Sulzbach (noble family)

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Sulzbach Castle

The Counts of Sulzbach were a noble family from the Nordgau . They had their headquarters at Sulzbach Castle . The origins of the sex go back to the beginning of the 11th century. The Counts of Sulzbach rose to one of the most powerful noble families in the 11th century. In 1188 they died out in the male line.

The eponymous headquarters

According to legend, the town of Sulzbach-Rosenberg owes its foundation to the decision of Gebhard I, known as the first Count von Sulzbach , who was able to quench his thirst at one of the numerous springs at the foot of the castle rock after a hunting accident .

It is more likely, however, that Emperor Heinrich II awarded him fiefdoms and allodial estates and their main castle in Sulzbach from the shattered possessions of those of Schweinfurt . In the Falkensteiner Codex it is mentioned that Gebhard I. von Sulzbach transferred 400 manses to the Falkensteiners as fiefdoms .

After the submission of the Schweinfurters, a Berengar appears as a count in royal documents in 1007 . After the restitution of Heinrich von Schweinfurt , Berengar had to surrender his county in western Nordgau again and received Bamberg bailiwicks in return, around 1015 he is named as a vassal of Bamberg. Gebhard I. appears in the middle of the 11th century ; under him the family received possessions in the southern Bavarian region. Through his marriage to Irmgard von Rott , whose first marriage was to a Sieghardinger , the Sulzbachers received further goods south of the Danube. From this marriage comes the son Berengar I. From 1100 the Sulzbachers can be referred to as a noble family with a pronounced gender consciousness, so they own Kastl as burial place , the Sulzbach castle is called that from 1104 and the history of the Sulzbachers is in the Kastler rhyming chronicle described.

Outstanding family members

Berengar I , Kastl Abbey

The grandson of Gebhard I, Count Berengar II of Sulzbach , was instrumental in the overthrow Emperor Henry IV. And the appointment of his son V. Heinrich involved. He was one of Heinrich V's most important advisors. Four of his six children entered into highly influential relationships with their marriages: Gebhard III. von Sulzbach was with Mathilde, the daughter of the Bavarian Duke Heinrich IX. married, Gertrud von Sulzbach was the wife of King Konrad III. German Queen, Luitgart von Sulzbach was Duchess of Lower Lorraine and Bertha von Sulzbach became Empress of Ostrom ( Byzantine Empire ) as the consort of Manuel I. Komnenos .

As supporters and part of the noble leadership group of about Bavaria, Swabia and Saxony extending ecclesiastical reform circle ( see also: Hirsauer Reform ) founded Berengar I also, among others, in fulfillment of his mother's vow Irmgard von Rott and the first wife Adelheid Lech Gemünd pins Berchtesgaden and Baumburg as well as the Kastl monastery together with others .

The end of this Sulzbacher line

Already in 1188 with the death of Berengar's son Gebhard III. the gender of those von Sulzbach “in the male line”.

A large part of the possessions came through sale to the Hohenstaufen under Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa . The eastern possessions around Murach Castle as far as the Bohemian border fell with the marriage of Gebhard's daughter Elisabeth to Count Rapoto I from the Ortenburgers' house .

The castle and town of Sulzbach came through Sophie as the heir to Gebhard III. to the Counts of Grögling-Hirschberg . Two of her grandchildren are known to have again held the title of Count von Sulzbach . On March 4, 1305, her great-grandson Gebhard VII dies as the last Count of Hirschberg and this line also expires. In October 1305, after a settlement, the former Sulzbach possessions were awarded to the Wittelsbachers . The name "Sulzbach" only appears again from 1569 to 1808 in the sidelines of the Count Palatine and Dukes of Palatinate-Sulzbach .

coat of arms

Sulzbach-Rosenberg coat of arms

Today's coat of arms of Sulzbach-Rosenberg seems to be modeled exactly on that of the Sulzbach family, as can be seen in the Kastl monastery at the foot of the founder figure of Berengar I von Sulzbach. The white lilies Sulzbacher are also found even in other municipal coat of arms of the district of Amberg-Sulzbach and in the coat of arms of Berchtesgaden , in turn, the coat of arms in 1803 in the wake of secularization resolved Berchtesgaden Provostry equivalent.

Count of Sulzbach

There is only partial agreement among historians about the family tree of the Sulzbach counts. At the moment there seems to be only half agreement about the founder of this line Gebhard I (1030 – around 1071) and his descendants as well as those of his siblings Richwara († around 1070) and Hermann I († January 27, 1056). But the connection to the Duke of Swabia Hermann IV († July 28, 1038) and Adelheid von Susa (1014 / 1020-1091) as their parents, which was also listed in Heinz Dopsch's family tree, was rejected by Eduard Hlawitschka in an essay from 2006. Instead, according to Jürgen Dendorfer, after the subjugation of the Margrave Heinrich von Schweinfurt, a count named Berengar appears in the royal documents for the first time in 1007 , who is identified as the ancestor of the Sulzbach family based on the location of his possessions. He also quotes Heinrich Wanderwitz, according to which this Berengar lost his county in the western Nordgau after the restitution of the Schweinfurters and received Bamberg bailiwicks in the Nordgau and according to a quote from Erich Frhr. von Guttenberg is mentioned as a Bamberg vassal around 1015 .

Family list of the Counts of Sulzbach

left: Gertrud von Sulzbach (grave slab), Ebrach Abbey Church right: Jan van Boendale: Wedding Gottfried II. and Luitgard von Sulzbach left: Gertrud von Sulzbach (grave slab), Ebrach Abbey Church right: Jan van Boendale: Wedding Gottfried II. and Luitgard von Sulzbach
left: Gertrud von Sulzbach (grave slab), Ebrach monastery -abbey
church right: Jan van Boendale: Wedding Gottfried II. and Luitgard von Sulzbach

Family tree and its assignments mainly based on Jürgen Dendorfer, supplemented by information based on Heinz Dopsch as well as existing Wikipedia articles - in brackets and italics, if applicable, old counting methods and dates based on Heinz Dopsch .

literature

Web links

Commons : Sulzbach (noble family)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Dendorfer : The Counts of Sulzbach. In Ferdinand Kramer & Wilhelm Störmer (ed.), High Middle Ages Noble Families in Old Bavaria, Franconia and Swabia (= Studies on Bavarian Constitutional and Social History, Volume XX), pp. 179–212. Commission for Bavarian State History at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2005. ISBN 376966874X .
  2. ↑ Gerd Althoff: Heinrich IV. Darmstadt 2006, p. 233.
  3. ↑ Stefan Weinfurter, The foundation of the Augustinian Canons' Monastery - reform idea and beginnings of the regular canons in Berchtesgaden , in: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594), vol. 1 , ed. by W. Brugger, H. Dopsch, PF Kramml, Berchtesgaden 1991, pp. 245-246.
  4. ↑ Stefan Weinfurter , The foundation of the Augustinian Canons ' Monastery - reform idea and beginnings of the regular canons in Berchtesgaden , in: History of Berchtesgaden: Between Salzburg and Bavaria (until 1594) , vol. 1, ed. by W. Brugger, H. Dopsch, PF Kramml, Berchtesgaden 1991, p. 230.
  5. ↑ Manfred Feulner : Berchtesgaden - history of the country and its inhabitants . P. 8.
  6. ↑ Dieter Albrecht : Die Fürstpropstei Berchtesgaden in: Max Spindler , Andreas Kraus (Hrsg.): Handbook of Bavarian History. Pp. 286-287.
  7. ↑ a b c See family tree The "Counts of Sulzbach, Kastl and Habsberg" in: Heinz Dopsch : Siedlung und Recht. On the prehistory of the Berchtesgaden founders , in: Walter Brugger (Ed.): History of Berchtesgaden. Stift - Markt - Land , vol. 1, p. 214
  8. ↑ Eduard Hlawitschka : On the descent of Richwaras, the wife of Duke Berthold I of Zähringen . In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine , Vol. 154 (2006), pp. 1-20.
  9. ^ Jürgen Dendorfer : The Counts of Sulzbach ; PDF file p. 5 of 35
  10. ^ Jürgen Dendorfer : The Counts of Sulzbach ; PDF file p. 11 of 35
  11. ↑ Information from the respective Wikipedia article
  12. ↑ For the number and names of their children together, see Heinz Dopsch : Siedlung und Recht. On the prehistory of the Berchtesgaden founders , in: Walter Brugger [Hrsg.]: History of Berchtesgaden. Stift - Markt - Land , Vol. 1, pp. 214 and 221
  13. ^ Garland-Stone, Bertha-Irene of Sulzbach, first wife of Manuel I Comnenus
  14. ↑ For evidence of Mathilde as Berengar's daughter, see Friedrich Hausmann The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, and their subsidiary lines . In: East Bavarian border marks. Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde. No. 36, 1994, p. 16
  15. ↑ On the marriage of Heinrich II. Von Altendorf with Berta von Sulzbach see reference Jürgen Dendorfer: Die Grafen von Sulzbach , page 23 u. 24 of 35 page PDF file.