Baldwin of Luxembourg

Baldwin of Luxembourg or Baldwin of Trier ( * um 1285 in Luxembourg, † January 21, 1354 in Trier ) from the House of Luxembourg was 1307-1354 Archbishop and Elector of Trier, 1328-1336 Administrator of the Archbishopric of Mainz, and from 1331 to 1337 administrator of the interruptions bishoprics of Worms and Speyer. Baldwin was one of the most influential princes of his time and is considered as the most important Elector of Trier.

Biography and Politics

For the youngest son of Count Heinrich VI. (according to another way of counting III. ) of Luxembourg a clerical career was planned from the beginning. Baldwin studied theology and canon law in Paris, as the Luxembourg to the courtyard of the Capetian maintained good relations. At the age of 22, he was elected by the cathedral chapter of Trier archbishop and consecrated in 1308 by Pope Clement V in Poitiers bishop.

Baldwin was to develop into one of the most successful politicians in the Holy Roman Empire in the early 14th century. Through skillful diplomacy he sat together with the Archbishop of Mainz, Peter of Aspelt 1308 by the election of his brother Henry Roman-German king. He then accompanied him from 1310 to 1313 on his train to Italy, where Henry was crowned as the first German king for nearly a century emperor. Henry tried to pursue a policy of renewal of the Empire in Italy, but died already on 24 August 1313 malaria near Siena. The experiences of this Romzugs were held later in the magnificent picture chronicle of Emperor Henry pilgrimage to Rome.

In the subsequent election of the king by Baldwin in 1314 supported the Ludwig of Bavaria. He later distanced himself from him and finally helped 1346 his great- nephew Karl for election, although the mutual relationship was quite strained. Nevertheless, he was until his death the mainstay of Charlemagne in the west of the empire. An important step on the way to put the Weistum of Rhens is where the king strengthened voting rights of the electors and the papal approbation rights were rejected. These rights transfer is due to the superior diplomacy Baldwin, who co-designed the crucial European politics in the first half of the 14th century.

Territorial policy

Baldwin is regarded as the true founder of the Electorate of Trier. He succeeded to strengthen the Kurtrierer territory and to realign by solid connecting the two centers of Trier and Koblenz along the Mosel through acquisition of various property rights of another. He was helped not least sophisticated forms of financial policy, which he tried to realize the planned settlement of Jews as " banks of the Middle Ages " throughout the archbishopric.

Similarly, Baldwin was also instrumental in the development of the city of Trier and the environment. He was not only the Baldwin Bridge in Koblenz built, but most likely is also the restoration of the Roman Bridge in Trier on his initiative back.

In addition, he built castles to consolidate the area or prostrate to opponents. Examples are the castle Trutzeltz (see Eltz feud ), Baldenau, castle Balduinseck, noise or castle but the present town Baldwin stone, which also goes back to a castle foundation.

Already in 1309 pledged his brother to him the imperial cities of Boppard and Oberwesel with the MATCHING surrounding areas. The pledge was never redeemed shaft more. Thus, the Trier territory on the Rhine has been greatly expanded. However, Baldwin had to break by force the resistance of Boppard citizens 1327.

Baldwin also did not shy away from warlike means, and let, for example, in the Eltz feud which lies along the Lower Moselle Eltz castle siege. This provoked the resistance of the threatened kurtrierischen dictum smaller noble families of the region. 1328 about Baldwin was captured by Loretta of Sponheim and fixed at the Stark Burg (Mosel ). Only after the payment of a ransom and concessions to their family - including the dispute over Kröver Empire - he was released. However, Baldwin preferred it to tie his opponent by Lehnsverträge or other types of commitments per se, since the feud guide was very expensive.

1328 Baldwin succeeded to acquire the wild Count Schmidtburg. Until 1342 tried the various branches of Wildgrafen to regain the castle. The highlight of the debate was the " Dhauner Feud " (1337-1342), in which most of the aristocratic families of the Hunsrück -Nahe region were involved. Center of the fighting was the Count's castle Dhaun wild.

A crushing defeat suffered Baldwin in the Grenzau feud.

Reforms

In the cultural and administrative region, the Archdiocese of flowered. He had to collect the documents and title deeds of the archbishopric of Trier since the 1330s as the basis of good administration and write. This document collections, the so-called Balduineen in which other documents were summarized copies to be, now preserved in four manuscripts in the State Archives in Koblenz. A small, handy format of this deed books he brought as a travel copy - as a portable presence Archive - always on his travels with them. As a precursor of Balduineen, the Liber annalium iurium be considered, which was already present in rudimentary under Archbishop Albero of Montreuil and was completed under Archbishop John I. However, the Balduineen are more up to date and reflect the legal situation of the Archdiocese of resist in the first third of the 14th century.

Among the many reforms include inter alia the creation of offices and land waiter and a holiday order.

In the corresponding part of the country to Mainz County Thuringia, he recruited writers and notaries. This Thüringische education circle around the later Mainz Domdekan Rudolf Losse from Eisenach created a German language certificate that was very progressive. These clerics were also present as senior diplomats on the European political scene and assisted the outreaching imperial politics of the Luxembourger.

Coinage

1310 Baldwin was awarded by his imperial brother Henry the right to mint coins at any place in the archbishopric. A still further expansion experienced the privilege by Emperor Charles IV in 1346, when he conceded him the right to mint royal and imperial money of gold and silver with general validity to cash counterfeit coins as well as to punish counterfeiters and stolen. This happened thanks and reward for his elevation to the king at his coronation in Bonn. Thus, Baldwin had reached the incorporation of the royal prerogative of coinage in the Trier territorial violence even before the publication of the Golden Bull of 1356. After Baldwin documentary information not only shaped in Trier, but also in Koblenz, Boppard and Cochem. However, there is no known information about meal and grain of the coins or the value of relationships with each other. Trier gold coins, however, were only coined under Baldwin's successor Bohemund II.

Administrator in Mainz

After the death of the Archbishop of Mainz Peter of Aspelt the Mainz Cathedral Chapter elected Baldwin in 1320 the new archbishop. Up to a papal confirmation he resigned his office immediately as an administrator. However, such confirmation was by Pope John XXII. never granted. John XXII. insisted on the decreed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, right to the commission of the Mainz Erzstuhls and appointed instead, on September 4, 1321 by Matthias Buchegg the new archbishop. This was due to the fact that Baldwin was a partisan of Louis of Bavaria, the John XXII. fought from its own power interests. Baldwin recognized by Matthias Buchegg immediately as the rightful Archbishop of Mainz on what turned out to be far-sighted and wise, since he won the Archbishop of Mainz as a confidant and could approximate that of his own position in the open king question.

Mainz schism

After the death of the Archbishop of Mainz Matthias von Buchegg in 1328, Baldwin was proposed again by the chapter of Mainz Archbishop of Mainz, while the Pope Henry III. appointed by Virneburg to the Archbishop of Mainz. Nevertheless, Baldwin managed the Archbishopric of Mainz, with support from the chapter of Mainz. As archbishop of Mainz Baldwin resided in Eltville, where he initiated the construction of the Electoral castle. He gave up his claim only in 1336 after a ruling by the Curia in Avignon, thus ending the schism of Mainz. The cathedral chapter called on October 28, 1338 at Baldwin, his miter and other episcopal insignia from Mainz to give back. As in Mainz Baldwin was from 1331 also as administrator of the diocese of Worms and Speyer and united as four territories to a significant territorial rule. From 1337 he was confined, however, back to the archbishopric of Trier.

Death

Baldwin died on 21 January 1354. His monumental tomb of black marble is located in the west choir of the Trier Cathedral. On May 18, 1897, placed in front of the Trier Central Station, at the intersection of Christopher Street and Baldwin Street, the Baldwin fountain with a bronze statue of the Elector. Another monument is located on the Baldwin Bridge in Koblenz.

According to him, the Elector Baldwin High School in Munstermaifeld and the Elector Baldwin Junior High School were named in Wittlich.