Sponheim family

The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a medieval

The family took its name from their ancestral seat at

The founder of the ducal branch was Count Siegfried I (1010–1065), a Ripuarian Frank by birth and retainer of the Salian emperor Conrad II. For this reason the family is sometimes termed the Siegfrieding. Siegfried followed Conrad in his 1035 campaign against Duke Adalbero of Carinthia, who for unknown reasons had fallen out of favour with the emperor. By his marriage to Richgard, daughter of one Count Engelbert of the Bavarian Sieghardinger noble family, he became heir to large territories in Carinthia and Tyrol. In 1045 Siegfried received the title of a margrave in the Hungarian March by Emperor Henry III. His sons Engelbert, Margrave in Istria from 1090, and Hartwig founded Saint Paul's Abbey, Lavanttal on their mother's estates in 1091.

When the ducal House of Eppenstein finally became extinct in 1122, Siegfried's grandson

The branch of the Counts of Ortenburg is still living today in Tambach (Bavaria). A lateral line of the Rhenish branch survives also with the Princes of Sayn-Wittgenstein.

Genealogy

Ducal line

1. Siegfried I (d. 1065), Count in the Puster Valley, Margrave of the Hungarian March
   1. Hartwig (d. 1102), Archbishop of Magdeburg
   2. Engelbert I (d. 1096), Margrave of Istria
      1. Bernhard of Trixen (d. 1147)
      2. Richardis (d. about 1112), married to Margrave Poppo II of Carniola
      3. Henry IV (1065/70–1123), Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona
      4. Engelbert II (d. 1141), Margrave of Carniola and Istria, Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona
         1. Ulrich I (d. 1144), Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona
            1. Henry V (d. 1161), Duke of Carinthia, Margrave of Verona until 1151
            2. Herman II
               (d. 1181), Duke of Carinthia
               1. Ulrich II (1176–1202), Duke of Carinthia
               2. Bernhard (c. 1180–1256), Duke of Carinthia
                  1. Agnes of Merania and secondly to Agnes of Baden
                  2. Aquileia
            3. Ulrich, Count of Laibach (Ljubljana), but predeceased his eldest brother.
            4. Godfrey (Gottfried) became a monk, but predeceased his father.
            5. Pilgrim became the Patriarch of Aquileia.
         2. Engelbert III (1124–1173), Margrave of Istria, Margrave of Tuscany
         3. Henry (d. 1169), Bishop of Troyes
         4. Rapoto (d. 1186), Count of
            Ortenburg
            , founder of the House of Ortenburg
         5. Adelheid (d. 1178), Abbess at Göss
         6. Hartwig II (d. 1164), Bishop of
            Regensburg
         7. Matilda (d. 1160/61), married to Count Theobald II of Champagne
      5. Siegfried II (d. 1132), Count at Lebenau
      6. Hartwig I (d. 1126), Bishop of Regensburg
2. Frederick (1022–1058)
3. Eberhard

Comital line

1. Stephan I
   (d. about 1080), probably a cousin or brother of Siegfried I
   1. Stephan II (d. about 1118), probably married to Sophia of Formbach, widow of Count Hermann of Salm
      , German anti-king from 1081
      1. Meginhard I (d. 1136/45), married to Mechtild, daughter of Count Adalbert II of Nellenburg
         1. Godfrey I (d. after 1159), probably married to Matilda (Mechtild), daughter of Duke Simon I of Lorraine
            1. Godfrey II, probably married to a daughter of Count Gerlach of
               Veldenz
               1. Godfrey III (c. 1175–1218), married to Adelheid, sister of Count Henry III of Sayn, died in the Fifth Crusade
                  1. John I of Sponheim-Starkenburg (c. 1206-1266), Count of Sayn from 1263, probably married to a daughter of Count Frederick of Isenberg, see Sponheim-Starkenburg below
                  2. Henry (d. 1259), married to Agnes of Heinsberg
                  3. Simon I of Sponheim-Kreuznach (c. 1210-1264), married to Margaret of Heimbach, see Sponheim-Kreuznach below
      2. Gerhard I, probably married to a daughter of Count Bertolph of Vianden
      3. Hugo (d. 1137), Archbishop of Cologne
      4. Jutta (1091–1136), Abbess at Disibodenberg

Sponheim-Starkenburg

1. John I (c. 1206-1266), Count of Sayn from 1263, probably married to a daughter of Count Frederick of Isenberg
   1. Godfrey I of Sponheim-Sayn (d. 1284), married to Jutta of Isenburg
      1. John II of Sayn-Sayn
      2. Engelbert of Sayn-Homburg, ancestor of the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein
   2. Henry I (c. 1235-1289), married to Blancheflor, daughter of Count William IV of Jülich
      1. John II (c. 1265-1324), married to Catherine of Vianden
         1. Salm
            1. John III (c. 1315-1398), married to Mechtild of the Palatinate, niece of Emperor Louis IV
               1. John IV (c. 1338-1413/14), married to Elizabeth, daughter of Count Walram of Sponheim-Kreuznach (see below)
                  1. John V (c. 1359-1437), also Count of Sponheim-Kreuznach from 1417, married to Walburg of
                     Leiningen
                     , died childless
               2. Mechtild (d. 1407/10), married to Margrave Rudolf VI of Baden
               3. Loretta, married to Count Henry III of Veldenz
                  1. Frederick III of Veldenz (d. 1444)
                     1. Anna of Veldenz (c. 1390-1439), married to Count Palatine Stephen of Simmern-Zweibrücken

Sponheim-Kreuznach

1. Simon I (c. 1210-1264), married to Margaret of Heimbach
   1. John I (c. 1245-1290), married to Adelheid of Leiningen
      1. John II (c. 1270-1340), unmarried
      2. Simon II at Kastellaun (c. 1270-1336), married to Elizabeth of Valkenburg
         1. Walram (c. 1305-1380), married to Elizabeth of Katzenelnbogen
            1. Simon III (c. 1330-1414), married to Maria of Vianden, died without male heirs
               1. Elizabeth (d. 1417), married to Count
                  Rupert of the Palatinate
            2. Elizabeth, married to Count John IV of Sponheim-Starkenburg (see above)

See also

• Genealogia Sponhemica
• Sponheim

Sources

• Freed, John B. "Reflections on the Medieval German Nobility." The American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 3. (Jun., 1986), pp 553–575.
• (in German) Genealogia Sponhemica. Archiv für rheinische Geschichte Coblenz, 1.1833 - 2.1835. Zweiter Teil 1835. http://www.dilibri.de/rlb/periodical/pageview/27862

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to House of Sponheim.

• (in German) Genealogy at genealogie-mittelalter.de
• Marek, Miroslav. "Stem list at genealogy.euweb.cz". Genealogy EU.
• (in German) Site of the Countly House of Ortenburg-Tambach
• (in German) Genealogy of the Counts of Ortenburg