Philipp I (Hanau-Munzenberg)

Count Philipp I (the younger) von Hanau-Münzenberg (born September 20, 1449 in Windecken ; † August 26, 1500 ) was a son of Count Reinhard III. von Hanau and the Countess Palatine Margarethe von Pfalz-Mosbach . After a division of the country between himself and his uncle, Philipp I (the elder), he ruled the Hanau-Munzenberg region.

Count Philipp I, the younger, of Hanau on the Wörther altar

childhood

Philip I was born in Windecken Castle and baptized in the church there. Were godparents

Reinhard von Kleve , according to another tradition Reinhard von Kleen , cathedral dean of Mainz ,
Kuno von Beldersheim , Abbot of the Seligenstadt Monastery , and
Katharina von Kronberg, b. von Isenburg , wife of Frank XII. von Kronberg (1414–1490).

In 1452, after only one year of reign, Reinhard III, the father of Count Philip I (the younger), died. Philipp was only four years old at the time, which is why a guardianship had to be set up for him. This was first noticed by his maternal grandfather, Count Palatine Otto I von Pfalz-Mosbach , his paternal grandmother, Katharina von Nassau-Beilstein , and his only uncle, Philipp I (the elder) . This applies to the time before and during the division of the country. Afterwards Philip I (the elder) was appointed sole guardian. Philip I (the younger) came of age in 1467.

Incidentally, not much is known about his childhood.

Pedigree of Count Philipp I (the Younger) of Hanau-Munzenberg
Great grandparents	Ulrich IV. Von Hanau (* 1330/40; † 1380) ∞ Elisabeth von Wertheim (*?; † after 1380)	Heinrich II. Von Nassau-Beilstein (?; † 1415) ∞ Katharina von Randerode ( before 1380; † 1415)	Ruprecht III. (* 1352; Roman-German King since 1400; † 1410) ∞ Elisabeth von Hohenzollern-Nürnberg (* 1358; † 1411)	Heinrich IV of Bavaria-Landshut (* 1386; † 1450) ∞ Margaret of Austria (*?; † 1447)
Grandparents	Reinhard II. Von Hanau (* 1369; † 1451) ∞ Katharina von Nassau-Beilstein (*?; † 1459)		Otto I. von Pfalz-Mosbach (* 1390; † 1461) ∞ Johanna von Bayern (* 1413; † 1444)
parents	Reinhard III. von Hanau (* 1412; † 1452) ∞ Margarethe von Pfalz-Mosbach (* 1432; † 1457)
Philip I (the younger)

For the family cf. Incidentally the main article: Hanau (noble family)

Division of the country

Count Philipp I, the younger, of Hanau, depicted as a “Roman” captain in the crucifixion scene on the Wörther altar

Coat of arms of Count Philipp I on his grave slab in the Marienkirche in Hanau

initial situation

That a four-year-old inherited the county brought the family into conflict. Either the primogeniture , which had to be observed in the Hanau house since 1375, was followed and it waited to see whether Philip I (the younger) reached adulthood, had offspring and continued the dynasty. This variant had the advantage that the family's property was kept in one hand, but had the disadvantage that the dynasty would become extinct if Philip died childless. Or the family disregarded the primogeniture law, allowing the next agnate , Philip I (the elder), the uncle of Count Philip I (the younger), to marry. Philip the Elder was 40 years old at the time of the negotiations about the division of the county, well above the usual age for a first marriage at the time, but childbearing. Such an approach had the advantage of considerably increasing the chances of the dynasty's survival, but the disadvantage that the county had to be divided. (In the contemporary imagination, a pure apanage of a later born, i.e. an exclusively financial endowment without also assigning territory, was not yet conceivable.)

Dispute over the division

The dispute over the division of the County of Hanau is relatively well documented. In order to legitimize the procedure described, all relatives of the counts, the most important cooperations of their subjects - above all the four cities of the County of Hanau , Windecken, Babenhausen and Steinau , and the associations of the Burgmanns of Burg Babenhausen and the Palatinate Gelnhausen - and vassals of the Counts of Hanau approved this procedure by asking in letters to Count Palatine Otto I of Pfalz-Mosbach, which are still kept in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg , that he, too, consent to the marriage of Count Philip I (the elder) .

Count Palatine Otto I of Pfalz-Mosbach was initially against this solution. He tried to take the position of his daughter Margarethe , the widow of Count Reinhard III. and mother of Philip I (the younger), within the Hanau family association by trying to maintain the position of his grandson as the sole heir and ancestor.

Partition treaty of 1458

When Margarethe von Pfalz-Mosbach died in 1457, Count Palatine Otto I lost interest in preventing the division. The risk assessment was therefore in favor of the uncle's marriage. As early as January 1458, a family contract was sealed that gave all parts of the county that lay south of the Main , especially the Babenhausen office and the Hanau part of Umstadt , Philip I (the elder), the right to marry. He made use of this in the same year. The decision was softened by the fact that the part of the country allocated to it represented only a small part of the County of Hanau.

In retrospect, the decision was correct, not because Count Philip I (the younger) had died prematurely, but because Count Philip I, the elder, and his descendants, through advantageous marriages, managed to form their own sizable county. The remaining territory, which represented the vast majority of the County of Hanau, remained with Count Philip I (the younger). In order to be able to differentiate between the two Hanau counties, the part that was ruled by Count Philip I (the Elder) was named after the Lichtenberg inheritance in 1480 as the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg (previously: Hanau-Babenhausen ). For the part that was ruled by Count Philipp I (the younger), the county of Hanau-Münzenberg has been spoken of since 1496 .

family

Marriage

Philipp was betrothed to Anna or Elisabeth von Isenburg as early as 1460 . This engagement was canceled in return for a compensation payment of 2,690 guilders.

Philipp then married on September 12, 1468 Countess Adriana von Nassau-Dillenburg (* February 7, 1449 - January 15, 1477), daughter of Count Johann IV of Nassau-Dillenburg . Their children together were:

A daughter (born April 4, 1469) died shortly after birth
Adriana (1470–1524), married in 1490 to Count Philipp von Solms-Lich (1468–1544)
Margarethe (1471–1503), nun
Reinhard IV. (1473-1512)
Anna (March 15, 1474 - March 21, 1475)
Marie (March 4, 1475 - May 18, 1476)

The relationship

The lovers from Gotha, with a high probability: Count Philipp I (the younger) and Margaret Weißkirchner

After the death of his wife, Philipp I (the younger) lived with Margarete Weißkirchner from Hanau, who was not in keeping with his class . That was obviously widely accepted. He performed with her in public. The most representative testimony is probably the first large-format double portrait in art history , the so-called Gotha lovers . The relationship is extraordinarily well documented when compared to similar ones. The couple had the following children who, however, were not entitled to inheritance with regard to the county and did not follow their father's status:

Else von Hanau (birth and death dates not known), married Heinrich Rabe in 1508. Philip I's son, Count Reinhard IV of Hanau-Munzenberg, looked after his stepsister and her family even after the father's death, especially for the marriage with the Count of Hanau's "clerk" ("servant"), Heinrich Rabe .
Johann von Hanau-Münzenberg , pastor in Ober-Roden .
Anna von Hanau (dates of birth and death not known). The son of Count Philipp I, Count Reinhard IV, also looked after his stepsister and her family after the death of his father, but above all a good marriage. She married Dietz Reuter († 1537), Keller zu Ortenberg , in 1517 or 1518 .

Philip I considered all of his illegitimate children in his will. There is also a report of a premarital relationship between Philip I and a maid of the pastor of Hochstadt , Gutte from Reifenberg .

Travel to Jerusalem

Count Philipp I, the Younger, of Hanau, depicted on a cheek cheek in the St. Mary's Church in Hanau

In 1484 Philipp went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his brother-in-law Johann V zu Nassau-Dillenburg . He sailed from Venice on June 10, 1484 , landed in Jaffa on July 18, 1484 , from there to Jerusalem, which he left again on August 10, 1484. He was made a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher . On November 30th, he and John V landed back in Venice, where they traveled via Cyprus . The return journey took him and Count Johann V via Rome, where they set off again on December 3, 1484 and spent Christmas Eve 1484 in Trento via Siena, Florence and Bologna. At the end of January 1485 he was back in Hanau. He wrote a travelogue about it, but it was largely exhausted in listing the holy places visited and the indulgences obtained there . A second trip to the Holy Land took place in 1491 together with Landgrave Wilhelm I of Hesse .

government

Territorial policy

Under the rule of Philip I, the county recorded territorial gains: Praunheim (1470), shares of the Ortenberg office (1476), Fechenheim (1473/1484) and the Homburg office (1487) were added. A settlement was concluded with the city of Frankfurt - initially provisional in 1453, then final in 1481 - regarding the dispute over the Bornheimerberg district , and with Isenburg regarding the Dreieich . Philipp was constantly involved in feuds, which he tried to resolve as amicably as possible. The year 1495 is said to have brought great relief in this regard with the Eternal Peace .

Imperial politics

Philipp was very fond of traveling. He often went to the courts of the Electoral Palatinate in Heidelberg or Mosbach and to Mainz .

In 1469 he stayed in Brabant .

In 1471 he visited the important Reichstag in Regensburg , where Emperor Friedrich III. turned back to imperial politics.

In 1474 he accompanied the emperor in the army from Frankfurt to Linz and then in 1475 participated with a contingent at the emperor's side in the relief of the city of Neuss, besieged by Charles the Bold .

In 1477 he took part in the tournament in Würzburg and sent troops to support Archduke Maximilian's entry into Burgundy.

In 1480 he visited the emperor in Nuremberg . In 1491 he was visiting the Duke of Lorraine . In 1494 he accompanied the Roman-German king and later Emperor Maximilian I in Mainz, Speyer and Worms.

Church and cultural policy

Count Philip I was deeply connected to late medieval piety. He made numerous donations to religious institutions, went on pilgrimages, such as the two trips to the Holy Land , and collected relics.

From the Seligenstadt monastery , which was in financial distress, he bought the entire stock of relics, including the head of St. Laurentius . The Archbishop of Mainz, however, objected to this sale, and so Philip had to return the relics to Seligenstadt. As compensation he received the villages of Nauheim , Eschersheim and Ginnheim from the monastery.

Count Philip I obviously shaped the trip to the Holy Land very much. In connection with this, he gave a large number of orders for the expansion and furnishing of the Marienkirche in Hanau:

From 1485 he had the Gothic choir of the church built,
At the same time there is also a chapel dedicated to St. Lawrence (today: sacristy ), which is decorated with frescoes depicting the martyrdom of St. Lawrence and other saints.
Some pieces of equipment have been preserved: Count Philip I himself is depicted praying on one cheek of the choir stalls; the Wörther Altar donated by him - surely alongside other but not preserved altars ; Parts of the colored glass windows in the choir.
In 1493 he set up a canon monastery in St. Mary's Church.
The "Gotha lovers" is another painting that comes from his court and has been preserved.

These few works of art are not only of excellent quality, they are also the most important artistic testimonies that have been preserved in Hanau from the Middle Ages.

In 1468 Erasmus Hasefus, the Count's trumpeter, founded a chapel in honor of Saint Wolfgang in Bulau , east of Hanau , which in the following years developed into a small Servite monastery, the Wolfgang Monastery .

death

Gravestone of Count Philipp I, the younger, from Hanau-Munzenberg in the Marienkirche in Hanau

Philip I (the younger) died on August 26, 1500 and was buried on September 30, 1500 in the Marienkirche in Hanau. 214 clergy were present.

rating

Historiography has not always been very careful with Philipp. Protestant scholars since the 18th century resented his late medieval piety, which was fixated on indulgences, relics and good works, the bourgeois-militaristic historiography of the 19th century did not fit his balanced approach in the many feuds in which he was involved, and his relationship with Margaret Weißkirchner blew the bourgeois moral concept of the 19th century.

From today's perspective, his reign must be viewed positively, also for his subjects. The cultural achievements under his government, of which the Marienkirche, the “Gotha Lovers” and the “Wörther Altar” are the most outstanding surviving testimonies, were remarkable. He is one of the important personalities of the Hanau Count House next to Ulrich III. , Reinhard II. And Philipp Ludwig II .

literature

Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in Hanau. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter. 34, Hanau 1996. ISBN 3-9801933-6-5
Reinhard Dietrich: Hanau bastards . In: New magazine for Hanau history (messages from the Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 eV) 2015, pp. 25–34.
Josef Heinzelmann : The “Gotha lovers” are lovers. In: Archives for Hessian History and Archeology. 57. 1999, pp. 209-236.
Daniel Hess: The lovers from Gotha. Fischer (Tb.), Frankfurt, 1996. ISBN 3-596-13090-5
NN: Philip the Younger, Count of Hanau, travels to the holy grave. In: Hanauisches Magazin. 3. 1780, 7th edition, pp. 49-55; 8th piece, pp. 57-72.
Reinhold Röhricht : German pilgrimages to the holy land. Gotha 1889, pp. 181, 186.
Reinhold Röhricht: The trips to Jerusalem by Count Philipp Ludwig (1484) and Reinhard von Hanau (1550). In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies. 26 (NF 16) (1891), pp. 85ff (90ff) [with the text of the complete travel report printed].
Gertrud Rudolff-Hille: The double portrait of a pair of lovers under the Hanau coat of arms in the Gotha Castle Museum. In: Fine arts. 1968, p. 19.
Hans Martin Schmidt : The caretaker's lovers. In: 675 years of Hanau. Catalog no. 89, fig. 135.
Allmuth Schuttwolf: Seasons of Emotions. The Gotha couple and love in the late Middle Ages. Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-7757-0733-6
Reinhard Suchier : Genealogy of the Hanauer count house. In: Festschrift of the Hanau History Association for its 50th anniversary celebration on August 27, 1894. Hanau 1894.
Reinhard Suchier: Philipp I. von Hanau-Munzenberg. In: Hanauer Anzeiger. 18. u. November 19, 1897 = No. 270, 271.
Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. 3rd edition, Hanau 1919, ND 1978.
Johann Balthasar Hundeshagen: Geographical description of the county of Hanau-Munzenberg and history of the former ruling lords and counts of Hanau in general with the Munzenberg and Lichtenberg lines that arose from this . Hanau 1782, on Philip the Younger pp. 24-28.

Web links

Philipp comes de Hanau-Münzenberg in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"

References

^ At that time he already had at least one illegitimate son, Johann von Hanau-Lichtenberg .
↑ Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 27f.
↑ ^a ^b Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 28.
↑ Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 27.
↑ Valmar Cramer: The order of knights of the Holy Grave from the Crusades to the present. , JP Bachem, Cologne 1952, p. 35
↑ Treasures of the Marburg State Archives: Diploma Kaiser Friedrich III. for Count Philipp d. J. von Hanau on the confirmation of privileges for the cities of Windecken, Hanau and Babenhausen. Regensburg, July 29, 1471 .
↑ Hundeshagen 1782, p. 25.
↑ Hundeshagen 1782, p. 25.

predecessor	Office	successor
Reinhard III.	Count of Hanau- Munzenberg 1452–1500	Reinhard IV.

personal data
SURNAME	Philip I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Philip the Younger; Hanau-Munzenberg, Philipp von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Count of Hanau-Munzenberg
DATE OF BIRTH	September 20, 1449
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wind corners
DATE OF DEATH	August 26, 1500

[1] At that time he already had at least one illegitimate son, Johann von Hanau-Lichtenberg .

[2] Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 27f.

[Dietrich:_Bastarde,_S._28-3] Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 28.

[4] Dietrich: Bastarde , p. 27.

[5] Valmar Cramer: The order of knights of the Holy Grave from the Crusades to the present. , JP Bachem, Cologne 1952, p. 35

[6] Treasures of the Marburg State Archives: Diploma Kaiser Friedrich III. for Count Philipp d. J. von Hanau on the confirmation of privileges for the cities of Windecken, Hanau and Babenhausen. Regensburg, July 29, 1471 .

[7] Hundeshagen 1782, p. 25.

[8] Hundeshagen 1782, p. 25.