Ruprecht IV (Virneburg)

Ruprecht IV. In the Order's book of statutes (The Hague, KG, 76 E 10, fol. 56r)

Ruprecht IV, Count of Virneburg († 1444 before May 5) was a German nobleman in the service of the Duke of Burgundy . In 1433 he was accepted into the Order of the Golden Fleece .

Life

He was the only son of Count Adolf von Virneburg and his wife Jutta von Randerath. In 1391 he is attested as Count of Virneburg himself. In 1419 he signed a marriage contract for his son Philipp, who five years later brought parts of the county of Neuenahr to the family and the associated title of count.

In the Trier investiture feud about Jakob I von Sierck , Ulrich von Manderscheid and Raban von Helmstatt , which was acute from 1430 onwards , Virneburg supported the Cologne cathedral dean Manderscheid, who received the lower number of votes in the double election of 1430 compared to Sierck, and this continues after the pope and emperor Raban von Helmstatt had recognized as a compromise. The dispute was tried without result at the Council of Basel (1434).

At the chapter of the order in Dijon at the end of 1433, Ruprecht IV of Virneburg was accepted into the order of the Golden Fleece (diploma no. 36).

On April 16, 1436, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy and his aunt Elisabeth von Görlitz by marriage signed the Hague Treaty in which she ceded all rights to the Duchy of Luxembourg in return for a pension and a one-off settlement; Part of the contract was that Ruprecht von Virneburg was installed as Seneschal (and Burgundian watchdog) at Elisabeth's court in Arlon - to the Emperor Sigismund with Johann III. von Rodemacher appointed a counterpart.

Shortly after the conclusion of the contract, Jeanne des Armoises came to the court in Arlon, posing as Jeanne d'Arc and being supported by Elisabeth until the end of the year. Ruprecht von Virneburg and his son of the same name took advantage of Jeanne's appearance to put her at the head of a mercenary army with whom she entered Cologne on August 2, 1436, but had to flee again on August 25. Emperor Sigismund took advantage of Ruprecht IV's absence to have the citadel occupied by Luxembourg .

family

Ruprecht IV first married Johannette von Blankenheim in 1390, daughter of Gerhard VIII, who had already died in 1398. The marriage remained childless. Probably in 1398 he married Agnes von Solms, daughter of Count Otto, for the second time; Agnes is attested from 1405 to 1412 and died in 1420. His descendants are from this marriage.

• Philip I, count of Virneburg and Neuenahr in 1424, † February 10, 1443; ∞ (Marriage contract of July 4, 1419) Katharina von Saffenberg, heiress of parts of Neuenahr, Saffenberg and Gelsdorf , attested in 1411/70, daughter of Wilhelm von Saffenberg, Count of Neuenahr
• Ruprecht (V.), 1424/36 attested, † before 1444, who appeared in the affair of Jeanne des Armoises
• Anna, attested in 1442; ∞ Johann von der Marck in Arenberg and Sedan , † 1470
• Genoveva, attested 1415, † April 8, 1437; ∞ after May 15, 1429 Heinrich II., Count of Nassau-Dillenburg in Vianden , † 1450
• Agnes, ∞ probably Johann II. Von Rodemachern in 1415, † 1415

literature

• Detlev Schwennicke : European Family Tables Volume VII (1979), Plate 143
• Raphael de Smedt (ed.): Les chevaliers de l'ordre de la Toison d'or au XVe siècle. Notices bio-bibliographiques. (Kieler Werkstücke, D 3) 2nd, improved edition, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2000, ISBN 3-631-36017-7 , no. 35 (in French, with extensive literature references).