Peter II (Aarberg)

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Count Peter II of Aarberg (* around 1300; † before 1372) was the last ruling Count of Aarberg from the Aarberg-Aarberg sideline of the Counts of Aarberg . Due to financial problems, he sold the city of Aarberg to Bern and later became a robber baron .

Life

Peter von Aarberg was born around 1300. He imprisoned his father Wilhelm in 1319 , but had to release him after an intervention by the Bernese. He quickly gained an inglorious reputation. At first he was still on the side of Bern and helped this city in the Gümmenenkrieg (1331-1333). A few years later, however, in the Laupenkrieg (1337-1340) he was one of the local nobles allied against Bern. The captain of their military contingent, Gerhard von Valangin , found refuge with Peter II in 1339 after successful raids. Therefore, Aarberg was besieged by the Bernese, but could not be captured. The battle of Laupen took place five weeks later. When the battle was lost for the opponents of Bern, Peter II made off with the silver dishes from the aristocratic tents. Then he devastated the territory of Murten, an ally of Bern, and burned down the village of Kerzers and the church.

As field captain of the city of Freiburg (1339/40), Peter II was not very successful and therefore lost his position again after less than a year of service. In August 1340 he finally reconciled with Bern.

Emperor Karl IV enfeoffed Count Peter with the dignity of an imperial school of Solothurn .

Due to high debts, Peter II pledged the city of Aarberg for 4000 guilders to the Bernese in 1351, which brought the city into the sphere of influence of Bernese rule. Driven by financial difficulties, he attacked a merchant train in the judicial district of Romont in the summer of 1366 and was sentenced to death in absentia as a robber baron. However, he could not be caught and thus escaped the death penalty. Because of his heavy debts, he sold the Aarberg lordship with all its accessories in 1367 - without being able to pay the pledge debt to Bern beforehand - to his cousin, Rudolf IV, Count of Neuchâtel zu Nidau , for 10,000 guilders. However, since the latter was in debt to the city of Bern, he gave the Bernese what they had just bought as a pledge. After his death, the city of Bern had the transfer of Aarberg into the ownership of Emperor Charles IV confirmed in 1376.

Peter II spent his twilight years with his second wife Luquette von Gruyères , with whom he had been married since 1350, at the lonely castle of Illens on the Saane . There he died impoverished in 1372 at the latest.

Family relationships

As the son of Wilhelm von Aarberg (mentioned from 1270; † 1323), Peter II belonged to the Aarberg-Aarberg sideline of the Counts of Aarberg .

He had two sons:

On October 21, 1360, Count Peter II. Von Aarberg in Basel sealed a contract for his second cousin, Count Ludwig von Neuenburg († 1373), which included his daughter Verena († 1376/1384), wife of Count Egino III . von Freiburg promises a marriage tax of 4,500 Florentine gold guilders. Peter was listed as the first of the numerous guarantors and was the second of 26 to put his seal on the document immediately after the Neuchâtel.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patze 1980: Col. 5.
  2. ↑ Tillier 1838: p. 260.
  3. ↑ Tillier 1838: p. 261.
  4. ↑ Swisscastles.ch: Bern: Castle Aarberg - Le château de Aarberg
  5. ↑ Dambacher 1864: p. 92, note 9 (p. 100).
  6. ↑ Named by Dambacher Egen IV .; ruling from 1358 to 1385.
  7. ↑ Dambacher 1864: p. 90 ff .; Peter as guarantor: p. 92, note 9; Peter's seal: p. 94.
personal data
SURNAME Peter II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peter II of Aarberg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION last ruling count of Aarberg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1300
DATE OF DEATH before 1372
Place of death Illens on the Saane