Johann I (Habsburg-Laufenburg)
Johann I von Habsburg-Laufenburg | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 January 1295 propably Rapperswil |
| Died | 21 September 1337 (aged 42) |
| Other names | Rapperswil-Laufenburg; Laufenburg-Rapperswil |
| Occupation | Count of Grafschaft Rapperswil |
| Years active | 1309–1337 |
| Known for | Son of Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil and Count of Habsburg-Laufenburg respectively House of Rapperswil |
Johann I von Habsburg-Laufenburg (also von Rapperswil-Laufenburg, von Laufenburg-Rapperswil, born around 1297; † 21 September 1337 in Grynau) was the Count of Habsburg-Laufenburg and later Count of the House of Rapperswil.
Early life
Johann was born around or before probably in the Rapperswil Castle in the medieval city of Rapperswil, being the son of Countess Elisabeth von Rapperswil in second marriage with Rudolf III von Habsburg Laufenburg in spring 1296.[1] From Elisabeth's second marriage to Count Rudolf of Habsburg-Laufenburg († 1315), Johann I von Habsburg-Laufenburg was born around 1297. Siblings of Johann are not recorded, but his stepbrother Wernher von Homberg and his stepsister Cecilia von Homberg born to Countess Elisabeth by first marriage with Count Ludwig von Homberg.
Count of Habsburg-Laufenburg-Rapperswil
Johann was married to Agnes of Werd († after 9 February 1354), daughter of Sigismund of Werd, landgrave of the Lower Alsace. Johann may be raised in Laufenburg and even educated in the Habsburg court, was well his son Johann († 17. Dezember 1380) and those brothers Johann IV and Gottfried, after the early death of Johann I. Countess Elisabeth died in 1309, and after the death of his father Rudolf III in 1314, Count Johann was Landgraf of Unterklettgau and Vogt of the Rheinau Abbey. In 1315 he renewed the municipal law of the city of Laufenburg.
Feud with the city of Zürich
In spring 1337, Rudolf Brun, mayor of the city of Zürich, defeated his political opponents, the former members of the Rat (council) of Zürich, of which around 12 found refuge by count Johann in Rapperswil. In feud of the so-called Äusseres Zürich coalition of the Grafschaft Rapperswil, some knights and nobles which supported them, Count Johann became the leader of the opposition in the city of Zürich, that was supported among others by the House of Toggenburg as its military arm, as well as agains the Einsiedeln Abbey which supported Brun.[2]}} The counselors hoped for support by the Count and offered probably in return the forgiveness of debt of the bailiwck. Some, if not most of the refugees, were decades before their exile vassals of the Counts of Rapperswil, including the councilors family Bilgeri those members lost six of their seats in the council of Zürich. On 21 Sptember 1337, Count Johann was killed neaby the Grynau Castle. Kraft III von Toggenburg was the leader of a contigent of the city of Zürich, but he seems not to be killed on occasion of the battle as some sources tell, but rather his brother Diethelm was taken in captive by count Johann's abiders and killed by them.[3]
Aftermath
After the death of Count Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg the inheritance of the Rapperswil possessions and rights went to Countess Elisabeth's son Johann I, then to his son Johann II. As mentionned, Johann I and after those dead, his son Johann II supported the opposition, around 20 former council members of Zürich, against Rudolf Brun, since 1336 the self-style mayor of the city. An uprising in Zürich failed in 1350, and the city of Rapperswil and the remaining two castles of the House of Rapperswil were widely destroyed by Brun's troops. Count Johann II was arrested in Zürich for two years and had to sell most of the remaining property to the Dukes of Austria in 1352 to rebuilt the ruins.
Literature
- Erwin Eugster: Adlige Territorialpolitik in der Ostschweiz. Kirchliche Stiftungen im Spannungsfeld früher landesherrlicher Verdrängungspolitik. Zürich 1991, ISBN 3-90527-868-5.
- Roger Sablonier: Gründungszeit ohne Eidgenossen: Politik und Gesellschaft in der Innerschweiz um 1300. hier + jetzt, Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-03919-085-0.
External links
- Michael Mente: Rapperswil, Elisabeth in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 27 July 2010.
References
- Klosterarchiv Einsiedeln, Professbuch der Äbte
- ^ "Bd.: 10, Gruber - Hassencamp, Leipzig, 1879" (in German). Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
- ^ "23. Konrad II. von Gösgen" (in German). Einsiedeln Abbey. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
- ^ Herman Wartmann (1835). "Die Grafen von Toggenburg. Zollikofer, 1835" (in German). Google eBooks. Retrieved 2014-11-11.