhard . The division of the heavily indebted county among the many sons and the settlement of the daughters led to considerable controversy. In January 1546, Luther , accompanied by his three sons, traveled via Halle to Eisleben, his native town, to help settle the inheritance and legal disputes within the Mansfeld family of counts. He no longer took part in the final negotiations on February 17th, weakened by the winter trip and suffering from angina pectoris ; however, the negotiations ended successfully. The reformer died on February 18 - in the presence of Count Albrecht VII von Mansfeld-Hinterort and his wife Anna von Honstein-Klettenberg - presumably in their house, the city palace (Markt 56), in which the Hotel Graf von Mansfeld is now located .

Because of its commitment to the Reformation imposed Emperor Charles V in 1547, the imperial ban on Count Albrecht VII. However, it was canceled in 1552 again. When the heirs of Ernst II divided the ownership of the Vorderort line again in 1563, this called the Mansfeld creditors onto the scene. In the meantime, the count's family was heavily indebted due to the rich blessings of children, numerous wars and feuds, the upswing in the copper economy and excessive waste. In 1566, their creditors obtained the appointment of a commission by Emperor Maximilian II to settle debts, which, at the instigation of Elector August of Saxony, was replaced by agents from Saxony, Magdeburg and Halberstadt. These determined total debts of the counts in the amount of 2.75 million guilders, which in 1570–1579 finally resulted in the sequestration and permutation recession between the three feudal lords. Saxony took advantage of the location of the Mansfelder and, after lengthy negotiations, achieved the end of the efforts they had made to mediate the previous imperial fief. The Wettins came back into his possession 500 years after they had lost their counts to the Mansfelder under Heinrich IV. Three fifths now belonged to the Electorate , the other two fifths to Magdeburg. In 1580 Mansfeld was no longer an imperial county, as sovereignty over the regalia was no longer exercised by the emperor, but by the respective sovereigns. In the course of the compulsory administration, they immediately set up their own administrators, who officially acted on behalf of the counts, but actually represented the interests of their clients.

In 1602 the Mittelort line died out in the male line and in 1666 the Hinterort line.

Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld- Vorderort (1517–1604) was governor of the King of Spain in Luxembourg for almost 60 years and also in the Spanish Netherlands from 1592–1594 . In 1594 Emperor Rudolf II raised him to the rank of imperial prince. His son, Prince Karl , became Imperial Commander-in-Chief in Hungary during the long Turkish War , where he died in the camp on the Ruhr . Another son (from a subsequently legitimized marriage), Count Peter Ernst II , became an important mercenary leader in the Thirty Years 'War and switched to the Protestants' side from 1610. A distant relative served under him, Philipp von Mansfeld- Vorort (1589-1657) from the Bornstedt-Heldrungen line, who converted to Catholicism after 1624 and switched to the imperial side, where in 1628 he became commander of the Baltic Sea fleet under Wallenstein and in 1633 Austrian field marshal . Philip's brothers Wolfgang and Bruno III. became Catholic and entered imperial service. The latter acquired the Czech rule Dobříš in 1630 . In 1696 his son Heinrich Franz was raised to the rank of imperial prince as an Austrian field marshal.

In 1710 the last count living at Mansfeld Castle , Georg III, died. von Mansfeld-Vorderort-Eisleben, as the last count of the Evangelical-Lutheran denomination. On March 31, 1780, the very last male Mansfeld, Josef Wenzel Nepomuk, 4th Prince of Mansfeld from the house of Vorderort-Bornstedt, died; he had an accident with the carriage. Since all fiefs of the house Mansfeld fief were and his brothers had died young, his three sisters were not lehnsberechtigt; all Central German fiefs fell back to the feudal lords - namely to Electoral Saxony and Prussia as successors to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg. Only the Bohemian allodials with Dobříš Castle went to the eldest of his half-sisters, Maria Isabella, who had been married to the Bohemian Prince Franz von Colloredo since 1771 . In 1789, the imperial government in Vienna allowed the prince to combine names and coats of arms for the two families in order to preserve the memory of the Mansfeld counts. As a result, the originally Italian family Colloredo continues the name at least as a name affix. Bearers of this family's name still live in Austria, the Czech Republic and the USA. The Counts of Mansfeld wrote themselves with an "n". When the documents for the name association to "Colloredo-Mannsfeld" were drawn up, the name was - accidentally - spelled with two ns . Although based in fact on a transcription error, the documented and legally correct spelling of the Colloredo-Mannsfeld family with two n . However, some family members have reverted to the spelling with an n . As one of 16 mediatized royal houses, the Colloredo-Mannsfeld received a hereditary seat in the manor house of the Austrian Imperial Council .

Important personalities in the family

Colloredo-Man (n) sfeld:

Important buildings of the counts

Possessions

coat of arms

Components of the united coat of arms

  • Family arms of the von Mansfeld family

  • Querfurt coat of arms

  • Coat of arms of (Querfurt-) Mansfeld
    (= Mansfeld-Hinterort)

  • Arnstein coat of arms

  • Coat of arms of Heldrungen

  • Overall coat of arms of the Counts of Mansfeld since 1481
    (= Mansfeld-Vorderort)

  • The coat of arms of the von Mansfeld family from 1481 in Siebmacher's coat of arms book from 1605

  • Count's coat of arms of Peter Ernst I around 1546

  • Coat of arms of the von Colloredo , heirs of the Counts of Mansfeld

  • United coat of arms of those of Colloredo-Mansfeld since 1789

History of the united coat of arms

The Mansfeld coat of arms originally consisted of the six red Mansfeld diamonds on a silver background, as can be seen on the tombstone of the last Altmansfeld Count Burchard I, who died in 1229, in the Andreas Church in Eisleben . Through his son-in-law Burchard II († 1255), the founder of the Mansfeld-Querfurt line, the (originally) four Querfurt red bars on a silver background came into the Mansfeld coat of arms, they were (heraldically) opposed in the upper right and lower left quarters assigned to the Mansfeld diamonds. The (heraldic) upper left silver eagle on a black background stands for the Arnstein reign acquired from Count Ulrich von Regenstein in 1387 , the crowned golden lion on a blue background with a red and silver inclined beam ( Hohnstein ) at the lower right stands for the Heldrungen reign in 1484 was acquired by Count Hans von Hohnstein. The (heraldic) right helmet ornament shows (originally eight) the red and silver striped Querfurt flags (the hereditary brotherhood of 1396 could not be enforced by the Mansfeld counts against the Archdiocese of Magdeburg in 1496 when the Querfurt noblemen died out) and the left helmet ornament shows the (actually ashen) Schraplauer grasping for 1335 was acquired by the Schraplauer dynasties rule Schraplau . The so-called Mansfeld coat of arms (see illustration) was carried by the Vorderort († 1780) after the division of the estate in 1501, while the Hinterort († 1666) carried the simple Querfurt-Mansfeld coat of arms. The overall coat of arms is located on the east side of the town hall of the old town of Eisleben , the simple coat of arms on the shield of the statue of Kamerad Martin , the legal symbol of the new town of Eisleben founded by Mansfeld Hinterort at the beginning of the 16th century.

Cartographic representations

literature

Web links

Commons : Mansfeld  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Feicke: City history and the decoration of historical town halls on the Harz as a symbol of lordly power and urban rights - with special attention to the town hall of the old town of Eisleben . In: Harz research . Volume 23. Berlin and Wernigerode 2007, pp. 227-277, esp. 230-245.
  2. ↑ Bernd Feicke: Art. Burchard I. v. Mansfeld , in: T. Bautz (ed.): Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, Vol. 33, Nordhausen 2012, Sp. 191–195.
  3. ^ Volkmar Joestel: Luther's death
  4. ↑ Bernd Feicke: The permutation recesses at the end of the 16th century in the county of Mansfeld. In: Zs. F. Heimatforschung, H. 17 (2008), pp. 19–24.
  5. ^ H. Großler: The coat of arms of the county of Mansfeld and the coat of arms of the cities… . In: Mansfelder Blätter . No. 16, 1902, pp. 145 ff .; B. Feicke: The Mansfeld coat of arms as an architectural detail in Eisleben . In: Mansfeld Heimatblätter . No. 6, 1987, pp. 69-70.