Ulrich II (Cilli)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ulrich von Cilli
Coat of arms of Ulrich II.

Ulrich II von Cilli (also Cilly or Cili; * 1406 , in Celje ; † November 9, 1456 in Belgrade ) was the prince Count of Cilli , a successful politician and the last of his family to die out with him.

Origin, family and children

Ulrich II of Cilli was a grandson of Count Hermann II of Cilli . His parents were Count Friedrich II. Von Cilli and his first wife Elisabeth von Frangepán . Through his aunt Barbara von Cilli , he was a close relative of Kaiser Siegmund and his daughter Elisabeth . She was married to Duke Albrecht V of Austria , who ruled over the Duchy of Austria and succeeded Siegmund as German-Roman King (1438), King of Hungary (1437) and King of Bohemia (1438).

Around 1432/1434 Ulrich von Cilli married Katharina Branković , a daughter of the Serbian ruler Georg Branković and sister of Mara Branković . This marriage resulted in three children who all died before him.

  • Hermann IV. († 1452)
  • Georg († 1443)
  • Elisabeth (* 1441; † 1455), she was engaged (or already married) to one of the sons of Johann Hunyadi .

Life

Beginnings

Little is known of Ulrich's youth. Together with his father, Emperor Siegmund raised him to counts and their counties of Cilli, Ortenburg and Sternberg to imperial fiefs on November 20, 1436. This elevation to the imperial prince status was made by the ruler of the duchies of Styria , Carinthia and Carniola , in which a large part of the Cillier possessions were, the later Emperor Friedrich III. , not recognized, resulting in feuds that lasted for years . It was not until 1443 that an agreement was reached, the Treaty of Wiener Neustadt of August 16, 1443. The elevation to imperial count was recognized by Friedrich III., Who had meanwhile been elected German-Roman king, (this in a form that allows him allowed to save face) and signed an inheritance contract .

Since his father mainly took care of the family's possessions, Ulrich was able to devote himself entirely to politics. After the death of Emperor Siegmund, Ulrich initially supported his son-in-law Albrecht, who appointed him his governor in Bohemia .

Under the "rule" of King Ladislaus Postumus

After Albrecht's death in 1439, Ulrich supported his widow Elisabeth and their posthumously born son Ladislaus (as King of Hungary: Ladislaus V), in whose coronation he played a major role in May 1440. A feud with the Hunyadis ensued, made worse by Johann Hunyadi's attack on Serbia in 1444 and his refusal to recognize Ulrich's claim to Bosnia after the death of Stefan Tvrtko in 1443. In 1446, Hunyadi, now imperial administrator of Hungary, plundered the Cillis territories in Croatia - Slavonia ; His power was broken in Kosovo in 1448 , and Count Ulrich was able to lead a successful crusade to Hungary in 1450, nominally in the interests of the Habsburgs.

On March 5, 1452 he officially joined the Mailberger Bund , which the Austrian provincial estates had formed under the leadership of Ulrich von Eitzing in order to take over the guardianship that Friedrich III. over Ladislaus exercised to take over himself. Count Ulrich managed to bring about a meeting between representatives of the Hungarian and Austrian estates in Vienna, which ended with a contract and joint action by the provincial estates against Friedrich III. made possible. In addition there were his contacts to the Bohemian Rosenbergs, whom he was also able to win for the cause of the estates and who supported the fighting that occurred in August and September 1452. The dispute ended on September 4, 1452 when King Ladislaus was handed over to him directly.

After the young King Ladislaus was handed over into his care, he was de facto ruler of the Duchy of Austria above and below the Enns and the Kingdom of Hungary. The dispatch of an embassy from King Ladislaus, which, under the leadership of Provost Simon von Klosterneuburg, negotiated with the Pope in August / September 1453 in Rome about the lifting of the ban on the Church that he had imposed on the Mailberger Bund, was probably on his initiative be. In September 1453, the trigger was probably the preparation for the coronation of Ladislaus as Bohemian king, his political disempowerment by Ulrich von Eitzing, who was supported by representatives of the Austrian estates, and his flight from Vienna. Ultimately, Ladislaus agreed or had to agree to this disempowerment. Ulrich's fall was only temporary.

When his father died in 1454, Ulrich inherited considerable wealth, which significantly increased his already considerable power base. In 1456 he was appointed governor in Hungary by King Ladislaus. While preparing for another campaign against the Ottomans, Ulrich was killed by Ladislaus Hunyadi and his supporters in Belgrade in November 1456 .

The death of Ulrich von Cilli and its consequences

Two different versions of the causes of Ulrich's violent death developed:

  • According to one version, Ulrich's death is seen as a coldly planned murder and part of a power struggle. The Hunyadis conspired against Ulrich and wanted to get rid of him. On November 8th (after Kos on November 9th morning) he went to Belgrade with the king despite warnings. The next day he was attacked and killed by Ladislaus Hunyadi and his friends.
  • In the national Hungarian historiography, which is based on Matthias Corvinus, the killing of Ulrich is excused as an act of self-defense, with which Ladislaus only prevented Ulrich's murder plans against him and his family. This interpretation of the events can be found more frequently in the German-language secondary literature.

With Ulrich's death, the male line of the Counts of Cilli died out. Armed conflicts broke out over his inheritance. Thanks to the elevation of the Cillier to imperial counts and the inheritance contract of 1443, Emperor Friedrich III. an excellent legal base from which to seize the Cillier estates. Several of Ulrich von Cilli's followers joined him. The parts of the Cillier inheritance located in the Hungarian kingdom went to the Hungarian crown or Matthias Corvinus.

Ulrich's widow Katarina, who was clearly criticized because of her membership in the Eastern Church , sought and found protection with Jan Vitovec , who had served as field captain Ulrich and his father. She appointed him administrator of all Cillic goods. Vitovec, who a little later entered the service of Ladislaus Postumus, understood brilliantly after his death, the rivalry between Emperor Friedrich III. and Matthias Corvinus , the younger brother of Ladislaus Hunyady, who succeeded Ladislaus Postumus as King of Hungary, for his own purposes.

evaluation

The article in the General Biographical Lexicon is essentially based on the hostile description of Ulrich von Cilli that his contemporary Enea Silvio Piccolomini gives of him. For many years he belonged to the chancellery of Emperor Friedrich III, one of Ulrich's opponents. A positive description of Count Ulrich can be found in the "Memories" by Helene Kottanner , for whom he is one of Queen Elisabeth's few reliable allies. Both examples show quite well that an assessment of Count Ulrich also depended on whose side chroniclers and later historians were on.

In assessing the family of the Cillier and von Graf Ulrich, geographical and political reasons are also likely to have been decisive. The family was based in what is now Slovenia, their political activities were in the Hungarian kingdom and the domains of the Habsburgs, they were on the periphery of the Holy Roman Empire. Especially in German-speaking and Hungarian historical research, Ulrich von Cilli is judged quite negatively, which is less likely to be due to his actual personality than to the fact that the Cillier died out with him and he was ultimately inherited by his "enemies".

Ulrich's afterlife on the opera stage

In addition to the execution of Ladislaus Hunyady, Ulrich's death is also the subject of the Hungarian "National Opera" Hunyadi László (music: Ferenc Erkel ; libretto: Béni Egressy ) based on the play The Two Lászlós (Két László) by Lőrinc Tóth. Here Ulrich is one of the villains , who not only planned the murder of Ladislaus Hunyady, but also wants to destroy King Ladislaus Postumus, whose confidante he is.

literature

  • Paul-Joachim Heinig : Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) in his time. Studies on the 500th anniversary of death on August 19, 1493/1993 (= research on medieval imperial and papal history. Vol. 12) Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1993, ISBN 3-412-03793-1 , see register and especially volume 1, p 219f.
  • Milko Kos: Grofje Celjski. In: Srednjeveška zgodovina Slovencev. ( The Counts of Cilli. In: The Medieval History of the Slovenes. ) Ljubljana 1985.
  • Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463). A prince in the field of tension between dynasty, regions and empire (= research on the imperial and papal history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 38). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-50139-6 (partly at the same time: Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, dissertation, 2013) ( online )
  • Franz Theuer : The robbery of the St. Stephen's Crown. Eisenstadt 1994, ISBN 3-85374-242-4 .

Lexicon article

swell

  • Karl Mollay (ed.): The memorabilia of Helene Kottannerin (1439-1440). Vienna. 1971.

Web links

  • Johannes Grabmayer - Christian Domenig: The Counts of Cilli and their archive PDF file , viewed on April 8, 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, p. 576
  2. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, p. 576
  3. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, p. 576
  4. ^ Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440–1493) in his time, vol. 1, p. 220
  5. ↑ Hans Wagner:  Cilli, Count of. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 254 f. ( Digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463) . 2015, p. 32f.
  7. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463) . 2015, p. 32f.
  8. ↑ cf. Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493) in his time, vol. 1 , p. 219
  9. ↑ Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463) . 2015, p. 72f.
  10. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, vol. 1, p. 576, cf. on this Paul-Joachim Heinig: Kaiser Friedrich III. (1440–1493) in his time, vol. 1 , p. 220
  11. ^ Franz Dirnberger: Journeys in the Middle Ages. King Ladislaus' legation trip to Rome . 1453. Diploma thesis (not published), Vienna, 1997, p. 24 and p. 29
  12. ↑ cf. Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493) in his time, vol. 1 , pp. 219f.
  13. ^ Franz Dirnberger: Journeys in the Middle Ages. King Ladislaus' legation trip to Rome . 1453. Diploma thesis (not published), Vienna, 1997, p. 29
  14. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, p. 576
  15. ^ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, pp. 576f.
  16. ↑ This view can be found, for example, in Franz Theuer.
  17. ↑ So z. B. with Konstantin Moritz A. Langmaier: Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (1418–1463) . 2015, p. 444.
  18. ↑ Johannes Grabmayer - Christian Domenig: The Counts of Cilli and their Archives , p. 87f. PDF file ; also Felix Czeike (Hrsg.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . 1992, Vol. 1, pp. 576f.
  19. ↑ cf. Paul-Joachim Heinig: Emperor Friedrich III. (1440-1493) in his time, vol. 1 , pp. 219f.
  20. ↑ cf. ADB , quoting the testimony of an anonymous chronicler and contemporary.
  21. ↑ ADB
  22. ↑ The book by Franz Theuer, see literature, contains z. B. a whole series of interesting approaches for a questioning and re-evaluation of Ulrich and his family, which are also plausible, but still have to be checked for their "scientific" verifiability.
personal data
SURNAME Ulrich II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ulrich II of Cilli (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION prince count of Cilli
DATE OF BIRTH 1406
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1456
Place of death Belgrade