Markward from Annweiler

Markward von Annweiler on an illustration from the Liber ad honorem Augusti by Petrus de Ebulo , 1195 or 1196, Bern, Burgerbibliothek , Cod. 120 II, fol. 142r

Markward von Annweiler in chain armor with a nasal helmet, sword and Norman shield on an illustration from the Liber ad honorem Augusti by Petrus de Ebulo, fol. 147r

Markward von Annweiler († 1202 in Patti , Sicily) was under Emperor Heinrich VI. (1190–1197) Reichstruchsess and was appointed by him shortly before his death in 1197 as executor. Around 1195 he became Duke of Romagna and Ravenna , Margrave of Ancona , Count of Abruzzo and Molise . From 1198 he was regent of the Kingdom of Sicily .

origin

The Markward, who came from unfree service nobility , was one of the most influential people at the Hohenstaufen court. He was likely to have belonged to an influential family before, as marriage connections with the noble von Hausen (Mannheim) family were already open to his father's generation. Originally, they could have been servants of the bishops of Speyer who had been drawn to the empire (Schaab). According to Breuer and Schaab, Markward's relatives and descendants include the von Hausen (Pfalz, younger line), von Kirrweiler (Speyerer Ministeriale), Ritter von Dahn, the Speyrer Schenken von Wersau (Reilingen) and Markward von Wunnenberg (Reichsschultheiss von Oppenheim).

Life

Markward can be traced back to the Mainz court assembly and the sword line of the sons of Emperor Barbarossa in 1184 in the entourage of Heinrich (the later Emperor Heinrich VI.), From 1185 as a stewardess (head of the court). In 1186 he traveled to Milan for the wedding of King Henry with Constance of Sicily. In 1189 he followed Emperor Barbarossa on the Third Crusade . There he was sent as envoy to the Byzantine imperial court in Constantinople , and in 1191 he returned to Germany.

1192 he is in the entourage of the now emperor Heinrich VI. traceable in Hagenau , end of 1193 in Saxony. At the beginning of 1194 he moved with the army to take possession of Sicily to Italy, where as the imperial commander-in-chief of the combined Pisan and Genoese fleets he triumphed over the Norman party near Syracuse and Catania in 1195 , thus fulfilling the conditions for the entry of Henry VI. created in Palermo .

In April 1195 the emperor gave him freedom for the services he had performed and appointed him, among other things, Duke of Romagna and Ravenna to secure the routes between Germany and Sicily. At the end of 1195 / beginning of 1196 he was in Germany again, at the Hoftag in Gelnhausen , and has not returned to Germany since the summer of 1196.

After Heinrich's death in 1197, Markward initially supported his widow Konstanze in the government of Sicily. As part of the repossession of former papal territories by Celestine III. and Innocent III. However, he was excommunicated and finally expelled from the country by Constanze, who had received the Kingdom of Sicily from the Pope as a fief.

After Constance's death, he moved south in 1198 as the regent of the Kingdom of Sicily ( procurator regni Siciliae ) appointed by the Staufer party ( Philip of Swabia , brother of Henry VI) . In the Rocca d'Arce castle (in the middle between Rome and Monte Cassino), the allied Diepold von Schweinspeunt had ignored the orders from Empress Konstanze to hand them over to the papal. In early 1199, Markward destroyed San Petro Castle and a little later he took San Vittore by storm and had it looted. After operations in the area around Montecassino Abbey , Markward moved further south on February 20, 1199. In March, Markward besieged Avellino and sacked Isernia . Not least because of these anti-papal military actions, the picture, especially in the church sources of Markward, turned out to be very negative.

In 1201, Markward gained control of Palermo, where the still underage son of Constance, Frederick II , was staying. Despite the resistance of Pope Innocent III. Markward thus became guardian for Friedrich II. However, Markward died soon afterwards in 1202, presumably of dysentery .

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Breuer: The political orientation of ministeriality and lower nobility of the Worms area in the late Middle Ages . Darmstadt, Marburg 1997.
• Thomas C. van Cleve: Markward of Annweiler and the Sicilian Regency . Princeton 1937.
• Theo Kölzer / Marlis Stähli (ed.) / Gereon Becht-Jördens (text revision and translation): Petrus de Ebulo. Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis . Codex 120 II of the Burgerbibliothek Bern. A pictorial chronicle of the Staufer period . Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1994.
• P. Prinz: Markward von Anweiler. Truchess of the Empire, Margrave of Ancona, Duke of Romagna and Ravenna, Count of Abruzzo and Molise . (Diss. Phil. Göttingen) Private print, Emden 1875.
• Meinrad Schaab: The ministeriality of the churches, the count palatine, the empire and the nobility on the lower Neckar and in the Kraichgau. Hans Jänichen on his 65th birthday . In: Friedrich Ludwig Wagner (Ed.): Ministeriality in the Palatinate area. Lectures and debates at the workshop from October 12 to 14, 1972 in Kaiserslautern . Verl. D. Palatinate. Ges. To promote d. Wiss., Speyer 1975, pp. 95–121, here pp. 111–115, especially on family relationships.
• Ingeborg Seltmann: Heinrich VI. Domination practice and environment . Erlangen 1983.
• Wolfgang Stürner: Friedrich II. Part I The royal rule in Sicily and Germany 1194–1220. Wissenschaftlich Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1992, pp. 89-105. (detailed sources and literature)
• Alexander Thon: Markward von Annweiler (around 1140–1202). Reichsministeriale, Reichstruchsess, Duke, Margrave and Count . In: Karl-Heinz Rothenberger (ed.): Palatinate history . Vol. 1, 2., verb. Aufl. Institute for Palatinate History and Folklore, Kaiserslautern 2002, pp. 204–206, ISBN 3-927754-43-9 .
• Alfred Winkelmann:  Markward von Anweiler . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 499 f.
• Herbert Zielinski :  Markward von Annweiler. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 225 f. ( Digitized version ).

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