Wildberg (noble family)
The Lords of Wildberg , also referred to in some sources as Counts of Wildberg or Counts of Wiltberg , were an early high medieval noble family in northern Franconia . Their domain extended over the Grabfeld , the Haßgau and today's southern Thuringia .
Wildberg Castle
The family's ancestral seat was Wildberg Castle on the far north-western edge of the Haßberge above today's town of Bad Königshofen . The city and fortress of Heldburg and the cities of Hildburghausen and Römhild are also closely related to the noble family. The Wildbergers built their family castle in the 12th century at the latest. The former hilltop castle is located on a spur of the Great Breitenberg that protrudes to the west , the north, west and south slopes of which drop 200 meters steeply to the valley. Since it was naturally very well protected on these three sides, only the main attack side of the castle had to be secured in the east by three ditches and a wall. Today only small remains of the wall, several trenches and a wall on a total area of about 180 by 40 meters and a four-meter-wide and up to two-meter deep sloping trench that ran around the spur tip are preserved.
history
The lords, counts of Wildberg from 1231, ruled a lower valley of the eastern grave field (grapfeld orientalis), which included part of the Haßberge and the Heldburger Unterland . They were relatives of the noble lords of Thundorf, which can be proven from 1057 to 1187 . During the Main Franconian settlement of what is now southern Thuringia , their rule temporarily extended to the neighboring areas of Hildburghausen , Römhild , Rodach and Sonneberg with the Coburg region , until they were pushed back to their ancestral territory in the Haßbergen by the regional powers that were emerging there.
The Wild Berger for the first time in 1123 on their castle in documents mentioned. As early as 1122 Gerwig and Konrad von Wildberg had sold their rights and possessions in Gestungshausen to Otto, Bishop of Bamberg , for 180 talents. Both were bailiffs of the Kitzingen monastery. The family also provided governors of the monasteries Peterstirn near Schweinfurt and St. Johannis near Sulzdorf.
Through marriage, the Wildbergers were related to the Counts of Henneberg . With the marriage of Elisabeth von Wildberg with the Frankish Babenberg Count Poppo VII. Von Henneberg at Struphe Castle in 1206, the increase in the count status, Mangold III. was first named Graf von Wildberg in 1231. For this, the Hennebergers took over the Heldburger Unterland. Adelheid, daughter of Count Mangold IV, married Conrad III in 1279. von Trimberg and brought part of the Wildberger rule into the marriage.
Count Konrad von Wildberg, the last Wildberger († 1305), married Margarete von Henneberg, sister of Count Hermann I von Henneberg , in 1271 and gave her half of the Haßberg, Hofheim , Kerbfeld , Bundorf , Nassach , Oberlauringen forest as a morning gift and Wittumsgut . Half of Thundorf, Altenfeld (near Sulzdorf ) and Niederlauringen and Sulzdorf. In 1293 he transferred the bailiff's rights to the monastery Sankt Johanniszelle unter Wildberg , a Cistercian or Benedictine convent that had previously been given resources and rights by the Wildbergen. In 1304 he sold Hildburghausen to the Ascanian Count Hermann von Brandenburg , through whose daughter Jutta the city came to the Prince Counts of Henneberg- Schleusingen . As a result, other possessions, including Wildberg Castle, fell to Henneberg-Schleusingen.
In 1368 the family died out with Adelheid von Trimberg, the daughter of Adelheid von Wildberg. Her husband, Count Hermann II von Henneberg- Aschach , sold her inheritance to the Würzburg monastery .
coat of arms
In 1289 Conrad von Wildberg carried a seal in the form of a triskelion made of three bars.
Reconstructions of multiple coats of arms, which refer to the former Wildberg dominion, suggest a silver, tinned tower on a red background. This coat of arms resembles the Lords of Waldau, who are proven around 1215 in Waldau in the Upper Palatinate and later also in Kemnath . The family died out in 1545. The same coat of arms was also worn by a knight family in Hardheim , which was first mentioned in 1197 with Henricus von Hartheim. Knight Georg Wolf von Hardheim died in 1607 without leaving an heir.
The Zinnenturm was replaced in 1467 in the increased coat of arms of the county of Henneberg-Aschach-Hartenberg and from around 1600 in the coat of arms of the Principality of Saxony-Coburg and in the seal of the city of Römhild by the coat of arms of the Italian aristocratic family Colonna . This was later taken over by the Ernestine duchies of Saxony-Meiningen and Saxony-Hildburghausen .
Coat of arms after the seal of Count Konrad von Wildberg in 1287
City of Heldburg
literature
- Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (ed.): Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments. Volume 28: Bad Kissingen, Franconian Saale, Grabfeld, southern Rhön . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1975, pp. 105-106.
- Björn-Uwe Abels : The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia . (Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory, series B, volume 6). Verlag Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz 1979, ISBN 3-7847-5306-X , p. 166.
- Anton Rahrbach, Jörg Schöffl, Otto Schramm: Palaces and castles in Lower Franconia - A complete representation of all palaces, manors, castles and ruins in the Lower Franconian independent cities and districts . Hofmann Verlag, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-87191-309-X , p. 215.
- Reinhold WF and Gerwin K. Solf: The Counts of Wildberg and their co-arms, as well as the dynasts of Thundorf and Tannroda, series of publications by the Verein für Heimatgeschichte im Grabfeld e. V. Bad Königshofen 1st edition * 1998; 2nd edition 2007;
- Reinhold WF and Gerwin K. Solf, additions to the regesta in Wildburg - series of publications by the Verein für Heimatgeschichte e. V. Vol. 13, 2014
- Reinhold WF Heusinger, Gerwin K. Solf: Sulzfeld im Grabfeld. In: Contributions to local history. Mellrichstadt 1987.
- Reinhold WF Heusinger, Gerwin K. Solf: Wildburg 2014
Web links
- Wildberg ruins on hassberge-tourismus.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homepage of the Haßberge Nature Park. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 25, 2013 ; Retrieved March 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Source description: Björn-Uwe Abels: The prehistoric and early historical site monuments of Lower Franconia . (Material booklets on Bavarian prehistory, Series B, Volume 6), p. 166.
- ↑ http://www.gestungshausen.de/chronik_ges_02.html Certificate from the year 1122 (translation)