Lordship of Hanau

Lordship of Hanau-Münzenberg
Herrschaft Hanau-Münzenberg
State of the Holy Roman Empire
←
13th century – 1458 = →


Coat of arms

Capital Hanau
Government Lordship
Historical era Late mediaeval
 •  Established 13th century
 •  Disestablished 1429
Roman Catholic; ruled by Lords; language: German

The Lordship of Hanau was a territory within the Holy Roman Empire. In 1429 it was promoted a county.

Geography

The territory of Hanau evolved along the northern bank of the river Main stretching from the east of Frankfurt am Main to the east of Hanau. This area was called “Amt Buchen”. From the 13th century it extended up the valley of the Kinzig, into the Spessart range, north of Frankfurt and south of river Main around Babenhausen.

The Beginnings

First in 1122 a documents issued by the Archbishop of Mainz listed several times two witnesses named by the castle of Wachenbuchen, today part of the town of Maintal . The castle was called “Buchen” Those were Dammo of Buchen and his brother Siegebodo of Buchen. Dammo later calls himself Dammo of Hanau. Hanau was a castle erected in a sharp curve of river Kinzig a short distance before it flows into the river Main. The oldest mention of the castle dates of 1143. Dammo has a son who calls himself Arnold of Hanau.

Hanau family and ist territory

Starting in 1166/68 a noble family is in the possession of the castle of Hanau rose who called itself first as of the castle of Dorfelden and – starting in 1191 – „of Hanau“. The relationship between the family “of Buchen” and “of Dorfelden” is not clear. But with the upcoming of those calling semselves “of Dorfelden” the Genealogy of the family is documented without interruption until the last male member died in 1736.

Starting with Reinhard I the territory of Hanau was enlarged by a series of profitable marriages and politics usually executed in aliance with the archbishop and elector of Mainz. Reinhard I was married to Adelheid of Münzenberg, daughter of Ulrich II of Hagen-Münzenberg. The family of Hagen-Münzenberg was not a noble one but of ministerialis origine and imensly wealthy. Ulrich II of Hagen-Münzenberg had no male heirs but six daughters. So most of the inheritance was divided between five of the daughters (the sixth one became Abbot of a convent founded for her) and some of the inheritance were owned in common as the castle of Münzenberg. Hanau inherited in the area of and around Babenhausen and lands within the Wetterau. Babenhausen was the only larger part of the Lordship of Hanau south of the river Main. Another part of the Münzenberg inheritance was the name of “Ulrich”: All the following heads of the house of Hanau beard this name.

Reinhard I took part in a war archbishop Werner von Eppstein of Mainz fought with the counts of Rieneck, their main stronghold being the Spessart range. The counts of Rieneck lost and had to give territory as well as a daughter, Elisabeth of Rieneck-Rothefels, to Hanau. She was married to Ulrich I, son to Reinhard I. By this connection the house of Hanau inherited another time in 1290: The area around Steinau in the upper valley of river Kinzig. In 1300 Ulrich I further was appointed governor of Wetterau by king Albrecht I, an area north of Buchen and Hanau. He and his followers kept this office down to his grandson Ulrich III. On 2 February 1303 the king appointed the settlement of Hanau which had developed in front of Hanau castle a town and granted the right to hold a market. During the 14th century a protective wall was built around the town.

In 1320 king Ludwig the Bavarian transferred the district of Bornheimerberg, an area to the north and north-west of Frankfurt to Ulrich II as a security for a loan. Due to the lack of money neither the king nor any of his successors was able to claim it back. But the king also gave it as a security to the city of Frankfurt. This lead into a feud between the Lords of Hanau and the City of Frankfurt which was solved only in the 15th century by dividing Bornheimer Berg between the two parties. In 1434 emperor Sigismund changed the part held by Hanau into a fief.

In 1377 the Lordship of Hanau inherited for a second time from Rieneck mainly the abbey and the district of Schlüchtern, th castle and district of Schwarzenfels and the district of Brandenstein all placed to the north-east of its territory as well as the district of Lohrhaupten placed to the south east of the Lordship of Hanau in Spessart range.

Late mediaeval

During the great plague in the middle of the 14th century, in 1349, the Jewish community in Hanau was massacred. On the other side king Charles IV granted Ulrich III of Hanau the income out of the Jewish community within Hanau territory only two years later, in 1351.

After some earlier regulations the house of Hanau granted itself a statute of primogeniture in 1375: Only the first born male inherited the Lordship. All other sons as well as those of the daughters not married were to be given into convents. This statute is one of the earliest within Germany. It aimed to stabilize the territorial integrity of the Lordship of Hanau by evoiding its splitting due to heritages.

The “foreign” policy in second half of the 14th century sees the Lords of Hanau – especially Ulrich III – in permanent conflict with the neighbouring city of Frankfurt. At one point he was acting representative for the emperor in the city and had laid its hands as well on the imperial forest to the south of the city as well as the district of Bornheimerberg and Bockenheim covering all the north of it. Only one step before taking it over the city of Frankfurt, using its financial power by giving the emperor a large credit, achieves to get rid of Ulrich III as imperial representative and to take over the forest. The Lordship of Hanau was able to keep most of area north of Frankfurt but never got a chance again to take over Frankfurt.

Becoming Counts

But Hanau stayed an ally to the emperors. As a reward in 1429 emperor Sigismund granted Reinhard II of Hanau the title of a count. From there on the Lordship of Hanau is called County of Hanau.

Literature

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