Frederick von Saarwerden (c. 1348 – April 9, 1414) was archbishop-elector of Cologne as Frederick III from 1370 to 1414. Through the promotion of his great-uncle, Archbishop Kuno II of Falkenstein of Trier, Frederick von Saarwerden was elected archbishop of Cologne at the age of 20, which the Pope in Avignon also confirmed two years later after some misgivings. Frederick found the archbishopric completely plundered by his two predecessors of the County of Mark, Adolf and Engelbert, and had himself promised high payments to the Curia on the occasion of his election. Nevertheless, with the help of his very rich great-uncle Kuno, he succeeded in paying off the debts of the archbishopric within a few years.
Frederick von Saarwerden supported Emperor Charles IV and was therefore granted privileges by him that supported Frederick's policy of rule. Right at the beginning of his term of office, he successfully suppressed hereditary conflicts among the landed nobility as well as autonomy efforts in the towns of the archdiocese, thus asserting his sovereign supremacy, which was not challenged again until the end of his reign. However, he was unable to take advantage of a conflict within the city of Cologne between the city council and the juryman over high justice to renew the position of power in the city lost by his predecessors. The dispute, which was ultimately also conducted militarily with the participation of neighboring princes, ended with a compromise in 1377.
Frederick was able to expand the territorial holdings of the archdiocese. Even before Frederick took office, Kuno von Falkenstein, as diocesan administrator, had acquired the County of Arnsberg in 1368. Frederick was able to secure this acquisition as well as the gain of the land of Linn on the Lower Rhine in three feuds against the two brothers of the counts Adolf and Engelbert of the Mark. His work as a territorial ruler can hardly be overestimated, even though his initiatives in imperial or ecclesiastical politics were pushed into the background.
When Frederick III von Saarwerden died in 1414, he left a rich and well-ordered archbishopric and lordship to his nephew and successor, Dietrich II of Moers.Der Artikel orientiert sich fast ausschließlich an dem bis heute gültigen Standardwerk zu Friedrich III. von Saarwerden, nämlich der Dissertation von Sabine Picot aus dem Jahr 1974/75. Picots Forschungsleistung besteht darin, alle verfügbaren Informationen zu Friedrich zusammenzutragen und in ihrer Dissertation konzentriert zu publizieren. Wo davon abgewichen wurde oder Ergänzungen vorgenommen wurden, ist dies durch einen Hinweis auf Sekundärliteratur vermerkt. Die von ihr verwendeten Quellen sind einige Jahre später von Norbert Andernach publiziert worden, weshalb in den Fußnoten nicht auf die Seiten in Picots Werk, sondern direkt auf die Quellen verwiesen wird.
Life and work
Childhood and youth
Frederick was born in Saarwerden to Count Johann II of Saarwerden and his wife Klara of Finstingen. The Counts of Saarwerden had their seat in the eponymous town of Sarrewerden on the upper Saar. While his brother Heinrich was destined to succeed him in the county, Frederick was destined at the age of ten for a career as a clerical and secular prince of the church and was therefore placed in the care of his second-degree uncle, the archbishop of Trier, Kuno II of Falkenstein. In 1366, the latter was appointed coadjutor of the archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert III of the Mark, by the Cologne cathedral chapter and now sought to provide his second-degree nephew with a favorable position in Cologne. Thus Kuno obtained for Frederick some lucrative Cologne benefices, namely the provostship in the stift St. Maria ad Gradus as well as a canonry. He did not need to hold these offices personally while still studying canon law at the University of Bologna.Picot, pp. 33f.
Nomination as Archbishop of Cologne On August 25, 1368, Archbishop Engelbert III died.Vgl. REK VII, Nr. 819, p. 211. Kuno von Falkenstein initially continued to administer the archbishopric, because the cathedral chapter appointed him already on August 28 as momper or administrator for the time of the sede vacante.Vgl. REK VII, Nr. 822, pp. 214 f. Immediately Kuno tried to build up his nephew 2nd degree Frederick as the new archbishop. He also obtained a postulation from the cathedral chapter, although not unanimous, i.e. a proposal for appointment, since the appointment of the archbishop at that time already belonged to the pope. Pope Urban V at the Avignon Papacy, however, rejected this request on November 7, 1368: Frederick was too young - he had not yet reached the canonical age of 30 -, was inexperienced in ecclesiastical matters, and his person and way of life were still completely unknown to the Curia."sit minor annis et in administracionibus ac negotiis ecclesiasticis incumbentibus minus expertus et vita conversatio et mores sui prefato domino nostro et nobis penitus sunt ignoti", Sauerland V, Nr. 626, pp. 241 f. The Pope's request for the appointment of the Archbishop was rejected. In addition, Emperor Charles IV wanted the ecclesiastical electorates to be filled with suitable candidates for the planned election of his son Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia as King of the Romans and pressed the Pope, who for his part was dependent on imperial support to regain the Papal States. In his letter of refusal to Frederick von Saarwerden, the pope therefore transferred his great uncle Kuno from Trier to Cologne, John of Luxembourg-Ligny, the relative and Protégé of Emperor Charles, from Strasbourg to Trier, and Frederick von Saarwerden to Strasbourg.
Kuno of Falkenstein, however, refused these plans to settle his great-nephew with Strasbourg. According to the Pope's will, the bishopric rotation was supposed to satisfy the claims of all parties involved, but Kuno refused the translation despite imploring pleas from the CuriaVgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 627–32 and 636 (7–11, 22 November 1368), pp. 242–47 and 249f. and also from the Cologne Cathedral Chapter.Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 638 (14 December 1368), pp. 250f. However, the pope did not appoint Frederick von Saarwerden as the new archbishop of Cologne, nor any other candidate. Why the occupation of the arch see of Cologne did not take place for the time being is not conclusively documented,Picot, p. 40. but much speaks for the thesis that the pope simply wanted to keep the problems between the emperor and Kuno of Falkenstein connected with the occupation in abeyance. For the Curia, this solution was the most elegant: John of Luxembourg-Ligny, who according to other sources was quite incompetent, was left in the not so politically exposed bishopric of Strasbourg, Kuno was bound more closely to the Pope by leaving this second electorate in revocation, and the archbishopric of Cologne retained a capable administrator. Quite incidentally, the Curia was thus able to collect the intercalary fruits - Cologne's income during the Sedis vacancy - in the estimated amount of 20,000 gold florins annually.Vgl. Sauerland V, S. CXLVIII f. mit Verweis auf. Nr. 682 Pope Urban V therefore appointed Kuno of Falkenstein Vicar Apostolic on July 30, 1369,Vgl. REK VII, Nr. 913–915, pp. 249 f. and Apostolic Administrator on March 27, 1370, for two more years with the prospect of renewal.Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 674 (gekürzt), S. 266. = REK VII, Nr. 1003, p. 271.
In the summer of 1370, Kuno von Falkenstein initiated a second and this time unanimous supplication of the cathedral chapter to the pope for the appointment of Frederick von Saarwerden.Picot, pp. 42f. Frederick immediately traveled to the papal court and won the pope over, so that he received his appointment on November 13. November.Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 680 (gekürzt), S. 268f. = REK VIII, Nr. 2, p. 3. Because he is referred to as archbishop in seven documents dated February 1371,Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 760–765 und 769, S. 296 ff. und p. 300. Heinrich Volbert Sauerland assumes that he received the ordination as deacon and presbyter as well as the consecration as bishop still in Avignon in the meantime.Vgl. Sauerland V, S. CXLVII. Thereupon he went back to the Rhine to be enthroned. On June 20, 1371, Frederick confirmed all of Kuno's orders as lawful,Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 834, S. 324 = REK VII, Nr. 79, pp. 28 f. whereupon Kuno released all officials from their oaths and duties to him on July 2, 1371.Vgl. Sauerland V, Nr. 837, S. 325 und REK VIII, Nr. 130, p. 40. Frederick received the secular regalia on November 13, 1371, through envoys of the king in Bautzen and also in persona probably in May 1372 at the imperial diet. November 1371 by envoys of the king in Bautzen the secular regalia and also in persona probably in May 1372 at the Imperial Diet in Mainz, when he also received the enfeoffment with the Duchy of Westphalia.Picot, p. 48. After his return, the solemn entry into his episcopal city then took place on June 21, 1372, after he had already confirmed all the rights of the city of Cologne on April 30, 1372. The king was the first to be granted the rights of the city of Cologne.
The main reason why the Pope granted the archbishopric to Frederick von Saarwerden after all was the young archbishop's extensive financial obligations. The archbishopric of Cologne was already the richest archbishopric in Germany at that time - the curia estimated the annual income at 30,000 gold florins. During Kuno's administration, the Curia was able to reserve 20,000 gold florins of this for itself. Contrary to the custom of paying only once an "appointment fee" of one third of the annual income, i.e. 10,000 gold florins, Frederick undertook to pay a total of 120,000 gold florins in six annual installments. The archbishopric had been completely plundered during the short period of Frederick's two predecessors, Adolf of the Marck and Engelbert III, so that payments to the curia seemed almost impossible. The Curia therefore also had the usual sanction mechanism confirmed - failure to pay threatened first excommunication and then interdict as a reinforced form.Vgl. Sauerland V, S. CXLIXff.
Desolate state of the archbishopric when Frederick took office The Archbishopric of Cologne was heavily in debt at the beginning of Frederick von Saarwerden's reign. It is reported that when Frederick took office, he was given a letter in which the debts were quantified at more than 474,000 florins.Vgl. Jacob von Soest in REK XII, Nr. 1087, pp. 358 f. Even if this high sum is not documented, the report about it gives a tendency. For firstly, there were no more cash funds available and secondly, important sources of income had been alienated from the archbishopric.