Konrad von Hochstaden

Konrad von Hochstaden, Konrad von Are - Hochstaden (* 1205, † September 28, 1261 ) was as Conrad I 1238-1261 Archbishop of Cologne.

Background and education

He was the son of Count Lothar I of Are - Hochstaden and his wife Mathilde of Vianden and a blood relative of the imperial line of the Hohenstaufen. He had two brothers, of whom the elder, Lothar II (* 1216, † 1246 ), the county Hochstaden received. This was - a gift from Konrad's brother Frederick to the archbishopric of Cologne, to incorporate - after his death and that of his son Theodoric on April 16, 1246. The younger brother, Friedrich, was provost of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, then provost in Xanten and founder of the Xanten Cathedral. From Conrad's four sisters (including Margaret of Hochstaden ) were two nuns.

Perhaps Konrad studied in Paris. Anyway, his brother Lothar made ​​him the minister of Wevelinghoven. First, provost of St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, probably since 1226 also a canon of Cologne, he tried since 1234 the Cologne Cathedral Provost Konrad von Bueren to make the Dompropstei dispute, where he also did not shrink from violence.

Political action

Archbishop of Cologne

He was elected as the successor of Henry I of Müllenark archbishop on 30 April 1238. Until his election Konrad von Hochstaden had usurped the office of the provost. To his invitation to give emphasis, he let banish the rightful provost. This filed a lawsuit against the Roman Curia, the Konrad to Rome quoted without Konrad nachkam the prompt. Then Konrad was excommunicated by Rome and the interdict imposed on all places where Konrad was staying. After his election, Konrad put his dispute with the provost and left him in office.

In early August, he was invested in the stock to Brescia by the Emperor Frederick II with the regalia of the Empire, and showed by his advocacy of the election of the provost of Aachen, Otto von Eberstein bishop of Liège immediately as staufer friendly. But in the spring of the following year he transferred to the papal party, for which certainly not only the financial concessions Pope Gregory IX. was responsible, because with the Archdiocese took Konrad at the same time huge debts of its predecessor with Italian bankers. In its territorial wars with Brabant, Jülich, Sayn, Limburg and mountain 1239-1244 mingled according tangible self-interests and the rich interests. A low point reached these with the defeat at the Battle of Lechenich which until November 1242 led him from February into captivity to the Jülich Nideggen Castle, which he had yet passed victoriously and with increasing power.

After him, was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Münster, Ludolf von Holte, he was ordained by this shortly afterwards on October 28, 1239 and as bishop and was conferred the pallium by the Pope in February 1244.

Establishment of the anti-kings

Center of the 1240er years Konrad von Hochstaden was unquestionably the most powerful prince of the empire and the establishment of an anti- Hohenstaufen Gegenkönigtums could allow without the selection of candidates would have been his merit in any event. This is true at most for William of Holland, but hardly for Heinrich Raspe and Richard of Cornwall. But the decisive factor was that he was with his point of view, without the consent and coronation by the archbishop of Cologne, there would be no valid royal collection, could be heard. In March 1249 he was by the clergy and people of Mainz clearly the successor to the late Archbishop of Mainz, Siegfried III. elected by Eppstein. However, this office he refused to papal desire towards which he was, however, equipped with the Legatenwürde for Germany. This, however, was not extended to him a year later; probably wanted to Pope Innocent IV of his power then but set limits.

In the years 1254 and 1255, there was tension between him and King William, who was looking more and more to withdraw the guidance and tutelage of his protector, and to use the newly -founded Rhenish Towns as an instrument of its real kingship. Worried papal admonitions leave a scheduled deposition of the King by the Archbishop suspect. The incipient rift with King and curia had the dissatisfied with the balance of power between the Archbishop of Cologne Duke Rhenish and Westphalian territorial lords, the Counts of Jülich and the Bishop of Paderborn, stimulated the formation of a antique oil- African coalition, which Konrad but could be Mr. rapidly and October 1243 the Count of Jülich, as could force the Bishop of Paderborn in recognition of his superior and prominent position in August 1256. Here Konrad von Hochstaden but not used his ducal power in the sense of a mere power restoration, but the expansion of an undisputed and effective sovereignty over self - and independent principalities which should secure the public peace.

Dispute with the City of Cologne

In this context, the so-called is to see " Small difference ," which ended the dispute between the archbishop and the city in 1252 for the right of a new, low-quality coin. As referee was used among others Albertus Magnus. In 1258 it came again to an arbitration Albertus Magnus in a dispute with the Cologne patricians in the "Great difference " to his disadvantage, in which Albertus Magnus Archbishop Although the highest spiritual and temporal power, of the city but a certain special court with lay judges ( = judges ) and officers, zusprach. But Conrad was able to break the power of the 1259 urban patriciate by advocating new aldermen from the guilds instead of the aldermen of the patricians. He played sent from the guilds against the patricians and obtained in this way again the city government. A revolt of the patrician 1260 he dropped his brutal and locked the operator if he did not let condemned to death, in a Godesberg.

On May 7, 1259, he gave the city the right stack. Each foreign merchant who transported his goods on the Rhine, this now had to offer for a specified time in Cologne.

Extension of the Archdiocese

An enormous expansion of the archdiocese gave him the death of the last Count of Are- Hochstaden, his nephew. Following an agreement with his younger brother Frederick and the relatives he was able to add in 1246 the said county of his diocese. Also, the acquisition of additional areas of the county of Sayn from 1248 succeeded. By founding cities and surveys, as well as the introduction of modern territorial administrations, he managed a hedge this in a few years enormously enlarged owned complex.

After his death Hochstaden was buried in a prominent place in the ambulatory of the Cologne Cathedral, whose foundation he had laid in 1248, his tomb in the St. John's Chapel is one of the most important bronze works of the 13th century.