Rosdorf (noble family)

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Coat of arms of the Lords of Rosdorf

Rosdorf is the name of an old, extinct Lower Saxon noble family .

Regarding the spelling of the name: Today the spelling Rosdorf has become common. The name is and has been written in 17 different ways in literature and documents. The spellings Rostorf, Rostorp, Rostorpe, Rosstorf predominantly occur.

history

The family was named after Rosdorf Castle in the village of the same name, which was 5 kilometers southwest of Göttingen and destroyed in 1319 . She was wealthy in the area of ​​what is now southern Lower Saxony, in northern Thuringia, northern Hesse and in eastern Westphalia. Their history is closely linked to other well-known noble families in the areas mentioned, especially the von Hardenberg , von Adelebsen and von Plesse families . There were also connections to the Northeimers and Winzenburgers. The family is divided into three almost equally strong areas: the ecclesiastical, the secular-dynastic and the ministerial.

The spiritual ladies and gentlemen from Rosdorf

From the beginning, from 1056 until the end of the 15th century, the Lords of Rosdorf were always represented in church offices by well-known family members. The first documented and at the same time one of the most important representatives of the family is the famous abbot of the Corvey monastery , Saracho von Rossdorf , who headed the monastery at the time of King Henry IV from 1056 to 1071 and is famous for his register and his coinage (denarius) . Conrad von Rosdorf followed in 1126 as provost or prelate of the newly founded Reinhausen Monastery .

This strong religious component continued. In the family there are numerous canonesses from Gandersheim etc., abbess from Kaufungen etc., provosts from Reinhausen, Einbeck and Hameln: Heinrich I von Rosdorf (1209) Canon in Minden, Ludger von Rosdorf (1233) cathedral provost in Mainz, Bernhard I von Rosdorf (1268–1285) Archdeacon von Ohsen, Adelheid and Wiltrud von Rosdorf (1261–1274) canons of Gandersheim, Bertradis von Rosdorf (1261–1279) Abbess of Kaufungen , Conrad IV. von Rosdorf (1263–1292) Probst St Alexander-Einbeck, Prince-Bishop Ludolf I von Rosdorf (1269–1304). This headed the diocese of Minden until 1304 . Ludovicus (Ludwig III.) Von Rosdorf (1285) archdeacon von Warburg , Gumbrecht II von Rosdorf (1366) Canon of Cologne, Jutta II von Rosdorf (1366) canoness of Cologne, Gisela von Rosdorf (1378) nun in Fredelsloh, Heinrich IV. Von Rosdorf (1398–1423) Canon of Cologne, Ludwig IX. von Rosdorf (1410–1436) archdeacon of Warburg, canon of Paderborn.

The secular-dynastic lords of Rosdorf

Initially equipped with properties around Rosdorf, Reinhausen , Jühnde, Höckelheim and Thüdinghausen, the Lords of Rosdorf under Ludwig I von Rosdorf acquired half of the village of Moringen and the castle there in 1252 , and in 1263 under Ludwig II von Rosdorf the castle and the village Hardegsen were added . Between 1250 and 1300 they allied themselves with numerous noble families ( von Hardenberg , von Dorstadt , von Adelebsen , von Kindehusen, Wolff von Gudenberg ) and married in the count's houses of Schwalenberg , von Lutterberg and von Roden and Wunstorf as well as in the equally noble ones Families von Plesse and von Steinberg-Bodenburg .

Between 1250 and 1325 they formed a small territorial domination in the north by a line Fredelsloh , Moringen, Northeim to north-west of Thuringia to Muehlhausen and Bad Langensalza order, to the west by a line Schlarpe and Scheden, in southern fiefdom in the Hesse Witzenhausen limited has been. Expression of the increased secular power was the magnificent expansion of the ancestral castle Hardegsen 1321-1324 under Dethard II., Ludwig III. and Conrad V. von Rosdorf.

The year 1349/50 marked a turning point. From now on the Lords of Rosdorf found themselves in a constant struggle for existence with the Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Duke Otto der Quade was victorious in 1379 when he forcibly took possession of the Rosdorf castles and lands. The Lords of Rosdorf then mostly withdrew as citizens to the city of Göttingen , some moved further west and settled around Paderborn and finally in Cologne . Finally, Ludwig X. von Rosdorf was enfeoffed in 1428 by Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse together with Hans von Uslar in Hesse.

The ministerials in the family of the Lords of Rosdorf

Since 1155 some of the later sons of the family have been serving as servants, lords of the castle and finally as vice domes and officials of the Archbishops of Mainz at the castles of Hardenberg , Rusteberg , Hanstein , Harburg and Gleichenstein, for example Conrad II. And Gumprecht I. von Rosdorf in 1155. In 1287, Archbishop Heinrich von Mainz pledged Hardenberg Castle to Friedrich I von Rosdorf and his brother-in-law Dietrich von Hardenberg. Friedrich I of Rosdorf not only enjoyed the trust of the Archbishops of Mainz, who entrusted him with almost the entire Eichsfeld with the cities of Heiligenstadt , Worbis , Burg and Ballhausen as well as Mühlberg Castle as Advocatus provincialis; he also had the confidence of Duke Albrecht II of Braunschweig , Landgrave Heinrich of Hesse and King Albrecht . They called in Friedrich I in 1306 as a mediator in territorial disputes and appointed him as guarantor of the joint peace treaty.

Since 1250, individual members of the ranks of the Ministeriales, together with related aristocratic families, moved to Prussia and the Baltic states to fight as crusaders for the faith. The Lords of Rosdorf were traceable around Riga up to the beginning of the 16th century .

The crest

... in the "Book of Arms of the Westphalian Nobility"

The coat of arms of the Lords of Rosdorf, two vertical, outward-facing keys, which can still be found in the current municipal coat of arms of Rosdorf, gave rise to many speculations regarding its importance and origin. Greorgii provided an explanation: “Between Göttingen / Heiligenstadt and Duderstadt there are over two desolate locksmiths on high mountains / called the same ones / because they are almost the same in height / buildings and mountains. These two mountain castles of the same kind are said to have been built around the year of Christ 720 / and to have been written / inhabited by the rich Lord von Rostorff / so gentlemen of equals themselves / ”. One key each for a mountain and a castle. Pfeffinger provides another explanation: “The old historians report that these noble gentlemen, one of the handsome and most famous families in Lower Saxony, had gloriously flourished in the ninth year of their existence, and stood there for a long time. The seat and castle house was Rostorff, not far from the city of Göttingen,… Because of the extraordinary courage and sincerity, which was often shown, Henricus Auceps Römischer Kaeyser knighted Wetekind von Rostorff along with many others on the court day held there. Door keeper, which office became hereditary afterwards, ... appoints. They also accompanied the very elegant and glorious Feuereissen office before at the Kaeyser court ..., ... as far as the coat of arms is concerned, so they performed with regard to the Kaeyserl. Erb-Thür-Amt two upright red keys in the golden field. ”So here the keys are related to the official function described.

However the Lords of Rosdorf got their coat of arms, which was so simple yet expressive, it proved to be very attractive to other noble houses in the region. After marrying a Fräulein von Rosdorf in 1270, Dietrich von Hardenberg took over the coat of arms of the Lords of Rosdorf for himself and his sons. The Hardenbergers only introduced their characteristic boar head in 1330. But the Hardenbergers were not alone in their preference for the coat of arms of the Lords of Rosdorf. "The von Oerten had the same coat of arms in 1412, two upward facing, turned away keys in the coat of arms, so the same that the Hardenberg, Rostorp, Escherde, Gittelde etc. had in Ostfalen ." This indicates, as in the case of von Hardenberg, that the aforementioned noble houses were also related by marriage to the Lords of Rosdorf, and that they tried to use their coat of arms as that of the more important, more respected sex and adopted them. The towns of Groß Escherde , Klein Escherde and Gittelde in Lower Saxony still carry the aforementioned key coat of arms, which goes back to the Lords of Rosdorf.

The Rosdorf coat of arms within your family network

Coat of arms seals of members of the noble lords of Rosdorf and their sidelines

The table shows a small selection of the document seals that have been preserved by the noble lords of Rosdorf and their sidelines - the noble lords of Bovenden, the lords of Escherde, the lords of Falkenberg, the lords of Freden, the lords of Gittelde, the lords of Hardenberg, the noblemen von Hebel, the lords of Mandelbeck - were used.

The original Rosdorf key coat of arms - with the distinctive two keys in the old wooden shape - was used by the noble lords of Bovenden, the noble lords of Hardenberg, the noble lords of Hebel and the lords of Falkenberg, in addition to the parent company Rosdorf. These five families, the Rosdorf parent company and its three oldest branches, are distinguished by the fact that they not only had an identical coat of arms - that of the von Rosdorf family - but also because the three earliest spin-offs from the Rosdorf parent company were given the privilege of being free , noble class as noblemen. Therefore, members of these three lines, like the parent company Rosdorf, rightly carried the titles Dominus and / or Nobiles until the second half of the 13th century.

Confusion arose later because a younger side line of von Bovenden, like that of Hardenberg, from the second half of the 14th century, used a changed or new coat of arms, while the younger side line of Hebel and von Rosdorf - in both cases the same name using: von Falkenberg (Wabern) and von Falkenberg (Zierenberg) - the old Rosdorf key coat of arms was retained. Only the younger side lines from Falkenberg-Herstelle used a modified, modern key shape from the 14th century, just like the younger Rosdorf side lines from Escherde, von Freden and von Gittelde, which always have the Rosdorf coat of arms with modern keys (iron shape) instead of the ancient ones Franconian-Germanic wood form preferred in the Rosdorf coat of arms.

While in the von Hardenberg family the phase of the coat of arms modification lasted around 70 years before the line from Hardenberg to Hardenberg adopted the boar head, which is still used today, the older line of Hardenberg, then based in Lindau-Katlenburg, kept the traditional Rosdorf key coat of arms until their extinction. The younger Bovender line, since Albrecht von Bovenden zu Jühnde, changed their old common family coat of arms by exchanging one of the Rosdorf keys for a standing lion. The older Bovender line retained the Rosdorf key coat of arms until it died out.

The visual changes to the traditional, common family coat of arms gave the von Bovenden and Hardenbergs the impression that they were independent noble houses that were not related to the Lords of Rosdorf or descended from them. This impression based on optical impressions is wrong. Both families are actually splits from the parent company of Rosdorf zu Rosdorf, which in the case of von Bovenden were named after their new headquarters, in the case of von Hardenberg after their official seat, the Mainzischen Burg Hardenberg.

With regard to Hardenberg Castle and the office held there as castle men of the Archdiocese of Mainz, it can be proven that initially only members of the noble lords of Rosdorf, who also held the office as counts of the County of Rosdorf and lords of Rosdorf, were serving at Hardenberg Castle. In 1155 Conrad and Gumprecht von Rosdorf are mentioned in a Mainz document. Bodo von Bovenden is mentioned in 1170 as a Mainz ministerial - together with Manegold von Rosdorf. The von Hardenbergs split off from the Rosdorfs in the fourth quarter of the 12th century, as evidenced by the document from 1174, when Dietrich von Hardenberg attended the imperial confirmation of Landgrave Heinrich Raspe's award of Burg Windeck to Count Engelbert von Berg.

The early chronicler of the Lords of Rosdorf Johann Wolf, but also the contemporary Erwin Steinmetz, did not know how to classify Dietrich von Hardenberg. Several historians considered him a member of the Westphalian Counts of Hardenberg. The fact that Dietrich von Hardenberg belongs to the Mainz Hardenbergers and thus to the Rosdorf family is proven by the historical facts:

Heinrich Raspe III. , the second son of Landgrave Ludwig von Thuringia, officiated as the younger brother of the Thuringian Landgrave in the county of Maden -Gudensberg in Hesse , as is customary in the Ludowing family . The oldest Rosdorf branch, von Hebel, was resident in this county and was first mentioned in a document from Archbishop Heinrich I of Mainz in 1144 under this ancestral name. Their coat of arms makes it clear that they are undoubtedly members of the Rosdorf family. (see table) The de Hebelde / von Hebel named themselves after their castle in the village of Hebel / de. The village was first mentioned in a document in 775 in the Hersfeld Monastery Register of Goods. The owners of the place were besides the von Hebel (Rosdorf) the Counts of Reichenbach and the Landgraves of Thuringia-Hesse. Later also the gentlemen von Falkenberg.

In 1170, Heinrich Raspe extensively renovated Windeck Castle - from his mother's legacy. In 1174 he gave it as a fief to Count Engelbert I von Berg. Dietrich von Hardenberg acted as a representative of his family - that of Rosdorf-Bovenden-Hardenberg-Hebel - as a witness. Two generations later, Conrad von Hebel, a member of the Rosdorf family clan, worked as the acting count (comes morans) for the then still underage Hessian landgrave, Heinrich I of Hesse, in the county of Gudensberg-Maden. Conrad von Hebel was married to a Countess von Reichenbach-Ziegenhain, like his brother-in-law, Count Gofttfried III. confirmed by Reichenbach.

The common coat of arms and a preserved archbishop's certificate from Mainz confirm that we are dealing with people of the high nobility - nobles - who wear "ten helmets", i.e. H. with ten of their own knights and entourage could take part in a war campaign at their own expense. Therefore they had the right to a higher knightly dignity, were allowed to carry their own flag (banner) and call themselves the banner lord. The cited document of Archbishop Heinrich in which he asks Heinrich and Hildebrand von Hardenberg in 1346 to become enemies of the Margrave of Meissen and Duke Ernst of Braunschweig, which means to join his war against the two rulers, and the archbishop's army for at least ten helmets and Expanding horses confirms that the Lords of Hardenberg, as a sideline of the House of Rosdorf, were both banner lords and nobiles who, although castle men on the Hardenberg, owed no military service to the archbishop - which they would have been as ministerials - but rather through participation in the war could decide.

This makes it clear that not only the noblemen of Rosdorf had their own vassals and feudal takers, but also some sidelines, in this case those of Hardenberg. They had at least 10 of their own knights who had to follow them as liege lords in the war, under Hardenberger banner that was awarded to them by the king, since until the end of the 12th century only the king was entitled to appoint banner lords. Later this privilege of rulership passed to the bishops and dukes, so that there were then banner lords who were appointed by bishops or dukes and owed this military service, like real banner lords to the king. The cited document proves that the Hardenbergers' privilege, which came from the inheritance of the Rosdorf family, referred to royal privilege, because otherwise the archbishop would have ordered the Hardenbergers to participate in the war, not having to ask them politely.

Since only the nobility could be appointed banner owners by the king, the fact that the Rosdorfers and their three oldest sidelines were banner masters also answers the passionate debate about the nobility of the Rosdorfers, which Steinmetz answered incorrectly in 1982, since he claims that the Rosdorfers belonged to the lower nobility. Since it was a prerequisite to be of high nobility in order to be appointed banner master, it is pointless to search the documents for the terms nobiles, vir nobiles, dominus, etc. Both the von Hebel, whose nobility is confirmed by the document of 1144, and those of Rosdorf, von Bovenden and von Hardenberg were definitely of high nobility, were, like the document Dethard II von Rosdorf, the document to Heinrich and Hildebrand von Hardenberg, and the certificate from Conrad and Ludwig von Rosdorf for the noble lords of Hohenbüchen proves that they are entitled to command their own knights as banner lords. The original Rosdorf key coat of arms, carried by all members of the family network, serves as an optical and additional confirmation.

It is very likely that the true core of the three legends / sagas about the noble lords of Rosdorf, in those about their royal office (hereditary doorkeeper), the associated coat of arms awarded by the king (two vertical keys), the common identity of the Rosdorf residents and the Count of Gleichen = Reinhausen is speculated to have more to do with reality than the legendary tradition suggests. The legends contain several details that can be linked to historical data and facts. In addition, the association of Rosdorf (including sidelines) owned allodes that were previously demonstrably owned by the Counts of Reinhausen-Gleichen. The transition of several allodes of old, noble families to another noble family can only be explained by inheritance or as a marriage property. This includes the Rosdorf forest property, which they partly owned together with the dukes of Braunschweig and Gau-count families (as successors to the Billungers).

Important namesake of the family

Grave slab Walpurgis von Rosdorf

literature

  • Frederik D. Tunnat: The noble gentlemen from Rosdorf and their side branches , Berlin 2014
  • J. Wolf: The family of the noble lords of Rosdorf , 1812
  • E. Steinmetz: The Lords of Rosdorf , 1982, Göttingen yearbook
  • KH Bernotat: The Lords of Rosdorf , 1952, contributions to the local history of southern Lower Saxony
  • R. Wenskus: Saxon tribal nobility and Frankish imperial nobility , 1976
  • Document book of the city of Göttingen, 1863
  • JC Diederich: History of the City of Göttingen , 1797
  • H. Troe: The beginnings and the development of Göttingen , 1982, Göttinger Jahrbuch
  • Document book on the history of the Dukes of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, 1859
  • Regest of the Archbishops of Mainz, 1913
  • W. Havemann: History of the Lands Braunschweig and Lüneburg , 1837
  • G. Christ - G. May: Archbishopric and Archdiocese of Mainz. Territorial and ecclesiastical structures . In: F. Jürgensmeier (ed.): Handbuch der Mainzer Kirchengeschichte , Vol. 2 (Contributions to Mainz Church History 6), Würzburg 1997
  • L. Falck .: The Archbishops of Mainz and their monasteries in the first half of the 12th century , Dissertation Marburg 1952
  • H. Falk: The Mainz authority organization in Hesse and on the Eichsfelde until the end of the 14th century (MSADG 1, Book 2), Marburg 1930
  • Johann Wolf: The family of the noble gentlemen von Roßdorf: explained by documents . JC Baier, Göttingen, 1812. Online at Google Books

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Gottfried Gregorii: Newly opened scene ...: (regarding the building ... of mountain fortresses) , 1715
  2. ^ Johann Friedrich Pfeffinger: "History of the Braunschweig-Lüneburg House", 1734
  3. ↑ Johann Wolf: “The noble gentlemen of Rosdorf”, 1812, p. 49/50 and Erwin Steinmetz: “The gentlemen of Rosdorf”, 1982, p. 129–132
  4. ↑ Astaf von Transehe-Roseneck : "The knightly Livland drivers of the 13th century", 1960, p. 105
  5. ↑ As for the alleged relationships, so far there is only indirect evidence, such as the feud that broke out in 1370 between von Hardenberg and von Rosdorf over the legacy of the lords of Gittelde, who had just died out.
  6. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 2,1 n. 2759 - [Between 1361 April 4 and 1367 end of April] [Ulrich von Cronberg, Vitztum im Rheingau and archb. Landvogt,] [in the name of the archbishop] brings the following lawsuits against Duke Ernst von Braunschweig [-Göttingen]: The Duke's bailiffs and servants Berlt von Hoheneggelsen (Eckilsheim), Wal [von Berlepsch], Luttige Nebe and their journeymen have Mr. Johann Sygebode ( myns herrin pfaffen) deliberately wounded to death in his own house and left him lying for dead ... took him to the Leineberg (Leynen-) to the district court before the Counts of Rosdorf (Rostdorff)
  7. ↑ MGH DD FI, No. 612
  8. ↑ Gudenus, Codex dipl. I, pp. 153-155, No. 56; Kuchenbecker, Analecta Hass. IV, pp. 340-344; Franz, Haina 1, p. 3, No. 1; Dobencker, Regesta 1, p. 317, no. 1505; Böhmer-Will, Regesten Mainz 1, XXVIII. Heinrich I., p. 327, No. 35
  9. ↑ Count Gottfried filed a complaint in 1270 regarding Conrad von Hebel's declaration of renunciation of the Menkereshusen Bailiwick on February 9, 1243. That is why Conrad's widow and his sons and daughters had to transfer the tithe of the lever seat instead of the tithe at Menkereshusen. On this occasion, Count Gottfried III called himself. von Reichenbach Patruus = father brother of the children of Conrad von Hebel
  10. ↑ RIplus Regg. EB Mainz 1,2 n. 5417 - 1346 March 13, Frankfurt-Archbishop Heinrich demands (demands) that (the strict lute) Hilbrande u. Heinrich v. Hardenberg (-ten-), (sl getruwen), enemies of his pen are d. Margraves v. Meißen ad Duke Ernst v. Braunschweig (Brunswig) d. Ä. u. 10 helmeted u. Win 10 racers. For food and Damage is d. Archbishop one

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