Wilhelm Herter from Hertneck

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Wilhelm Herter in the Battle of Murten, from the Zurich Schilling

Wilhelm Herter von Hertneck (* 1424 in Tübingen ; † March 2, 1477 in Basel ) was a German field captain and statesman in the service of Württemberg , the Austrian foothills , Burgundy and, most recently, Lorraine . He was the strategist and field captain of the Lower Union in the three Burgundy battles at Grandson , Murten and Nancy .

family

Coat of arms Herter von Hertneck from Scheibler

Knight Wilhelm Herter von Hertneck was born in 1424 as the son of Jakob Herter von Hertneck and Anna von Stetten in Tübingen. Ancestral seat of the old noble family of the Herter were the castle Dußlingen not far from Tübingen and castle Hertneck in today's Ludwigsburg . The Hertneck family can be traced back to Diemo I. von Tußlingen, who gave the Hirsau Monastery a roof around 1100 . The sons of his grandson Diemo III. namely Friedrich III., called Herter, Diemo IV. and Dieter I are the progenitors of three lines. According to Hofrat Theodor Schön [WS] , Dieter I was probably the founder of the Herter von Hertneck line. Wilhelm's father, Jakob Herter, came into possession of half Dusslingen , half Nehren and a number of things in Andeck near Talheim in 1393 as a result of the division of the estate . He obtained the inheritance of his brother Friedrich after his death in 1406 by paying the widow a severance payment of 1200 guilders. Jakob Herter got deeply into debt in the 10s and was forced to gradually sell his property. Jakob Herter's marriage to Anna von Stetten, the daughter of the landlord of Talheim, took place before 1417. Wilhelm Herter sold the maternal inheritance to Talheim in 1449 to Count Ludwig von Württemberg . Jakob Herter died impoverished before May 22, 1458 and left his only surviving son Wilhelm a small property burdened with debts.

Education and career in the Württemberg service

From 1427 the family lived in Mömpelgard , then in Württemberg , a Burgundian fiefdom . Wilhelm Herter became familiar with the Burgundian language and culture there. In 1431 he came to the court in Stuttgart and was educated as a page of Count Ludwig I of Württemberg-Urach on a knightly career. In 1438 he became a squire . On the occasion of the marriage of his master Ulrich V von Württemberg to Elisabeth von Bayern-Landshut , Wilhelm Herter was knighted on February 8, 1445 in Stuttgart. In 1455 Wilhelm Herter was one of the Württemberg councilors. From 1457 to 1462 he was Obervogt on Wildberg . The financial situation improved as early as 1457, as the entitlement to a service fee of 4400 guilders earned interest at 220 guilders a year. When he left in 1465, Wilhelm Herter held the rank of second highest of 14 Württemberg captains. The career kink and the dismissal from the Württemberg service followed in 1463 after the battle of Seckenheim , which was lost on June 30, 1462, in which Wilhelm Herter, as commander in chief of all Württemberg war peoples, was shamefully imprisoned together with Duke Ulrich V. von Württemberg. The prisoners were held hard by Frederick the Victorious , as the Württemberg people devastated villages and fields before the battle and killed the Palatinate miners while they were still on the run. The release from captivity took place on May 1, 1464.

The professional reorientation

Between November 1465 and August 1467 Wilhelm Herter committed himself as captain of Mainz and Bischofsheim , since Heinrich, a son of Count Ulrich, had been appointed coadjutor of Mainz. During this time, she married Anna von Heudorf in 1466, whose family was based on the Upper Rhine and in Hegau. Wilhelm Herter's uncle Friedrich was married to an Agathe von Heudorf. For Wilhelm Herter's further life, the marriage to Anna von Heudorf opened up an important and explosive perspective. Anna von Heudorf was a close relative of Bilgeri von Heudorf from Klettgau , whose feud with the city of Schaffhausen escalated during these years. The appointment of Wilhelm Herter as captain and councilor of Waldshut by Duke Sigismund of Tyrol in 1468 for an annual salary of 200 Rhenish guilders therefore appears to be a well-calculated move. After a large part of the foreland was ceded to Duke Charles the Bold , Wilhelm Herter entered the Burgundian service on his own initiative. His application on July 1, 1469 is recorded in the report of the Burgundian Homage Commission under Philibert d'Ornans, which is active in Waldshut. Wilhelm Ertet appears seldom or only indirectly in the sources until 1474. From 1470 to 1472 Wilhelm Herter took part in another war between Burgundy and France. After a few documented mentions, Wilhelm Herter's work did not become clearer until the end of 1473. According to the diary of the chaplain Knebel, Wilhelm Herter von Waldshut and Hermann Truchsess von Rheinfelden led 800 well-armed farmhands from the upper lands to Ensisheim at the end of December. There they had been summoned to a maneuver by Duke Charles the Bold, who visited the new Burgundian province of Auxay and Ferette on Christmas 1473 with 4,000 soldiers. The city of Basel refused to allow Herter to pass through twice because it was feared that Herter had been given the task of seizing the gates.

Herter's rise to become the military and political leader of the Lower Association

In the spring of 1474, the formerly western Austrian forest sites of Waldshut, Laufenburg, Säckingen and Rheinfelden fell away from Burgundy and elected Wilhelm Herter as their leader. On a day of the Lower Association in August 1474, Wilhelm Herter was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the troops of the Lower Association, which was now allied with the Confederation, as part of the mobilization against Burgundy.

Wilhelm Herter succeeded in repelling a Burgundian mercenary army near Héricourt in 1475 . He suffered a setback in 1475 when defending Epinal when the city surrendered.

In March and June 1476, Wilhelm Herter ordered and commanded the Allies in the battles of Grandson and Murten . Wilhelm Herter's experience, skill and leadership personality contributed significantly to the victories. Its increased political weight was demonstrated on the day of Freiburg im Üechtland in August 1476. In the peace negotiations, the question of a withdrawal of Burgundy from Lorraine could not be clarified. Wilhelm Herter then entered the service of Duke René II of Lorraine in autumn 1476 and organized the formation of a German-Swiss mercenary army to relieve Lorraine. Shortly before the decisive battle in front of Nancy on January 5, 1477, Wilhelm Herter was again given the command of the council of captains. The weakened army of Charles the Bold, who was killed in battle, was overrun in a storm attack led by Wilhelm Herter.

Wilhelm Herter von Hertneck died unexpectedly on March 2, 1477 during a conference in Basel at the age of about 53. The body was transferred to the family headquarters in Dusslingen. The grave is unknown today.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Herter von Hertneck, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herter von Hertnegg, Wilhelm; Herter von Dusslingen, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian field captain
DATE OF BIRTH 1424
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1477
Place of death Basel