House of Rapperswil

Lordship (County) of Rapperswil
Herrschaft (Grafschaft) Rapperswil
State of the Holy Roman Empire
←
1220–1464 →
Juliusbanner (1512) Coat of arms
Capital Rapperswil
Government Principality
Historical era Middle Ages, Early Modern period
 - Rapperswil founded 1229 (official date)
 -  Lordship established ca 1233 1220
 - Inherited by counts of
    Habsburg-Laufenburg
→

1309–58
 - Purchased liberty from
    Austria
1415–58
 - Allied with Habsburg
    and Zürich
    in the Old Zürich War

1440–46
 - Condominium of the
    Old Swiss Confederacy
1458–1798
 -  Annexed to Helvetic
    canton of Linth
1798 1464
 - Joined St Gallen February 19, 1803
Rapperswil Castle and the neighbouring parish church
Alleged drinking saddle of Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil

The House of Rapperswil respetively Counts of Rapperswil (Grafen von Rapperwil since 1233, before Lords) ruled the upper Zürichsee and Seedamm region around Rapperswil and parts of, as of today, Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Glarus, Zürich and Graubünden when their influence was most extensive around the 1200s until the 1290s AD. They acted also as Vogt of the most influential Einsiedeln Abbey in the 12th and 13th century AD, and at least three abbots of Einsiedeln were members of Rapperswil family.

History

Legends mentions 697 AD a knight called Raprecht in connection with the later Grynau Castle, and the former seat of the Vogt in Altendorf was first mentioned as "Rahprehteswilare" in a document of emperor Otto II, in which goods of the Einsiedeln abbey were confirmed on 14 August 972.[1] Some fortifications, among them in Greifensee, Uster and Alt-Rapperswil were built probably in the early 12th century AD by members of the family. The Vogts of Rapperswil were persons of influence in the so-called Marchenstreit between the people of Schwyz and the Einsiedeln abbey beginning around 1100 AD. Around 1180 AD the lords of Rapperswil inherit the parish rights of Weisslingen and free float in Russikon, Erisberg, Luckhausen, Moosburg and in Kempthal, as well as the castles Greifenberg and Bernegg, and the bailiwick of Kempten in the area around the Töss Valley respectively in Eastern Switzerland.

The house (lords) of Rapperswil was first mentioned before 1192 AD in a large numbers of documents, for the last time around 1206 AD related to the abbot Rudolf of (Alt)-Rapperswil, and since 1233 as Grafen (counts) of Rapprechtswilare.[2] As between 1192 and 1220 documentary mentions of the family are widely missing, the modern research assumes that the original lineage is extinct and subsequently a dispute over inheritance may be broken. Therefore, the historians use the term Alt-Rapperswil (old line) and Neu-Rapperswil (new line). Likewise, it is assumed that there were strong family ties with the houses of Regensberg, Kyburg and Toggenburg (see Members of the family), that may have been involved in the dispute over the inheritance.

Nevertheless, around 1200 AD the Rapperswil Castle and the fortifications of the former locus Endingen (given by the Einsiedeln abbey) were built by Rudolf II and his son Rudolf III of Rapperswil. Officially in 1229, the town of Rapperswil was founded when the nobility of Rapperswil moved from Altendorf across the lake to Rapperswil, and a wave of foundations is documented: Wettingen Abbey in 1227,[3] and the Mariazell-Wurmsbach Abbey in 1259, and on the peninsula at Oberbollingen, the St. Nicholas Chapel is mentioned, where around 1229 a small Cistercian (later Premonstratensian) monastery was established; in 1267 it was united with the nearby Mariazell-Wurmsbach nunnery. St. Martin Busskirch is one of the oldest churches around the Lake Zürich and was until 1229 the parish church of the family. There even the citizens of Rapperswil had to attend services, until Count Rudolf II of Rapperswil built the Stadtpfarrkirche on Herrenberg next to the Rapperswil castle on the Lindenhof hill.

At that time, the House of Rapperswil had possessions in what is now Eastern and Central Switzerland. They bore the title of count from 1233, as a partisan of the Staufer kings. Besides also the Urseren valley in 1240, and since the 13th centuries, Lützelau island has belonged to the family, later to the community of Rapperswil (now called Ortsbürgergemeinde); its sandstone was used to build the Rapperswil castle, the parish church and the town walls. The house of Rapperswil became extinct again in 1283, with the death of the 18 year old Count Rudolf V, after which emperor Rudolf I acquired their fiefs, and the family had to sold large parts of the former bailiwick. Great parts of the remaining property of the Herrschaft Rapperswil passed to the house of Homberg, represented by Count Ludwig († April 27, 1289) by first marriage of Elisabeth von Rapperswil and their son, Wernher von Homberg. Around 1309 the remaining bailiwick's rights passed to Count Rudolf († 1315) of Habsburg-Laufenburg by second marriage of Elisabeth of Rapperswil, the sister of Rudolf V, followed by her son, Count Johann I († 1337) and his son, Johann II († 1380).[4]

In 1337, Rudolf Brun, mayor of the city of Zürich, defeated his political opponents, the former members of the Rat (council) of Zürich. They refuged to Count Johann I, who was killed in 1337 at the battle of Grynau against Zürich troops. An attempted coup by the aristocratic opposition, known as äusseres Zürich, in Zürich was forcefully put down in 1350: Count Johann II of Rapperswil, now the opposition's leader, was arrested for two years, and the town walls of Rapperswil, its castle and Altendorf castle were destroyed by Brun. The remains of the former Herrschaft Rapperswil – Rapperswil and some surrounding villages including Jona – were sold by Count Johann II and his brothers, Rudolf IV and Gottfried II, to the Habsburg family and partially (Höfe) to the city of Zürich, as the house of Rapperswil was not able to rebuild the town and the destroyed castles, and the rights passed over to Albrecht II, Duke of Habsburg-Austria.[5] Although Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil was able to continue the line and secured the Habsburg-Laufenburg line the extensive possessions of Rapperswil in Zürichgau. But the Homberg-Rapperswil line extinct with the death of Wernher von Homberg, and the Habsburg-Laufenburg line in 1408, when Johann IV von Habsburg-Laufenburg died without male heirs.

Members of the House of Rapperswil

The genealogy is extremely patchy and incomplete, the family may be in fact estincted several times in the 'male line', estimated at least around 1190 AD and according to historical documents at 1283, even the female line was continued by Elisabeth von Rapperswil.

Literature

References

  1. ↑ "Geschichte" (in German). Gemeinde Altendorf. Retrieved 2014-11-08.
  2. ↑ Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, Neuenburg 1929
  3. ↑ Heinrich Murer (2011-12-19). "Chronik des Klosters Wettingen von Heinrich Murer (1588-1638" (in Latin and German). e-codices.ch, Kantonsbibliothek Thurgau, Signatur: Y 115. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  4. ↑ Roger Sablonier: Die Grafen von Rapperswil: Kontroversen, neue Perspektiven und ein Ausblick auf die «Gründungszeit» der Eidgenossenschaft um 1300.
  5. ↑ Georg Boner: Das Grafenhaus Rapperswil im letzten Jahrhundert seiner Geschichte, in: St. Galler Linthgebiet, Jahrbuch 1983, Rapperswil 1983, p. 10–20