Kuenringer

Who he is

Name

Hadmar II of Kuenring

Title

Ministerialis of the duke of Austria (a sworn officer of unfree birth, but the greatest of them)

Since

His father Albero III died in 1182

Born

about 1135-1140; about 60 on 1 January 1200

Family

Son of Albero III of Kuenring (died 1182). Married about 1170 Eufemia of Mistelbach. Sons named in the family tables: Albero IV (died after 1220; married on 10 November 1208), Hadmar III (about 1180 to about 1231) and Henry (about 1185-1233), the last two the 'hounds of Kuenring' (Hunde von Kuenring) of the rising of 1230-31; how exactly they relate to Hadmar II is not clear in the tables we read. Hadmar II dies on 22 July 1217 on Leopold VI's crusade and is buried at Zwettl.

Confidence

high

de.wikipedia Kuenringer and Hadmar II. von Kuenring; Zwettl and Weitra town articles.

Overlord

Duke Leopold VI of Austria

What it holds

• Zwettl: the castle (probably on the site of the later Propstei), the market below it and the advocacy-like patronage of Zwettl Abbey (the family's burial church)
• Dürnstein castle in the Wachau, Richard I's prison in 1192-93
• Kühnring (Kuenring) near Eggenburg, the castle that gives the family its name
• Rappottenstein castle on the upper Kamp (built by a Kuenringer about 1176, from general knowledge)
• The Altweitra land on the Lainsitz facing Bohemia, with the church built about 1180 (Weitra town only from 1201)
• Knights' fees and cleared villages across the Waldviertel; Wullersdorf in the Weinviertel (a Kuenring castle in the 12th century)

How it was acquired

Babenberg service and fiefs from the 11th century, colonisation of the Nordwald, and marriage (Mistelbach about 1170).

Allies and rivals

Loyal to the Babenbergs in 1200; neighbours of the Bohemian lords across the Nordwald; patrons of Zwettl Abbey.

How things stand that morning

Hadmar II holds his castles as the duke's ministerialis on 1 January 1200. Zwettl is a market below his castle, recorded as a town from 28 December 1200; Weitra is not yet founded.

Wealth

Rents of the cleared Waldviertel, the Zwettl market, Danube and wine income at Dürnstein.

Military

A large following of knights and castle men in the Waldviertel; Dürnstein, Zwettl and Rappottenstein castles. No numbers recorded.

Threats

• A Bohemian claim to the Weitra land (Soběslav II took it in 1176; Barbarossa divided the disputed ground in 1179)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 28 December 1200Zwettl is first treated as a town.Depends on: Hadmar II's building Stopped by: nothing in play
2. 1201 (beyond 1200)Hadmar II founds the fortified town of Weitra.Depends on: peace on the Bohemian frontier Stopped by: a Bohemian move on the Weitra land

Places of note

• Dürnstein castle: Hadmar II kept Richard I here in 1192-93
• Zwettl Abbey: Cistercian abbey founded by Hadmar I (1139), the Kuenringer burial church
• Kühnring: The family's name castle near Eggenburg
• Rappottenstein castle: Kuenringer castle on the upper Kamp
• Altweitra: Church built by Hadmar II about 1180; Weitra founded above it in 1201

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The family and the Dürnstein episode are well known; the exact list of Kuenring castles in 1200 is not pinned (Aggstein and the later Weitra-Seefeld holdings belong to the 13th century).

On the map: Main concentrations only; the family's knights' fees are spread across the Waldviertel.

Primary sources for Austria

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Jarloch (Gerlach), abbot of Milevsko, Jarloch of Milevsko (about 1200 to 1220). The last Bohemian narrative before 1200, continuing Vincentius of Prague. Read online
• Annals of Schäftlarn and the Bavarian annals (12th and 13th centuries). Brief Bavarian annals. Read online
• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Bavarian monuments: the charters of the Bavarian monasteries and bishoprics (charters from the 8th century onward, published 1763 to 1916). The great charter series of Bavaria, arranged by monastery and bishopric. Read online
• The political songs of Walther von der Vogelweide, 1198 to 1201, Walther von der Vogelweide (about 1198 to 1201). Three stanzas of the Reichston, composed between 1198 and 1201 after Walther left Vienna, lament the disorder of the double election and call on Philip to take the crown. Read online
• Constitutions and public acts of the emperors and kings, volume 2, 1198 to 1272 (documents of 1198 to 1272, edited 1896). The public documents of the throne war in full text: the election notices of 1198, the princes' declaration of Speyer of 28 May 1199 to Innocent III, the pope's replies, Philip's and Otto's letters and promises, and the imperial acts of 1200 and 1201 including Otto's promises at Neuss in June 1201. Read online