Wolfgang (Fürstenberg)

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“Pull-up race” between “Count Wolf von Fürstenberg” - so the caption - (left) and the king and later Emperor Maximilian I (right). Miniature from the Freydal tournament book (approx. 1512–1515), in which Wolfgang appears in four pictures (fol. 017 [shown here], 058, 113, 143).

Wolfgang (* April 1 or 3, 1465 ; † December 31, 1509 at Ortenberg Castle ) was Count von Fürstenberg from 1484 until his death , as well as Landgrave von der Baar , Lord of Wolfach , Haslach and Hausach . He had a close relationship with the rulers of Württemberg and the House of Habsburg , making him one of the most influential men of his time in southwest Germany. In addition, during his reign he was able to significantly expand the originally heavily fragmented Fürstenberg territory and establish a cohesive state rule. As a result of these two developments, the county's entry into real imperial politics took place during his reign.

Life and government

Entry into government and promotion

Wolfgang von Fürstenberg came from the main line of the Fürstenberg family and was the son of Count Konrad, who ruled from 1441 to 1484, and Countess Kunigund von Maetsch . After the death of his father on April 24, 1484, Wolfgang and his brother Heinrich VII took office together.

In 1485 Wolfgang was in the service of Elector Philip of the Palatinate , the following year Archduke Maximilian I of Austria knighted him before his royal coronation in Aachen on April 5th . From 1489, Wolfgang von Fürstenberg served the Württemberg rulers in various ways, but at the same time he also got involved in imperial politics: in 1490 he took part in the siege of Hungarian-occupied Vienna by Maximilian, on August 30, 1492 (according to other sources, not until 1497) he became against a salary of 200 guilders annually, his advice and rose to government positions. Around 1500 Maximilian appointed Wolfgang “royal councilor and treasurer”. With the close (also personal) ties to the Habsburgs, he continued a tradition of his family.

In 1497, with Maximilian's permission, he was appointed State Court Master of Württemberg. As such, he headed the twelve-member Regency Council founded by Duke Eberhard I , who took over the affairs of state for his successor Eberhard II after the sovereign's death in 1496 , as he was considered incapable of governing due to his "unregulated lifestyle". Shortly afterwards the young duke was overthrown; In May 1498 Maximilian transferred the land to the underage Count Ulrich von Württemberg , so that Wolfgang and the Regency Council continued to run the business of government.

Commander in the Swabian War

In the Swabian War against the Confederation , Wolfgang von Fürstenberg was initially appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Württemberg Army at the beginning of 1499 , which at the end of February appalled Engen , which was besieged by the Swiss , and united with the troops of the Swabian Confederation stationed there . Due to the lack of support from other German princes, however, it could not prevent the Swiss from devastating the Hegau . It had to limit itself to defending a few fortified places; only on February 23, a small unit of the Confederates was defeated near Aach . On March 8, Wolfgang von Fürstenberg was appointed supreme field captain, that is, commander in chief of the federal army, at a Bundestag of the Swabian Confederation in Überlingen ; eight councils of war were assigned to him. As such, he undertook a reconnaissance campaign to Schaffhausen on March 14th and attacked Neunkirch and Hallau on April 4th .

Depiction of the battle in Schwaderloh from the Chronicle of Johannes Stumpf

On April 10th, he started a campaign in Thurgau with a little ensign (400 to 600 men) of brushwood and about ten times as many foot soldiers , during which the three villages Triboltingen , Ermatingen and Mannenbach were conquered the following day . However, when the army returned to Constance after a thorough looting with two captured cannons, its right flank was attacked by the Confederates. The following battle in Schwaderloh cost the Swabians 1,300 men, the Swiss around 100: Wolfgang's drunk and rich booty fled in panic, while the count's cavalry had to defend themselves against the gauntlets and, according to tradition, had great bravery proved. After this defeat, the remaining troops were returned to the Hegau. A second invasion of the Confederates could be repulsed by the quick procurement of reinforcements and the siege of Stockach im Hegau from the outside ended .

Wolfgang's brother Heinrich, who on April 24th was appointed by Maximilian to be the supreme captain of the Upper Austrian Lands , that is to say his colleague, died on July 22nd in the battle of Dornach . During this time, Wolfgang is no longer known to have committed a major war. Maximilian himself had meanwhile arrived in the war zone and carried out a few attacks himself, while the Swabian Federation concentrated on pure defensive measures for fear of Swiss offensives and did not support the king.

Last years

Count Wolfgang and King Maximilian tried several times to get the Swiss to hand over the body of the fallen Heinrich, but were unsuccessful. Now that the deceased's inheritance fell to his brother, he became the sole ruler of the entire county. In August 1499 and in the years 1504 to 1506 Maximilian visited him several times for meetings. On August 4, 1501, Wolfgang received the order from him to come to him with twelve armed horses after the end of the Upper Austrian state parliament.

1502 Wolfgang was von Furstenberg for a pay of 1,600 guilders "Supreme captain and bailiff in the front landing , in Alsace , Sundgau , Breisgau , in the four cities on the Rhine , in the Black Forest and in everything that goes with it." In the same year, King Maximilian appointed him on March 14th to succeed his brother as court marshal . Since he had to stay in Vienna for this, his predecessor, Kaspar von Mörsberg, took his place as governor. In his function as court marshal, Wolfgang was sent as a diplomat to Duke Wilhelm von Jülich und Berg in 1503 . As the Württemberg state steward, he resigned when he took over these offices.

When Maximilian defeated the Palatinate Wittelsbachers in the Landshut War of Succession in 1504 , Wolfgang was the latter's envoy during the peace negotiations with his former employer, Elector Philipp . The Palatinate half of the Landgraviate of Ortenau was confiscated by Maximilian as one of the results and transferred to Wolfgang as an imperial pledge . In the following year, as the king's agent, he concluded his defensive alliance with Christoph von Baden .

At the 17th chapter of the order in Middelburg in 1505, Wolfgang became the 118th knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece . In the following year he took part in the journey of Maximilian's son, King Philip I of Castile, to conflict-ridden Spain as the chief steward , adviser and commander of a force of 1200 soldiers . According to a letter to his wife, in a devastating storm during the crossing, in contrast to the crew and even the king, Wolfgang did not take any religious vows on pilgrimages or foundations, but surrendered to God calmly and ready to die. After only a short stay in Spain, however, he returned to Germany with his soldiers in November - probably to de-escalate the situation on the Iberian Peninsula.

At the beginning of 1509 he was Maximilian's commissioner in the state parliament in Bozen with the Tyrolean estates . A few months later he accompanied the Habsburg, who had meanwhile become emperor, to Italy in the war of the League of Cambrai . During the siege of Padua he fell ill in late summer and was brought to Germany in a litter, where he died on New Year's Eve. It was rumored that he had been poisoned in Spain and that his death was caused by a protracted illness; however, there is no evidence of this. The corpse was divided among the various domains of the county: Wolfgang's heart was buried in Wolfach , his entrails in Haslach and the rest of his body in Neudingen monastery . Wolfgang's wife Elisabeth ruled the county until his son Friedrich II came of age (as presumably also during the long absence of her husband in previous years).

Domestic and domestic power politics

Coat of arms of the Fürstenberg family in the 15th century, coat of arms book of St. Gallen abbot Ulrich Rösch

When the sideline Fürstenberg-Wolfach with the death of his cousin Heinrich VI. died out on November 30, 1490, the brothers Wolfgang and Heinrich VII inherited the majority of its possessions. In 1491 they divided the county. Among other things, Wolfgang received the Kinzig valley, while the center of Heinrich's area was the Baar . When the latter also died in 1499, the entire territory of the House of Fürstenberg was reunited.

Count Wolfgang was also able to expand the county: in 1488 he and his brother bought Donaueschingen and the castle there , later the residence of the Fürstenberg family, from the widow Barbara von Habsberg and her sons Ulrich and Diepolt . In 1492, however, Maximilian redeemed the Imperial Pfandschaft Bräunlingen , so that this city of the county was lost.

Since Gangolf von Geroldseck was in enormous financial difficulties, he sold Wolfgang von Fürstenberg many of his possessions, which significantly enlarged his territory (the following illustration is slightly simplified). This began in 1488 with the possessions of Gangolf in the Kinzig valley , followed by Romberg in 1490 for 1500 guilders . In 1498 he pledged the Schenkenzell rule to Wolfgang for 1400 guilders (parts of which had already been pledged to the Fürstenberg brothers in the previous years), and in 1500 he also sold the Schenkenburg and the guardianship of Wittichen to the count for 920 guilders . Six years later, Gangolf waived his right of redemption for a further 300 guilders.

When the country was divided in 1491, the family entailment of the house was established: only with the consent of the male relatives ( agnates ) should the family's property be sold. In 1500, King Maximilian granted Wolfgang von Fürstenberg the right to mint as a special privilege.

Cultural interest

In ten manuscripts and incunabula from Donaueschingen there is the note “This book is Wolffgang grauff zu Fürstenberg”. In addition to a general literary education, the thematic orientation of the books also shows the count's diverse interests: on the one hand, writings on natural history in the broadest sense such as the "German Salerni Pharmacopoeia", on the other hand mythological, historical and entertaining literature such as the "Book of Troy", the Konstanz Chronicle of the Council and the Christherre Chronicle as well as the instructive works “De mulieribus claris” by the humanist Giovanni Boccaccio (in German translation by Heinrich Steinhöwel ) and the “ Book of Examples of the Old Wise Men ” by Antonius von Pforr . The last two works mentioned were bound together in a volume which, in addition to Wolfgang's ownership note, also contains that of his wife Elisabeth. In connection with the didactic orientation of the texts and the content of the Boccaccio work (Women of Antiquity and the Middle Ages), this suggests that the acquisition was made for women from the outset.

From the books mentioned by Wolfgang, an impressive collection of literature developed under his successors, from which in turn the Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek emerged .

progeny

In 1488 Wolfgang von Fürstenberg married Elisabeth Countess von Solms-Braunfels (* October 21, 1469 - † August 24, 1540), daughter of Otto II. Von Solms-Braunfels (1426–1504) and Anna von Nassau-Wiesbaden (1442–1480) . They had six children:

  • Margaretha (July 1, 1489 - August 10, 1571); ⚭ 1502 Hans Jacob Freiherr von Mörsberg and Belfort
  • Wilhelm (7 January 1491 - 21 August 1549); ⚭ 1506 Bona († May 19, 1515), daughter of Claude von Neuchâtel and Bonne von Bolchen
  • Frederick II (June 19, 1496; † March 7 or 8, 1559); Successor to Wolfgang; ⚭ 1516 Anna Countess von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg (* approx. 1498; † 1554), daughter of Christoph von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg and Eleonora Gonzaga
  • Beatrix (born February 15, 1499); 1514 nun in Neudingen monastery
  • Clara Anna (born August 3, 1501, † around August 24, 1550); Nun in Neudingen Abbey, choirwoman in Buchau Abbey
  • Anna Alexandria (according to Becke-Klüchtzner "Anna Alexandra"; * February 18, 1504, † May 11, 1581 in Rappoltsweiler ); ⚭ 1522 Ulrich Freiherr von Rappoltstein (* 1495; † July 25, 1531)

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Graf von Fürstenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Stefan Krause: The tournament book Freydal Kaiser Maximilians I. In: Sabine Haag et al. (Ed.): Kaiser Maximilian I. The last knight and the courtly tournament. Exhibition catalog Mannheim 2014, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2014, p. 166–180, here p. 166 and p. 169.
  2. a b c Julius Kindler von Knobloch : Upper Baden gender book. Winter, Heidelberg 1894, Volume 1, p. 404 ( online ).
  3. a b c Wolfgang zu Fürstenberg in the Marburg repertory on translation literature in early German humanism
  4. Michel von Ehenheim : Family Chronicle and Memoirs, quoted in. after: Karl Ferdinand von Jung (Ed.): Miscellaneorum tom. III. Ansbach 1740, pp. 306–373, here p. 329 ( online )
  5. ^ Regesta Imperii. XIV, 3.1 No. 12288 (document dated August 4, 1501)
  6. ^ Regesta Imperii. XIV, 4.1 No. 16050 (document dated February 12, 1502)
  7. Dieter Mertens : Alsatian as councilors of Maximilian I. In: Franz Fuchs, Paul-Joachim Heinig, Jörg Schwarz (ed.): King, princes and empire in the 15th century (= Regesta Imperii , supplements vol. 29). Böhlau, Köln / Weimar / Wien 2009, pp. 101–119, here p. 107.
  8. ^ Regesta Imperii. XIV, 4.1 No. 18033 (document dated December 28, 1503)
  9. ^ Regesta Imperii. XIV, 4.1 No. 19035 (document dated August 7, 1504)
  10. Chevaliers de la toison d'or
  11. ^ Hermann Fautz: The Schenkenburg. In: Die Ortenau: Journal of the Historisches Verein für Mittelbaden , Volume 50. Verlag des Historisches Verein für Mittelbaden, Offenburg 1970, pp. 236-255, here pp. 249-251 ( online ).
  12. Hans Harter: The Schenkenburg. In: Hugo Schneider (Ed.): Castles and palaces in central Baden . (= Die Ortenau: Journal of the Historical Association for Central Baden , Volume 64). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Mittelbaden, Offenburg 1984, pp. 476–486, here p. 484 ( online ).
  13. ^ Franz Pfeiffer : Two German pharmacopoeias from the XII. and XIII. Century, with a dictionary. In: Session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences: philosophical-historical class 42 (Vienna: K. Gerold), 1863, pp. 110–200; here: p. 116 f .; and Gundolf Keil : German Salernitan Pharmacopoeia. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd ed., Volume 2, Col. 69-71.
  14. ^ Called Bonne in France; see also Lords of Neuchâtel-Bourgogne in the French wikipedia
  15. a b Edmund von der Becke-Klüchtzner: Stamm-Tafeln of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Baden: a newly edited book of nobility. Von Hagen, Baden-Baden 1886, p. 12 ( online ).
predecessor Office successor
Konrad von Fürstenberg Count von Fürstenberg
until 1499 together with Heinrich VII.
1484–1509
Friedrich II. Von Fürstenberg