House of Franckenstein

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File:Armes de la famille Franckenstein.png
Franckenstein Armorial Bearings

Franckenstein (also Frankenstein) is the name of a Franconian, noble family in Germany, descendants from the Lords of Lützelbach from Höchst im Odenwald, respectively their offspring, the Dynasts of Breuberg.

Family legend

In 948 an Arbogast von Franckenstein shall have confirmed to the abbot of Lorsch Abbey in two contracts to "grant defense and shield the carriages travelling on the Bergstraße and passing through Frankenstein realm". In the same year, this knight Arbogast is supposed to have won the Tournament of Cologne, thanks to an invitation of the Archbishop Bruno the Great, who was said to have been the former abbot of Lorsch Abbey.

Arbogast von Franckenstein is mentioned in Georg Rüxners Turnierbuch, a tournament book, but is probably legendary as Rüxners's statements, especially when citing "earlier centuries", are often deemed. One has to add, that the contracts are not to be found in the Lorsch Abbey archives, but are appearing in secondary literature.

As a matter of fact, it is certified that the Franckenstein clan is directly originating from Lord Konrad II. Reiz von Breuberg and therefore starting to exist in the 13th century.

History

File:De Merian Frankoniae 039.jpg
Breuberg Castle, by Merian 1648
Frankenstein Castle

Conradus, Reis de Lucelenbach, was the first ancestor of the Frankenstein dynasty and is documented in the year 1189 for the first time [1]

Conrad I. and his offspring build the homonymous Breuberg Castle around 1200 and named themselves after it. In 1239, owing to his son's Eberhard I. Reiz von Breuberg marriage with Mechtild (Elisabeth?), one of the five heiresses of Gerlach II. von Büdingen, imperial bailiff of the Wetteraukreis, the power, possessions and interests were also relocated into the Wetterau region, where the Breubergians Arrois, Gerlach and Eberhard III. held the bailiffship consecutively. They found their last resting-place in the monastery of Konradsdorf, where the family had made many donations.

Before 1250, Lord Konrad II. Reiz von Breuberg erected Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt and since named himself "von und zu Frankenstein". He was the founder of the free imperial lordship Frankenstein, which was subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor, with possessions in Nieder-Beerbach, Darmstadt, Ockstadt, Wetterau and Hesse. Additionally the Frankensteins held other possession and Sovereignty-rights as Burgraves in Zwingenberg (Auerbach (Bensheim)), in Darmstadt, Groß-Gerau, Frankfurt am Main and Bensheim. In the year 1292 the Frankensteins opened the castle to the counts of Katzenelnbogen (County of Katzenelnbogen) and leagued with them.

Being both strong opponents of the Protestant Reformation and following territorial conflicts, connected disputes with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, as well as the adherence to the catholic faith and the associated "right of patronage", the family head Lord Johannes I. decided to sell the lordship to the landgrave in 1662, after various lawsuits at the Imperial Chamber Court.

Radu Florescu documents on page 76 of his book, "Frankenstein", that, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of Germany (1658-1705) granted the title "Baron of the Empire (Freiherr)" to the Frankensteins in 1670.

Because of many vacancies in relation with the reformation, some family members could fill a number of unengaged offices and posts in various Chapters, Abbeys and Dioceses as Canons, Abbesses and Prince-Bishops.

After the sale of Frankenstein, the family retired to its possessions in Wetterau and acquired the lordship of Ullstadt in the beginning of the 17th century in Middle Franconia. In the 19th century they also bought the Lordship of Thalheim bei Wels in Austria. The family still consists of two existing branches in Germany, Austria, England and the US.

Coat of arms

Divided and split two times coated with a golden heartshield, therein an oblique red battle axe on Gold. Johann Siebmacher's 1605 Wappenbuch shows a picture of arms with a red axe-head upon a gold background, or in blazon "Or, an axe-head gules" similar to the picture below from the Ingeram-Codex.[2]

  • Breuberg Wappen umd um 1180.jpg

    First coat of arms Lords of Breuberg

  • Breuberg Seal from 1291.jpg

    Breuberg Seal from 1291

  • Breuberg Wappen um 1350.jpg

    Crest of the Breuberg lordship around 1330–1350

  • Franckenstein Wappen VI.jpg

    Franckenstein-crest Ullstadt Castle

  • Frankenstein-Scheibler210ps.jpg

    Franckenstein- coat of armorial bearings from the Scheibler armorial

  • Franckenstein Wappen VII.jpg

    Franckenstein Emblem of Princebishop Philipp Anton of Bamberg

  • Xingeram238b - Frankenstein.JPG

    Franckenstein coat of arms in the Ingeram-Codex

  • Franckenstein Wappen IV.jpg

    Franckenstein-coat of arms Seehof castle

  • Franckenstein Wappen III.jpg

    Franckenstein-Coat of arms in the guildhall of Darmstadt-Eberstadt

  • Wappen Mühltal (Hessen).png

    Coat of arms municipality of Mühltal

  • Wappen Modautal.svg

    Coat of arms municipality of Modautal

Famous Family Members

File:Philipp-Anton II.JPG
Philipp Anton von Franckenstein, Prince-Bishop of Bamberg (1746-1753)
File:Sir George Franckenstein.jpg
Sir George Franckenstein, RVO, Austrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James (1878 - 1953)

Literature

  • Karl O. von Aretin: Franckenstein Eine politische Karriere zwischen Bismarck und Ludwig II.. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-94286-6.
  • J. Friedrich Battenberg: Roßdorf in vormoderner Zeit. Alltag und Konfliktkultur einer hessischen Landgemeinde im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. In: Archiv für hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Bd. N.F. 60 (2002), ISSN 0066-636X, S. 29–60
  • Roman Fischer: Findbuch zum Bestand Frankensteinische Lehenurkunden 1251–1812. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-7829-0433-8
  • Georg von Franckenstein: Zwischen Wien und London Erinnerungen eines österreichischen Diplomaten. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 2005, ISBN 3-7020-1092-0.
  • Sir George Franckenstein, Facts and features of my life
  • Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels Band 27; Freiherrliche Häuser A IV, CA Starke Verlag.
  • Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Band 61, 1975, Adelslexikon. Starke, Limburg/Lahn
  • Walter Scheele: Sagenhafter Franckenstein. Societäts-Verlag, Ulm 2004, ISBN 3-7973-0875-2
  • Otto von Waldenfels (Hrsg.): Genealogisches Handbuch des in Bayern immatrikulierten Adels. Verlag Degener, Neustadt an der Aisch.
  • Hellmuth Gensicke: Untersuchungen zur Genealogie und Besitzgeschichte der Herren von Eschollbrücken, Weiterstadt, Lützelbach, Breuberg und Frankenstein. In: Hessische historische Forschungen (1963), S.99–115
  • Walter Scheele: Burg Franckenstein. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt/Main 2001, ISBN 3-7973-0786-1
  • Historischer Verein für Hessen, Archiv für hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde.
  • Otto Hupp: Münchener Kalender 1912. Verlagsanstalt München / Regensburg 1912.
  • Rudolf Kunz: Dorfordnungen der Herrschaft Franckenstein aus der 2. Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts. Sonderdruck aus: Archiv für hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde. Band 26, Heft 1, 1958
  • Wolfgang Weißgerber: Die Herren von Frankenstein und ihre Frauen: Landschaften, Personen, Geschichten. Schlapp, Darmstadt-Eberstadt 2002, ISBN 3-87704-050-0.
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  • Norbert Hierl-Deronco: "Es ist eine Lust zu Bauen". Von Bauherren, Bauleuten und vom Bauen im Barock in Kurbayern, Franken, Rheinland. Krailling 2001, ISBN 3-929884-08-9, S. 133–142

References

  1. ↑ Valentin Ferdinand Gudenus: Codex Diplomaticvs: Exhibens Anecdota Ab Anno DCCCLXXXI, Ad MCCC. Mogvntiaca, Ivs Germanicvm, Et S.R.I. Historiam Illvstrantia. Göttingen 1743, S. 293f. Nr. 106.
  2. ↑ Siebmacher, Johann. Wappenbuch (Munich: Neografia, 1999)

External links

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