House of Zähringen

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House of Zähringen
Seal of Berthold IV (r. 1152–1186)
Parent familyAlaholfings
CountryDuchy of Carinthia
March of Verona
Margraviate of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
Founded11th century
FounderBerthold I of Zähringen
Final rulerBerthold V as Duke of Zähringen
Frederick II as Grand Duke of Baden
TitlesCount, Duke, Margrave
Dissolution1218 (ducal branch of Zähringen)
Cadet branchesBaden (extant)
Teck (extinct in 1439)

The House of Zähringen (

Staufer in 1098. The Zähringer were granted the special title of Rector of Burgundy
in 1127, and they continued to use both titles until the extinction of the ducal line in 1218.

The territories and fiefs held by the Zähringer were known as the Duchy of Zähringen (German:

.

History

Zähringen Castle, c. 1500

The earliest-known ancestor of the family was one Berthold, Count in the

Ahalolfing dynasty
.

Count Berthold's great-grandson, the later

Margrave of Verona in 1061. However, this dignity was only a titular one, and Berthold subsequently lost it when, in the course of the Investiture Controversy, he joined the rising of his former rival Rudolf of Rheinfelden against German king Henry IV
in 1073.

Berthold's son Berthold II (c. 1050–1111), who like his father fought against Henry IV, inherited a lot of the lands of Rudolf's son Count Berthold of Rheinfelden in 1090 (though not his comital title, which stayed with the family von Wetter-Rheinfelden). Berthold II is so named both as Duke of Swabia (following Berthold of Rheinfelden, the first duke of Swabia of this name) and as head of the House of Zähringen (following his father, who is counted as Berthold I of Zähringen in spite of not historically having used the name Zähringen). Berthold II did use the name Zähringen, although he moved his main residence from Zähringen Castle to the newly built Freiburg Castle in 1091.

In 1092, Berthold II was elected Duke of Swabia against Frederick I of Hohenstaufen. In 1098, he reconciled with Frederick, renounced all claims to Swabia and instead concentrated on his possessions in the Breisgau region, assuming the title of Duke of Zähringen. He was succeeded in turn by his sons, Berthold III (d. 1122) and Conrad (d. 1152).

In 1127, upon the assassination of his nephew Count

Frederick I Barbarossa
.

His son and successor,

Zürichgau
area.

After the extinction of the ducal line in 1218, much of its extensive territory in the Breisgau and modern-day Switzerland returned to the crown, except for the allodial titles, which were divided between the counts of Urach (who subsequently called themselves the counts of Freiburg) and the counts of Kyburg, both descended from the sisters of Berthold V. Less than fifty years later, the Kyburgs died out, and large portions of their domains were inherited by the House of Habsburg. Bern achieved the status of a free imperial city, whereas other cities (such as Fribourg-Freiburg) only obtained the same status later in history.

Possessions and territories

Territories of the dominant noble houses in Swabia and Upper Burgundy around 1200; Zähringen possessions shown in green

Berthold I (ancestor of both the House of Zähringen and the House of Baden) held the comital titles of

Thurgau, as well as being reeve in Stein am Rhein (owned by the bishop of Bamberg
). The county of Thurgau was lost around 1077.

In 1098, Berthold II, founder of the House of Zähringen proper, received Zähringen Castle and the jurisdiction over Zürich (alongside the Counts of Lenzburg until 1173). Ownership of the county of Rheinfelden and of Burgdorf also dates to c. 1198.

The 'rectorate' of the county of Burgundy was granted in 1127 (inheritance of Otto-William, Count of Burgundy). Ownership of Burgundy was contested, and Zähringer de facto rule was limited to the parts of Upper Burgundy east of the Jura and north of Lake Geneva. The territories south of Lake Geneva were conceded to Savoy and Provence in 1156. In compensation, Berthold IV received the investiture right for the bishops of Geneva, Sion and Lausanne, de facto realised only in the case of Lausanne.

The extinction of the counts of Lenzburg in 1173 strengthened the Zähringer position south of the Rhine, but their territorial expansion was halted following their support of the

Welfs in the unsuccessful feud against Conrad III of Germany during 1138–1152. This frustrated their ambitions to carve out a contiguous territorial duchy wedged between Swabia and Burgundy, in spite of late attempts on the part of Berthold V to increase his territorial sway (who as late as 1210 aimed at receiving the jurisdiction over St. Gallen
).

Instead of territorial expansion, the dukes of Zähringen from the 1150s focused on attaining more immediate feudal control over the territories they already had. This included their policy of expanding settlements into fortified towns or cities and the construction of new castles, mostly in their territories north of the Rhine. Their encroachment on the rights of the comital nobility south of the Rhine seems to have been resisted, mostly passively, but in the case of the lords of Glâne and Thun in an open revolt in 1191.

The fragmentation of the Zähringer possessions after 1218 was an important factor in the communal movements of the late medieval period in the region, including the imperial immediacy of Bern and Zürich, and the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century.[1]

Cities

Berthold V
, shown on the Zähringer monument in Bern, Switzerland

Among the cities founded or expanded by the Zähringer dukes (German: Zähringerstädte) are:

Other towns owned by or under the jurisdiction (Reichsvogtei) of the Zähringer include: Solothurn (acquired 1127), Zürich (acquired 1173), Schaffhausen (acquired 1198) and Stein am Rhein.[year needed]

The city of Morges on Lake Geneva is not a Zähringer foundation (having been founded in 1286 by Louis I of Vaud) but shared the characteristic layout of the Zähringer cities.

Genealogy

Freiburg town hall. There are two traditions of attributed arms, either or an eagle displayed gules (shown here) or gules a lion rampant or, based on the respective coats of arms used in the later medieval period by the counts of Freiburg who claimed the Zähringer inheritance (ancestors of the House of Fürstenberg).[2]

House of Zähringen

Equestrian seal of Berthold V, dated 1187[3]

Berthold II, Duke of Carinthia, Margrave of Verona (c. 1000–1078, r. 1061–1077), is also known as "Berthold I of Zähringen". Therefore, the succession of dukes of Zähringen begins with his son as Berthold II:

Dukes of Zähringen:

Other notable Zähringer:

House of Baden

The

Berthold I of Zähringen. Herman's son, Herman II, was the first to use the title of Margrave of Baden
in 1112.

Now more commonly known as the

List of rulers of Baden
.

Heads of the House of Baden since 1918:

Dukes of Teck

Seal of Adalbert I, Duke of Teck (c. 1190)

Adalbert I (d. 1196) was a son of Duke Conrad I of Zähringen. Upon the death of his brother Berthold IV in 1186, he inherited the family estates around Teck Castle and, from 1187, adopted the title of Duke of Teck. His descendant Conrad II of Teck (1235–1292) allegedly was designated King of the Romans shortly before his assassination. The line became extinct in 1439 with the death of Louis of Teck, Patriarch of Aquileia.

In 1871, a ducal title with the same name was granted by King Charles I of Württemberg to Prince Francis of Teck (1837–1900), a morganatic son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg. Francis' daughter Mary of Teck (1867–1953), as the wife of King George V, became Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India.

Francis's surviving children ceased using their German titles during World War I and (aside from Queen Mary) took the name Cambridge, with his eldest son (Adolphus) being made Marquess of Cambridge and his youngest son (Alexander) being made Earl of Athlone. This branch of the family died out in the male line in 1981 and in its entirety in 1994 with the death of Francis's granddaughter, Lady Mary Abel Smith.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Erwin Eugster: House of Zähringen in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2015.
  2. ^ August Freiherr von Berstett, Münzgeschichte des Zähringen-Badischen Fürstenhauses (1846), p. 3.
  3. ^ The shield with heraldic eagle visible in this seal (from a document at Fraumünster, Zürich, dated 1187) is the only contemporary attestation of a Zähringer coat of arms. Franz Zell, Geschichte und Beschreibung des Badischen Wappens von seiner Entstehung bis auf seine heutige Form (1858), p. 7 and plate I.

References

  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zähringen (family)" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Zähringen" . Encyclopedia Americana.

External links