Virgil of Trench

Depiction of Virgil von Grabens in his burial place in the Lienz Sankt Michaelskirche (16th century)

Virgil von Graben , also Virgil vom Graben zu Sommeregg (* in the 15th century at Sommeregg Castle ; † 1507 ibid.), Burgrave and Lord of Sommeregg , was one of the most important nobles and officials in the county of Gorizia and in the Habsburg Empire of Frederick III. and Maximilians I.

Von Graben belonged to the Carinthian-East Tyrolean branch of the von Graben family , who held important offices at the time of the last Counts of Gorizia , and through whose work the Renaissance culture found its way into East Tyrol.

Virgil von Graben was considered the "richest and most capable Görzer nobleman of his time". Under the last Meinhardin Count Leonhard , whose guarantor he was, he was imperial administrator of the princely county and captain of Gorizia , trusted councilor of Count Leonhard and the Roman-German King Maximilian. As such, he directed and completed the takeover of the county of Gorizia into the possession of the Habsburgs, under whom he remained governor (captain) of the county of Gorizia.

Biographical

Origin and descendants

Virgil von Graben came from the Carinthian-East Tyrolean branch of the noble family of the Lords of Graben, which was descended from the Meinhardins . His parents were Andreas von Graben and Barbara von Hallegg (Hallecker), daughter of Jörg von Hallegg , provincial administrator of Carinthia. One of his nephews was Ladislaus Prager , Hereditary Marshal of Carinthia and chamberlain of Emperor Friedrich III. He was married to Katharina von Lind (t) .

Offspring: legitimate sons with Apollonia von Khüenburg :

• Christof von Graben, who is mentioned as pastor in 1498
• Lukas von Graben zum Stein was appointed Lord of Stein in 1500 by Maximilian I , and thus the tribe of the line on the Stein , which held the rule until the death of Oswald von Graben zum Stein († 1609), and of the Second Tyrolean Line were inherited
• Barthlmä von Graben (Bartholomeus von Graben), about whom little is known; As his father's heir, he was the owner of the Treffling farm between 1501 and 1511 , which he gave to his fiefdom holder Andreen Hohenburger; his descendants also moved to Tyrol, and formed the Second Tyrolean Line , inherited Stein from the Line am Stein in 1609 , and kept this until they died in 1664 by Christof David von Graben zum Stein
• Georg von Graben, who was the tribe of the Third Tyrolean Line , which died out with the death of Felix Jakob von Graben (zum Stein) in 1776 (or 1780)
• Virgil Lucz von Graben (named or died 1550); possibly the father of Leonhard (Lienhard) von Graben (called 1507–1545), who in 1507 was given the parish church of Gorizia

Illegitimate offspring with Agnes :

• In addition to his four legitimate sons, Virgil von Graben fathered four illegitimate children with his morganatic wife named Agnes , whom he provided with ample goods.

In archiepiscopal service

Virgil von Graben was in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg as a feudal man and was their keeper resp. Burgrave at Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . With his appointment, Lengberg's heyday began. In the years 1480-85 he had the former "veste Lengenberch" converted into a representative Gothic castle at his own expense. On the first floor he built a castle chapel, which was consecrated in 1485 by Paolo Santonino , the secretary of the Bishop of Carole, in honor of Saints Sebastian and Nicholas. Lengberg has hardly changed since the renovation at the end of the 15th century. Santonino described the visit to Lengberg Castle in his travel diaries.

“... Knight [Virgil von Graben], adorned with all virtues and of the highest education, [who received his guests] with a beaming, cheerful expression. ... The castle itself is not enclosed by an extensive wall ... The walls of the castle itself are thick and very high, so that they would hardly be broken by siege engines. The interior layout is excellent, downstairs and on the first floor there are beautiful living rooms, prepared for summer and winter ... In the castle there is also a fountain, the water of which falls back into a wooden trough ... Inside the castle, the lord of the castle has installed a variety of fortifications for defense and for Repelling an enemy attack ... He also set up a sundial or an hour meter ... "

- Rudolf Egger : Santonino in Carinthia. From his travel diaries 1486–86 (= Kleine Kärnten-Bibliothek, Volume 10), Klagenfurt 1978, p. 34, cf. also: Paolo Santonino: Travel Diaries 1485–86 . In: Osttiroler Heimatblätter , 16, 1948, issue 9

Family seat at Sommeregg Castle, Sommeregg Regional Court

Sommeregg Castle around 1680, view towards the south in Valvasor's Archiducatus Carinthiae

In 1463 Virgil von Graben inherited the dominion of Sommeregg from his father Andreas von Graben, including the function of burgrave and captain linked to it . Under the Von Graben, the Sommeregg district court had become independent from the county of Ortenburg. It had clearly defined boundaries that extended to the Millstätter See and Seebach in the south, to the Lieser in the west, to the Pleßnitzgraben in the north and to the Tschiernock and Tangerner Bach in the east. Within this regional court, the Sommeregg rulership was not only responsible for its own farmers, but also for those farmers from the manors of Gmünd , Spittal an der Drau , Millstatt , the Lieseregg parish and various smaller estates.

1487 Sommeregg was by Hungarian troops of Matthias Corvinus , which in the fight against the German-Roman emperor Friedrich III. stood, conquered and destroyed. The reconstruction, which was initiated by Virgil von Graben after the withdrawal of the foreign army, gave the castle its typical irregular shape. During this time he also had a dispute about the occupation of the Archdiocese of Salzburg , for which the von Graben family managed properties. After his death in 1507 Sommeregg went to his brothers Ernst and Wolfgang Andreas von Graben ; after Ernst's death in 1513, to his heir Rosina von Graben von Rain , who was married to Baron Haymeran von Rain for the second time . In 1534 Sommeregg came to the Rain family in Sommeregg .

In the service of Gorizia

As a captain (imperial administrator, governor) of the county of Gorizia, Virgil von Graben had a great influence on the political events of this principality affected by the fall. In the dispute over the inheritance of the Counts of Cilli with Emperor Friedrich III. the Gorizia suffered a defeat in 1460 with the subsequent dictated peace of Pusarnitz , in which the Gorizia lost all Carinthian lordships including the city of Lienz and the Bruck Castle. The dominions taken from the Görzern were passed on to his field captain Jan von Witowec according to the emperor's assurance . He sold them in 1462 to his comrade in arms, Andreas von Weißpriach . In the course of the successful military recovery of Bruck Castle and the city of Lienz under Johann's brother Count Leonhard von Görz and Virgil von Graben, Weißpriach was captured, who was stuck on Heinfels until late winter 1467. He had to swear to Count Leonhard and Von Graben Urfehde and waive in writing all legal claims to the district court of Lienz and Schloss Bruck. He was released from prison in the late winter of 1467.

Bruck Castle

In 1476 Virgil von Graben, together with Bishop Gerg Golser von Brixen , Balthasar von Welsberg and Phöbus von Thurn, represented Count Leonhard at the court of Margrave Ludovico Gonzaga in Mantua to solemnly promise his marriage to Gonzaga's daughter Paola .

During the reign of the ailing Count Leonhard von Gorizia, Virgil von Graben was won over by King Maximilian I through great promises to end his hitherto secret collaboration with the Venetians and to allow the country to join the Habsburg Empire and not the feudal rule of the Republic of Venice to make strong. The enlightened views of Venice and their decision-makers would have recognized the Gorizian (Meinhardin) bastard Virgil von Graben himself as the new Count of Gorizia. Another suggestion resulted in the fact that he hand over the county of Gorizia to the republic and should receive all Gorizia castles and lordships in Friuli and Venice as fiefs. But it didn't come to that after all. In 1498 Virgil von Graben gave his son Lukas the authority over the Görzer Burghut . First, the Council of Ten of the Republic of Venice waved to appoint Lukas as their commander-in-chief in Friuli . However, since Virgil von Graben ended the contract with Venice on the succession in the county of Gorizia and negotiated with Maximilian I, this appointment did not materialize.

In 1500 Kaspar, Burgrave of Lienz and Lueg , von Graben had transferred all of his goods around Lienz, which had come to him from his brother Balthasar.

In the service of the House of Habsburg

After Count Leonhard's death on April 12, 1500, and the Görz succession in favor of the Habsburgs, the Venetians saw their failure only in the actions of Messrs. Virgil and Lukas von Graben. Virgil von Graben was modestly rewarded after the Görzischen county had successfully converted into the Habsburg Empire, judging by his immense merit. Von Graben continued to act as governor and captain of Lienz and East Tyrol and as captain of Gorizia ; meanwhile, he probably lived in Bruck Castle for a short time . Furthermore, Von Graben was also a pledge master of the Lienz estate after 1500 . His successor as governor of Gorizia was Michael von Wolkenstein, a member of the Wolkenstein-Rodenegg family , who was highly favored by Maximilian and who took over political leadership in Lienz from the Von Graben family in the course of the 16th century.

Heinfels Castle and Lordship

Heinfels Castle

From the end of the 15th century, Virgil von Graben was a Gorizia burgrave and lord of Heinfels in the Pustertal. With the death of the last Count Leonhard from Gorizia in 1500, the rule of Heinfels also fell to the "universal heir", the Roman King Maximilian. As late as 1498, Maximilian had a strict and secret order to Virgil von Graben that no one was allowed into the castle without his consent if Count Leonhard died. As early as September 25, 1500, Maximilian gave the newly won rule to the Brixen Prince-Bishop Melchior von Meckau as a pledge, although this pledge had been denied while Count Leonhard von Görz was still alive. In the meantime, however, Virgil von Graben Heinfels had been transferred to the administration for life, which could not be reversed, especially since von Graben played a major role in the entire process of transitioning the Görz inheritance to Habsburg hands. It was only after his death in 1507 that Virgil's son Lukas von Graben zum Stein , who had been entrusted with the administration of Heinfels, was asked on February 24, 1508 to cede the castle, court and office of Heinfels with all affiliations to the Bishop of Brixen, at the same time all subjects became Obedience to the Prince-Bishop requested.

Stammschloss Graben in Carniola

Virgil von Graben is listed by Valvasor in his work Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain 1499 as the owner of the manor and castle Graben , the ancestral castle of his family (called 1170), located near Rudolfswerth (today: Novo mesto). This was originally owned by the Krainer lineage , but is the first time in 1330 as the property of Ulrich II. Of digging the grain Berger line from which Virgil about his born on Kornberg's father Andreas von Graben derived. After him, the Graben family estate seems to have fallen back to the Kornberg line , as Valvasor enumerated the brothers Andree , Wilhelm and Wolfgang von Graben from that very family in 1520 .

Trivia

• Virgil von Graben donated a description of the martyrdom of Ursula (Pöck) von Lienz. It is the oldest (in writing from 1475 verifiable) Tyrolean ritual murder legend , according to which the three or four-year-old daughter of a Thomas Pöck from Lienz was murdered by Lienz Jews on Good Friday in 1442 or 1443.
• In 1501, already as the imperial governor of Lienz, von Graben donated a benefit to the Sankt Michaelskirche in the Lienz suburb of Rindermarkt , and provided it with a permanent chaplain . The family's burial place is also located in this 14th century church.

Web link

• Hermann Wiesflecker : The county of Görz and the rule of Lienz, their development and their inheritance to Austria (1500) . (PDF) Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum , Innsbruck 1998

Individual evidence

1. ^ Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld: History of Carinthia: The Estates Epoch . 1994, p. 197
2. ↑ Meinrad Pizzinini: East Tyrol: The district of Lienz: his works of art, hist. Forms of settlement . 1974, p. 78
3. ↑ Johann Weichard Freiherr von Valvasor (1689): The honor of the duchy of Crain : that is, true, thorough, and very specific evidence and quality of this glorious Roman-Keyserious hereditary land ; Laybach (Ljubljana)
4. ^ Announcements from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research , Volume 56
5. ↑ Erich Zöllner: History of Austria: from the beginnings to the present . P. 159
6. ↑ Digging stone . Austro Archive (contributions to the family history of Tyrol)
7. ^ Beda Weber: Das Land Tirol: with an appendix: Vorarlberg: a handbook for travelers .
8. ↑ Kärntner Burgenkunde: References to sources and literature on the historical and legal position of castles, palaces and residences in Carinthia and their owners . P. 142, Google books:
9. ↑ Osttiroler Heimatblätter (Zur Geschichte des Iselhof) ( Memento of the original from 6 July 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Philipp Plattner: The written finds from the vault fillings of Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol . Innsbruck 2013, p. 41
11. ^ Lengberg Castle. The keepers
12. ↑ unlocked LENGBERG. BDA - Federal Monuments Office Austria
13. ^ Wilhelm Wadl: History of the castle and dominion Sommeregg . In: Carinthia I, 179th year, 1989, pp. 157–158
14. ↑ Burg Sommeregg ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ Bernhard Czerwenka: The Khevenhüller: History of the sex with special consideration of the XVII. Century . 1867, p. 40 Textarchiv - Internet Archive
16. ↑ ^{a b} History of Heinfels Castle ( Memento from November 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
17. ^ Tiroler Heimat 83 (2019): Journal for Regional and Cultural History, by Christina Antenhofer
18. ↑ Hermann Wiesflecker: Austria in the Age of Maximilian I .: the union of the countries for ... ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ Communications from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Volume 56 (different version)
20. ^ Announcements from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Volume 56
21. ^ Announcements from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Volume 56
22. ↑ Osttiroler Heimatblätter ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
23. ^ Hermann Wiesflecker: The county of Görz and the rule of Lienz, their development and their inheritance to Austria (1500) . Pp. 142, 144 (PDF)
24. ↑ Austrian Lands before 1918 (English)
25. ↑ Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Krain, Volume 3, p. 206. By Johann Weichard von Valvasor
26. ↑ Deß Hochloblichen Hertzogthums Crain Topographisch-Historischer ..., Volume 3, p. 211. By Janez Vajkard von Valvasor
27. ↑ Meinrad Pizzinini : Ursula Pöck. A medieval ritual murder legend from Lienz . (PDF) In: Osttiroler Heimatblätter , Volume 61, 3/4 (1993) pp. 1-4
28. ^ Rudolf Granichstaedten-Czerva: Brixen - imperial principality and court . 1948

predecessor	Office	successor
Andreas von Graben zu Sommeregg	Burgrave and Lord of Sommeregg 1463–1507	Ernst von Graben
Ulvinus von Dornberg	Governor and captain of Gorizia and in the name of Maximilian I as count and governor of Gorizia 1490–1507	Erasmus von Dornberg
Leonhard of Gorizia	Governor of Lienz and East Tyrol 1500–1507	Michael von Wolkenstein