Schwalenberg County

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Coat of arms of the Counts of Schwalenberg

The Grafschaft Schwalenberg of the Counts of Schwalenberg was a historical medieval territory in today's Westphalian-North Hessian area. A split line is still in bloom today, the counts and later princes of Waldeck and Pyrmont .

history

Marienmünster Abbey (St. Jacobus)

The members of the family were initially Billung and Guelph liege counts. They appear for the first time in 1031 with a Count Widekind in Wetigau , but Widekind I is the first member of the family to be definitely recorded in 1127. They originally had their seat on the Oldenburg near Marienmünster . In their immediate vicinity, Widekind I and his wife Lutrud von Itter founded the Benedictine Abbey of Marienmünster as an expiation monastery in 1127 on the advice of his cousin (or brother-in-law), Bishop Bernhard I of Oesede from Paderborn .

In the course of time they acquired various sovereign rights and courts and finally had considerable fiefdom and ownership once between Herford and Höxter and in the area around Korbach and Waldeck . Especially after Heinrich the Lion was ousted and the tribal duchy of Saxony was broken up in 1180, the Schwalenbergs developed into the most powerful family in the area between Herford and Höxter. They took up an almost imperial position. Their importance is also shown in the fact that they held the bailiwick of the Paderborn bishopric from 1124 to 1189 . They were also vice bailiffs of Corvey and bailiffs of Höxter. In 1189, Widukind III pledged. von Waldeck transferred the bailiwick to the Paderborn church to finance his participation in the third crusade . Since he did not return from this war, the secular rule passed to the bishop.

Count Volkwin III. founded the town and castle Schwalenberg in the first half of the 13th century , west of the upper Weser. Members of the sex were involved in the murder of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne in 1225 . The brothers Volkwin IV. Von Schwalenberg and Adolf I von Waldeck had to donate some monasteries as atonement . The Marienthal Monastery in Waldecker Land and the Falkenhagen Monastery near Lügde were created . In the latter, Volkwin III. Buried in 1249. Various bishops of Paderborn also emerged from the family .

The establishment of a firm territorial rule did not succeed, however. The decline began as early as the 13th century. The main reason was the division into different lines. The first was Pyrmont . It existed between 1194 and 1495. The County of Waldeck emerged from the Waldeck line (since 1219) . The last split was the Sternberg line , which existed between 1243 and 1377. Since then, the county of Schwalenberg was limited to a small amount of property near Schwalenberg Castle. After the death of the last Count, Heinrich VIII, the remaining property fell to the noble lords of the Lippe and the Paderborn monastery in 1365 .

coat of arms

The coat of arms shows an eight-pointed gold star in red on which a silver swallow sits. On the crowned helmet with red and gold ceilings star and swallow between a red flight.

Count

Members of the family

literature

  • Alfred Bruns: County of Schwalenberg. In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 1130.
  • Diana Zunker: Aristocracy in Westphalia: Structures and concepts of rule (1106–1235). Matthiesen-Verlag, Husum 2003, ISBN 3-7868-1472-4 .
  • Diana Zunker: Ne cadant in oblivionis obscurum que fuerint in luce. Nobility and monasteries in Westphalia. In: N. Kruppa (Ed.): Nobles, donors, monks (= studies on Germania Sacra. Volume 30). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-35886-3 , pp. 107-137.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max von Spießen: Book of arms of the Westphalian nobility. 1. Volume, Görlitz 1901–1903, p. 114.

Coordinates: 51 ° 52 ′ 37.8 "  N , 9 ° 11 ′ 59.8"  E