Ludovingians

Information board at the ruins of the Ludovingian family castle, theder Schauenburg near Friedrichroda

The Ludovingians (German: Ludowinger) were a ruling dynasty in mediaeval Thuringia and Hesse. Their progenitor, Louis the Bearded (who had a brother, Hugo, who had a son, Wichmann), was descended from a noble family, whose genealogy cannot be precisely determined, which – like the related Reginbodonen – had a close relationship with the Archbishopric of Mainz and also had estates on the Middle Main.

History

Around 1040 Louis the Bearded received a fief 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, Mainfranconia . 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, 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 as his new seat of residence and in 1085 founded Reinhardsbrunn, henceforth the family abbey of the family.

See also

• History of Thuringia
• List of rulers of Thuringia
• Babenbergs

Literature

• Karlheinz Blaschke (1991). "Ludowinger". Lexikon des Mittelalters, V: Hiera-Mittel bis Lukanien (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 2169. ISBN 3-7608-8905-0.
• Walter Heinemeyer (1987), "Ludowinger", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 15, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 307–309; (full text online)
• 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, ISBN 978-3-86680-668-9.
• Tilo Köhn (ed.): Brandenburg, Anhalt und Thüringen im Mittelalter. Askanier und Ludowinger beim Aufbau fürstlicher Territorialherrschaften. Böhlau, Cologne-Weimar-Vienna, 1997, ISBN 3-412-02497-X, pp. 241–294.
• Hans Patze und Walter Schlesinger: Geschichte Thüringens. Zweiter Band, erster Teil. Cologne, 1974, pp. 10–41, ISBN 3-412-02974-2
• 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, ISBN 978-3-932906-22-0
• Reinhard Zöllner: Die Ludowinger und die Takeda. Feudale Herrschaft in Thüringen und Kai no kuni Dieter Born, 1995, ISBN 3-922006-09-4

External links

• genealogie-mittelalter.de