Simon III, Lord of Lippe ( – 1410) was Lord of Lippe from 1360 until his death. He was to son of

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

, from whom he inherited the city of

Lemgo Lemgo (; nds, Lemge, Lemje) is a small university town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated between the Teutoburg Forest and the Weser Uplands, 25 km east of Bielefeld and 70 km west of Hannover. T ...

. His control of the surrounding areas was initially uncertain. As late as 1368, the

castellans A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

of his castles and representatives of the cities of Horn,

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of t ...

and Blomberg published a joint declaration, stating that in the future, they would only recognize the heir as their sovereign only if the two main cities in the Lordship, Lippstadt and Lemgo, would agree. In the ancestral lands around the cities of Lippstadt and Rheda, however, the situation was complicated, because after the death of his uncle Bernard V, around 1365, his widow Richarda had initially given his part of Lippe to Count Otto VI of Tecklenburg, who was the husband of her eldest daughter. In 1366, she had revoked the gift and acknowledged Simon III as her husband's heir. Otto VI, however, refused to return the gift. This led to a struggle that would last several decades. Matters were further complicated when Otto VI took Simon III prisoner in 1371. Simon III was released in 1374, but he had to pay a very high ransom. He ended up having to pledge half of Lippstadt in 1376 to the relatives of his mother, the

House of La Marck The House of La Marck (german: von der Mar(c)k) was a noble family, which from about 1200 appeared as the counts of Mark. History The family history started with Count Adolf I, scion of a cadet branch of the Rhenish Berg dynasty residing at A ...

. In 1379, a short-lived alliance consisting of the bishoprics of

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

, the cities of

and

, and Count

Engelbert III of the Marck Engelbert III of the Mark (1333–1391) was the Count of Mark from 1347 until 1391. Adolph was the eldest son of Count Adolph II of the Marck and Margaret of Cleves. After his father died in 1347, Engelbert III ruled the County of Mark, mainly ...

conquered the Lordship and City of Rheda. However, they did not hand it to Simon III. Instead, they gave it back to Otto VI, after the latter had paid 8000 guilders. Around 1400, the cities of Barntrup and Salzuflen and

Sternberg Castle Sternberg may refer to: Places ;Austria * Burgruine Sternberg, a castle ruin in Carinthia ;Czech Republic * Šternberk (german: Sternberg), a town with an eponymous castle and seat of the mediæval County of Sternberg * Český Šternberk (german: ...

were pledged to Simon III. In 1405, the rest of the County of Sternberg followed. In 1403, Simon III agreed a treaty of inheritance with the childless Count Herman VII of Everstein. However, the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg objected. They claimed that Everstein was a fief of Brunswick, and would therefore fall back to them when the Everstein family died out. In 1405, the conflict escalated to a feud, which was fought mostly on Lippe's territory. In 1408, Herman VII renounced his rights and gave Everstein to Brunswick. Simon III was married to Irmgard of Hoya and had seven children. He died in 1410 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Bernard VI.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon 03, Lord of Lippe Lords of Lippe Lords of Rheda 1340 births Year of birth uncertain 1410 deaths 14th-century German nobility 14th-century lords in Europe