Theres
Theres is a municipality in the district of Haßberge in Bavaria in Germany. It was once the site of Theres Abbey, but the church was demolished in 1809
Luitpoldings
The Luitpoldings were a medieval dynasty which ruled the German stem duchy of Bavaria from some time in the late ninth century off and on until 985. The descent of the East Frankish Luitpoldings has not been conclusively established; the progenitor of the family Margrave Luitpold of Bavaria was a relative of the Early medieval Huosi noble family and maybe related to the Imperial Carolingian dynasty by Emperor Arnulf's mother Liutswind. In 893 Arnulf appointed him margrave in Carinthia and Pannonia, succeeding the Wilhelminer margrave Engelschalk II. Luitpold was able to enlarge his Bavarian possessions around Regensburg and in the adjacent March of the Nordgau, he became a military leader during the Hungarian invasions and was killed in the 907 Battle of Pressburg. While the Kingdom of Germany emerged under the rule King Conrad I and his successors of the royal Ottonian dynasty, Luitpold's son and heir Arnulf the Bad, backed by the local nobility, adopted the Bavarian ducal title, reorganised the defence against the Hungarian invaders and, according to the contemporary Annales iuvavenses, built up a king-like position at his Regensburg residence.
He interfered with the Ottonian King Henry I of Germany, whose rule he acknowledged in 921, reserving numerous privileges for himself. Given a free hand, he campaigned the lands of the Přemyslid duke Wenceslaus of Bohemia and in 933/34 invaded the Kingdom of Italy, in order to obtain the Iron Crown of Lombardy for his son Eberhard, though to no avail. Eberhard had succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria in 937, however, he soon struggled with King Otto I of Germany, who had no intention to respect the Bavarian autonomy. Otto declared Eberhard deposed and banned the next year and instead appointed Arnulf's brother Berthold duke, after he had renounced the exercise of the Bavarian liberties. Berthold remained a loyal supporter of King Otto upon his death in 947 the hereditary title of his son Henry the Younger was denied, when the king ceded the Bavarian duchy to his own brother Henry I, who had married Arnulf's daughter Judith. In 976 Henry the Younger received a certain compensation from Emperor Otto II with the newly established Duchy of Carinthia.
In 983 he regained the Bavarian ducal title, two years he had to yield the force of the Ottonian Duke Henry the Wrangler. With his death in 989, the Luitpoldings became extinct. Luitpold, Margrave of Carinthia and Upper Pannonia, Count in the Nordgau Arnulf the Bad, Duke of Bavaria from 907 to 937, had to accept the overlordship of King Henry the Fowler in 921 Eberhard, Duke of Bavaria from 937 to 938, deposed and banned by King Otto I of Germany Arnulf II, Bavarian Count palatine from 938 Berthold of Reisensburg, Bavarian Count Palatine Judith, Duchess of Bavaria, married Henry I, younger brother of King Otto I, Duke of Lotharingia 939 – 940, Duke of Bavaria from 948 until his death in 955 Berthold, Duke of Bavaria upon the deposition of his nephew Eberhard in 938 until his death in 947 Henry the Younger, Duke of Carinthia 976 – 978 and 985 – 989, Duke of Bavaria from 983 to 985An affiliation with the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach is possible though not proven: Count palatine Arnulf II about 940 had a castle built at Scheyern.
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia, northern Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia; the regional dialect is East Franconian. Würzburg lies about equidistant from Frankfurt am Nuremberg. Although the city of Würzburg is not part of the Landkreis Würzburg, it is the seat of the district's administration; the city has a population of around 130,000 people. A Bronze Age refuge castle stood on the site of the present Fortress Marienberg; the former Celtic territory was settled by the Alamanni in the 4th or 5th century, by the Franks in the 6th to 7th. Würzburg was the seat of a Merovingian duke from about 650, it was Christianized in 686 by Irish missionaries Kilian and Totnan. The city is mentioned in a donation by Duke Hedan II to bishop Willibrord, dated 1 May 704, in castellum Virteburch; the Ravenna Cosmography lists the city as Uburzis at about the same time. The name is of Celtic origin, but based on a folk etymological connection to the German word Würze "herb, spice", the name was Latinized as Herbipolis in the medieval period.
Beginning in 1237, the city seal depicted the cathedral and a portrait of Saint Kilian, with the inscription SIGILLVM CIVITATIS HERBIPOLENSIS. It shows a banner on a tilted lance in a blue field, with the banner quarterly argent and gules or and gules; this coat of arms replaced the older seal of the city, showing Saint Kilian, from 1570. The first diocese was founded by Saint Boniface in 742 when he appointed the first bishop of Würzburg, Saint Burkhard; the bishops created a secular fiefdom, which extended in the 12th century to Eastern Franconia. The city was the site of several Imperial Diets, including the one of 1180, at which Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, was banned for three years from the Empire and his duchy Bavaria was handed over to Otto of Wittelsbach. Massacres of Jews took place in 1147 and 1298; the first church on the site of the present Würzburg Cathedral was built as early as 788 and consecrated that same year by Charlemagne. The University of Würzburg was founded in 1402 and re-founded in 1582.
The citizens of the city revolted several times against the prince-bishop. In 1397, King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia had visited the city and promised its people the status of a free Imperial City. However, the German ruling princes forced him to withdraw these promises. In 1400, the citizenry was decisively defeated by the troops of the bishop in the Schlacht von Bergtheim, the city fell under his control permanently until the dissolution of the fiefdom; the Würzburg witch trials, which occurred between 1626 and 1631, are one of the largest peace-time mass trials. In Würzburg, under Bishop Philip Adolf an estimated number between 600 and 900 alleged witches were burnt. In 1631, Swedish King Gustaf Adolf plundered the castle. In 1720, the foundations of the Würzburg Residence were laid. In 1796, the Battle of Würzburg between Habsburg Austria and the First French Republic took place; the city passed to the Electorate of Bavaria in 1803, but two years in the course of the Napoleonic Wars, it became the seat of the Electorate of Würzburg, the Grand Duchy of Würzburg.
In 1814, the town became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria and a new bishopric was created seven years as the former one had been secularized in 1803. In 1817, Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer founded Schnellpressenfabrik Bauer. In the early 1930s, around 2,000 Jews had lived in Würzburg, a rabbinic center. Between November 1941 and June 1943 Jews from the city were sent to the Nazi concentration camps in Eastern Europe. On 16 March 1945, about 90% of the city was destroyed in 17 minutes by fire bombing from 225 British Lancaster bombers during a World War II air raid. Würzburg became a target for its role as a traffic hub. All of the city's churches and other monuments were damaged or destroyed; the city center, which dated from medieval times, was destroyed in a firestorm in which 5,000 people perished. Over the next 20 years, the buildings of historical importance were painstakingly and reconstructed; the citizens who rebuilt the city after the end of the war were women – Trümmerfrauen – because the men were either dead or still prisoners of war.
On a relative scale, Würzburg was destroyed to a larger extent than was Dresden in a firebombing the previous month. On 3 April 1945, Würzburg was occupied by the U. S. 12th Armored Division and U. S. 42nd Infantry Division in a series of frontal assaults masked by smokescreens. The battle continued until the final Wehrmacht resistance was defeated on 5 April 1945; the 2016 Würzburg train attack took place at the Würzburg-Heidingsfeld railway station on 18 July. Würzburg is located on both banks of the river Main in the region of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany; the main body of the town is on the eastern bank of the river. The town is enclosed by the Landkreis Würzburg, but is not a part of it. Würzburg lies at an altitude of around 177 metres. Of the total municipal area, in 2007, building area accounted for 30%, followed by agricultural land, forestry/wood, green spaces, traffic and others; the centre of Würzburg is surrou
Main (river)
The Main is a river in Germany. With a length of 525 kilometres, it is the longest right tributary of the Rhine, it is the longest river lying in Germany. The largest cities along the Main are Würzburg; the mainspring of the Main River flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. Its basin competes with the Danube for water; the Main begins near Kulmbach in Franconia at the joining of its two headstreams, the Red Main and the White Main. The Red Main originates in the Franconian Jura mountain range, 50 km in length, runs through Creussen and Bayreuth; the White Main originates in the mountains of the Fichtelgebirge. In its upper and middle section, the Main runs through the valleys of the German Highlands, its lower section crosses the Lower Main Lowlands to Wiesbaden. Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Franconian Saale, the Tauber, the Nidda; the name "Main" derives from the Latin Moenus or Menus. It is not related to the name of the city Mainz; the Main is navigable for shipping from its mouth at the Rhine close to Mainz for 396 km to Bamberg.
Since 1992, the Main has been connected to the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the regulated Altmühl river. The Main has been canalized with 34 large locks to allow CEMT class V vessels to navigate the total length of the river; the 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Danube itself are of the same dimensions. There are 34 dams and locks along the 380 km navigable portion of the Main, from the confluence with the Regnitz near Bamberg, to the Rhine. No.: Number of the lock. Name: Name of the lock. Location: City or town where the lock is located. Year built: Year when the lock was put into operation. Main-km: Location on the Main, measured from the 0 km stone in Mainz-Kostheim; the reference point is the center of the lock group. Distance between locks: length in km of impoundment. Altitude: height in meters above mean sea level of the upper water at normal levels. Height: Height of the dam in meters. Lock length: Usable length of the lock chamber in meters. Lock width: Usable width of the lock chamber in meters.
Most of the dams along the Main have turbines for power generation. No.: Number of the dam. Name: Name of the dam. Height: Height of the dam in meters. Power: Maximum power generation capacity in megawatts. Turbines: Type and number of turbines. Operator: Operator of the hydroelectric plant. Tributaries from source to mouth: Around Frankfurt are several large inland ports; because the river is rather narrow on many of the upper reaches, navigation with larger vessels and push convoys requires great skill. The largest cities along the Main are Würzburg; the Main passes the following towns and cities: Burgkunstadt, Bad Staffelstein, Eltmann, Haßfurt, Volkach, Marktbreit, Karlstadt, Gemünden, Marktheidenfeld, Miltenberg, Erlenbach/Main, Seligenstadt, Hanau, Hattersheim, Flörsheim, Rüsselsheim. The river has gained enormous importance as a vital part of European "Corridor VII", the inland waterway link from the North Sea to the Black Sea. In a historical and political sense, the Main line is referred to as the northern border of Southern Germany, with its predominantly Catholic population.
The river marked the southern border of the North German Federation, established in 1867 under Prussian leadership as the predecessor of the German Empire. The river course corresponds with the Speyer line isogloss between Central and Upper German dialects, sometimes mocked as Weißwurstäquator; the Main-Radweg is a major German bicycle path running along the Main River. It is 600 kilometres long and was the first long-distance bicycle path to be awarded 5 stars by the General German Bicycle Club ADFC in 2008, it starts from either Creußen or Bischofsgrün and ends in Mainz. Roman camp at Marktbreit Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Main und Meer - Porträt eines Flusses. Exhibition Catalogue to the Bayerische Landesausstellung 2013. WBG. ISBN 978-3-534-00010-4. Main River Website on the River Main by the Tourist Board of Franconia. "Main". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. "Main". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914. There is literature about Main in the Hessian Bibliography Water levels of Bavarian rivers Wasser- und Schifffahrtsdirektion Süd Main Cycleway Historical map of the Main confluence at Steinenhausen from BayernAtlas
Siege of Paris (885–886)
The Siege of Paris of 885–886 was part of a Viking raid on the Seine, in the Kingdom of the West Franks. The siege was the most important event of the reign of Charles the Fat, a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France, it proved to the Franks the strategic importance of Paris, at a time when it was one of the largest cities in West Francia. The siege is the subject of an eyewitness account in the Latin poem Bella Parisiacae urbis of Abbo Cernuus. With hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of men, the Vikings arrived outside Paris in late November 885, at first demanding tribute; this was denied by Odo, Count of Paris, despite the fact that he could assemble only a couple of hundred soldiers to defend the city. The Vikings attacked with a variety of siege engines, but failed to break through the city walls after some days of intense attacks; the siege was upheld after the initial attacks, but without any significant offence for months after the attack.
As the siege went on, most of the Vikings left Paris to pillage further upriver. The Vikings made a final unsuccessful attempt to take the city during the summer, in October, Charles the Fat arrived with his army. To the frustration of the Parisians who had fought for a long time to defend the city, Charles stopped short of attacking the Viking besiegers, instead allowed them to sail further up the Seine to raid Burgundy, as well as promising a payment of 700 livres of silver. Odo critical of this, tried his best to defy the promises of Charles, when Charles died in 888, Odo was elected the first non-Carolingian king of the Franks. Although the Vikings had attacked parts of Francia they reached Paris for the first time in 845 sacking the city, they attacked Paris three more times in the 860s, leaving only when they had acquired sufficient loot or bribes. In 864, by the Edict of Pistres, bridges were ordered built across the Seine at Pîtres and in Paris, where two were built, one on each side of the Île de la Cité, which served admirably in the siege of 885.
The chief ruler in the region around Paris was the duke of Francia, who controlled the lands between the Seine and Loire. This was Robert the Strong, margrave of Neustria and missus dominicus for the Loire Valley, he began fortifying the capital and fought the Norsemen continuously until his death in battle against them at Brissarthe. His son Odo succeeded him but royal power declined. Paris continued to be due to local rather than royal initiative. West Francia suffered under a series of short-reigning kings after the death of Charles the Bald in 877; this situation prevailed until 884, when Charles the Fat King of Germany and Italy, became king and hopes were raised of a reunification of Charlemagne's empire. It had been thought that the Franks had gained an upper hand against the Vikings after the victory of Louis III at the Battle of Saucourt in 881 but in 885, a year after the succession of Charles, the Vikings launched their most massive attack on Paris yet. Danish Vikings under Sigfred and Sinric sailed towards West Francia again in 885, having raided the north-eastern parts of the country before.
Sigfred demanded a bribe from Charles, but was refused, promptly led 700 ships up the Seine, carrying as many as 30,000 or 40,000 men. The number, the largest recorded for a Viking fleet in contemporary sources, originates from Abbo Cernuus. Although an eyewitness, there is general agreement among historians that Abbo's numbers are "a gross exaggeration," with Abbo being "in a class of his own as an exaggerator." Historian C. W. Previté-Orton has instead put the number of ships at 300, John Norris at "some 300." Although the Franks tried to block the Vikings from sailing up the Seine, the Vikings managed to reach Paris. Paris at this time was a town on an island, known today as Île de la Cité, its strategic importance came from the ability to block ships' passage with its two low-lying foot bridges, one of wood and one of stone. Not the shallow Viking ships could pass Paris because of the bridges. Odo, Count of Paris prepared for the arrival of the Vikings by fortifying the bridgehead with two towers guarding each bridge.
He was low on men, having no more than 200 men-at-arms available, but led a joint defence with Gozlin, Bishop of Paris, had the aid of his brother, two counts and a marquis. The Vikings arrived in Paris on 24 or 25 November 885 asking for tribute from the Franks; when this was denied, they began a siege. On 26 November the Danes attacked the northeast tower with ballistae and catapults, they were repulsed by a mixture of hot pitch. All Viking attacks that day were repulsed, during the night the Parisians constructed another storey on the tower. On 27 November the Viking attack included mining, battering rams, fire, but to no avail. Bishop Gozlin entered the fray with an axe, he exhorted the people. His brother Ebles joined the fighting; the Vikings withdrew after the failed initial attacks and built a camp on the right side of the river bank, using stone as construction material. While preparing for new attacks, the Vikings started constructing additional siege engines. In a renewed assault, they shot a thousand grenades against the city, sent a ship for the bridge, made a land attack with three groups.
The forces surrounded the bridgehead tower mainly aiming to bring down the river obstacle. While they tried setting fire to the bridge, they attacked the city itself with siege engines. For two months
Bavaria
Bavaria the Free State of Bavaria, is a landlocked federal state of Germany, occupying its southeastern corner. With an area of 70,550.19 square kilometres, Bavaria is the largest German state by land area comprising a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With 13 million inhabitants, it is Germany's second-most-populous state after North Rhine-Westphalia. Bavaria's main cities are Nuremberg; the history of Bavaria includes its earliest settlement by Iron Age Celtic tribes, followed by the conquests of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC, when the territory was incorporated into the provinces of Raetia and Noricum. It became a stem duchy in the 6th century AD following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, it was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire, became an independent kingdom, joined the Prussian-led German Empire while retaining its title of kingdom, became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century AD, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War. Bavaria has a unique culture because of the state's Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes a language, architecture, festivals such as Oktoberfest and elements of Alpine symbolism; the state has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, giving it a status as a rather wealthy German region. Modern Bavaria includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia and Swabia; the Bavarians emerged in a region north of the Alps inhabited by Celts, part of the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. The Bavarians spoke Old High German, unlike other Germanic groups, they did not migrate from elsewhere. Rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by the Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century; these peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Allemanni, Thuringians, Scirians, Heruli.
The name "Bavarian" means "Men of Baia" which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520. A 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BC. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria, ending with Tassilo III, deposed by Charlemagne. Three early dukes are named in Frankish sources: Garibald I may have been appointed to the office by the Merovingian kings and married the Lombard princess Walderada when the church forbade her to King Chlothar I in 555, their daughter, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibald's successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the eastern frontier against the expansion of Slavs and Avars around 600. Tassilo's son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616.
After Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and strengthen Christianity in his duchy, his son, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodo's death the duchy was reunited under his grandson Hugbert. At Hugbert's death the duchy passed from neighboring Alemannia. Odilo issued a law code for Bavaria, completed the process of church organization in partnership with St. Boniface, tried to intervene in Frankish succession disputes by fighting for the claims of the Carolingian Grifo, he was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748. Saint Boniface completed the people's conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Tassilo III succeeded his father at the age of eight after an unsuccessful attempt by Grifo to rule Bavaria.
He ruled under Frankish oversight but began to function independently from 763 onwards. He was noted for founding new monasteries and for expanding eastwards, fighting Slavs in the eastern Alps and along the River Danube and colonising these lands. After 781, his cousin Charlemagne began to pressure Tassilo to submit and deposed him in 788; the deposition was not legitimate. Dissenters attempted a coup against Charlemagne at Tassilo's old capital of Regensburg in 792, led by his own son Pépin the Hunchback; the king had to drag Tassilo out of imprisonment to formally renounce his rights and titles at the Assembly of Frankfurt in 794. This is the last appearance of Tassilo in the sources, he died a monk; as all of his family were forced into monasteries, this was the end of the Agilolfing dynasty. For the next 400 years numerous families held the duchy for more than three generations. With the revolt of duke Henry the Quarrelsome in 976, Bavaria lost large territories in the south and
Duchy of Thuringia
The Duchy of Thuringia was an eastern frontier march of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia, established about 631 by King Dagobert I after his troops had been defeated by the forces of the Slavic confederation of Samo at the Battle of Wogastisburg. It was recreated in the Carolingian Empire and its dukes appointed by the king until it was absorbed by the Saxon dukes in 908. From about 1111/12 the territory was ruled by the Landgraves of Thuringia as Princes of the Holy Roman Empire; the former kingdom of the Thuringii arose during the Migration Period after the decline of the Hunnic Empire in Central Europe in the mid 5th century, culminating in their defeat in the 454 Battle of Nedao. With Bisinus a first Thuringian king is documented about 500, who ruled over extended estates that stretched beyond the Main River in the south, his son and successor Hermanafrid married Amalaberga, a niece of the Ostrogoth king Theoderic the Great, thereby hedging the threat of incursions by the Merovingian Franks in the west.
However, when King Theoderic died in 526, they took the occasion to invade the Thuringian lands and carried off the victory in a 531 battle on the Unstrut River. King Theuderic of Rheims had Hermanafrid trapped in Zülpich where the last Thuringian king was killed, his niece Princess Radegund was kidnapped by King Chlothar I and died in exile in 586. The Thuringian realm was shattered: the territory north of the Harz mountain range was settled by Saxon tribes, while the Franks moved into the southern parts on the Main River; the estates east of the Saale River were beyond Frankish control and taken over by Polabian Slavs. The first documented duke of remaining Thuringia was a local noble named Radulf, installed by King Dagobert in the early 630s. Radulf was able to secure the Frankish border along the Saale River in the east from Slavic incursions. However, according to the Chronicle of Fredegar, in 641/2 his victories "turned his head" and he allied with Samo and rebelled against Dagobert's successor, King Sigebert III going so far as to declare himself king of Thuringia.
A punitive expedition led by the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Grimoald failed and Radulf was able to maintain his semi-autonomous position. His successors of the local ducal dynasty, the Hedenen, supported missionary activity within the duchy, but seem to have lost their hold on Thuringia after the rise of the Pippinids in the early eighth century. A conflict with Charles Martel around 717–19 brought an end to autonomy. In 849, the eastern part of Thuringia was organised as the limes Sorabicus, or Sorbian March, placed under a duke named Thachulf. In the Annals of Fulda his title is dux Sorabici limitis, "duke of the Sorbian frontier", but he and his successors were known as duces Thuringorum, "dukes of the Thuringians", as they set about establishing their power over the old duchy. After Thachulf's death in 873, the Sorbs rose in revolt and he was succeeded by his son Radulf. In 880, King Louis replaced Radulf with Poppo a kinsman. Poppo instigated a war with Saxony in 882 and in 883 he and his brother Egino fought a civil war for control of Thuringia, in which the latter was victorious.
Egino died in 886 and Poppo resumed command. In 892, King Arnulf replaced Poppo with Conrad; this was an act of patronage by the king, for Conrad's house, the Conradines, were soon feuding with Poppo's, the Babenbergs. But Conrad's rule was short because he had a lack of local support, he was replaced by Burchard, whose title in 903 was marchio Thuringionum, "margrave of the Thuringians". Burchard had to defend Thuringia from the incursions of the Magyars and was defeated and killed in battle, along with the former duke Egino, on 3 August 908, he was the last recorded duke of Thuringia. The duchy was the smallest of the so-called "younger stem duchies", was absorbed by Saxony after Burchard's death, when Burchard's sons were expelled by Duke Henry the Fowler in 913; the Thuringians remained a distinct people, in the Middle Ages their land was organised as a landgraviate. A separate Thuringian stem duchy did not exist during the emergence of the German kingdom from East Francia in the 10th century.
Large parts of the Thuringian estates were controlled by the Counts of Weimar and the Margraves of Meissen. According to the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, Margrave Eckard I was appointed Thuringian duke. After his assassination 1002, Count William II of Weimar acted as Thuringian spokesman with King Henry II of Germany. In 1111/12 Count Herman I of Winzenburg is documented as a Thuringian landgrave, the first mention of a secession from Saxony, however, he had to yield as he sided with the Papacy during the Investiture Controversy. Meanwhile, the Franconian aristocrat Louis the Springer laid the foundations for the erection of Wartburg Castle, which became the residence of his descendants who, beginning with his son Louis I, served as Thuringian landgraves. Louis I had married the Rhenish Franconian countess Hedwig of Gudensberg and became the heir of extended estates in Thuringia and Hesse. A close ally of King Lothair II of Germany against the rising Hohenstaufen dynasty, he was appointed Landgrave of Thuringia in 1131.
The dynasty maintained the landgraviate throughout the fierce struggle of the Hohenstaufen and Welf royal families switching sides according to the circumstances. Beside the Wartburg, the Ludowingian landgraves had further lavish residences erected, like Neuenburg Castle near Freyburg, Marburg Castle in their Hessian estates. In the "Golden Age" under Hohenstaufen rule, Thuringia became a centre of Middle High German culture, epitomized by the legendary Sängerkrieg at the Wartburg, or the ministry of Saint Elizabeth, the daughter
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 91–92.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 
