Simon IV. Alarm clock

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Simon IV. Wecker (* around 1444 ; †  July 22, 1499 in Dornach , Canton Solothurn ) was Count of Zweibrücken-Bitsch .

Life

Simon was the second son of Friedrich, Count von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1418, † 1474) and his wife, the Raugräfin Anna. His older brother Hannemann died in 1452 without a body. In addition, Simon had an older sister named Anna, the younger brothers Friedrich († 1500), Walram and Heinrich and a younger sister named Else.

The first report about the young Simon Wecker comes from the year 1447: On the night of March 19-20, 1447, Bitsch Castle was attacked by the Counts of Lützelstein. Count Friedrich escaped while his two sons Hannemann and Simon Wecker were captured by the Lützelsteiners. It took a few days for Simon Wecker to be freed by a Count from Württemberg.

In 1464 he married Elisabeth or Else zu Lichtenberg (* 1444; † January 21, 1495), the heirloom of Ludwig V. von Lichtenberg . The marriage had six children.

The 1476 inheritance statute

After the death of his father Friedrich in 1474, Simon IV. Wecker became Count of Zweibrücken-Bitsch. Since the father had not made any provisions for his inheritance, his four remaining sons of the count administered the county of Zweibrücken-Bitsch jointly for the time being. Soon there was a dispute between the brothers, so they had their relative, Count Emich VII von Leiningen-Dagsburg, work out a partition agreement. The aim of the contract was to restore the unity of the brothers and to introduce primogeniture law as an inheritance statute.

According to this contract, Simon Wecker was the eldest to rule over the state, including the main castle in Bitsch , while the second-oldest brother, Friedrich, was to rule Lemberg . The third brother, Walram, received the rule of Medelsheim and the youngest brother Heinrich received the family's shares in the castles Landstuhl and Landeck. The shares in the forts Lindelbrunn and Drachenfels remained in common ownership. The brothers had to grant each other the right to open each of the castles as well as a mutual right of inheritance. In addition, it was determined that none of the younger brothers were allowed to marry as long as the eldest brother had male legitimate offspring or could hope for. The daughters, however, should only be settled with money, they should not have any inheritance rights in the county as long as there were male heirs.

The Lichtenberg legacy

In 1480 Jakob von Lichtenberg , the uncle of Simon Wecker's wife, died. He was the last male representative of the Lichtenberg family and bequeathed half of his property to his two daughters Anna and Elisabeth. The county was divided in May 1480. Simon Wecker received the offices of Ingweiler , Offendorf and Wörth as well as a number of castles, towns and villages. From this point on, Simon IV. Wecker called himself Graf von Zweibrücken, Herr von Bitsch and Lichtenberg and added the Lichtenberg lion to his coat of arms.

Death in the battle of Dornach

On July 22, 1499, Simon IV. Wecker took part in the battle of Dornach in the Swiss canton of Solothurn under the leadership of Count Heinrich von Fürstenberg . During the siege of Dorneck Castle , he was killed in an attack by Swiss troops, as did Count Heinrich von Fürstenberg and numerous other nobles.

Anno domini MCCCCLXXXXIX Jar, ufff Marie Magdalene at noon, the wolgeborn Herr Graue Simon Weckher Graue von Zweyenbruckhen, a gentleman from Bitsch and Liechtenberg, and gray Heinrich von Furstenberg and a Herr von Kastell, to Dorn two miles from Basel, were slain the Schweitzers.

Simon IV. Wecker was buried in the church of Dorneck. His eldest son Reinhart († 1532) followed him as Count von Zweibrücken-Bitsch.

Weckersburg

Ruins of the Weckersburg

Around 1490 Count Simon Wecker built a hunting lodge in Walschbronn , now called "Weckersburg". The castle was later owned by Georg von Zweibrücken-Bitsch and Ochsenstein († 1559) and Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch . After his death in 1570, the building was abandoned and fell into ruin.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Johann Georg Lehmann : Documented history of the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg . tape  2 . J. Schneider, Mannheim 1863, p. 336-406 ( MDZ ).
  2. ^ Family table of the Counts of Zweybrücken-Bitsch in Johann Georg Lehmann : Documented history of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg . tape 2 . J. Schneider, Mannheim 1863.
  3. ^ Hans-Walter Herrmann : The county of Zweibrücken-Bitsch . In: Kurt Hoppstädter , Hans-Walter Herrmann (Hrsg.): Geschichtliche Landeskunde des Saarlandes . tape  2 , From the Frankish conquest to the outbreak of the French Revolution. Saarbrücken 1977, ISBN 3-921870-00-3 , p. 323-332 .
  4. ^ Karl Pöhlmann: Outline of the history of the Bitsch rule . Zweibrücken 1911.
  5. ^ Hans Ammerich : Zweibrücken-Bitsch . In: Werner Paravicini (ed.): Courtyards and residences in the late medieval empire . tape  4. , Counts and Lords / Teilbd. 2. Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7995-4525-9 , p. 1802–1805 ( Academy of Sciences in Göttingen [PDF]).
  6. ^ RI XIV, 3.2 n. 13575. In: Regesta Imperii Online. Retrieved February 17, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Château du Weckersburg à Walschbronn. Retrieved February 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Simon IV. Alarm clock
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon IV of Zweibrücken-Bitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of the county of Zweibrücken-Bitsch
DATE OF BIRTH around 1444
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1499
Place of death Dornach , Canton of Solothurn