Star League

The Sternerbund or Rittergesellschaft or Ritterbund vom Sterne (often simply called the Sterner ) was an alliance of opponents of the Landgraviate of Hesse , which was founded around 1370 and dissolved after the Star Wars lost against the Landgraviate in 1373. The federal government fought against the expansion policy of Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse and his nephew and co-regent Hermann II.

Emergence

A visit by Friedrich von Lißberg on October 5, 1369 to Duke Otto von Braunschweig-Göttingen (called: the Quade) in Münden is believed to be the time of its creation . Friedrich was then in possession of Herzberg Castle and therefore also called himself Friedrich von Herzberg. The main federal actors were:

• Duke Otto I of Braunschweig-Göttingen
• Count Gottfried VII and Gottfried VIII von Ziegenhain
• Archbishop Johann von Luxemburg-Ligny von Mainz
• Bishop Heinrich von Spiegel zum Desenberg von Paderborn
• Count Johann I of Nassau-Dillenburg
• the Counts Diether VIII. , Wilhelm II. and Eberhard von Katzenelnbogen
• Count Engelbert III. from the mark
• Count Heinrich VI. from Waldeck
• Prince Abbot Conrad IV of Fulda ,
• Abbot Berthold II of Hersfeld
• Werner II. Von Falkenberg and other members of his family,
• Philip VII of Falkenstein
• Ulrich IV of Hanau
• Eberhard and Johann von Isenburg
• Johann and Ludwig von Linsingen
• Friedrich von Lißberg
• Dietrich von Runkel
• Reinhard von Westerburg

as well as members of the families

• Eisenberg ,
• Eppstein ,
• Hanstein ,
• Hatzfeld ,
• Helfenstein ,
• Hune ,
• Noise .

organization

The Bund was a closed corporation of princes , counts , lords , knights and clergymen, under the leadership of elected federal captains. Count Gottfried VII von Ziegenhain, after his death his son Gottfried VIII, and Duke Otto von Braunschweig-Göttingen are named as federal governor. In addition to these, the leading forces in the Bund were the Hersfeld and Kurmainz Abbey .

The federal chapter was held in Ziegenhain Castle . The Counts of Ziegenhain had a six-pointed star in their coat of arms and the Bund also had such a star as a sign of identification (knights wore a gold star, squires a silver one). The name is derived from this.

The federal government was able to muster more than 2,000 armed men and its members owned around 350 castles. Their property was in Lower and Upper Hesse, the Wetterau , in the Rhineland , in Thuringia , Saxony and Westphalia .

Interests

• Duke Otto von Braunschweig-Göttingen tried to enforce inheritance claims as the grandson of Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse on the Landgraviate with the help of Sterner .
• Count Gottfried VII and Gottfried VIII von Ziegenhain tried to defend themselves against the increasingly powerful Landgraviate of Hesse. Since the county of Ziegenhain separated Upper and Lower Hesse from each other, the Hessian landgraves endeavored to unite their two largest parts of the country via the Ziegenhain area. In addition, Gottfried VIII was married to Agnes von Braunschweig-Göttingen, a sister of Duke Otto. The promised dowry from Duke Otto was still pending because Otto could not pay. Here a victory over Hesse and the enforcement of Duke Otto's interests against the Landgraviate promised a remedy.
• Like the Counts of Ziegenhain, numerous neighbors felt threatened by the growing Landgraviate of Hesse. These included numerous knights in their catchment area, but also the imperial abbey of Fulda .
• The Electorate of Mainz was in permanent competition with the Landgraviate for supremacy in the Hessian area.
• The Hersfeld Abbey was in conflict with the city ​​of Hersfeld . The abbot tried to strengthen his power through the coalition with the stars.

The result of this coalition and these interests was the outbreak of the Star Wars , which began in 1372.

The End

After the lost war, the Sternerbund dissolved again in 1373 when individual "Sterners" concluded peace treaties with the Landgraviate of Hesse after military defeats.

Different associations emerged from the fragments of the Sternerbund, small societies that only had regional significance. The best known of these were the " Gesellschaft von der alten Minne " (founded by Johann von Nassau-Dillenburg ), the " Gesellschaft vom Falken " in North Hesse, the "Second Westphalian Knight Society " or the " Benglerbund ". The " Löwenbund ", which spread mainly in southern Germany and was founded in 1375, is said to have had relationships with the stars. After Herrmann II and Otto finally came to an agreement in 1375, they founded the "Society of the Sickle" together in 1390. Another alliance on the part of the landgraves was the "Society of the Horne".

rating

The fact that the "Sternerbund" was rated as a knightly society in the following time, although the leading forces were ranked higher (counts, princes, bishops, abbots), indicates that here - as with the successor societies - an idealizing picture of the knight, with which in the late Middle Ages an attempt was made to compensate for the factual loss of importance of knighthood by those affected.

literature

• Georg Landau : The knight societies in Hessen during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. With a document book, Kassel 1848
• Karl Ernst Demandt : History of the State of Hesse , 2nd edition, Kassel, 1980.
• Martin Röhling: The history of the counts of Nidda and the counts of Ziegenhain = Niddaer Geschichtsblätter 9. Ed .: Niddaer Heimatmuseum eV Nidda, 2005. ISBN 3-9803915-9-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Contributions to the history of the principalities of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Arolsen 1874, p. 63. Landau denies this cf. for Landau, Georg: The knight societies in Hessen during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. With a document book, Kassel 1848, p. 37, note 5.