Salted treaty
The Salzungen Treaty is a three-party contract signed on August 31, 1583 in Salzungen between Georg Ernst , the last Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen , Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel and representatives of the Ernestine Wettins .
It regulated the takeover of the former monasteries, which were secularized after the Reformation, of Herrenbreitungen and Frauenbreitungen and their surrounding property by the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel or by the Saxon Wettins if the Counts of Henneberg died childless. This case occurred with the death of Count Georg Ernst shortly after the conclusion of the contract in December 1583.
background
The former Frauenbreitungen and Herrenbreitungen monasteries were fiefs of the Hersfeld Abbey , which gave the monastery bailiffs to the Lords of Frankenstein . In 1301 the bailiwick of the Frauenbreitungen monastery came to the Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen, who were related to the Frankensteiners, and became part of the Frankenberg office. The Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen also came into the fiefdom of the Counts of Henneberg-Schleusingen in 1337.
After the death of Count Heinrich VIII in 1347, the Henneberg-Schleusingen estate was divided between the widow and the count's brother. While the brother and new regent, Johann I. von Henneberg-Schleusingen († 1359), u. a. received the office Frankenberg with Frauenbreitungen as well as the place Wernshausen from the Vogtei Herrenbreitungen, got the widow Jutta von Brandenburg a. a. the rest of the Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen with the Truse villages was awarded. In a second division of the estate among three daughters of Jutta von Brandenburg, the Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen came to Sophie von Henneberg († 1372) and her husband, the Nuremberg burgrave Albrecht († 1361) in 1353 .
The repurchase of the territories that had come to Burgrave Albrecht by Countess Elisabeth von Leuchtenberg († 1361), the widow of Count Johann I von Henneberg-Schleusingen, could only succeed in 1360 when Johann's maternal cousin, Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse († 1376) shared half of the purchase price and received the ideal half in the affected areas. The Hessian-Henneberg condominium u. a. founded on the Vogtei Herrenbreitungen and the neighboring rule Schmalkalden .
Previous inheritance contracts of the Counts of Henneberg
After violent disputes in the area jointly administered by Henneberg and Hesse, the so-called " Casimir Treaty " was concluded in 1521 with the mediation of Margrave Kasimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach . This stated, among other things, that in the event of one of the two royal houses becoming extinct, the remaining half should be given to the city and office of Schmalkalden.
In 1554, with the Kahla Treaty between the Ernestine dukes of Saxony and the Counts of Henneberg, the Ernestine-Henneberg hereditary brotherhood was decided. By assuming the debts of the Hennebergers, the Ernestines acquired the right to all of their property should the Hennebergers die out.
The Salzung Treaty of 1583
In 1583 the last Count of Henneberg, Georg Ernst, was dying. Between the heirs, the Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel and the Ernestine dukes of Saxony, a dispute broke out over the Henneberg area. One point of contention was that the Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen was not part of the “Casimir Treaty” of 1521, but had been part of the Landgraviate of Hesse since 1360. Since it was a fiefdom of the Hersfeld Abbey, which had assured the House of Hessen-Kassel the right to the area, Hessen saw itself as the legitimate heir. Since Frauenbreitungen was also a Hersfeld fiefdom, but was supposed to fall to the Ernestine Dukes of Saxony as sole ownership of the Henneberg region according to the Kahla Treaty of 1554, the “Salzung Treaty” was made in 1583.
This closed on August 31, 1583 Count Georg Ernst, Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel and representatives of Ernestine Saxony in the city of Salzungen. According to this, after the Hennebergs died out, the Landgrave of Hesse was to receive the Bailiwick of Herrenbreitungen including the Abbot Forest and the Herrenbreitungen Palace, the latter with lifelong right of residence for Georg Ernst's sister-in-law, Count Poppo's widow Sophie von Henneberg. According to the contract, jurisdiction and hunting justice fell to the House of Saxony. Frauen- and Altenbreitungen, Wernshausen and the Bußhof , as well as the wilderness from Pleß to Rosa and Werra were left to the Saxon house. This established the political separation of the Breiter districts.
Georg Ernst von Henneberg died in December of the same year and the agreements of the Salzung Treaty came into force. From then on, Herrenbreitungen with the office of Herrenbreitungen belonged to the Hessian rule of Schmalkalden, while Frauen- and Altenbreitungen with the office of Frauenbreitungen came to the Ernestine Duchies and from 1680 belonged to Saxony-Meiningen .