Reichsheerfahrt against Heinrich the Lion

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In order to break the power of the powerful and stubborn cousin of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa , Henry the Lion , the Duke of Saxony , Bavaria , Westphalia and Engern , there was a direct conflict between the two - the Reichsheerfahrt , which ended with a submission of Heinrich.

causes

In 1176 the emperor lost his Italian campaign in the battle of Legnano and had to bow to the pope in a humiliating peace. This damage brought him against Heinrich the Lion, because he, occupied by the fighting against the Ascanians , had previously refused him the necessary help, or in return the city of Goslar demanded what was unacceptable to the emperor. In addition, the emperor had lost much of his authority as a result, which made it difficult for him to iron out the complaints of Saxon lords against their duke as before. For many years v. a. The Archbishops of Cologne, in alliance with the Margraves of Brandenburg and the Landgraves of Thuringia, sued against the high-handed behavior of Henry the Lion, although the Emperor repeatedly sided with the lion and repeatedly intervened in favor of his cousin and mediated peace in feuds would have.

After Heinrich the Lion had sued his opponents, he was supposed to face the new counter-accusations brought against him by his opponents at several Reichstag in Worms , Magdeburg , Kayna , Würzburg and finally Gelnhausen . Heinrich did not appear at any of these trials, which in 1180 led to the pronouncement of obedience against him in Gelnhausen . In the Gelnhausen document, all imperial fiefs were withdrawn from him and the enforcement of this expropriation was decided.

First armed conflicts

In 1180 the emperor initially secured Goslar. This was necessary because Heinrich tried to seize this base after the armistice that had just ended. The attempt failed, it only devastated the area and then invaded Thuringia . The present Ludwig of Thuringia hurried after him, but could not do anything. The imperial cities of Nordhausen and Mühlhausen u. a. were burned by Heinrich. At Weißensee there was a battle in which Heinrich's unprepared opponents were defeated. In order to keep the opposing armed forces apart, Heinrich prompted his Slavic allies, the Liutizen and Pomerania , to invade the eastern countries of his enemies, especially the Lusatia region . At the end of the year, the Ascanian Margrave Otto I of Brandenburg began a war against the Pomerania, which caused the Slavs a definite defeat.

The real Reichsheerfahrt begins

At the end of June 1180, the Emperor of Regensburg had arranged Bavarian affairs. In this the Duchy of Bavaria , the Styria and the andechsische Markgrafschaft Istria separated. The rest went to the Wittelsbach family , namely Otto von Wittelsbach . Now he went to Saxony with a powerful army, in which many princes were involved, to enforce the imperial ban. The heavily fortified Lichtenberg Castle , 20 km southwest of Braunschweig , was conquered. In August the emperor held a Reichstag in Werla , whereby the supporters of Heinrich were given an ultimatum in which they and their families would forfeit their inheritance if they did not fall away from Heinrich. This was successful: a number of nobles surrendered. More castles were built and devastation made, so that more and more nobles surrendered to the emperor.

Heinrich tried to make himself the sole master in the areas to the right of the Elbe , where he took decisive action against fluctuating supporters. So against Count Adolf von Holstein and Count Bernhard I von Ratzeburg , whose lands and castles he confiscated. Ratzeburg, Plön and Segeburg were fortified. His loyal allies, Casimir I of Pomerania and Pribislaw in Mecklenburg , had since died. He only had a few fixed points left, such as Braunschweig, Lüneburg and Haldensleben .

The fall of the Haldensleben bulwark

In 1181 Archbishop Wichmann , together with allies, again took action against Haldensleben, as incursions into his areas were repeatedly made from this point. Actually, he should leave this undertaking to the emperor, since several attacks against these festivals in the past have failed. The city was flooded by the construction of a dam that dammed the Ohre and the Beber . It came to the handover, during which the occupiers were allowed to leave, along with their property. Then the fortress was destroyed.

Heinrich is asked

Heinrich's efforts to get help from his father-in-law, Henry of England , failed because he sought an alliance with King Philip Augustus of France . One did not dare to interfere in the internal German dispute.

The emperor now advanced north with his main army from Horneburg . He did not dwell on the conquest of the last fortresses, but had them besieged and guarded by individual princes. So did Braunschweig and Lüneburg , with Heinrich's wife staying in the latter. However, the surrounding areas were devastated. Bishop Dietrich von Halberstadt carried out the order to conquer Blankenburg successfully. In the meantime Heinrich had fortified Lübeck strongly and hurried over Ratzeburg to the Elbe . Ratzeburg was then lost by a coup d'état by the supporters of Count Bernard who stayed behind. Heinrich, beside himself with anger, prepared for the siege, but had to break it off when the emperor approached. He set fire to the Ertheneburg and fled to Stade by ship . The emperor left the Duchess Lüneburg, which freed some of the forces deployed there, and proceeded against Lübeck. The emperor received new allies in the form of the Holsten , armies of the Slavs and the Danish king Waldemar I. The Lübeckers surrendered to superior power after they had obtained the duke's permission. Here Duke Bogislaw I , who until then was under Heinrich, was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Pomerania. The whole thing was concluded in 1181 at the Reichstag in Erfurt , where Heinrich submitted.

Effects

A large part of Heinrich's possessions were taken from him. He was only allowed to keep Braunschweig and Lüneburg as well as some allodial and territorial possessions. He went into exile in England for a few years and returned in 1189 to resume the fighting over his possessions.

The Ascanian Bernhard received the title of Saxon Duke and, above all, the eastern part of Saxony, but by no means the power of Heinrich. As a result he had some problems getting his princes, especially the clergy, to pay homage. After all, Heinrich still had more possessions than Bernhard.

Westphalia and Engern went, as the Duchy of Westphalia , to the Archdiocese of Cologne , namely Archbishop Philip I of Heinsberg .

Lübeck was given ample freedom for the transfer and was made an imperial city because the emperor wanted to maintain a powerful trading city in northeast Germany.

The Margraviate Brandenburg under Otto I became by the fall of the most powerful princes now more important in the fight against the Slavs.

Ludwig III. of Thuringia received the Saxon Pfalzgrafschaft but renounced in 1181 in favor of his brother Hermann I. it.

Bernhard von Ratzeburg and Adolf von Holstein got their lands back.

Other fiefs were returned to their former masters or split up. The emperor wanted to limit the power of the princes in the future through the splits.

The emperor gained reputation through the success and in 1183, sealed by the Peace of Constance , there was reconciliation with the Lombard League .

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