Star war

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The Star Wars was a military conflict between the Landgraviate of Hesse and its allies on the one hand against a coalition, the Star League , on the other between 1371 and 1373 .

Starting position

The Landgraviate Hesse strives their sovereignty expand tried knightly nobility within the borders of their territory to mediate and to gain further influence and territories at their external borders. This led to conflicts with

  • numerous knights and lords in this field;
  • in his own family: Duke Otto I of Braunschweig-Göttingen tried to assert inheritance claims as the grandson of the deceased Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse on the Landgraviate;
  • neighboring powers. These included above all:
    • the Electorate of Mainz , which was in a permanent competitive situation with the Landgraviate for supremacy in the Hessian area;
    • Count Gottfried VII and Gottfried VIII von Ziegenhain , who tried to defend themselves in this way 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.
    • the Abbey of Fulda and the Abbey of Hersfeld , which saw themselves harassed both by the Landgraviate of Hesse and by the citizens of the cities of Fulda and Hersfeld .

While the opponents of Hesse united in the Star League, Landgrave Hermann II of Hesse succeeded in teaming up with Landgrave Friedrich III. von Meißen - Thuringia , a relative, to ally. Other aristocratic allies were Duke Albrecht I of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen , Heinrich I of Nassau-Beilstein and, from spring 1372, Count Otto and Johann II von Solms . They could also rely on the bourgeoisie in the cities, which, for economic reasons and in order to strengthen their own self-determination, were interested in restricting robber barons and the power of the local nobility and the large monasteries.

Acts of war

In the autumn of 1371, the parties accused each other of having ambushed messengers and committed raids. Hermann II of Hesse initially behaved rather hesitantly and tried to resolve the conflict through negotiations. The Sternerbund did not respond.

In the spring of 1372 Hermann II banned. All knights in his sphere of influence to be a member of the Sterner Federation, and requested a contingent in the Hessian cities. Letters of feud were sent.

The main base of the Sterner was Herzberg Castle due to its strategically important location on the military and trade route "Kurz Hessen" and between the areas of interest of the Landgraviate of Hesse, the Hersfeld Abbey, the County of Ziegenhain and the Fulda Abbey. In order to secure it against attacks, Duke Otto von Braunschweig-Göttingen sent soldiers and his captain Breido Rantzow to the castle as early as 1371. Landgrave Hermann II and Balthasar von Thuringia besieged the castle from August 1372 with about 1000 men. Since the siege lasted longer, the Sterners were able to set up a relief army with around 1500 men, which, under the leadership of Count Gottfried VII von Ziegenhain, advanced from the Schwalm to the castle. It cut off the retreat and supply routes to Alsfeld and Marburg for the Hessian siege army , and Landgrave Hermann II was forced to break off the siege and withdraw in the direction of Hersfeld . Since the Hersfeld abbot was also a star, Gottfried VII hoped to be able to wipe out the Hessian army between himself and the fortified city of Hersfeld. Hermann moved with part of the army into the narrow valley of the auditorium , moved to the area of ​​the County of Ziegenhain, devastated Neukirchen and Schwarzenborn and then withdrew to Marburg. From here he attacked the Sterner in western Hesse.

The other part of the besiegers who withdrew from Herzberg Castle moved under Balthasar of Thuringia to the city of Hersfeld. When Balthasar asked for admission to the city, the Hersfeld abbot Berthold II von Völkershausen wanted to prevent this, but the citizens opened their city to the landgrave's army against the will of the abbot. The Sterner then did not dare to attack the Hessian-Thuringian troops in the fortified city. When new Hessian troops arrived to reinforce them and the Sterners tried to position them at the Nikolauskirche at the gates of Hersfeld, the citizens of Hersfeld also granted these troops protection within the city walls. On January 28, 1373, the city formally formed a protective and defensive alliance with the Landgrave of Hesse and on October 24, 1373 with the Landgrave of Thuringia. According to these contracts, the Hessian landgrave sent 60 Glevner (heavily armed lancers with several mounted servants) to Hersfeld, and both landgraves assured the city of more should it be attacked. Although the city excluded abbot and monastery in the treaties, it was enormously strengthened against them.

In addition to the confrontations at Herzberg Castle and around Hersfeld, the war was also fought in a large number of smaller skirmishes . So went z. B. the knights of Buchenau against the landgrave city of Rotenburg an der Fulda and its surroundings. However, they were unable to take the city and were defeated by the landgrave's troops as they retreated from Hersfeld. Ziegenhain troops attacked the villages of the Rohrbach court (later Ludwigseck court ) from Schwarzenborn ; it belonged partly to the Landgrave and partly to the Hersfeld Abbey, which caused considerable trouble between the actual allies.

End of the argument

As early as the spring of 1372, in view of the emerging Hessian-Thuringian superiority, the coalition of the Star Association began to crumble: As the first of the Sterners, the brothers Johann and Ludwig von Linsingen were taken prisoner in Hesse, had to swear primal feuds and were thus eliminated from the Sternern. In mid-July, the landgrave's troops succeeded in capturing the Sterner and Bishop Heinrich von Spiegel on the Desenberg of Paderborn . He was also eliminated from the Sternern.

On February 13, 1373 a united army of the Hessian landgrave, the counts of Solms and the city of Wetzlar near Wetzlar was able to destroy an army of the Sternerbund, whereby a number of leading personalities from its ranks were taken prisoner. Some of them were beheaded in Wetzlar , and there were violent disputes between the allies about how to deal with those who remained.

On June 9, 1373, Landgrave Heinrich II and his nephew and co-regent Hermann II met in Eschwege with the Landgrave brothers Friedrich III. , Balthasar and Wilhelm I from the House of Wettin and formed a hereditary brotherhood . Emperor Karl IV confirmed this inheritance contract in December of the same year after the Landgraviate of Hesse had been given an imperial fiefdom for equality with the Landgraviate of Thuringia. With this, all of Duke Otto's claims to the Landgraviate of Hesse were finally invalid. In 1431, at a meeting in Rotenburg with Elector Friedrich II. Of Saxony and his three brothers, Landgrave Ludwig I , the son of Hermann II , renewed the contract with the Meissen-Thuringian house, which has since acquired the electoral dignity and the imperial arch marshal office would have.

In view of the victories of Hesse and the large military contingent of Landgrave Hermann II, the Sternerbund virtually collapsed at the end of 1373. A large number of former Sterner had to make peace with the Landgrave on terms that made them even more dependent on the Landgraviate. Even Duke Otto von Braunschweig had to accept this in 1375 and explicitly waive all claims against Hesse.

literature

  • Paul Görlich: Hesse and the Star Wars . In: Hessische Heimat 6 (1961).
  • Martin Röhling: The history of the counts of Nidda and the counts of Ziegenhain = Niddaer Geschichtsblätter 9. Ed .: Niddaer Heimatmuseum eV Nidda. 2005, pp. 55-68. ISBN 3-9803915-9-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ several scholars: General German People's Conversations Lexicon and Foreign Dictionary . An indispensable manual for anyone third volume. Verlag von Tramburg's Erben, Hamburg 1848, ISBN 3-486-56192-8 , p. 282 f . ( online at: books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ Edgar Löning: The hereditary brotherhoods between the houses of Saxony and Hesse and Saxony, Brandenburg and Hesse. Habilitation thesis. Literarisches Anstalt, Frankfurt aM, 1867, pp. 17-18
  3. ↑ several scholars: General German People's Conversations Lexicon and Foreign Dictionary . An indispensable manual for anyone third volume. Verlag von Tramburg's Erben, Hamburg 1848, ISBN 3-486-56192-8 , p. 282 f . ( online at: books.google.de ).