Ulrich I. (East Frisia)

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Ulrich I (* around 1408 probably in the north ; † September 25 or 26, 1466 in Emden at the castle) was Count of East Friesland .

Ulrich I. (East Frisia)

parents

Ulrich was the offspring of a Greetsiel chief family . His father Enno Edzardisna had taken over the chieftainship in the north as heir to Norder Attena , and after the death of his brother Haro also the chieftainship of Greetsiel with the ancestral castle there . His second marriage to Gela, the daughter of Affo Beninga , chief of Pilsum and Manslagt , and the Tiadeka Siartza of Berum , also gave him the inheritance of the highly respected Cirksena family , because after Gela's only son from his first marriage, the chief Liudward Cirksena ( "Syrtza") zu Berum, who died in the mid-30s of the 15th century without descendants, Gela and her niece Frauwa Cirksena ("Sydzena") were the sole heirs of the Cirksena von Berum. Enno took the opportunity and married his son from his first marriage, Ulrich's stepbrother Edzard , to Frauwa. In addition, Edzard and Enno took the family name and coat of arms of their wives to emphasize the line of succession.

When the East Frisian chiefs of the Kenesna tom Brok  wanted to establish their own sovereignty in East Frisia in the second half of the 14th and first quarter of the 15th centuries  - contrary to the principle of Frisian freedom - Enno joined the opposition under Focko Ukena , who 1427 succeeded in overthrowing the tom Brok during the battle of the wild fields .

Life

Ulrich was probably born in the north around 1408 . Presumably he grew up first in Norden and Manslagt (or Larrelt) and after the death of his uncle Harro on the family castle in Greetsiel.

Together with his father and his older stepbrother Edzard, Ulrich first appeared politically in 1430. They concluded the " Freedom League of the Seven East Frisia " with some East Frisian regional communities . This was directed against Focko Ukena, who, after the overthrow of tom Brok, was now working on the establishment of a state rule. In order to be able to defeat Ukena, the "Freedom Association of the Seven East Friesland" allied with the Hanseatic City of Hamburg , which in turn wanted to end the support of the Likedeelers by the East Frisian chiefs. In 1433 the Hamburgers succeeded in taking Emden and the final victory over Ukena near Norden (Bargebur). In order to finally get over the piracy, the Hamburgers stayed in East Friesland and occupied Emden as well as the Stickhausen Castle and the Leerort fortress . During this time the Cirksena began to expand their position. In this way they and their closest allies succeeded in gradually gaining control over regional parishes of East Friesland, because they preferred to submit to the Cirksena rather than foreign rule. In 1439 the Hanseatic City of Hamburg also transferred its occupied territories in East Frisia to the two Cirksena brothers Ulrich and Edzard for safekeeping.

When Edzard and Frauwa died of the plague without descendants in 1441 , Ulrich also inherited the estate of Cirksena von Berum. He too adopted this family name, which was highly respected in East Frisia at the time, for himself and his descendants. From 1444 he called himself a chief in East Frisia. Ulrich tried in the following time to establish his rule. In order to secure the support of the Emder, who were legally still under Hamburg rule, he helped the community to a council constitution in 1442. In addition, he had the castle there removed and the border fortress at Detern, razed by the Hamburgers, rebuilt with the support of the Lengen state community . As a result, he came into conflict with the Hanseatic city, which from 1447, with Ulrich's approval, managed its East Frisian possessions again itself. Six years later, with the support of other chiefs, Ulrich succeeded in driving the Hamburgers out of East Frisia for good. Then the Cirksena secured his rule. So he let himself be drawn from the descendants of Idzinga von Norden, Kankena (1442), tom Brok, Allena (1449), Addinga (1453), Abdena von Emden, chiefs Abeko von Loppersum, Gerd von Petkum (1460 ) as well as Eggo Addinga (1466) and relatives whose legal title is binding in return for a corresponding severance payment.

The Franciscan monastery in Emden after the Reformation (excerpt from a city view by Braun Hogenberg from 1575)

Ulrich achieved through various interventions at the political level on October 1, 1464, the increase in the hereditary imperial count by Emperor Friedrich III . On December 23, 1464, the official enfeoffment with the imperial county of East Friesland took place in the church of the Franciscan monastery in Faldern . He and his nephew Sibet Attena were made knights. Ulrich had to pay a considerable sum to the imperial chancellery for this. The emperor's always tight financial situation and the lavish courtship favored his decisions.

Ulrich I died on September 25 or 26, 1466 in his castle in Emden . On September 27th of this year he was buried in the Marienthal Abbey to the north. After this monastery was destroyed in 1531 and Ulrich's grandson, Count Enno II , died in 1540, after the completion of the monumental Enno tomb in the Great Church of Emden in 1548, the remains of the Cirksena - and thus Ulrichs - were reburied from north to Emden . In 1948 the rest of these bones were recovered in the Great Church, which was destroyed by the Second World War , and transferred to the mausoleum of the East Frisian princes built in 1875/76 in the Aurich cemetery .

family

Ulrich Cirksena also pursued a wise marriage policy himself. His first wife was Folcka, the heir to the chief Wibet von Esens . In 1440 she gave him the glory of Esen with all its rights and righteousness. She died in 1452. His second wife became Theda Ukena in 1453 , daughter of Uko von Oldersum and thus granddaughter of the powerful chief of Leer , Focko Ukena . She, too, brought a new and considerable addition to his house.

Ulrich and Theda had six children:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Hajo van Lengen , ( Biographical Lexicon for Ostfriesland ): ULRICH I. (PDF; 107 kB). In: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. Vol. 2, East Frieze. Scenic Verl.- u. Vertriebsges., Aurich 1997, ISBN 3-932206-00-2 , pp. 376-383.

literature

predecessor Office successor
Edzard Cirksena Count of East Frisia
1441–1466 		Theda
personal data
SURNAME Ulrich I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of Chief Enno Cirksena from the north
DATE OF BIRTH around 1408
PLACE OF BIRTH north
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1466 or September 26, 1466
Place of death Emden at the castle