Stephan III. (Bavaria)

Stephan III. (also Stephan the Kneißel or Stephan the Magnificent ; * around 1337; † September 25, 1413 in the Niederschönenfeld Monastery ) from the House of Wittelsbach had been Duke of Bavaria since 1375 and since the division of 1392 Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and from 1374 long-time imperial governor in Alsace and Upper Swabia . He was the father of France's Queen Isabeau .

Life

youth

Stephan III. was born around 1337 as the eldest son of the later Duke Stephan with the Hafte and his first wife Elisabeth of Sicily . He was the oldest grandson of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria († 1347). After the death of the emperor in 1353, his father received the partial duchy of Lower Bavaria-Landshut in the course of the inheritance divisions , to which he gained Upper Bavaria after the death of his nephew Meinhard in 1363 . Tyrol , which had also been ruled by Meinhard, was awarded to the Habsburgs after long struggles in the Peace of Schärding in 1369 .

On August 12, 1365, Stephan III got engaged. in Milan with Taddea Visconti , one of the 100,000 gulden daughters of Lord Bernabò Visconti , whom he married in 1367. Taddea's dowry of 100,000 guilders allowed him to redeem the city of Neuburg an der Donau and several castles and courts that his father had pawned. The marriage resulted in two children, the son Ludwig VII and the daughter Elisabeth . In addition, Stephan had another son, Johann von Moosburg , who later became Bishop of Regensburg .

Even the early years of Stephen were determined by the craft of war: 1363–1369 Stephan took part in the battles for Tyrol, 1371–1373 in those for Brandenburg. In 1368, Stephan fought alongside his father-in-law against the anti-Milan league around Pope Urban V and Emperor Charles IV in Italy . Stephen's lifelong "Italian interest" was already evident when in 1374 he pledged to support Duke Leopold of Austria against Venice. In return, Leopold Stephan promised support in taking action against Verona, a rival of Milan. In 1371/72 Stephan also went on a trip to Prussia to support the Teutonic Order against the pagan Lithuanians. In the course of the reconciliation between the House of Luxembourg and the Wittelsbachers, Charles IV then appointed Stephan and his brother Friedrich in 1374 as imperial bailiffs in Alsace and Upper Swabia . Stephan then planned a trip to Palestine, which he had to do without when his father died in 1375 at the age of 56.

Early rule

The four Bavarian partial duchies after the division of the country in 1392

Despite the Wittelsbach territorial losses, the dukes' financial starting position was favorable: Bavaria had received the enormous sum of around half a million guilders in cash and in bonds for the cession of Tyrol (1369) and Brandenburg (1373), most of which went to Stephan II . was omitted, which now inherits a self-contained area. As a result, a number of the former possessions of the Counts of Abensberg, Ortenburg, Hals and Schauenburg, the Hochstift Regensburg, the Lords of Laaber and the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg, especially in Lower Bavaria and in the Nordgau, which still interrupted the regional context, could from to be acquired by the dukes.

After the death of his father, Stephan III ruled. initially together with his two brothers Friedrich and Johann II and his uncle Otto V , a half-brother of his father. Otto had been Margrave of Brandenburg until 1373 , but then sold the mark to the Emperor for 500,000 guilders in the Fürstenwalde Treaty . For part of the purchase price he had received Bohemian possessions in the Bavarian Nordgau as pledge, which he now brought into the joint government. With the division of the country in 1376 , the four dukes agreed that Upper Bavaria would initially be administered by Stephan and Johann and Lower Bavaria by Friedrich and Otto. So that neither party was disadvantaged, the government areas should change every two years. However, this unusual arrangement was not implemented. Instead, Friedrich paid his brothers, who lived in Upper Bavaria, 4,000 guilders a year as compensation.

One of the reasons for his constant financial hardship was certainly Stephen's pompous lifestyle. Because of his splendid court holding called "the Kneißel", Stephan III got involved. also after taking office in Italy and Alsace and brought in Rome with Pope Boniface IX. permission to ring in the evening .

Stephen's early reign was particularly determined by a political event, the outbreak of the dispute between the emperor and the cities that were increasingly striving for independence. Because Charles IV was in need of greater financial resources, such as those that arose for the payment of compensation payments for Brandenburg or on the occasion of the election of his son Wenzel as a king , which he tried to compensate through high special taxes in the cities, even repeating to achieve his political goals Pledged imperial cities to third parties against their will. The growing resentment of the cities had the consequence that on July 4, 1376 fourteen Swabian cities united under the leadership of Ulm to form the Swabian League of Cities against the Emperor. In their function as Swabian provincial bailiffs, the Bavarian dukes Stephan and Friedrich remained neutral at the beginning of the conflict and tried to mediate, but soon afterwards there were long fighting. After the Nuremberg Diet of 1379, King Wenzel gave Duke Leopold III. of Austria the two bailiffs in Swabia as a pledge, because he used it for the support of Pope Urban VI. wanted to win. Bailiff in Upper Swabia was the Bavarian Duke Friedrich the Wise and Count Eberhard II in Lower Swabia . The League of Towns disapproved of the granting of pledges. This led to a controversial dispute with the prince and knight associations, whose opinion leader was Count Eberhard II, until Wenzel gave in when the Bavarian dukes temporarily approached the association of cities.

In 1380, Stephan was back in Italy to prepare for King Wenceslas, who finally failed to move to Rome, and soon even Todi in Umbria submitted to Stephen's rule for a short time when he stayed for months in the Papal States to provide military support for the Pope.

In 1385 Stephan married his 14-year-old daughter Elisabeth to 17-year-old Charles IV of France . She went down in history as Isabeau de Bavière and the later involvement of his children in France was to prove rather fatal for his line. In order to reinforce the connection with France, Stephan sent his son Ludwig to the French court for five years in 1391, but initially he only stayed there until 1393.

1387–1389, Stephan and his brothers and Albrecht II of Bavaria-Straubing waged another city ​​war against the Swabian Association of Cities and the Archbishop of Salzburg , who had allied themselves with the cities. After his capture by Duke Friedrich, the Bavarian dukes withdrew from Pope Urban VI. to, and King Wenzel had to order an imperial war against the duchy until the Wittelsbachers gave in. Not until 1389 was there a final peace with the cities.

In 1390/91 Stephan fought again on the side of the Visconti in Italy and was able to re-establish the rule of Francis of Carrara in Padua , but himself did not gain any territories.

Duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt

The partial duchy of Bavaria-Ingolstadt

In 1392 the brothers divided the former domain of Stephen II into the lines Bavaria-Munich , Bavaria-Landshut and Bavaria-Ingolstadt . The driving force behind the division was Johann, who was no longer willing to pay for Stephen's costly court keeping and the Italian policy of Stephen and Frederick, who was also married to one of the daughters of the Milanese city lord Bernabò Visconti.

Stephan III. received by lot scattered areas of Upper Bavaria and the northern Gau, which he ruled from Ingolstadt . He felt that he had been taken advantage of in the division and so there were armed conflicts between him and Duke Johann in the First Bavarian House War in 1394/95 . Stephen's son Ludwig VII attacked Freising on Christmas Eve 1394 , whose bishop Berthold von Wehingen was chancellor of the Austrian dukes, threatened Pfaffenhofen and plundered Neustadt an der Donau in the Duchy of Munich on Epiphany . In return, Johann and his sons Ernst and Wilhelm turned against Aichach and Friedberg and burned the castle in Markt Schwaben down. After the end of the hostilities, the dukes agreed in September 1395, united by common external enemies, to govern Bavaria-Munich and Bavaria-Ingolstadt together again. Stephan later supported the rebellious Munich guilds against his nephews Ernst and Wilhelm, who were able to end the uprising in 1403. As early as 1402, Stephan had to forego all claims in Munich and was again restricted to Bavaria-Ingolstadt in his rule. His son Ludwig, who was now mostly in France, realized that his father's lavish lifestyle had driven the young duchy into debt. He therefore called on the spiritual and secular lords in the area not to lend him any more money. He accepted Stephen's angry protests.

1394-1397 Stephan was again imperial governor in Swabia. Because of the conflicts within Wittelsbach, he sought support from King Wenceslaus and supported him against the Bohemian magnate opposition. In 1395 Wenzel had raised the usurper Gian Galeazzo Visconti to Duke of Milan, who had murdered Stephen's father-in-law Bernabò. The survey was carried out with the annoying reason for Stephan that he wanted to counterbalance French ambitions in Italy. In 1397, after their estrangement, King Wenzel no longer lent the Swabian bailiffs to Stephan, but to Friedrich von Öttingen. Having become opponents of King Wenceslas, Stephan and his son Ludwig have been advocating a kingdom for the Palatinate Elector Ruprecht since 1399 . In the following dispute between Ruprecht and Wenzel, Stephan made use of his French relations to achieve neutrality for France, which actually favored the Luxembourg side. However, through his close ties to the French court, Stephan and Ludwig also developed a hostile attitude towards the new king and Stephan joined the anti-royal Marbach League in 1407 . After King Ruprecht I died in 1410, Stephan made a vain claim to the Palatinate electoral vote.

The last joint action of the Upper Bavarian dukes after their reconciliation in 1410 was a futile campaign to recapture Tyrol. An aristocratic opposition to the ruling Habsburg Frederick IV had formed there since the middle of the decade . Bavarian incursions into the Lower Inn Valley, supported by Heinrich von Rottenburg , the head of the Tyrolean aristocratic opposition against the Habsburg sovereign prince, were without lasting success. At the beginning of 1413 Stephan invaded Tyrol again on his own, but again without success.

Stephan III. died on September 25, 1413 in the Niederschönenfeld monastery , where he was first buried. It was not until February 1415 that his son and successor Louis VII left France at the head of a delegation to the Council of Constance and then returned to his inherited duchy. Around 1430, Ludwig had Stephen's bones transferred to the newly built Ingolstadt Liebfrauenmünster . Stephen's second wife Elisabeth von Kleve was only able to get her stepson Ludwig 12,000 guilders to support her in 1430 and died in Cologne after 1439 .

progeny

Duke Stephan III. married in 1367 Taddea Visconti (1350-1381), daughter of Visconte Bernabò Visconti and his wife Beatrice della Scala. The marriage had two children:

• Louis VII the Bearded (1368–1447)

1. ⚭ 1402 in Prague Anne de Bourbon (1380–1408), widow of Count John II of Berry-Montpensier,
2. ⚭ 1413 in Paris Catherine d'Alençon (1395–1462), widow of Peter of Navarre , Count of Mortain ;

• Elisabeth (Isabeau de Bavière, 1370–1435), Queen of France

1. ⚭ 1385 in Amiens King Charles VI. of France (1368-1422).

In his second marriage he married Elisabeth von Kleve on January 17, 1401 in Cologne . The marriage remained childless.

His illegitimate son Johann von Moosburg was Bishop of Regensburg until 1409.

literature

• Helga Czerny: The death of the Bavarian dukes in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period 1347–1579. Preparations - dying - funeral ceremonies - burial - memoria (=  series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 146 ). CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-10742-7 , p. 113–116 (also dissertation, University of Munich 2004).
• Sigmund Ritter von Riezler :  Stephan III . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 68-71.
• Theodor Straub : Bavaria under the sign of the divisions and partial duchies . In: Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus (Hrsg.): Handbook of Bavarian History . 2nd Edition. tape II . CH Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-32320-0 , p. 196-287 , especially 226 .
• Theodor Straub: Duke Stephan the Kneißel . In: Bayern-Ingolstadt, Bayern-Landshut. 1392-1506. Splendor and misery of a division . Ingolstadt City Archives, Ingolstadt 1992, ISBN 3-932113-06-3 , p. 23-26 .
• Inge Turtur: form of government and office of Duke Stephans III. of Bavaria 1375-1413 . Munich 1952 (also dissertation, Munich 1954).
• Joachim Wild : The dukes of Straubing and Ingolstadt. Temporary residence cities . In: Alois Schmid , Katharina Weigand (Hrsg.): The rulers of Bavaria. 25 historical portraits of Tassilo III. until Ludwig III . 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54468-1 , p. 118-129 , especially 123-124 .

Web links

• Site of the Ingolstadt City Museum

Remarks

1. ↑ Johannes Aventinus , Baierische Chronik, Book VIII, chap. 90 = Matthias Lexer (ed.): Johannes Turmair's called Aventinus all works . tape 5 . Christian Kaiser, Munich 1886, p. 538 ( digitized version ).
2. ↑ At the time of the marriage cf. Theodor Straub: The Milanese marriage of Duke Stephen III. of the Kneißels and The real year of birth of Duke Louis the Bearded and his sister Isabeau de Bavière . In: Collection sheet of the historical association Ingolstadt . tape 77 , 1968, pp. 5–12 ( digitized version ).
3. ^ Werner Paravicini: The Prussian journeys of the European nobility . Part 1 (=  supplements of the Francia . Volume 17/1 ). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1989, ISBN 3-7995-7317-8 , pp. 149 ( digitized version ).
4. ↑ Zander, Florian. Life and political work of Duke Stefan III., Seminar paper, 2000
5. ↑ The latter complained in a letter: He (Ludwig VII.) Maintains, we are suffering from our armůt and notichait! (Neuburger Kopialbuch 69, 38).
6. ↑ On the dispute over Tyrol see Klaus Brandstätter : Österreichischer Krieg, 1410-1413 . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria .
7. ↑ On Stephen's death and burial place of Helga Czerny: The death of the Bavarian dukes in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period 1347–1579. Preparations - dying - funeral ceremonies - burial - memoria (=  series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 146 ). CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-10742-7 , p. 114–116 (also dissertation, University of Munich 2004).

predecessor	Office	successor
Stephan II	Duke of Bavaria (-Ingolstadt) 1375 / 1392–1413	Louis VII