Emicho I, Count of Nassau-Hadamar (also known as ''Emich'', first mentioned in 1289, died on 7 June 1334), was the second son of Count Otto I of Nassau and his wife Agnes (d. 1303), the daughter of Count Emich IV of Leiningen-Landeck. Emicho was the founder of the elder line of

Nassau-Hadamar Nassau-Hadamar is the name of two side lines of the Ottonian main line of the House of Nassau. The older line of the counts of Nassau-Hadamar existed from 1303 to 1394; the younger line existed from 1607 to 1711 and received the hereditary title o ...

. He was a cousin of King Adolf of Germany. He and his brother

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

fought on Adolf's side in the

Battle of Göllheim The Battle of Göllheim was fought on 2 July 1298 between the forces of duke Albert I of Habsburg (German: Albrecht) and king Adolf of Nassau over the prince electors' decision, without electoral act, to dethrone Adolf and proclaim Albert the ...

on 2 July 1298.

Count of Nassau-Hadamar

Emicho I was a son of Otto, the founder of the Ottonian line of the House of Nassau. After Otto died in 1290, his sons fought a length dispute over the inheritance. In 1303, the three remaining sons divided the Ottonian lands.

(d. 1343), the eldest brother, received

Nassau-Siegen Nassau-Siegen was a principality within the Holy Roman Empire that existed between 1303 and 1328, and again from 1606 to 1743. From 1626 to 1734, it was subdivided into Catholic and Protestant parts. Its capital was the city of Siegen, found ...

, with Ginsburg and the Lordship of

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Massif ( or Rhenish ...

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 ...

received

Nassau-Dillenburg The County of Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later part of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, the male line of which is now extinct, was the House of Nassau. Origins Nassau, originally a county, developed ...

, with Herborn,

Haiger Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger. Geography Location Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern ...

and Beilstein. Emicho received

, including

Hadamar Hadamar is a small town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Hadamar is known for its Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry/Centre for Social Psychiatry, lying at the edge of town, in whose outlying buildings is also found the Hadamar Mem ...

itself, the Esterau, the Nassau share of the Lordship of

Driedorf Driedorf is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Driedorf lies from 416 to 642 m above sea level on a tableland in the high Westerwald. Mademühlen Mademühlen has about 1,000 inhabitants and lies in the ...

and the justice over Ellar, the Ottonian share of

Dausenau Dausenau is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. It belongs to the association community of Bad Ems-Nassau. Dausenau was one of the oldest possessions of the counts of Nassau and the arms t ...

and Ems and some dispersed possessions. As recently as 1290, the Lords of Greifenstein, who were co-owners of Driedorf, had forced Henry and Emicho to demolish two of their castles in Driedorf. On the other hand, a treaty closed in Wetzlar promised an end to the Greinfenstein's resistance to the Nassau expansion in the eastern part of the Westerwald. In 1316, Emicho finally managed to purchase the Greifenstein share of Driedorf for 250

marks Marks may refer to: Business * Mark's, a Canadian retail chain * Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain * Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members * Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...

Properties in Franconia

In 1299, Emicho acquire considerable properties in the

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

area, when King Albert I of Saxony mortgaged

Kammerstein Castle Kammerstein is a municipality in the district of Roth in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and t ...

Schwabach Schwabach () is a German city of about 40,000 inhabitants near Nuremberg in the centre of the region of Franconia in the north of Bavaria. The city is an autonomous administrative district (''kreisfreie Stadt''). Schwabach is also the name of th ...

, Altdorf, Kornburg Castle and the town of Kornburg to Emicho and his wife Anna, who was the daughter of

Burgrave Burgrave, also rendered as burggrave (from german: Burggraf, la, burgravius, burggravius, burcgravius, burgicomes, also praefectus), was since the medieval period in Europe (mainly Germany) the official title for the ruler of a castle, especia ...

Frederick III of Nuremberg Frederick III of Nuremberg ( 1220 – 14 August 1297 in Cadolzburg), Burgrave of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern, was the eldest son of Conrad I of Nuremberg and Adelheid of Frontenhausen. Life He owned the possessions of Hohenzollern ...

Hadamar

On 18 December 1320 Emicho purchased a model farm from the Cistercian

Eberbach Abbey Eberbach Abbey (German: Kloster Eberbach) is a former Cistercian monastery in Eltville in the Rheingau, Germany. On account of its Romanesque and early Gothic buildings it is considered one of the most significant architectural heritage sites i ...

. This farm was located on the left bank of the Elbbach, opposite

. The transaction includes the St. Giles church in Hadamar; the abbey retained various other properties in Niederhadamar, Faulbach and Niederzeuzheim. Emich expanded the farm to a water castle named Hadamar Castle, and built a new farm to the south of the castle. He moved his residence to Hadamar Castle. In 1324, Emperor Louis IV granted city rights, modeled on Frankfurt, to Hadamar and Ems. This allowed Emicho to fortify Hadamar with a city wall and a moat surrounding both the town and his castle. The move to Hadamar was probably intended to make it easier to secure his interests in the County of Dietz and to continue purchasing property and rights from the House of Dietz, which was continually in financial difficulties. From 1317, Emicho acted as guardian of Count Gottfried V of Dietz (1303–1348), whose bad financial management had caused the decline of his county. In 1324, Emicho negotiated with Count Gottfried V of Dietz about the intended marriage of Emicho's daughter Jutta with Gottfried's son Gerhard VI (1317–1343). Emicho demanded extended guardianship rights over the County of Dietz, which was already owed him a considerable amount of money. When Gottfried reached adulthood in 1332 and Emicho's guardianship ended, Gottfried transferred his rights over Hadamar and the village of Dehrn to Emicho. On 28 March 1337, Gottfried of Dietz mortgaged the district of Ellar, which he had acquired this district only four years earlier from the Lords of Merenberg, for 1450 Limburgish marks to Emicho's son

. On 4 April 1334, only two months before his death, Emicho transferred the Court and Castle of Hadamar to Archbishop Baldwin of

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

, who gave it back to him as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...

Mining rights

On 26 February 1298, King Adolph of Germany mortgaged the rights to the Ratzenscheid mine near

Wilnsdorf Wilnsdorf is a municipality in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography The southern municipal limits, with the Kalteiche peak, part of the Rothaargebirge, form not only the community's highest point, at ...

in the Siegerland area and the other silver mines in the Nassau territory to his cousins Henry and Emicho for 1000 marks' worth of pennies from Cologne.

John's inheritance

Emicho's younger brother

was captain in the army from Nassau and

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

that fought in the decisive Battle of Wetzlar that ended the

Dernbacher Feud The Dernbach Feud (German: ''Dernbacher Fehde'') was an over 100-year-long (c. 1230 – 1333) ongoing dispute in present-day Germany between the House of Nassau, several knightly families, and the Landgrave of Hesse. The conflict erupted mainly over ...

on 10 August 1328. John fell in that battle. Emicho refrained from his share in the inheritance, in favour of his elder brother Henry.

Marriage and issue

Before 1297, Emich married Anna (d. ), the daughter of Burgrave Frederick III of

and his second wife Helen, the daughter of Duke

Albert I of Saxony en, Frederick Augustus Albert Anthony Ferdinand Joseph Charles Maria Baptist Nepomuk William Xavier George Fidelis , image = Albert of Saxony by Nicola Perscheid c1900.jpg , image_size = , caption = Photograph by Nicola Persch ...

. They had at least eight children: * Anna (died probably before 1329), married before 1332 to Count Kuno I of Falkenstein * Jutta (d. after 1359), married before 1324 to Count Gerhard VI of Diez (1317–1343) *

(d. before 20 January 1365), Count of Nassau-Hadamar from 1334 to 1365 * Emicho II (d. 1359), from 1328 to 1336

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

in Mainz, from 1337 to 1359 co-ruler of Nassau-Hadamar * Agnes, a nun in

Altenberg Abbey Altenberg Abbey (''Abtei Altenberg'') ( la, Vetus Mons) is a former Cistercian monastery in Altenberg, now a part of the municipality of Odenthal in the Bergisches Land, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. History The abbey was founded in 113 ...

in Wetzlar * Helen, also a nun in Altenberg Abbey * Margaret, married before 1349 to a Count of Hohenberg * Margaretha (d. 1343), a nun in the

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

nunnery in Nuremberg Emicho died on 7 June 1334. His widow reached a compromise with her son John in 1336, in which she received the imperial

as her

jointure Jointure is, in law, a provision for a wife after the death of her husband. As defined by Sir Edward Coke, it is "a competent livelihood of freehold for the wife, of lands or tenements, to take effect presently in possession or profit after the de ...

, plus several manor in

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...

. She would also receive

income in kind Income in kind, or in-kind income, is income other than money income. It includes many employee benefits and government-provided goods and services, such as toll-free roads, food stamps, public schooling, or socialized medicine. Types of Incom ...

from John, from his possessions in

Laurenburg Laurenburg is a municipality in the Rhein-Lahn district of Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. The town, a health resort situated in the lower Lahn River valley, belongs to the Diez Municipal Association. History Laurenburg Castle is fir ...

, Nentershausen and the bailiwick of Weidenhahn and from farms and land in Hadamar (the manors Schnepfenhaus and Rödchen), Zeuzheim and Heftrich. She resided at Hadamar castle until 1349, then moved to Kammerstein Castle, where she died between 1355 and 1357.Wagner, pp. 44–45

References

* * Johannes von Arnoldi: ''Geschichte der Oranien-Nassauischen Länder und ihrer Regenten'', vol. 3, Neue Gelehrtenbuchhandlung, Hadamar, 1799, pp. 90–9
Online
* Friedrich D. von Schütz: ''Geschichte des Herzogthums Nassau'', Wilhelm Roth, Wiesbaden, 1853, pp. 62–6
Online
* Karl Josef Stahl: ''Hadamar Stadt und Schloss. Eine Heimatgeschichte'', Magistrat der Stadt Hadamar, 1974 * Jacob Wagner: ''Die Regentenfamilie von Nassau-Hadamar: Geschichte des Fürstenthums Hadamar'', vol. 1, 2nd ed., Mechitharisten-Congregations-Buchhandlung, Vienna, 1863, pp. 37–4
Online

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emicho I, Count of Nassau-Hadamar Counts of Nassau 13th-century births 1334 deaths Year of birth unknown 14th-century German nobility