Mechthild of Germany
Mechthild von der Pfalz (* March 7, 1419 in Heidelberg Castle, † August 22, 1482 there ) was a Palatine princess, as well as by marriage Countess of Württemberg and Archduchess of Austria.
She was one of the outstanding personalities of the German late Middle Ages, to be replaced without ever having been at the forefront in appearance.
Life history
She was the second child of the Elector Ludwig III. of the Palatinate, called the Bearded, the first from his (second) marriage to the Countess Matilda Mafalda of Savoy - Achaia, and thus older sister of the Elector Ludwig IV
She was betrothed to the then seven-year (* 1412 ) Count Ludwig I of Württemberg Already on 25 November their year of birth, marriage but was closed in Stuttgart until October 21, 1436.
Ludwig von Württemberg, who had succeeded his father in 1419 part of the country Urach, and Mechthild von der Pfalz had five children:
After the death of her husband on September 24, 1450, she married in 1452 in second marriage to Archduke Albrecht VI. of Austria (* December 18, 1418, † December 2, 1463 ), the brother of the Emperor Frederick III.
But Mechthild's importance for the German history stems not from their dynastic ties, but rather from their work on behalf of the higher education system in the southwest of Germany. She grew up in Heidelberg, the city in which her family had founded in 1386 the oldest university in Germany, the " Ruprecht -Karls- Universität".
In 1457 she moved her second husband Archduke Albrecht to be founded in the then Austrian Freiburg im Breisgau, a university, Albertina or today's " Albert -Ludwigs- University " - where Albrechts intellectual abilities would hardly have been enough to take this step. The earliest of the scepter of the University shows next to the Austrian shield as an indication of Archduke Albrecht VI. also the Palatinate crest, which refers to the countess Matilda.
In 1477 again she persuaded her son Eberhard to founding a university in Tübingen, where also the executive part (albeit centuries later ) the eponym: Duke Carl Eugen ( 1728-1793 ) called the university " Eberhard -Karls- University ".
After the death of Albert in 1463 she received her widow seat in Rottenburg am Neckar. She established a one Musenhof, gathered poets, musicians, scholars, and artists around him and encouraged translators to transfer the Decameron into German.
She is buried in the collegiate church in Tübingen.
Appreciation
Later generations have transfigured. Hans Martin Decker -Hauff says: "From the mother's side Romanesque Geblüts, descendant of those over-refined, educated princely families, which, coming from France and Italy, in Greece ruled those elegant little princely courts, which we know from the Midsummer Night's Dream '... "
Obviously, this Midsummer Night's Dream has the cooler Swabia irritated very early. In praise there are indications that mix their good reputation already in her lifetime was at risk and already contemporaries feel forced to defend this. So Nicholas writes of Wyle:
He had his daughter so dear in the care Mechtilds, as in a reformed monastery.
In Altwürttemberger archives in Stuttgart there is a statutory declaration of Duke Albrecht of Saxony on November 9, 1480 for his court servants Knight Lutz Schott, who is accused of slander about the Archduchess Mechthild: " ... he had said this fürstynn by said vnnser dear aunts no evil know Vnnde knew of ir love nothing annders alßo because of a loblichen Fromen furstynne persuade "
About a hundred years later, sees the chronicler of Zimmerischen Chronicle compelled to defend the reputation of his great-grandfather, as this perverted to Mechthild's yard in Rottenburg and smaller tournaments ( sharp pain ) participated.
Especially in Württemberg Pietist such descriptions were dismissed as baseless slander. So writes Ernst Martin:
The truth is, as so often in history between the lines. Susanne Dieterich sums it beautifully together: