Gottfried III, Count of Sponheim (born before 1183, probably in 1175; died 1218) was a German nobleman. He succeeded his father
Gottfried II as Count of Sponheim.
Life
In 1202 he married Adelheid von Sayn (died 1263), one of the two sisters and heirs of
Henry III, the last
count of Sayn. They had issue:
*
John I, Count of Sponheim, founder of the Starkenburg line (Hintere Grafschaft) and von Sayn's heir
*
Henry I, Lord of Heinsberg, founder of the Sponheim-Heinsberg line
*
Simon I, Count of Sponheim, founder of the Kreuznach line (Vordere Grafschaft)
*Gottfried, priest at St George's, Cologne and St Cassius' Church, Bonn
*Walram, canon in Cologne
After Henry III's death in 1246/47 parts of Sayn fell to Gottfried's son John I, the founder of the Sponheim-Starkenburg line. Gottfried built the
Kauzenburg at
Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in the world wi ...
and thus came into conflict with the
Bishopric of Speyer
The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, formerly known as Spires in English, (German: ''Hochstift Speyer, Fürstbistum Speyer, Bistum Speyer'') was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wür ...
. In 1218 Gottfried joined the
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade (September 1217 - August 29, 1221) was a campaign in a series of Crusades by Western Europeans to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering Egypt, ruled by the powerful Ayyubid sultanate, led by al- ...
, in which he lost his life. His widow Adelheid remarried to
Eberhard IV of Eberstein, owner of the lordship of Stauf and brother of
Conrad of Eberstein,
bishop of Speyer
The Bishop of Speyer is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer, which is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Bamberg. (died 1245).
References
*Winfried Dotzauer: ''Geschichte des Nahe-Hunsrück-Raumes von den Anfängen bis zur Französischen Revolution.'' Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, (
online bei Google Books).
Counts in Germany
12th-century births
1218 deaths
House of Sponheim
Christians of the Fifth Crusade
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