Rupert II, Elector Palatine
Ruprecht II, the hardness or the Serious ( born May 12, 1325 in Amberg, † January 6, 1398 ) in Amberg was Count Palatine and Elector of the Palatinate ( 1390-1398 ).
Life
His parents were Count Palatine of the honest ones Adolf and Princess of Oettingen Irmengard. Rupert's father Adolf had died in 1327 in a futile struggle for his inheritance. Meanwhile, Uncle Ludwig der Bayer then held the Rhine Palatinate occupied. The young prince grew up under the tutelage of the Austro -minded Count John of Nassau. 1329 there were in the house Treaty of Pavia balance between Louis of Bavaria and brothers Adolf and Rudolf II Ruprecht I. In place of his late father, Count Palatine Adolf joined the four-year Ruprecht II and into the inheritance.
1334 to Rupert I agreed to the effect with his minor nephew Ruprecht II, that they wanted to in the event of a division with Rudolf II, own and manage them falling to pieces together. This occurred in February 1338 when they were assigned in the first Palatine division of the state, together the biggest part of the Rhine Palatinate with Heidelberg and a piece of the Upper Palatinate. They ruled these areas together by the end of 1353, when a renewed division of the state took place after the death of Rudolf II. Here Ruprecht I received the principal part of the territory as a whole, including Rudolf's former territory, Ruprecht II only a minor part, including the more important places of lime rock, Alzey, Stromberg (Hunsrück ) and Stahleck Castle. 1355 became Ruprecht II succeeded his uncle Rupert I, if it should remain without male heirs. This Agreement learned in 1357 recertification; 1368, both agreed on the future indivisibility of most areas and the nephew rose to co-regent. In this capacity he participated in the founding of the University of Heidelberg by his uncle Rupert I and is depicted with this also on the historic university seal in 1386.
1390, after the death of his uncle, Ruprecht II joined the successor to the Count Palatine of the general government and declared itself in 1394, with the consent of King Wenceslas, also the Elector. This gave him just under 7 years of age to one-party government.
1391 sales Ruprecht Jews and heretics from the Palatinate, confiscated the whole property and bequeathed it to the University of Heidelberg. 1395 he issued the so-called Rupert's niche constitution, which should ensure the cohesion of the parts of the Palatinate. This, among others, the former free imperial city Neckargemuend was incorporated into the Palatinate.
Ruprecht II is buried in the Cistercian monastery of Schoenau near Heidelberg. His Testament reveals an attitude of humility, as Werner Rosener in his book "Tradition and Memory in aristocracy and peasant society" ( 2003) holds. The Wittelsbach wanted to be buried as a sign of penance in a simple linen garment with a stone or clod of earth under his head, not above the ground in a grave covered by a simple plate with the cross oaks and located at the foot of his father Adolf tomb should.
In the Wittelsbach founded as Memoria of the house collegiate church ( Neustadt on the Wine Route ) is an eternal memory for measurement Elector Ruprecht II and his wife Beatrice of Sicily -Aragon.
The historian Jacob will assess the prince follows
"Without a doubt Ruprecht II was equal to his uncle, a man of great energy, purposeful pursuit and wise berechnendem sense; in long joint government with the experienced old Ruprecht well trained in political matters, in the kingdom as well as active in the management of its own state, which he knew how to get the Acquired and to acquire new possessions. Gentleness and forgiveness, were his uncle owned, lacked. He gives the impression of a cold imperious nature and the epithet " the hard", to him the story has secured, featuring the best its essence. "
Marriage and descendants
Prince Elector Ruprecht II of the Palatinate married 1345 Beatrice of Sicily -Aragon ( 1326-1365 ), the daughter of King Peter II of Sicily from the house of Aragon and his wife Elisabeth of Carinthia. From the marriage seven children were born:
- Anna (1346-1408) ∞ 1360 Duke William II of Berg
- Friedrich (1347-1395)
- Johann (1349-1395)
- Mechthild (1350-1378) ∞ 1378 Graf Sigost of Leuchtenberg
- Elisabeth (1351-1401), engaged with the Viscount Albert of Nuremberg
- Ruprecht III. (1352-1410) ∞ 1374 Countess Elizabeth Castle of Hohenzollern- Nuremberg ( 1358-1411 )
- Adolf (1355-1358)
Ruprecht II had been widowed for 30 years and not married. From this time he had an illegitimate daughter named Elsa von Stromberg, who lived since 1392 as a Dominican monastery in Liebenau to Worms.