Knight's canton of Altmühl

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Codex diplomaticus equestris cum continuatione, or Reichs-Ritter-Archiv, 1721
Imperial chivalrous Franconian canton calendar, Hornberg Castle archive . Engraving, 167 × 85 cm

A community of knightly noble families on the Altmühl river is referred to as the knightly canton of Altmühl , who had risen to the ministerial level as servants of various imperial princes since the high Middle Ages and, until the mediatization of the knighthood or the regional principalities at the beginning of the 19th century, the feudal lordship over numerous villages and estates held in the Altmühltal and adjacent areas. The imperial knighthood principalities and thus also the knightly canton of Altmühl were dissolved in 1806.

Structure of the knight circles

Office in Wilhermsdorf
Lettering of the canton

Since the 16th century, the free imperial knighthood in Germany was divided into a Rhenish , a Franconian and a Swabian knight circle, which in turn consisted of different cantons. The knight canton Altmühl belonged to the Franconian knight circle and had its office in Rügland . The administrative headquarters were relocated to Wilhermsdorf (today's Fürth district) in 1703 , the registry was relocated in 1761. The new office building was built in 1720 on the market square and is still called the Ritterhaus today.

Noble families in the canton of Altmühl

The following noble families belonged to the knightly canton of Altmühl until 1806 (see also: List of Franconian knight families ):

Other members in the canton of Altmühl

The time towards the end of the old empire and problems with Prussia

With the annexation of the principalities of Ansbach-Bayreuth to the Prussian state in 1791/1792 , difficult times began for the enclaves, exclaves and the adjacent imperial rulers, because Prussia tried to create a closed national territory in Franconia : Ansbach-Bayreuth was initially led by Karl August Freiherr von Hardenberg managed. On June 9, 1791, Margrave Karl Alexander, who was already out of the country, handed over full sovereign power to Hardenberg, and on December 2, the abdication patent was signed in Bordeaux . On January 15, 1792, the Berlin cabinet ministry instructed Hardenberg to publish the change of government by publishing the abdication patent and to make known the patent in office of Friedrich Wilhelm II dated January 5 .

The leading minister Karl August Freiherr von Hardenberg (he had been in an advisory capacity in Ansbach since 1790) initially tried to amicably and contractually round off the area in the Franconian knight circle (territorium non clausum) by buying up rulers , but this only partially succeeded. He increased the pressure on the territories of the imperial knighthood through selective interventions and military actions, which were largely contrary to imperial law and the legal status of imperial knights . This idea of ​​a comprehensive contractual compensation for the creation of a closed national territory had already failed in March 1793, which insisted on an unbridgeable gap in the constitutional and political views of the power state-oriented Prussian monarchy and the imperial knights.

In a questionable way, Hardenberg drew the state sovereignty from the exercised blood jurisdiction ("Fraisch") (this claim was in part a point of contention with other rulers for centuries, for example with the imperial city of Nuremberg or the diocese of Eichstätt ) and derived the complete sovereign rights from it .

Against the increasing attacks in the area of ​​the "policey" as well as the military and tax systems, the knights sought support from the Franconian district and the imperial court, which initially limited itself to diplomatic initiatives. Apart from protests and complaints in Vienna and the notices there, including execution orders, nothing could be obtained in this way, let alone enforce these execution orders. Finally, towards the end of 1795 , the Reichshofrat, called on by the canton of Altmühl, issued two mandates in favor of the knighthood, ignored by Prussia, with the execution of which Bamberg and Saxe-Gotha were commissioned, and the protest notes in Berlin that several electors received under pressure from the Hofburg in Vienna were just as unimpressive in Berlin addressed to the king.
For example, almost all files in the archives and registry of the canton Altmühl were seized by an attack on November 22, 1796 by a government commission from Ansbach and taken to Ansbach in order to deprive the imperial knights of important documents for the conduct of the litigation. Soldiers were also deployed here. This had been preceded by Prussian patent applications in the knightly lordships and imperial cities bordering Ansbach-Bayreuth (for example in the area in front of the city ​​walls in Dinkelsbühl and Nuremberg ) in February and March 1792. In 1798, the size of the Frankish knightly circle had decreased by about a quarter to a third. The canton of Altmühl, which had been almost completely mediated, was particularly affected.

This policy and the behavior of all those involved clearly showed the ailing condition of the old empire in the incapacity to act, contributed to an accelerated collapse and made similar actions seem feasible to other sovereigns.

The End

The aggressive territorial policy of Prussia in Franconia, especially for the imperial directors and their remnants, resembled a lightning storm. For them, the Rastatt peace congress already paved the way for the far-reaching consequences (division of territories between Bavaria and Prussia), which were passed in Regensburg on February 25, 1803 and came into force with the imperial ratification on April 27, 1803 , Reichsdeputationshauptschluss became a reality. The Franconian dioceses of Würzburg and Bamberg became Bavarian . The Hochstift Eichstätt was assigned to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as compensation until it also fell to Bavaria in 1805. The Electorate of Bavaria mediated the imperial cities of Dinkelsbühl , Kaufbeuren , Kempten , Memmingen , Nördlingen , Rothenburg , Schweinfurt , Ulm , Weißenburg and Windsheim and heard their votes in the Franconian and Swabian Empire . On December 15, 1805, the Principality of Ansbach was given to France in exchange for the Electorate of Hanover and to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 . By being on July 12, 1806 Paris closed Act of Confederation, the imperial city was Nuremberg in Bavaria, thereby losing the imperial immediacy . The laying down of the imperial crown on August 6, 1806 by Emperor Franz brought about the dissolution of the empire and the old imperial constitution. On August 16, 1806, the Bavarian envoy declared the Frankish Reichskreis dissolved on the instructions of the Minister von Montgelas . At the latest on this date, the end of the canton Altmühl has been reached, as it was integrated into the Franconian district.

Knight captains

As knight captains have been handed down:

  • 1496 Paul von Absberg
  • 1562 Friedrich von Lendersheim
  • 1586 Veit Asmus of Eyb
  • 1600 Hans Jakob von Deckendorf
  • 1605, still in 1617 Georg Friedrich von Eyb
  • (1617?), 1633 Georg Friedrich von Crailsheim
  • 1647–1675 Hans Christoph von Eyb
  • 1652 Hannibal Friedrich von Crailsheim
  • 1676 David Kresser zu Burgfarrnbach
  • 1704 Christoph Sigmund von Seckendorff
  • 1710–1744 Hannibal Friedrich von Crailsheim
  • 1744–1747 Albrecht Ernst Schenk von Geyern
  • 1747–1753 Johann Albrecht Andreas Adam Rieter von Kornburg
  • 1753 Christoph Ludwig von Seckendorff
  • 1761–1775 Philipp Albrecht Ernst Schenk von Geyern
  • 1775 Friedrich Samuel du Maz Count Montmartin
  • 1778 Ernst Ludwig Sebastian von Crailsheim

literature

  • Johann Gottfried Biedermann : genealogy of the Reichsfrey immediate knighthood Landes zu Franken Praiseworthy place on the Altmühl… . Bayreuth 1748.
  • Michael Puchta: Mediatization "with skin and hair, body and life": The submission of the Imperial Knights by Ansbach-Bayreuth (1792–1798) Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012; ISBN 978-3-525-36078-1 Google Book

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Office in Rügland
  2. ^ Yearbook for Franconian regional research: Festschrift Werner K. Blessing. Volume 66 - 2006: BD 66 p. 171
  3. ^ Membership of the Teutonic Order in the Imperial Knighthood
  4. ^ Karl Alexander on Deutsche-biographie.de
  5. ↑ Michael Puchta Mediatization "with skin and hair, body and life": The submission of the Imperial Knights by Ansbach-Bayreuth (1792–1798) Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012; Page 183 ISBN 978-3-525-36078-1
  6. ↑ Michael Puchta Mediatization "with skin and hair, body and life": The submission of the Imperial Knights by Ansbach-Bayreuth (1792–1798) Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012; Pages 183-515 ISBN 978-3-525-36078-1
  7. ↑ Michael Puchta Mediatization "with skin and hair, body and life": The submission of the Imperial Knights by Ansbach-Bayreuth (1792–1798) Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012; Pages 517-688 ISBN 978-3-525-36078-1
  8. ↑ Claus Grimm `` Reichsstädte in Franken '' Volume 15.1, publications on Bavarian history and culture, publisher: Bavarian State Chancellery 1987; Peter Fleischmann V. The end of the Franconian circle pages 121-123
  9. ↑ Rudolf Endes on the history of the Franconian Reichskreis in Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsblätter 29, 1969; Pages 168-183.
  10. ^ Gerhard Pfeiffer: Studies on the history of the Frankish imperial knighthood; Reprint from: Yearbook for Franconian State Research, Volume 22, 1962, p. 197.