Knight's Canton of Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee
A corporate association of knightly noble families in the southern German regions north of Lake Constance is called the Knightly Canton of Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee or Hegau Knighthood . Since the high Middle Ages they had risen to the ministerial positions as servants of various imperial princes . Unlike many of their lower aristocrats, they were able to break away from the rural estate ; up to the mediatization of the knighthood they held the feudal lordship over numerous villages and estates. As imperial knights they were directly imperial, but did not have the imperial estate, that is, they were not represented at the Reichstag .
The imperial knighthood territories and thus also the knightly canton of Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee were dissolved in the course of mediation at the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806; the sovereignty passed to Baden , Württemberg and Bavaria , the imperial knights were put on an equal footing with the rural nobility.
Administrative affiliation, subdivision, seats
Since the 16th century, the free imperial knighthood in south-west Germany - analogous to the imperial circles - was divided into a Rhenish , Franconian and Swabian knight circle , which in turn consisted of different cantons. The Swabian knight circle was divided into the cantons of Danube , Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee, Neckar-Black Forest , Kocher and Kraichgau .
Since the united nobles predominantly made politics in regional contexts, married, owned property, etc., the canton was by far the most important level in the organization of the imperial knighthood. The knightly canton of Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee belonged to the Swabian knight circle. Its origin in the 15th century is possibly related to the looser association of Swabian nobles in the St. Jörgenschild . The knight's canton had two districts or quarters :
1. Quartier Hegau with seat in the knighthood house (today district court) in Radolfzell . This was also the seat of the cantonal directorate and the canton captain.
2. Allgäu-Bodensee district with headquarters and offices in Wangen im Allgäu .
Special features, history
A special feature of this knightly canton within Swabia seems to be the adherence of the represented families to the Catholic denomination, which could be explained by the proximity of the Habsburg (Upper Austrian) territories and the thus "natural" reference to Vienna. This enabled later-born children to pursue spiritual careers in the numerous religious monasteries in the region such as Augsburg , Konstanz and Kempten .
During the Hegau War in 1441, the Swabian League of Cities and the Hegau Knighthood met.
In the Swiss War, the Hegau knights were in the forefront against the Swiss.
In the German Peasants' War , the knights of the canton fought against the Upper Swabian and Allgäu peasant groups.
Noble families who belonged to the knightly canton
- from Beroldingen
- by Bodman
- from Enzberg
- Ebinger from the castle
- from Freyberg
- from Hornstein
- Humpis
- from Klingenberg
- by Krafft
- Counts of Montfort-Tettnang , for the Schomburg manor
- Pappus von Tratzberg , for the rule Rauhenzell
- from Praßberg
- from Rodt
- from Eisenburg
- from Schellenberg
- Gift from Stauffenberg
- Count of Sulz
- Syrg from Syrgenstein
literature
- Franz Werner Ruch: The constitution of the canton Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee of the immediate free imperial knighthood. Mainz, ARTA advertising print in Konstanz, 1955. (Mainz, Jur. F., diss. Of March 30, 1955)