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The Ludovingians or Ludowingians (german: Ludowinger) were the ruling dynasty of
Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
and
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Da ...
during the 11th to 13th centuries. Their progenitor was Louis the Bearded who was descended from a noble family whose genealogy cannot be precisely determined. Like the related Reginbodo family, they had a close relationship with the Archbishopric of Mainz and also had estates on the Middle Main. The male line of Ludovingians was extinguished on the death of Henry Raspe in 1247, leading to the War of the Thuringian Succession.


History

Around 1040 Louis the Bearded received a
fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...
north of the Thuringian Forest and had the (now ruined) castle of Schauenburg near Friedrichroda. However these origins are legendary and based solely on unverifiable Reinhardsbrunn sources. Around 1080, Louis' sons, Louis the Springer and Beringer of Sangerhausen, founded the Abbey of Kloster Schönrain in the land of their ancestors,
Main Franconia Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany *Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries *' ...
. In a deed dated 1100 the brothers are named as the counts of Schauenburg. In the period that followed, the Ludovingians expanded their possessions in Thuringia, for example around Sangerhausen, the estate of Cecilia, wife of Louis the Bearded (who died around 1080), and around estates on the
River Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. I ...
, that Adelheid, that the widow of Count Palatine Frederick III, had left to Louis the Springer in her will. The latter built the castle of Wartburg (first mentioned in 1080) above
Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, sit ...
as his new seat of residence and in 1085 founded Reinhardsbrunn, henceforth the house monastery of the family. In the stormy period of the
Investiture Controversy The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest ( German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monas ...
, Louis the Springer was one of the leading opponents of Emperor Henry V. The distinct anti-imperial stance of the Ludovingians, their prominent political position and other factors led Wolfgang Hartmann vertretene to propose that, amongst the famous benefactors portrayed in Naumburg Cathedral, were the statues of the founder of the Wartburg, Louis and his wife Adelheid. Even before 1122 the family's territory expanded under Louis' sons, Louis and Henry, acquiring estates near
Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approx ...
and Kassel, especially through the marriage of Louis I (d 1140) to Hedwig of Gudensberg, the daughter and heiress of the Hessian gaugrave ("gau count"),
Giso IV Giso IV, Count of Gudensberg ( – 12 March 1122) was a German nobleman. He was a Count in the Upper Lahngau and from 1121, he was Count of Gudensberg in Lower Hesse and Imperial Standard Bearer. During his lifetime, the Gisones dynasty ...
, on the basis of which, after the death of Giso V in 1137, the vast inheritance of the
House of Giso A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...
(''Gisonen'') and the counts of Werner in North Hesse was added to their domain. The link thus established between Thuringia and large parts of Hesse was not severed until the War of the Thuringian Succession. Until 1247, the Hessian estate of the Ludovingians was largely ruled by the younger brothers of the landgraves, who bore the title of Count of Gudensberg and of Hesse and in resided in Gudensberg and Marburg; they included
Henry Raspe I Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
, Henry Raspe II,
Henry Raspe III Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
and Conrad Raspe. In 1131, Louis was elevated by Emperor Lothair (of Supplinburg) to the rank of
landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' (" margrave"), ...
and became Louis I. As a consequence, Thuringia, as an
imperially immediate Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...
territory, left the
Duchy of Saxony The Duchy of Saxony ( nds, Hartogdom Sassen, german: Herzogtum Sachsen) was originally the area settlement geography, settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and in ...
, and the Ludovingians took on a ducal-like status in Thuringia. Around the middle of the 12th century, the landgravial minting capital of Eisenach was established and, somewhat later, the
Gotha Mint Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
as the second mint owned by the Ludovingians.Wolfgang Streguweit: ''Geschichte der Münzstätte Gotha vom 12. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert'', Weimar, 1987, p. 24 Under Louis II and Louis III the territory of the landgraviate was further expanded, whilst Hermann I sought to strengthen the position of his family politically, for example, through the marriages of his children. Prior to that, Hermann had to resist attempts by Emperor Henry VI, to turn the Landgraviate of Thuringia into a
fiefdom A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of ...
following the death of Hermann's brother, Louis III. Hermann's son, Louis IV, who married the subsequently beatified Elizabeth of Hungary, hoped that, through the guardianship of his nephews, Henry Margrave of Meissen and a minor, to gain the March of Meissen. In 1226 he was indeed promised the enfeoffment of the March, but died the same year before he was able to actually acquire it. In 1241, following the death of Louis IV's son, the only 19-year-old Hermann II, Louis' brother, Henry Raspe, inherited the Landgraviate, which he had already ruled as
regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...
during the minority of his nephew. A second brother, Conrad Raspe, ruled the Hessian estates of the family, but entered the
Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
in 1234, soon becoming its Hochmeister. Henry Raspe, who in 1246 was elected as the German antiking, died in 1247. On his death the male line of the Ludovingians died out. In 1243, Henry Raspe had already arranged for his nephew, Henry, the Margrave of Meissen, to be enfeoffed with the Landgraviate of Thuringia. In 1249, Henry was able to secure his claims in Thuringia after military operations that ended in the Treaty of Weißenfels. These were not initially recognised, however, by his cousin Sophia of Brabant, the daughter of Louis IV. In 1259, she attempted, with the aid of Albert I of Brunswick, ab 1259 to gain a military foothold in Thuringia. After a heavy defeat at Besenstedt near Wettin in October 1263 she finally had to give up all claims to Thuringia in 1264, was successful in securing the claims of her son, Henry to the family's Hessian estate, which as the Landgraviate of Hesse became independent and, in 1291, an imperial principality.


List of reigning Ludovingians counts and landgraves

* 1031–1056 Louis the Bearded (Count of Schauenburg) * 1056–1123 Louis the Springer (Count of Schauenburg) * 1123–1140 Louis I (1st landgrave, from 1131) * 1140–1172 Louis II ''the Iron'' * 1172–1190 Louis III ''the Pious'' * 1190–1217 Hermann I * 1217–1227 Louis IV ''the Saint'' * 1227–1241 Hermann II * 1241–1247 Henry Raspe


See also

* History of Thuringia * List of rulers of Thuringia *
Babenbergs The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its ...


Literature

* * * Josef Heinzelmann gemeinsam mit Manuel Aicher: ''Wolf cum barba''. In: ''Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung''. Vol. 6, 2002, pp. 19–23 (zur These von Armin Wolf, Ludwig der Bärtige stamme von Ludwig von Mousson). * Josef Heinzelmann, ''Nachträge zu: Ludwig von Arnstein und seine Verwandtschaft, Zugleich ein Beitrag: Die frühen Ludowinger (Grafen in Thüringen)''. In: ''Genealogisches Jahrbuch'' Vol. 36, 1997, pp 67–73. * Hans-Joachim Kessler, Konrad Kessler: ''Auf den Spuren der Thüringer Landgrafen''. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt, 2010, . * Tilo Köhn (ed.): ''Brandenburg, Anhalt und Thüringen im Mittelalter. Askanier und Ludowinger beim Aufbau fürstlicher Territorialherrschaften''. Böhlau, Cologne-Weimar-Vienna, 1997, , pp. 241–294. * Hans Patze und Walter Schlesinger: ''Geschichte Thüringens''. Zweiter Band, erster Teil. Cologne, 1974, pp. 10–41, * Jürgen Petersohn: ''Die Ludowinger. Selbstverständnis und Memoria eines hochmittelalterlichen Reichsfürstengeschlechts''. In: ''Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte''. Vol. 129, 1993, pp 1–39. * Wilfried Warsitzka: ''Die thüringer Landgrafen.'' Verlag Dr. Bussert & Stadeler, Jena, 2003, * Reinhard Zöllner: ''Die Ludowinger und die Takeda. Feudale Herrschaft in Thüringen und Kai no kuni'' Dieter Born, 1995,


External links


genealogie-mittelalter.de


References

{{Authority control German noble families Saxon nobility History of Hesse Eisenach Thuringian Forest