Isenburg-Ronneburg county

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The county of Isenburg-Ronneburg (also Ysenburg-Ronneburg, Ysenburg-Büdingen-Ronneburg, Ysingen-Ronneburg ; more rarely: Isenburg-Kelsterbach ) was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire . It was created after the Isenburg-Büdingen county had inherited it between 1511 and 1523 and existed until 1601. The residence was Ronneburg Castle near Büdingen , which was significantly expanded during this time.

The main residence of the sub-county was Ronneburg Castle , which underwent most of the renovations during this time.

history

prehistory

The Isenburg rule reached a high point of power in the 15th century under Diether I (1408–1461) and Ludwig II (1461–1511). The reasons for this are on the one hand in a strictly followed primogeniture , while the surrounding Wetterau counties were increasingly fragmented by division; on the other hand, through his marriage to Elisabeth von Solms in 1409 , Diether I obtained entitlements to Falkenstein shares of the Munzenberg inheritance . The entitlement related to the castle , city and the Dreieich Wildbann as well as shares in the Assenheim office . In 1442 Diether I was raised to the rank of imperial count . The county was also able to benefit from the Mainz collegiate feud , in which Ludwig II appeared as an ally of his brother Diether von Isenburg , due to the weakened position in Mainz: First, Bracht Castle came into possession of Isenburg (but was not rebuilt), and later Diether I. also transferred the Ronneburg and the associated Langendiebach court to his brother .

Creation of the sub-county

In his will of 1488, Ludwig II intended his eldest son Philip to be the sole heir with a simultaneous compensation for the other sons in line with his status. Already in the last years of government it became apparent that Philip was unable to govern due to illness. Perhaps that is why the younger sons Diether II and Johann were not provided with ecclesiastical offices - but this also occurred increasingly in neighboring territories in the run-up to the Reformation .

From 1511 Diether II and Johann led the government together. In 1517, due to differences of opinion, a hereditary brotherhood contract (in fact a real division) was concluded, which was confirmed by Emperor Maximilian I in 1518 . Diether II remained single and died in 1521, which made it necessary to reorganize the division. Philipp received the courts in Langendiebach , Selbold , Gründau , Wächtersbach and Spielberg . The younger (so-called Birsteiner ) line under Johann († 1533) received the courts of Reichenbach , Eckartshausen , Wolferborn , Wenings and the Isenburg part of the Ortenberg district court . The lines were named after their residences, the castles Birstein ( Isenburg-Büdingen-Birstein ) and Ronneburg ( Isenburg-Büdingen-Ronneburg , later Ysingen-Ronneburg ).

Confrontation with Isenburg-Büdingen-Birstein and dissolution

Anton von Ysenburg-Büdingen (1501–1560)
The Wolfenburg near Kelsterbach, drawing by Wenzel Hollar

The city and castle of Büdingen , the Büdinger Forest and the Dreieich were initially administered together. Different incomes were offset by cash payments. In 1529 it became necessary to split the Büdingen Palace and in 1556 the Dreieich. The Ronneburg line received the western, so-called Langener , the Birstein line the eastern, Offenbacher part of the Dreieich. Philip's son Anton (1501–1560) was already involved in his father's government in 1518. Anton obviously did not fully recognize the division of the estate, so that the rulers of both parts of the country remained divided. During the Schmalkaldic War , Anton's cousin Count Reinhard von Isenburg-Büdingen in Birstein was on the side of the Landgraviate of Hesse , as he had been brought up at the Kassel court. Like most members of the Wetterau Imperial Counts College , Anton stood on the emperor's side. However, he was unable to use Reinhard's position in his favor, who after the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League could only be rehabilitated by paying a heavy fine. With the introduction of the Reformation , however, both parts of the country were able to acquire considerable church property. Anton secularized the Selbold and Meerholz monasteries , Reinhard the Marienborn monastery .

After Anton's death, his three sons Georg , Wolfgang and Heinrich initially jointly administered the county of Isenburg-Ronneburg. In 1566 it was then divided. Another division, this time in half, became necessary after the death of the eldest brother Georg in 1578. The last heyday of the Ronneburg goes back to Count Heinrich. He had construction work carried out in order to expand the medieval castle into a residence in keeping with the rank of the contemporary Renaissance style .

Count Wolfgang, the first Wetterau count to convert to Calvinism , received the areas south of the Main with the office of Langen . He too built a residence in Kelsterbach , the so-called Wolfenburg , at great financial expense . The resulting debts and the ongoing disputes with the Birstein line had Count Heinrich sell the Kelsterbach office in 1601, contrary to the hereditary brotherhood contract of 1517 and the imperial feudal rights, to Landgrave Ludwig V of Hesse-Darmstadt for around 356,000 florins , a fateful step for the entire house.

Since Wolfgang and Heinrich also died childless in 1597 and 1601, the property reverted to the only heir, Count Wolfgang Ernst I. von Isenburg-Büdingen . He did not recognize the sale of the Kelsterbach office to Hessen-Darmstadt. There followed centuries of lawsuits before the Reich Chamber of Commerce , which resulted in the Landgraviate not paying the purchase price. Of this, Hessen-Darmstadt had paid out only 100,000 florins anyway, which ultimately had to be repaid.

Regents

  1. Philipp von Isenburg-Büdingen-Ronneburg (* 1467, † 1526, reigned 1518 / 21–26)
    1. Anton von Isenburg-Büdingen zu Ronneburg (* 1501, † 1560, ruled 1518–1560)
      1. Georg von Ysenburg-Ronneburg (* 1528, † 1577, ruled 1566–1577)
      2. Wolfgang von Ysenburg-Ronneburg (* 1533, † 1597, ruled 1566–1597 in the Kelsterbach region)
      3. Heinrich von Ysenburg-Ronneburg (* 1537, † 1601, ruled 1566–1597 in the Ronneburg part of the country, then throughout the county until his death)
Administration archive cabinet on the Ronneburg

territory

literature

  • Klaus-Peter Decker: County Isenburg-Büdingen. In: Winfried Speitkamp (ed.): Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-942225-17-5 (= Handbook of Hessian History 3 = Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 63), pp. 232–272.
  • Karl Ernst Demandt : History of the State of Hesse , 2nd edition, Bärenreiter-Verlag , Kassel and Basel 1972, ISBN 3-7618-0404-0 , p. 500f.
  • Hans Philippi : Territorial history of the county of Büdingen. Elwert, Marburg 1954 (=  publications of the Hessian office for historical regional studies 23 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen. In: Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, pp. 243–245.
  2. ↑ Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen. In: Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, pp. 243–245 .; Hans Philippi: Territorial history of the county of Büdingen. Elwert, Marburg 1954, pp. 174f.
  3. ↑ Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen. In: Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, p. 248f .; Hans Philippi: Territorial history of the county of Büdingen. Elwert, Marburg 1954, pp. 174f.
  4. ↑ Klaus-Peter Decker: Grafschaft Isenburg-Büdingen. In: Knights, Counts and Princes - secular dominions in the Hessian area approx. 900-1806. Marburg 2014, pp. 252f .; Hans Philippi: Territorial history of the county of Büdingen. Elwert, Marburg 1954, pp. 174f.