House of Mansfeld

Last updated
County of Mansfeld
Grafschaft Mansfeld
1069–1580
CoA Mansfeld County.svg
Coat of arms
StatusCounty of the Holy Roman Empire
Capital Mansfeld
GovernmentPrincipality
Historical era Early modern Europe
1069
•  Mediatised to Saxony
1580
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Blank.png Duchy of Saxony
Electoral Saxony Blason Jean-Georges IV de Saxe.svg

The House of Mansfeld was a princely German house, which took its name from the town of Mansfeld in the present-day state of Saxony-Anhalt. [1] Mansfelds were archbishops, generals, supporters as well as opponents of Martin Luther, and Habsburg administrators.

Contents

History

Upon the revolt instigated by the Wettin margrave Dedi I in 1069, Emperor Henry IV appointed the loyal House of Mansfeld counts ( Grafen ) in the Saxon Hassegau at Eisleben. The family progenitor, Count Hoyer I of Mansfeld, also known as Hoyer the Great, was a field marshal in the service of Emperor Henry V. He was killed at the Battle of Welfesholz on 11 February 1115, fighting the rebellious Saxon forces under Count Lothair of Supplinburg. [1]

The Mansfelds held extended fiefs both in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Halberstadt. The male line became extinct for the first time upon the death of Count Burchard of Mansfeld in 1229; his daughter Sophia married a scion of the Lords of Querfurt, who assumed the comital title. In the 15th century, the primary house divided into cadet branches: Hinterort, Mittelort, and Vorderort, while their County of Mansfeld in 1512 joined the Upper Saxon Circle as an immediate Imperial estate.

Things worsened with the Protestant Reformation: While Count Hoyer VI of Mansfeld-Vorderort (1477-1540) remained a loyal supporter of the Catholic faith, the Mittelort and Hinterort branches sided with Martin Luther. When the county was devastated during the German Peasants' War, Count Albert VII of Mansfeld-Hinterort (1480-1560) not only fought with the Imperial troops in the 1525 Battle of Frankenhausen, but also signed the Protestant Augsburg Confession in 1530 and joined the Schmalkaldic League, wherefore he was banned by Emperor Charles V after the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg.

The engraving shows the many parts of the Mansfeld Castle, which would name the branches who kept each: Vorderort (Outer Castle and line), Mittelort (Middle Castle and line) and Hinterort (Inner Castle and line. Schloss mansfeld.jpg
The engraving shows the many parts of the Mansfeld Castle, which would name the branches who kept each: Vorderort (Outer Castle and line), Mittelort (Middle Castle and line) and Hinterort (Inner Castle and line.

To settle the enormous debts of the Counts of Mansfeld, their mighty neighbour Elector Augustus of Saxony urged Emperor Maximilian II to appoint a committee. On 15 March 1574, and again on 5 July 1574, in Leipzig and Halle, respectively, the surviving counts Hans Hoyer, Hans Georg, Hans Albrecht and Bruno concluded an agreement for the repayment of debts incurred by Counts Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, Hans Ernst and Bruno von Mansfeld. The family's assets were confiscated in 1579, whereafter Imperial immediacy was lost and mediatized between the Electorate of Saxony and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.

The Mittelort and Hinterort branches died out in 1602 and 1666. The male Mansfeld-Vorderort line finally became extinct in 1780 with the death of Josef Wenzel Nepomuk, Prince of Fondi in Italy, [1] and their fiefs fell back to the Electorate of Saxony and the Prussian Duchy of Magdeburg. Josef Wenzel's half-sister and heiress Maria Isabella was only able to retain the Bohemian possessions. In 1771 she had married Prince Franz de Paula Gundaker von Colloredo (1731–1807), last Vice Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1789, thereby establishing the House of Colloredo-Mansfeld, which claimed headship over the family after the German mediatization.

Possessions

Rulers

House of Mansfeld

Partitions under Mansfeld rule

County of Hessengau
(1050-1112)
Renamed:
County of Mansfeld
(1112-1229)
      County of Neuchatel
(with Mansfeld half 2)
(1229-1319)
County of Schraplau
(1256-1335)		County of Querfurt
(with Mansfeld half 1)
(1229-1335)
      
      
County of Aseleben
(1382-1531)		County of Rammelburg
(1382-1499)		County of Mansfeld
(1335-1475)
      County of Outer Mansfeld
(1475-1540)
      County of Middle Mansfeld
(1486-1580)
      
County of Inner Mansfeld
(1475-1560)
County of Heldrungen
(1540-1572)		      County of Friedeburg
(1540-1580)		County of Artern
(1540-1580)		County of Arnstein
(1540-1580)		County of Eisleben
(1540-1580)
County of Middle Mansfeld
(1560-1580)		County of Elder Mansfeld
(1560-1580)		County of Younger Mansfeld
(1560-1580)		County of Bornstedt
(1540-1580)
Inherited Heldrungen in Outer MansfeldDemoted to:
Lordship of Rammelburg
(1580-1602) [2] 		Annexed to the Electorate of Saxony Demoted to:
Lordship of Schraplau
(1580-1683) [2]
(Rammelburg line from 1613)		Lordship of Heldrungen
(Inner Mansfeld Middle line)
(1580-1666)		      Demoted to:
Lordship of Friedeburg
(1580-1626) [2] 		Demoted to:
Lordship of Artern
(1580-1631) [2] 		Demoted to:
Lordship of Arnstein
(1580-1710) [2]

(Eisleben line from 1615)		Demoted to:
Lordship of Eisleben
(1580-1601) [2]
Inherited by the Berlepsch family Demoted to:
Lordship of Bornstedt
(1580-1794) [2] 		Castle burnt down; Annexed to the Electorate of Saxony
      
      
Sold to the Counts of Hake family
      
Bornstedt annexed to the Electorate of Saxony;
Dobrtisch (and the Bohemian possessions)
inherited by Colloredo family

Table of rulers

Notable family members

See also

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mansfeld"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 599.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Due to the large amount of debts of the family, and their constant division of their territories, the land creditors sequestrated the county, situation that profited the Electorate of Saxony, which by 1580 mediatised the county. This meant that, in that year, The county lost imperial comital status, and also sovereignty. However, the family could still own and hold authority over their own castles as Lords.
  3. ↑ Gerold Meyer von Knonau, Hoyer II. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 232 f.
  4. ↑ A document of 1262 names Oda already married to Burchard III. Moser (1755), Tome II, IV, p. 4.
  5. 1 2 The first two separate lords of Schraplau received no numbering.
  6. ↑ A document from 1274 names Gevehardus et Burchardus fratres...comites de Mansfelth. Moser (1755), Tome II, X, p. 16.
  7. ↑ Reinhard R. Heinisch, Mansfeld, Albert III, Count of. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 80 f. (digital copy).
  8. ↑ Adolf Schinzl, Mansfeld, Peter Ernst I. Prince of . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 235–238.
  9. ↑ Reinhard R. Heinisch, Mansfeld, Peter Ernst I, Prince of]. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 79 (digital copy).
  10. ↑ Ernest is named Lord of Heldrungen, which implies he inherited it somehow from the Outer Mansfeld line.
  11. ↑ Ludwig Graf Uetterodt zu Scharfenberg, Mansfeld, Peter Ernst II, Prince of. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 222–232.
  12. ↑ Reinhard R. Heinisch, Mansfeld, (Peter) Ernst II, Count of. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 80 f. (digital copy).
  13. ↑ Felix Stieve, [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Mansfeld,_Bruno_III._Graf_von Mansfeld, Bruno III, Count of. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 221 f.
  14. ↑ He should have been counted as John George III, as the numberings should be including all members of the family (for example, Ernest of Eisleben being called IV after the III having already ruled in Heldrungen) but oddly it doesn't apply to this case.
  15. ↑ Karl Sommeregger, Mannsfeld-Fondi, Heinrich Franz, Prince of. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 52, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 176.

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