Richard Puller von Hohenburg

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Grosse Burgunderchronik of Diebold Schilling. The depiction of the execution as in before the city walls is ahistorical, as Puller was actually burned in Zurich's market square.[1]

Richard Puller von Hohenburg (died 24 September 1482) was a 15th-century

nobleman and knight. He is notable for his homosexual liaisons, his strategic avoidance of prosecution, and later execution for his homosexuality
.

Biography

Richard Puller von Hohenburg was born as the only son to the successful noble Konrad von Hohenburg, descendant of the 13th-century minstrel Der Püller [de].[2] He was a citizen of Strasbourg in Alsace, and married there.[3]

In 1463, the Swiss noble Wirich von Berstett captured one of Puller's servants, a man named Ludwig Fischer, after he had been seen dressed in lavish clothes and in possession of more money than his occupation would afford him.[4] In early modern Europe, gifts of clothing were often used as evidence of offering improper sexual services, presented as either a token of love or a bribe from the paying participant.[5] Under torture, Fischer revealed that Puller had romantically pursued him, an act he used to his advantage by blackmailing Puller for money and status.[6] Puller was consequently stripped of his fiefs, which were transferred to the bishop of Strasbourg, Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern, but he was not put on trial. Shortly after, he was released from arrest.[7]

Though he had managed to evade prosecution this time, in 1474 Puller was again accused of

monastic imprisonment. Puller was quickly stripped of his Alsatian possessions, but fled from Alsace before beginning a monastic life, intent on recovering these possessions.[8]

In 1476, Puller had turned to the

florins to the councillors for the trial and execution of Puller, although the source was definite about Puller's guilt of the charges.[10]

Contemporary chronicler

mayor of Zurich, who was later executed for several charges (among them, sodomy) after a spectacular but brief and unpopular political career in Zurich.[12] With the execution of its last scion, the noble family of the von Hohenburgs perished, with its name passing on to the Sickinger family.[13]

References

  1. ^ Smalls 2015, p. 268
  2. ^ Franck 1880
  3. ^ Puff 2003, p. 45
  4. ^ Puff 2002, p. 258, Puff 2003, p. 45
  5. ^ Puff 2002, pp. 255–56
  6. ^ Puff 2002, p. 258, Puff 2003, p. 45
  7. ^ Puff 2003, p. 45
  8. ^ Puff 2003, pp. 45–46
  9. ^ Puff 2003, p. 46
  10. ^ Puff 2003, p. 48
  11. ^ Puff 2002, p. 256
  12. ^ Puff 2003, pp. 46–47, Smalls 2015, p. 268
  13. ^ Franck 1880

Sources

  • Franck, Jakob (1880). "Konrad von Hohenburg". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 12. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 669–71.
  • Puff, Helmut (2002). "The Sodomite's Clothes: Gift-Giving and Sexual Excess in Early Modern Germany and Switzerland". In McClanan, Anne; Encarnacion, Karen Rosoff (eds.). The Material Culture of Sex, Procreation, and Marriage in Premodern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 251–73.
    ISBN 978-0312240011
    .
  • Puff, Helmut (2003). Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland, 1400–1600. University of Chicago Press.
    ISBN 978-0226685052
    .
  • Smalls, James (2015). Homosexuality in Art. Parkstone International.
    ISBN 978-1783107278
    .

Further reading
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