Irmengard of Oettingen ( – 6 November 1389 in

Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had about 82,000 inhabitants . A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. It wa ...

) was a princess of the Counts von Oettingen by birth, and by marriage, Countess Palatine of the Rhine and, as a widow, a Dominican

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

Life

Countess Palatine

Irmengard of Oettingen was the daughter of Count Louis VI of Oettingen (1288–1346) and his wife Agnes of Württemberg (1295–1317), a daughter of Eberhard the Illustrious, of Württemberg. In 1320 Princess Irmengard married Count Palatine Adolph "the Upright" of

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

. He was officially the

Count Palatine A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an or ...

of the Rhine from 1319 until his death in 1327. The actual power of government, however, was exercised by his uncle Louis IV. The couple resided in Heidelberg under the suzerainty of Emperor Louis IV. In 1326, they retired to Oggersheim. This community had been destroyed by fire. Adolf led the rebuild and added a city wall and a moat and elevated the place to a city. Adolf died in January 1327 in Neustadt an der Weinstraße and was buried in the Cistercian

Schönau Abbey Schönau Abbey (''Kloster Schönau'') in Schönau in the Odenwald, in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg, was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1142 from Eberbach Abbey. The present settlement of Schönau grew up round the monastery. ...

. Irmengard of Oettingen and Count Palatine Adolf had four children: #

Rupert II, Elector Palatine of the Rhine Rupert II, Count Palatine of the Rhine () (12 May 1325, Amberg – 6 January 1398, Amberg). He was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine from the house of Wittelsbach in 1390–1398. Life Rupert was the elder son of Adolf, Count Palatine of the R ...

(12 May 1325, Amberg – 6 January 1398, Amberg). # Adolf. # Frederick. # a daughter (d. 1389), married Count Meinhard I of Ortenburg.

Widow and nun

Still in the year of the death of her husband, countess Irmengard and her children retired into the

Liebenau monastery The Liebenau monastery was a Dominican monastery. It was located outside the city gates of Worms in today's Worms-Hochheim district. Location Liebenau was located in the east of Hochheim district, close to the border with the Neuhausen distric ...

in Worms. The Austria-minded Count

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

of Nassau was appointed as the children's guardian. The

Treaty of Pavia (1329) The Treaty of Pavia which divided the House of Wittelsbach into two branches, was signed in Pavia in 1329. Under the accord, Emperor Louis IV granted during his stay in Italy the Electorate of the Palatinate (including the Bavarian Upper Pal ...

between Emperor Louis IV and Adolf's brothers Electors Palatine

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...

and Rupert I was concluded, stipulating that Adolf's four-year-old son Rupert II would succeed his childless uncles as Count Palatine and Elector. At first Irmengard of Oettingen had lived only as a guest in the monastery. Around 1347 she became a Dominican nun and lived as a nun until her death in 1389 (various sources also mention the year 1399). In Liebenau, she founded on 1 December 1381, a Mass to be sung daily, the so-called Convent Mass. Irmengard's brother Louis died in 1346 during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He had bequeathed the gift of a magnificent Cross to the Liebenau monastery, which, according to its inscription, had been commissioned by her father, Count Louis VI. The cross came to Freiburg im Breisgau in a roundabout way and is now among the special treasures of the local

Augustiner Museum The Augustiner Museum is a museum in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany located in the former Augustinian Monastery building. It is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion, the first phase of which ended in 2010.Beatrix of Sicily would sometimes visit her in the monastery. The Dominican chronicler John Meyer (1422–1482) reports that Countess Palatine Beatrix gave birth to her son Rupert in the monastery and that he was brought up until age 7 by his grandmother Irmengard of Oettingen. Rupert later became

Elector Palatine The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...

as Rupert III and King of the Germans as Rupert I. Irmengard's grand niece

Elisabeth of Oettingen Elisabeth of Oettingen also known as ''Elizabeth of Leuchtenberg'' (born: ; died: 9 July 1406) was a member of the House of Oettingen-Wallerstein by birth. She was a Landgravine of Leuchtenberg by marriage and a lady in waiting for the Elector P ...

served Rupert as a

lady in waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

. Countess Palatine Irmengard died in 1389 and was interred in the Liebenau monastery in Worms. No trace of the monastery remains. The historian

Johann Friedrich Schannat Johann Friedrich Schannat (23 July 1683 – 6 March 1739) was a German historian. Schannat was born in Luxembourg. He studied at the University of Louvain and when twenty-two years of age was a lawyer, but before long he turned his attention ...

provides her grave inscription in his ''Historia episcopatus Wormatiensis'' on page 172. It states that the princess lived for 40 years as a nun.Source as to her grave being in Liebenau
/ref>

References

: ''"Historia episcopatus Wormatiensis"'', 1734, p. 172 * Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich: ''"Abhandlungen der Churfürstlich-Baierischen Akademie der Wissenschaften"'' 3. Band, 1765
Scan about Irmengard of Oettingen
* Jörg Rogge: ''"Fürstin und Fürst - Familienbeziehungen und Handlungsmöglichkeiten von hochadeligen Frauen im Mittelalter"'', Verlag Thorbecke, 2004, , p. 35
Scan about Irmengard von Oettingen
* Ingeborg Schroth: ''"Ein Reliquienkreuz von 1342 aus Kloster Liebenau"'', in: "Pantheon", Nr. 31, 1943, pp. 43–4
Details about the cross

Footnotes

External links

Genealogy page about Irmengard of Oettingen

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irmengard of Oettingen Dominican nuns House of Oettingen House of Wittelsbach 1300s births 1389 deaths Year of birth uncertain Countesses Palatine of the Holy Roman Empire 14th-century German women