Siegfried II (Wittgenstein)

Siegfried II von Wittgenstein († 1359 ) ruled the County of Wittgenstein from 1322 to 1359. He was in demand as a mediator and was able to increase the ownership of the house. After his death, the county fell to the Sayn family through marriage .

family

His grandfather was Siegfried I. His father was either a Wittekind or Werner. He had a brother Heinrich, who became canon in Cologne . He himself married Margarethe von Schöneck. He had a son Werner IV, but he remained childless. He also had several daughters. Among them was Adelheid, who was married to Salentin von Sayn.

Life

Acquisition of Berleburg and feudal relationships

In 1322 Wittekind von Grafschaft renounced the share of his house on the castle and settlement of Berleburg . At the same time he entered the feudal service of the Archbishops of Mainz . The relationship between the Wittgensteiners and the archbishops had previously been tense. The reason was the dispute over the county of Battenberg . Siegfried and his brother waived these claims in 1322. The contract with Archbishop Matthias von Buchegg stipulated that Mainz paid 200 Cologne pfennigs to Siegfried. For this he committed himself to put ten knights against all enemies of the archbishop. Exceptions were the Archbishop of Cologne , the Counts of Nassau-Dillenburg and the Counts of Arnsberg . This treaty was primarily directed against the Landgraves of Hesse . This step meant a break with the pro-Hessian politics of Siegfried I. From 1323 Siegfried was Vicedom zu Rusteberg in Eichsfeld . In 1331 he entered into a feudal relationship with the Count Palatine Rudolf and Ruprecht . In addition, his father Wittekind's feudal relationship with the Archbishop of Cologne from 1295 remained. As a result of a loan in favor of Walrams von Köln , he received shares in the Bonn Rheinzoll .

Relations with other territories

In 1333 he acted as a mediator between Gerlach von Nassau and the Landgrave of Hesse in the dispute over the rule of Merenberg . He succeeded in taking possession of the rulership himself in return for the payment of 1,000 marks. In 1337 Siegfried joined King John of Bohemia's trip to Prussia to fight the pagan Prussians . In this context he lent the king 260 groschen of Prague currency.

He had relatively good relations with the Counts of Arnsberg. Siegfried was also dependent on this, since Medebach , in which the Wittgensteiners had tithe rights and goods, belonged to Arnsberg. In 1338 he took the possessions from the Arnsbergers as a fief . Also in 1338 he joined a mutual protection alliance that Archbishop Balduin von Trier , Count Heinrich and Otto von Nassau, Johann von Nassau-Hadamar and Wilhelm von Katzenelnbogen formed with each other,

He also had good relations with the Counts of Solms . In 1347 he mediated together with the Counts Gerlach and Johann von Nassau in a dispute between the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse. In 1348 he arbitrated a dispute between the Count of Arnsberg and the Teutonic Order .

The acquisition of various goods was connected with his marriage. Some he received from the Counts of Nassau in 1343 transferred to fiefdoms. In the case of Irmgartenbrugge and Faydingen, for example, the return against payment was not the case, so that Siegfried kept these and other properties permanently and was enfeoffed by Emperor Charles IV .

In 1349 he served the Archbishop of Mainz as a witness for privileges in favor of the city of Mainz . In 1354 Siegfried was again active as an intermediary between Hesse and Mainz. When they formed an alliance in 1356, Siegfried von Wittgenstein was also included. At times he was active in imperial affairs and appeared as a witness in imperial documents.

Acquisitions and Succession

In addition to the aforementioned acquisitions of Irmgartenbrügge, Faydingen, Berleburg, Gemminghausen and Merenberg, the Free County of Züschen and half of Burg Nordenau came as pledge from the Counts of Waldeck in 1327 . There were also a number of tithe rights and similar rights. With the acquisition of Girkhausen in 1354 a Marian pilgrimage site was also connected, which attracted numerous pilgrims and was accordingly profitable.

Because his son probably hardly survived his father for long or even died before him, the property passed to the Sayn family through the daughter Adelheid. A branch of this was henceforth called Sayn-Wittgenstein .

literature

• G. Hinsberg: Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Vol. 1 Berleburg, 1920 pp. 40-47
• Johann Ernst Christian Schmidt: History of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, Volume 2. Gießen, 1819 p. 264