Rieneck (noble family)
The Counts of Rieneck were a Frankish noble family that ruled in the Middle Ages in the County of Rieneck in what is now Lower Franconia.
prehistory
Surname
The name von Rieneck / von Rheineck ( identical in Middle High German spelling) was initially borne by an aristocratic family that lived on the Rhine, owned a Rheineck castle near Andernach / Bad Breisig , but died out in the male line in 1150.
territory
At the end of the 11th century, a Mainz burgrave and high bailiff , Count Gerhard ( comes Gerhardus ), appears. In addition to his offices in Mainz, he had extensive possessions in and around Lohr am Main , Gemünden am Main and Karlstadt . All of this came from originally royal possessions, and the ties between Gerhard and the kingship were close. When Gerhard died in 1106, he did not leave a male heir.
Loon
He was followed in his offices and in his property by his son-in-law, Count Arnold I von Loon (1101–1139), his son, Arnold II., And his grandson, Ludwig I. They held on to their close ties to the kingdom.
origin
Around the middle of the 12th century, Count Ludwig I von Loon also called himself von Rieneck , probably because he (unsuccessfully) claimed the Rhenish Rheineck Castle for himself. His family had built a hilltop castle over the banks of the Sinn , which was soon referred to as Burg Rieneck , as did the surrounding area as Grafschaft Rieneck . With the expansion of the castle in Rieneck in 1168, Count Ludwig I chose the castle and place as the center of his rule.
middle Ages
Politics close to the king
In the late 12th century, the Loon-Rienecker Counts were one of the pillars of the Hohenstaufen expansion in Franconia . They gained further territory and influence, for example the bailiwick of the St. Peter and Alexander monastery in Aschaffenburg . With the throne dispute between Philip of Swabia and Otto IV. At the end of the 12th century, however, the king's support for the Rieneckers broke off. Reich policy now turned to other areas.
In the late 12th century the family divided their property: Ludwig II received Loon, Gerhard III. the Rienecker lordship. Gerhard III. around 1200 married the heiress Kunigunde von Zimmer and Lauda , his grandson Ludwig III., in 1243 the heir daughter Udelhilt von Grumbach and Rothenfels . These two inheritances almost doubled the territory of the County of Rieneck. Territories south-east of Tauberbischofsheim around the town of Grünsfeld and the castles Rothenfels and Burggrumbach Castle were won .
Confrontation with Mainz
At the beginning of the 13th century a conflict emerged between the Archbishops of Mainz and the Counts of Rieneck. In 1221 the counts lost their traditional, but now mostly symbolic, offices of burgrave and high bailiff of Mainz . Both the Archbishops of Mainz and the Counts of Rieneck tried to bring the western Spessart under their control. This led to a long-lasting conflict that lasted until 1271. Ultimately, the Archbishop of Mainz, Werner von Eppstein, was the winner and the Counts of Rieneck had to back off. One result of this defeat was that a daughter of Count Ludwig III, Elisabeth , with a rich trousseau , to which the town of Steinau an der Straße belonged, and under her estate, to the son of a Mainz ally, Ulrich I , Herr von Hanau , was married. Hanauer, proud of this feudal rise, copied arms and crest of Rienecker what it came to the dispute, which was settled in 1367 with a settlement.
division
The brother of Elisabeth von Rieneck, who was married to Hanau, Count Ludwig V, inherited the county in 1289 as a minor . The guardian was his brother-in-law, Ulrich I. von Hanau. Between Ludwig V and Ulrich I there was an inheritance contract in 1296, according to which, should Ludwig V die without a male heir, his fiefs should fall to Hanau.
Under Count Ludwig V there was also a division of the Rienecker Grafschaft: Ludwig V received Lauda, Partenstein , Gemünden and Burggrumbach, his cousins Ludwig IV and Heinrich III. received Lohr, Grünsfeld and Wildenstein Castle in southwest Spessart near Eschau . Rieneck Castle initially remained jointly owned, but was therefore poorly suited as a residence. Since 1295 Lohr was therefore the main town of the county and, under the protection of the local castle, also border post against the archbishops of Mainz. In 1333, the Counts of Rieneck received city rights from Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian for their statute to upper lorries, as thanks for their support in the struggle for kingship.
Contrary to the inheritance contract concluded with Hanau in 1296, Ludwig V decreed in 1329 that his daughter Udelhilt should become the sole heir - also with regard to the fiefs. After his death in 1333, this immediately led to an inheritance dispute in which the other branches of the family, the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Bishopric of Würzburg also participated and which led to severe territorial losses for the County of Rieneck.
In 1366 the Archbishopric of Mainz claimed feudal lordship over the entire county. After the death of Count Ludwig XI. von Rieneck reiterated this claim in 1408. In the 15th century, a dispute between Counts Philip I and Philip II led to another division of the county into a north half around Lohr and a south half around Grünsfeld. This southern part was lost to the Electoral Palatinate and the Würzburg Monastery in 1502 .
Founding of a monastery
The Himmelthal Monastery , between Eschau and Rück in the Elsava Valley , was founded in 1232 by Count Ludwig II von Rieneck and his wife Adelheid von Henneberg. In 1568 the Archdiocese of Mainz abolished the extinct women's monastery and turned it into an archdiocese Kameralhof.
Modern times
In 1544 the Reformation was introduced in the County of Rieneck by the Schaffhausen reformer Johann Konrad Ulmer . Count Philip III. von Rieneck worked closely with Count Philip III on the question of the Reformation and also otherwise . from Hanau-Munzenberg together. When it was foreseeable that the Rienecker would die without a male heir, he asked Emperor Karl V for the eventual transfer of the fiefs to Hanau, which the Emperor granted. Since the emperor abdicated in the same year, Philip III tried. Hanau, this transfer of King Ferdinand I get confirmed. Before that happened, however, Philip III died. von Rieneck as the last male member of his family on September 3, 1559. With regard to material inheritance claims, Philipp III. von Hanau enforce only a little, but he took over the coat of arms of the Rienecker and their name in his titulature . The allodial legacy of Count Philip III. von Rieneck, namely the rule of Kleinheubach , fell through his wife Margarethe, Countess of Erbach-Erbach , to the Erbach Count's House. The fiefs fell back to the Electorate of Mainz and the Hochstift Würzburg. Lohr was from now the administrative seat of the Mainz rule of Rieneck. The county of Rieneck was sold by Mainz to Count Johann Hartwig von Nostitz-Rieneck in 1673 . After the Congress of Vienna , Rieneck came to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1815 .
Other well-known family members
coat of arms
The coat of arms of the Counts of Rieneck is divided seven to nine times into gold and red. Both versions above, beginning with red and gold, are common. The coat of arms according to Scheibler's book of arms also shows a helmet and as a helmet ornament "a whole standing swan with opened or closed wings"
Coat of arms of Thomas Graf von Rieneck, 1290
Coat of arms of Count Ludwig the Elder of Rieneck, 1311
Coat of arms in Scheibler's book of arms
Coat of arms in Siebmacher's coat of arms book , 1884
The coat of arms can be found again in the coat of arms of the cities of Rieneck , Grünsfeld , and Lohr am Main , and it is still identical to that of the County of Loon .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gustav Simon : The history of the dynasts and counts of Erbach and their country. HL Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1858, p. 241ff.
- ↑ Wieland, Dr. Michael: Contributions to the history of the counts, county, castle and town of Rieneck, FG Theinische Buchdruckerei, Würzburg, 1869
literature
- Theodor Ruf: The Counts of Rieneck. Genealogy and territorial formation (= Mainfränkische Studien. Vol. 32, ISSN 1612-4286 = Writings of the History and Museum Association Lohr a. Main. Volume 18). 2 volumes. Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte, Würzburg 1984 (at the same time: Würzburg, university, dissertation, 1983).
- Theodor Ruf: Hanau and Rieneck. About the changeable relationship between two neighboring noble families in the Middle Ages. In: New magazine for Hanau history. Vol. 8, No. 6, 1986, ZDB -ID 535233-2 , pp. 300-311.
- Theodor Ruf: Rieneck, Grafen von , in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, 2017
- Otto Schecher: The Counts of Rieneck. On the history of a medieval high aristocratic family in Franconia (= writings of the historical association Lohr a. Main. Volume 8, ZDB -ID 1184355-x ). History Association Lohr a. Main, Lohr a. Main 1969.