Reinhard von Schönau

Reinhard von Schönau (lat. Reynardus de Sconeouve or Reynerius de Sconowen ; * around 1310; † 1376 ) from the noble family of those von Schönau was the founder of the Schönforst reign and the von Schönforst family of the same name . As such, he is also referred to as Reinhard I. von Schönforst .

Life

Reinhard was one of seven children of Rasso II von Schönau († 1344) and the noble lady du Jardin.

As the youngest son, Reinard was presumably a canon in St. Servatius in Maastricht from 1320 onwards. He may also have been ordained a deacon . Due to his spiritual status and the associated training, he was educated above average. In addition to his spiritual career, he also cultivated his family's contacts with the Jülich Count House and entered the service of Count Wilhelm V. von Jülich . As a diplomat and to handle financial transactions, he traveled several times for the Count to see King Edward III. of England , which the Counts of Jülich supported in the Hundred Years War .

On these journeys he took part on the English side with great success in the siege of Cambrai in September 1339 and that of Tournai from July to September 1340. After a peripheral skirmish, Reinhard managed to take Charles I de Montmorency († 1381), who later became Marshal of France , and several of his colleagues prisoner by a daring solo effort . Reinhard, who at that time did not even have the dignity of a knight as a noble servant , gained the reputation of a man of high risk-taking; he also achieved a not inconsiderable ransom. On another mission to London, Reinhard used his connections to make a fortune in the wool trade.

From 1344 to 1346 Reinard was Marshal of the Bishop of Liège, Adolf von der Mark . Around 1345 he married his niece, Katharina von Wildenburg, daughter of Philipps von Wildenburg and Johannas von der Mark. She was the widow of Mr. Oost von Elsloo an der Maas, later sole heir to the County of Neuenahr , and maternal granddaughter of Katharina von Jülich, a daughter of Count Wilhelm IV von Jülich and Ricarda von Geldern. Due to this marriage, Reinhard was henceforth both the Jülich Count House and the Count von der Mark and thus Bishop Adolf von Lüttich and the Archbishops of Cologne Walram von Jülich and Engelbert III. Related from the Mark , that meant an enormous improvement in status.

Even after his resignation as marshal, he fought on the side of the Bishop of Liege. So in July 1346 in the battle of Vottem for rule in the county of Looz between the city of Liège and Dietrich von Heinsberg with the support of the Bishop of Liège and in July 1347 in the battle of Tourinne . Reinhard was knighted in 1346 .

In 1347 Reinard founded the Schönforst rule from his property near Aachen and probably built the castle there . In 1348 the rule was confirmed to him as an imperial fief. He also owned the Vogteirecht over Kornelimünster and lands near Monschau and Valkenburg .

He became rich through his economic skill and served as a financier of many great dynasties. He quickly gained influence as the councilor and administrator of numerous Lower Rhine princes. He was considered the "richest financier of the Lower Rhine". Reinhard received customs duties in Kaiserswerth from Emperor Ludwig IV . The Archbishop of Cologne was heavily indebted to him.

He took over tasks for King John of Bohemia , the Archbishops of Cologne , Emperor Charles IV and for his half-brother Wenceslaus , the Duke of Brabant, Limburg and Luxembourg. The Archbishop of Cologne, Walram von Jülich, entrusted him with the management of his finances from 1347 onwards and later granted him further powers. When the peace alliance Maas-Rhein the Dukes of Jülich and Brabant, the Archbishop of Cologne and the cities of Cologne and Aachen in the year 1351 and in its renewal in 1364 joined Reinhard as a juror.

Due to his defeat in the Battle of Baesweiler in 1371 in which his son Reinhard II was captured and for which he was charged with political responsibility, his reputation suffered so much that he left his home as a knight of the Order of St. John in 1375 and traveled to Rhodes , where he died in 1376.

Marriages and offspring

In his first marriage, Reinhard married Katharina von Wildenburg († March 25, 1368), daughter of Philipps von Wildenburg and Johannas von der Mark, around 1345 . He had the following children with her:

• John I († 1382), Burgrave of Monschau zu Agtenrode, Drossard of Brabant and Provost of St. Servatius of Maastricht
• Reinard II. († 1419), Lord of Schönforst and Sichem
• Conrad († March 7, 1403), Lord of Elsloo and Sittard
• Engelbert, Provost of St. Servatius of Maastricht, Canon of St. Lambert of Liège and Lord of Hartelstein
• Philippa
• Mechtild
• Elisabeth
• Adelheid

In 1370 Reinard married Isabelle de Hamal zu Vogelsanck in his second marriage. This marriage remained childless.

reception

Reinhard's career was already qualified as exceptional in contemporary chronicles; this especially against the background of its social and economic starting conditions.

Web links

• An adaptation of the font: HJ Gross, Reinard von Schönau, the first Herr von Schönforst. (PDF) Accessed January 31, 2016 . 

literature

• Florian Glasses: Schönau - Schönforst. A study of the history of the Rhenish-Maasland nobility in the late Middle Ages . Dissertation at the University of Trier. Trier 1999, pp. 68–201 ( PDF ; 3.1 MB)
• Florian Glasses:  Reinhard von Schönau. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 353 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Franz Irsigler : Reinhard von Schönau - financier gentilhomme. A biographical sketch , in: Hochfinanz im Westen des Reich 1150-1500, ed. Fr. Burgard, A. Haverkamp, ​​F. Irsigler, W. Reichert (THF 31), Trier 1996, pp. 281-305. Reprinted in: Miscellanea Franz Irsigler. Celebration for the 65th birthday, ed. Volker Henn, Rudolf Holbach, Michel Pauly and Wolfgang Schmid, Trier 2006, pp. 375-394.