Werner I. (Battenberg and Wittgenstein)

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Werner I. von Wittgenstein (* around 1150; † before 1215 ) was the founder of the family of the Counts of Battenberg and Counts of Wittgenstein . It is documented that he is named after Wittgenstein Castle for the first time in 1174 . It is unclear whether he or his sons acquired the county of Battenberg.

origin

Werner's parentage is uncertain.

The historian Günther Wrede , in his dissertation, Territorial History of the County of Wittgenstein , written in 1927, put forward the thesis that Werner was probably related to the noble lords of Grafschaft . The Count Tiemo (or Thiemo, Dithmar) mentioned in the years 1101 to 1107 in the upper Lahngau (on the upper Lahn and Eder ) is the probable ancestor of the Counts of Battenberg and von Wittgenstein. According to this thesis, Tiemo's ancestors are said to have come to the area between the upper Lahn and the upper Eder before 1100 as bailiffs of the Benedictine monastery Grafschaft, founded by Archbishop Anno II of Cologne in 1072 . Wrede assumes a castle was founded above Laasphe around this time, for which there is no evidence. Tiemos mother Chuniza came probably from the family of Gisonen , and Archbishop Anno II. Bought the land on which he had to create the convent county of Chuniza and Tiemo.

Helfrich Bernhard Wenck therefore also considered the Battenberger as a branch of the Gisonen.

The descent of Werner I from the noble lords of Grafschaft has recently been questioned by Dieter Pfau for reasons of naming. He sees Count Werner I in connection with the Lords of Naumburg and the Counts of Reichenbach / Ziegenhain .

Life

Battenberg and the cellar castle (excerpt from Matthäus Merian's Topographia Hassiae from 1655)
Laasphe and Wittgenstein Castle (excerpt from Matthäus Merian's Topographia Hassiae from 1655)

In the document of 1174 Werner is one of the witnesses to a peace agreement between Heinrich Raspe III. , the Ludowinger regent in their Hessian parts of the country, and Count Engelbert von Berg and the enfeoffment of the latter by Heinrich Raspe with Windeck Castle . In 1180 Werner was one of the witnesses who signed Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa's so-called Gelnhauser deed , with which Heinrich the Lion granted the upper hand and lost his duchies.

Werner took part in the crusade of Henry VI. (1197/98) and after his return donated land to the Order of St. John in Wiesenfeld, southwest of Frankenberg , on which the Johanniterhaus Wiesenfeld was founded.

In 1190 he signed a contract with the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad I von Wittelsbach , according to which he promised the Archbishopric in return for a monetary payment to give Wittgenstein Castle back from him as a fief . However, the archbishop owed part of the payment, so that the contract did not come into force and Werner was able to free himself from the associated dependency after a few years. It was only in a contract with Werner's sons Werner II, Widekind and Hermann on September 2, 1223 that the new Archbishop Siegfried II succeeded in obtaining the commission of Wittgenstein Castle to the archbishopric and giving it to them as a fief. As early as 1213, Werner had to return Mainz property in Münchhausen , which belonged to the former Amöneburg Abbey , to Archbishop Siegfried II and renounce it.

Werner I. von Battenberg and Wittgenstein ruled until 1215 and died in that year.

Marriage and offspring

Werner was married to a daughter of Count Volkwin II. Von Schwalenberg (= Volkwin I von Waldeck ) and his second wife Lutrud, who was unknown by name and who could no longer be documented after 1190 . With this he had four sons: Werner II. , Widukind / Widekind , Hermann († before 1234), Heinrich († before 1223). Werner II. († 1272), the eldest of the four, initially took over the business of government after the death of his father, but then joined the Order of St. John as early as 1221 or 1230/31 at the latest , switched to the Teutonic Order a few years later and was in 1271 –1272 German master of the order. The county of Battenberg-Wittgenstein fell to his brother Widekind I, who let his younger brother Hermann participate in the government. The fourth brother, Heinrich, was obviously already different at this point.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Wittgenstein, Werner I. Graf von". Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  2. ^ Günther Wrede, Territorialgeschichte der Grafschaft Wittgenstein (Marburg Studies on Older German History I, 3), Marburg, 1927.
  3. ^ Helfrich Bernhard Wenck, Hessische Landesgeschichte, third volume, Varrentrapp and Wenner, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1803
  4. ^ Dieter Pfau: Traces of time in Siegerland and Wittgenstein. Early and High Middle Ages 750-1250. Publishing house for regional history, Gütersloh / Bielefeld, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89534-861-7 .
  5. ↑ August Heldmann, On the history of the court in Viermünden and its families. I. The Bailiffs of Keseberg. With a stem and seal plate. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies. New episode, volume fifteenth. Kassel, 1890 (p. 15).
  6. ↑ Wenck, pp. 99-101.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
–– Count of Battenberg and Wittgenstein
1174–1215 		Werner II.
personal data
SURNAME Werner I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werner I. von Battenberg and Wittgenstein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Battenberg and Wittgenstein
DATE OF BIRTH around 1150
DATE OF DEATH 1215