Sonnenberg county

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Sonnenberg coat of arms
Map of Vorarlberg (from 1783); Lower middle red hip. Sonnenberg

The county of Sonnenberg (from the 15th century, before rulership), with the main seat of Burg Sonnenberg in Nüziders, was a county of the Holy Roman Empire and belonged to Habsburg Front Austria , then Vorarlberg as part of Tyrol (from 1867 own crown land).

geography

The rulership of Sonnenberg extended from the Last near Feldkirch with interruptions to the Arlberg and included the southern Walgau (the left bank of the Ill from Stallur to Frastanz ), the Gamperdonatal , the Brandnertal and the Klostertal to the Arlberg. The county then also included the rulership of Jagdberg (northwestern Walgau), the rule of Blumenegg (northeastern Walgau and Großwalsertal ) and the court of Tannberg .

In addition to Nüziders, the territory of the rule included the area of ​​the communities of Frastanz and Nenzing , Bürs , Bürserberg and Brand , as well as Innerbraz , Klösterle and Dalaas , but not Bludenz , whose rule included the Montafon . The Rosenegg (Bürs) lordship , initially Sonnenberger, was combined with the Bludenz lordship as early as 1474 .

coat of arms

Waldburg-Zeil , heraldic left in the shield (4th place) below Sonnenberg

The coat of arms shows a golden sun in blue over a mountain of three . The Dreiberg can be found in natural colors or in gold (as in the coat of arms of the Kronland Vorarlberg from 1864).

The coat of arms of Count Sonnenberg (golden sun with mountain in blue) is still part of the overall coat of arms of the Princely Families Waldburg-Wolfegg, Waldburg-Zeil and Waldburg-Zeil-Lustenau-Hohenems ( House Waldburg ). The municipality of Nüziders also uses this coat of arms, with the three mountain in black.

history

The lords of Sonnenberg, who first mentioned Montfort in 1242, were documented, with the division of the inheritance around 1260, the rule came to the Werdenberg-Sargans line . Nüziders Castle was built in 1258 - it has been called Sonnenberg Castle since its reconstruction in 1409/10 .

Truchsess Eberhard I from the Waldburg family , brother of Jakob, Georg I and Ursula von Starkenberg , son of Johann von Waldburg , acquired from his future son-in-law, Jörg (Georg) Graf von Werdenberg-Sargans (approx . 1427–1504) and his brother Wilhelm, from the Montforts dynasty , the Feste und Herrschaft Sonnenberg, which reached from Feldkirch to the Arlberg, for 15,000  guilders . He already held the adjoining dominion of Bludenz with the Montafon Valley as a pledge.

Emperor Friedrich III. on August 11, 1463 raised the rule of Sonnenberg to a county , and the Eberhards I family and their descendants to ruling imperial counts .

After long battles in which the Sonnenberg Castle was destroyed, Count Eberhard I sold the County of Sonnenberg to Duke Siegmund of Austria , governor of Innsbruck, for 34,000 guilders, according to the contract of August 31, 1474 . The last money from this sale went to his heir, George III, many years later. von Waldburg-Zeil, whose first marriage was to the partial heir Apollonia, daughter of Johann von Sonnenberg. The Sonnenberg estate fell to him in 1511 after Count Andreas was murdered .

Wilhelm von Waldburg-Trauchburg (1504–1557) was married to the partial heir Sibylla, daughter of Andreas. He sold Ortenstein Castle to Ludwig Tschudi von Glarus in 1521 .

Family list of the Counts of Sonnenberg

Father of Count Eberhard I .:

Siblings of Count Eberhard I .:

  • Jakob I. The Golden Knight , Truchsess von Waldburg-Trauchburg († 1460), first married to Magdalena von Hohenberg, second marriage to Margravine Ursula von Baden-Hochberg
  • Georg I. Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil († 1467), married to Eva, Baroness von Birckenbach
  • Ursula, married to Ulrich von Starkenberg

Count Eberhard I. von Sonnenberg and his children:

  • Eberhard I von Waldburg-Sonnenberg (1424–1479), 1st Imperial Count from 1463, married to Kunigunde von Montfort- Tettnang
    • Eberhard II († 1483), 2nd Imperial Count from 1479, married to Anna von Fürstenberg
    • Johann von Sonnenberg zu Wolfegg (around 1470–1510), 3rd Imperial Count from 1483, married to Johanna Countess von Salm
    • Andreas, († 1511, murdered by Count Felix von Werdenberg), 4th Reichsgraf from 1510, married to Margareta von Starhemberg
      Line extinguished in the male trunk
      • Sibylla, heir daughter (see below)
    • Otto, Bishop of Constance († 1491)
    • Barbara, married to Jörg (Georg) Graf von Werdenberg-Sargans (Montfort)

Title of the Count of Sonnenberg after the Sonnenbergers went out

Heirs to the Sonnenberg assets:

  • George III , called Bauernjörg (1488–1531), Truchsess von Waldburg-Zeil (1488–1531), great-grandson of Georg I von Waldburg, married in first marriage to Apollonia von Waldburg-Sonnenberg, daughter of Johann, in second marriage to Countess Maria zu Oettingen -Flochberg (1498–1555)
  • Sibylla, daughter of Andreas, married Wilhelm Waldburg-Trauchburg (1469–1557)

After the last Count (Waldburg-) Sonnenberg died out, the title of Count von Sonnenberg passed to the House of Habsburg. Just like the House of Waldburg, the House of Habsburg carries the Sonnenberg coat of arms and carried the title as a secondary title of the Emperor of Austria until 1918.

literature

  • Rudolf Beck: The Waldburg possessions in Vorarlberg and in Eastern Switzerland. June 16, 1994
  • Nüziders. Bishopric in the center of power. Sonnenberg Castle's beginning and end. In: Vorarlberger Nachrichten . 10/11 April 2004, p. A9, Castles and Ruins series
  • Hermann Sander: The acquisition of the Vorarlberg county Sonnenberg by Austria. Verlag der Wagner'schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1888 (Ariv Hohenems H 193).
  • Lic. F. Perret: Georg, the last Count of Sargans. Separate print from the Sarganserländische Volkszeitung. Bad Ragaz (Ariv Hohenems).

Individual evidence

  1. Entry on Rosenegg Castle in the Austria Forum