Tübingen feud

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As a Tübingen feud the conflict from 1164 to 1166 between Welf VI. and Welf VII. on the one hand and Count Palatine Hugo II of Tübingen on the other. It encompassed the entire Swabian region and could only be resolved through repeated intervention by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa .

Happening

root cause

The sources ( Historia Welforum , Otto von St. Blasien) report that Hugo picked up several muggers ( latrones ), leaving his own ministerial free, but executing the Guelphs and destroying their Möhringen castle near Stuttgart. Thereupon Welf VI sent. a complaint ( querimonia ) to Hugo, which the latter answered submissively and thus initially escaped a feud. The Guelphs did not forget the incidents, however, and so Welf VII renewed the lawsuit in 1164 while his father was in Italy. Allegedly incited by Duke Friedrich IV of Swabia , Hugo gave a defiant answer, which, according to Gerd Althoff , corresponded to a ritualized consent to a violent solution ( feud ).

Older research (especially Karl Schmid) suspects deeper causes and finds them in a dispute over the legacy of Hugo's father-in-law, Count Rudolf von Bregenz.

In recent research, Gerd Althoff describes this assumption as "very problematic", since Hugo's action against the Guelph followers would offer "an extremely plausible reason for feud". This also corresponds to the view of all contemporary sources. Nevertheless, the high degree of escalation can only be seen in the context of the competition between the three dukes ( Berthold von Zähringen , Friedrich von Schwaben and Welf von Spoleto), as well as Hugo's expansive territorial policy (see literature: Feldmann). Another aspect is the old hostility complex between Welf and King Konrad or his son Friedrich von Rothenburg (Duke of Swabia), which was passed over with the help of Guelph in the succession to the throne in 1152 and due to the birth of the first son of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1164, no prospect of it had the title of king.

course

After Hugo did not show himself understanding and did not want to make a satisfactio , Welf VII. Reported to his relatives, friends and loyal followers of the injustice done to him and thus forged a powerful alliance that included the bishops of Augsburg, Speyer and Worms, Duke Berthold von Zähringen and 15 Counts, including Count Gottfried and Rupert von Ronsberg , belonged. On September 5, 1164, Welf and his allies advanced with a huge army of 2,200 men in front of Tübingen Castle, under whose protection Count Palatine Hugo and Duke Friedrich had entrenched themselves with 1,100 men. The following night negotiators sought a peaceful settlement. On Sunday, September 6th 1164, a skirmish turned into an unplanned battle in which the Guelph side was defeated. The party Palatine Hugos was able to capture 900 opponents, while Welf VII was able to save himself to Achalm Castle with only three companions, according to the Historia Welforum.

The return of Welfs VI. from Italy and an imperial court day in Ulm in November 1164 initially ensured a ceasefire and the release of the prisoners. The fighting flared up again at the end of 1165. Welfish troops succeeded in destroying the palatinate castles in Kellmünz on the Iller, Hildrizhausen and Pfalzgrafenweiler as well as the fortified church in Validstein, which, according to Schiffer (see literature), were all outposts of the Tübingian expansion.

Hugo countered by asking the Duke of Swabia to get help from the Bohemian Duke (King) Vladislav II through his family ties . With the help of these Bohemian troops, he devastated the Guelph possessions in Upper Swabia at the beginning of 1166 and forced the Guelphs to retreat to their Ravensburg castle.

The End

After the failed armistice of November 1164, the resurgent fighting in the spring of 1166 required the emperor to intervene again. On the court day in Ulm at the beginning of March, Count Palatine Hugo had to prostrate himself three times to Welf VII. In the presence of all participating nobles (including Friedrich von Rothenburgs) by imperial order and was then taken away tied up in captivity. Until the young Welf's death in 1167, he spent a year and a half imprisoned in a Guelph castle in Churrätien. Submission rituals were common public signs in the High Middle Ages and solved many a conflict.

An open question remains why Duke Friedrich von Schwaben was not punished. Hansmartin Schwarzmaier attributes this to the support of his father-in-law, Duke Heinrich the Lion , and his aunt, the Byzantine Empress Bertha von Sulzbach .

literature

  • Gerd Althoff : Conflict behavior and legal awareness: The Guelphs in the middle of the 12th century . In: Early Medieval Studies 26/1992. Pp. 331-352.
  • Karin Feldmann: Welf VI. and his son . Tübingen 1971.
  • Peter Schiffer: Möhringen and the territorial policy of the Count Palatine of Tübingen. On the cause of the Tübingen feud (1164–1166) . In: Wolfgang Schmierer (Ed.): From South West German History. Festschrift for Hans-Martin Maurer . Stuttgart 1994. pp. 81-104.
  • Karl Schmid: Count Rudolf von Pfullendorf and Emperor Frederick I . Freiburg 1954.
  • Hansmartin Schwarzmaier: The world of the Staufer. Way stations of a Swabian royal dynasty . Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2009. pp. 99-105.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Althoff: Conflict behavior . P. 62f.
  2. ^ Thomas Zotz : Ottonen, Salier and early Staufer times (911–1167) . In: Meinrad Schaab , Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (ed.) U. a .: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Volume 1: General History. Part 1: From prehistoric times to the end of the Hohenstaufen. Edited on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-608-91465-X , pp. 381-528, here pp. 455f.
  3. ↑ Schwarzmaier: Die Welt der Staufer , p. 103f.