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49-458: The region around the Otzberg probably belonged to the territory that King Pippin gifted in 766 A.D. to Fulda Abbey , together with Groß-Umstadt . Otzberg Castle was probably built in the late 12th/early 13th century. At this time, Abbot Marquard I of Fulda secured the abbey estates and built castles that were visible from a long way as a sign of his influence. He transferred

98-863: A military expedition down the Rhone valley. He received the submission of eastern Septimania (i.e., Nîmes , Maguelone , Beziers and Agde ) after securing count Ansemund's allegiance. The Frankish king went on to invest Narbonne , the main Umayyad stronghold in Septimania, but could not capture it from the Iberian Muslims until seven years later in 759 , when they were driven out to Hispania. However, Aquitaine remained under Waiofar 's Gascon-Aquitanian rule and beyond Frankish reach. Duke Waiofar appears to have confiscated Church lands, maybe distributing them among his troops. In 760, after conquering

147-669: The ducatus Romanus . After a meeting with Pope Stephen II at Ponthion, Pepin forced the Lombard king to return the seized property from the Church. He confirmed the papacy in possession of Ravenna and the Pentapolis , the so-called Donation of Pepin , whereby the Papal States were established, and the temporal reign of the papacy officially began. At about 752, he turned his attention to Septimania. The new king headed south in

196-717: The Bavarian Feud partly involved Otzberg. In the dispute over the Landshut succession, Emperor Maximilian imposed the imperial ban on Count Palatine Philip for a breach of the Landfrieden . Landgrave William II of Hesse seized Otzberg by force. After the Reichstag of Constance in 1507, Electoral Palatinate received the Amt of Otzberg back again and did not enfeoff it again. But weapon technology had changed so that

245-780: The Bavarians , Aquitanians , Saxons , and the Alemanni in the early years of their reign. In 743, they ended the Frankish Interregnum  [ fr ] by choosing Childeric III , who was to be the last Merovingian monarch , as figurehead King of the Franks. Being well disposed towards the Christian Church and Papacy on account of their ecclesiastical upbringing, Pepin and Carloman continued their father's work in supporting Saint Boniface in reforming

294-623: The Germanic tribes was left to his successors. Pepin died in 768 from unknown causes and was succeeded by his sons Charlemagne and Carloman . Although Pepin was one of the most powerful and successful rulers of his time, his reign is largely overshadowed by that of his more famous son, Charlemagne. Pepin's father Charles Martel died in 741. He divided the rule of the Frankish kingdom between Pepin and his elder brother, Carloman , his surviving sons by his first wife: Carloman became Mayor of

343-664: The Lombards in Italy . In the midsummer of 754, Stephen II anointed Pepin afresh, together with his two sons, Charles and Carloman. The ceremony took place in the Abbey Church of St. Denis , and the Pope formally forbade the Franks ever to elect as king anyone who was not of the sacred race of Pepin. He also bestowed upon Pepin and his sons the title of Patrician of Rome . Pepin was able to secure several cities, which he then gave to

392-714: The Roussillon from the Muslims and denouncing Waiofar's actions, Pepin moved his troops over to Toulouse and Albi , ravaged with fire and sword most of Aquitaine , and, in retaliation, counts loyal to Waiofar ravaged Burgundy. Pepin, in turn, besieged the Aquitanian-held towns and strongholds of Bourbon , Clermont , Chantelle , Bourges and Thouars , defended by Waiofar's Gascon troops, who were overcome, captured and deported into northern France with their children and wives. In 763, Pepin advanced further into

441-564: The Weiße Rübe ("White Beet", also the name for the wild turnip), is the oldest building in the castle. On clear days the visitor can see the whole of the county of Darmstadt-Dieburg and as far as the city of Frankfurt am Main and the Taunus hills from the top of the 17-metre-high keep. The castle well dates to about 1320 and is one of the deepest wells in Hesse. After recent excavations

490-584: The heavy cavalry his father had begun. He maintained the standing army that his father had found necessary to protect the realm and form the core of its whole army in wartime. He not only contained the Spanish Muslims as his father had but drove them out of what is now France and, as important, he managed to subdue the Aquitanians and the Gascons after three generations of on-off clashes, opening

539-617: The siege of Narbonne in 759 , and proceeded to subjugate the southern realms by repeatedly defeating Waiofar and his Gascon troops, after which the Gascon and Aquitanian lords saw no option but to pledge loyalty to the Franks. Pepin was, however, troubled by the relentless revolts of the Saxons and the Bavarians. He campaigned tirelessly in Germania as well, but the final subjugation of

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588-448: The 16th century when the place was converted into a defensible fortification. The appearance of the fortress is dominated by its double concentric walls built in the 16th century and oval in shape, and the bergfried which is of Romanesque origin. Its character is still that of a fortress from the time after the introduction of artillery, typical castle features, like towers are entirely missing. The bergfried , also known locally as

637-519: The Basilica of St Denis in 754, bestowing upon him the additional title of Patricius Romanorum (Patrician of the Romans). This was the first recorded crowning of a civil ruler by a Pope. As life expectancies were short in those days, and Pepin wanted family continuity, the Pope also anointed Pepin's sons, Charles (eventually known as Charlemagne), who was 12, and Carloman, who was 3. The significance of

686-755: The Carolingians the ruling dynasty of the Franks and the foremost power of Europe . Pepin married Leutberga from the Danube region. They had five children. She was repudiated sometime after the birth of Charlemagne, and her children were sent to convents. In 741, Pepin married Bertrada , daughter of Caribert of Laon . They are known to have had eight children, at least three of whom survived to adulthood: Unnamed son; Annales Regni Francorum Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt ( German : Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt )

735-400: The Frankish church and evangelizing the Saxons. After Carloman, an intensely pious man, retired to religious life in 747, Pepin became the sole ruler of the Franks. He suppressed a revolt led by his half-brother Grifo and succeeded in becoming the undisputed master of all Francia. Giving up pretense, Pepin then forced Childeric into a monastery and had himself proclaimed King of the Franks with

784-658: The Lutheran University of Giessen in 1607. The inheritance conflict was continued in the broader context of the Thirty Years' War , in which Hesse-Kassel sided with the Protestant estates and Hesse-Darmstadt sided with the Habsburg emperor. The Hesse-Homburg and Hesse-Rotenburg estates seceded from the opponents in 1622 and 1627. Though Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel reached an agreement in 1627,

833-473: The Merovingian Childeric to the throne (743). Then, in 747, Carloman resolved to enter a monastery after years of consideration. This left Francia in the hands of Pepin as sole mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum . At the time of Carloman's retirement, Grifo escaped his imprisonment and fled to Duke Odilo of Bavaria , who was married to Hiltrude, Pepin's sister. Pepin put down

882-539: The Palace of Austrasia, Pepin became Mayor of the Palace of Neustria. Grifo , Charles's son by his second wife, Swanahild (also known as Swanhilde), demanded a share in the inheritance, but he was besieged in Laon , forced to surrender and imprisoned in a monastery by his two half-brothers. In the Frankish realm, the kingdom's unity was essentially connected with the king's person. So Carloman, to secure this unity, raised

931-714: The Palatinate was in French hands during the Napoleonic Wars , the two Ämter of Otzberg and Umstadt remained Electoral Palatine. At that time the Palatine Archives were stored at Otzberg Castle, in which one can read the property claims for a new era. With the stabilisation of the political situation, Otzberg Castle lost its military importance for the Palatinate. From 1711 active service soldiers were gradually replaced by disabled veterans, so that from 1720

980-579: The Pope as part of the Donation of Pepin . This formed the legal basis for the Papal States in the Middle Ages. The Byzantine Greeks , keen to make good relations with the growing power of the Frankish Empire, gave Pepin the title of Patricius . In wars of expansion for the Frankish realm , Pepin conquered Septimania from the Umayyad and Andalusian Muslims and defeated them at

1029-533: The anointment ceremony is visible in that the Pope newly adopted it and was unheard of in Rome. This, together with granting the title of Patrician of the Romans, which was connected to the role of Defensor Civitatis (protector of oppressed citizens), meant that Pepin was now designated as the defender of the Church. Pepin's first major act as king was to go to war against the Lombard king Aistulf , who had expanded into

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1078-709: The castle became purely an invalids' garrison that guarded the prisoners incarcerated there. In 1802 the Electoral Palatine Oberamt of Otzberg went to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt , which used it from 1803 as a state prison. In 1818 Otzberg Castle was abandoned as a military location. On 25 July 1826 the Finance Ministry in Darmstadt issued a decree that the tower of the castle, the commandant's house with its small stables,

1127-449: The castle could no longer simply be held by castellans. In 1511, a Zwinger was built, the inner wall was strengthened and a new gatehouse built. In the mid-16th century a stone town wall was built around the lower ward (the village of Hering). In 1621, during the Thirty Years' War , a Bavarian corps of 2,000 men and imperial and Spanish troops camped in the area of Otzberg-Umstadt and besieged Otzberg Castle. A year later, in 1622,

1176-592: The castle to Conrad of Hohenstaufen , brother of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa , as vogt . Conrad was Count Palatine of the Rhine. The castrum Othesberg was first mentioned in the records in 1231. In this document the Archbishop of Mainz , Siegfried III , also the overseer of Fulda Abbey , guaranteed to Count Palatine Otto II the arrangement agreed in the previous year,

1225-520: The childless Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg died at Marburg Castle , a succession dispute to his lands, along with the sectarian differences between Calvinist Hesse-Kassel and Lutheran Hesse-Darmstadt, led to a bitter, decades-long rivalry. Because the University of Marburg had become Calvinist under the rule of Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel , his cousin Louis V of Hesse-Darmstadt founded

1274-475: The depth of the well has now been estimated as about 50 metres. Next to it is a 1788 treadwheel that made it considerably easier to raise water. The commandant's house ( Kommandantenhaus ), in which the castle pub is housed today, was built in 1574 together with several other new buildings. The palas houses the Otzberg Museum – Documenting the history of Veste Otzberg. The old cabinet room

1323-412: The details of which are unknown. In 1244 the castellanos de odesbrech are mentioned for the first time: the castellans or Burgmannen of Otzberg Castle. The fortifications must have been sufficiently developed that five castellans and their servants were able to occupy it. The castellans built houses in the village of Hering, so-called "castellan's houses" or Burgmannenhäuser . Of these only parts of

1372-541: The doctor's house, the stable near the Marketenderei, the well house and the new barracks ( Bandhaus ) should be preserved. All other buildings should be sold for demolition. In 1921 the Bandhaus was converted into a youth hostel . In the 1950s a forestry office and a restaurant were housed in the commandant's house. This arrangement continued until the mid-60s when the place was rented to various tenants to run

1421-541: The elder Kassel line, while Hesse-Darmstadt retained Giessen and Biedenkopf . In 1736, the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt inherited the estates of the extinct Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg , again contested by their Kassel cousins. Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory by the secularizations and mediatizations authorized by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. Most notable

1470-514: The estate again, but enfeoffed in the same year Otsperg die burg ("Otzberg the castle"), Heringes die stat darundir ("Hering the town below it") and half of Umstadt for 23,875 guilders to Ulrich of Hanau , who also carried out work on the castle, for 400 guilders. In 1390 the abbey sold Otzberg and Hering and the half of Umstadt with the Hanau fief, which had meanwhile increased in value to 33,000 guilders, to Count Palatine Rupert II . In 1504

1519-529: The four sons of Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous", received the Hessian lands in the former upper County of Katzenelnbogen . His eldest brother William IV received the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel , while the second son Louis IV obtained Hesse-Marburg , and the third Philipp II became Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels . The Hesse-Rheinfels line became extinct on Philip's death in 1583. When, in 1604,

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1568-505: The garrison surrendered the castle. The castle and amt of Otzberg as well as half of Umstadt went back to Hesse in 1623 as compensation for war damage suffered. In 1647 the French took the castle. They based themselves at the castle and helped themselves to the food and provisions. As a result of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 Otzberg was returned to the Palatinate. Although the whole of

1617-537: The gate to central and southern Gaul and Muslim Spain. He continued his father's expansion of the Frankish church (missionary work in Germany and Scandinavia ) and the institutional infrastructure ( feudalism ) that would prove the backbone of medieval Europe. His rule was historically significant and greatly beneficial to the Franks as a people. Pepin's assumption of the crown and the title of Patrician of Rome were harbingers of his son's imperial coronation. He made

1666-418: The heart of Waiofar's domains and captured major strongholds (Poitiers, Limoges, Angoulême, etc.), after which Waiofar counterattacked and war became bitter. Pepin opted to spread terror, burning villas, destroying vineyards, and depopulating monasteries. By 765, the brutal tactics seemed to pay off for the Franks, who destroyed resistance in central Aquitaine and devastated the whole region. The city of Toulouse

1715-451: The house owned by Gans of Otzberg have survived. In the early 14th century, the resources of Fulda Abbey ran out so, in 1332, Prince-Abbot Henry VI of Hohenberg enfeoffed Otzberg Castle and the Fulda part of Umstadt for 4,600 pounds of Heller to Werner of Anevelt and Engelhard of Franckenstein , who carried out building work at Otzberg to the tune of 200 pounds. In 1374 Fulda redeemed

1764-537: The landgraviate comprised a number of disconnected pockets of land (exclaves). These included the southern Starkenburg territory with the Darmstadt residence and the northern province of Upper Hesse with Alsfeld , Giessen , Grünberg , the northwestern hinterland estates around Gladenbach , Biedenkopf and Battenberg as well as the exclave of Vöhl in Lower Hesse . The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, when George , youngest of

1813-451: The magnates and had the power of a king, he now addressed to Pope Zachary a suggestive question: Hard pressed by the Lombards , Pope Zachary welcomed this move by the Franks to end an intolerable condition and lay the constitutional foundations for exercising royal power. The Pope replied that such a state of things is not proper. Under these circumstances, the wielder of actual power should be called King. After this decision, Childeric III

1862-552: The quarrels rekindled, resulting inter alia in the Siege of Dorsten and culminating in a series of open battles from 1645, when the Kassel Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth besieged Marburg. The conflict was finally settled on the eve of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , more than eighty years after the division of the estates. Large parts of the disputed Upper Hesse territory, including Marburg, fell to

1911-458: The renewed revolt led by his half-brother and successfully restored the kingdom's boundaries. Under the reorganization of Francia by Charles Martel, the dux et princeps Francorum was the commander of the kingdom's armies, in addition to his administrative duties as mayor of the palace. As mayor of the palace, Pepin was formally subject to the decisions of Childeric III , who had only the title of king, with no power. Since Pepin had control over

1960-692: The restaurant. In 1985, a museum the Collection of Folk Art in Hesse ( Sammlung zur Volkskunde in Hessen ) moved into the Bandhaus . In 1996 the Korporalshaus was rebuilt. It has since been used as a museum building and location for the Standesamt of the municipality of Otzberg. The occupants from the outset were soldiers; in the 14th century, six men lived there; around 1471 there were 14 people. Specialised paid soldiers first appeared in

2009-545: The support of Pope Zachary in 751. Not all members of the Carolingian family supported the decision, and Pepin had to put down a revolt led by Carloman's son, Drogo , and again by Grifo. As King of the Franks, Pepin embarked on an ambitious program to expand his power. He reformed the Franks' legislation and continued Boniface's ecclesiastical reforms. Pepin also intervened in favour of the Papacy of Stephen II against

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2058-912: Was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian to become king. Pepin was the son of the Frankish prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude . Pepin's upbringing was distinguished by the ecclesiastical education he had received from the Christian monks of the Abbey Church of St. Denis , near Paris . Succeeding his father as the Mayor of the Palace in 741, Pepin reigned over Francia jointly with his elder brother, Carloman . Pepin ruled in Neustria , Burgundy , and Provence , while his older brother Carloman established himself in Austrasia , Alemannia , and Thuringia . The brothers were active in suppressing revolts led by

2107-559: Was conquered by Pepin in 767, as was Waiofar's capital of Bordeaux . As a result, Aquitanian nobles and Gascons from beyond the Garonne also saw no option but to accept a pro-Frankish peace treaty (Fronsac, c. 768). Waiofar escaped but was assassinated by his frustrated followers in 768. Pepin died on campaign in 768 at the age of 54. He was interred in the Basilica of Saint Denis in modern-day Metropolitan Paris . His wife Bertrada

2156-746: Was a State of the Holy Roman Empire , ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse . It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse among the four sons of Landgrave Philip I . The residence of the landgraves was in Darmstadt , hence the name. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars , the landgraviate was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Hesse following the Empire's dissolution in 1806. Like many petty German states,

2205-406: Was also interred there in 783. Charlemagne rebuilt the Basilica in honor of his parents and placed markers at the entrance. The Frankish realm was divided according to the Salic law between his two sons: Charlemagne and Carloman I . Historical opinion often seems to regard him as the lesser son and lesser father of two greater men, though a great man in his own right. He continued building up

2254-406: Was assisted by his friend Vergilius of Salzburg , an Irish monk who probably used a copy of the " Collectio canonum Hibernensis " (an Irish collection of canon law) to advise him to receive royal unction to assist his recognition as king. Anointed a first time in 751 in Soissons , Pepin added to his power after Pope Stephen II traveled to Paris to anoint him a second time in a lavish ceremony at

2303-427: Was deposed and confined to a monastery. He was the last of the Merovingians. Pepin was then elected King of the Franks by an assembly of Frankish nobles, with a large portion of his army on hand. The earliest account of his election and anointing is the Clausula de Pippino , written around 767. Meanwhile, Grifo continued his rebellion but was eventually killed in the battle of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in 753. Pepin

2352-473: Was later used as a barrack. Due to the Hessian demolition decree ( hessischen Abrissverfügung ) of 1806 it was one of the few buildings that was destroyed at Otzberg Castle. Today, only the wall foundations remain. The "corporal's house" ( Korporalshaus ), rebuilt in 1996 is used as a registry by the municipality of Otzberg. Pippin the Younger Pepin the Short ( Latin : Pipinus ; French : Pépin le Bref ; c.  714 – 24 September 768),

2401-411: Was the acquisition of the Duchy of Westphalia , formerly owned by the Prince-Archbishop of Cologne , as well as territories from the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz and the Prince-Bishop of Worms . In 1806, upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the dispossession of his cousin, Elector William I of Hesse-Kassel , Landgrave Louis X joined the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine and took

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