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Who was the mother of Jakob Truchseß von Waldburg zu Trauchburg, the golden knight?

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Carl-Henry Geschwind

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Feb 17, 2021, 10:05:18 AM2/17/21
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Genealogics.org, which references ESNF 5:148, says that his mother was Elisabeth von Montfort, the third of the four wives of Johann [II] Truchseß von Waldburg zu Trauchburg (see https://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00105310&tree=LEO)

I do not have access to ESNF (at least as long as libraries remain closed due to COVID), but I do have access to the three-volume Waldburg family genealogy: Joseph Vochezer, _Geschichte des fürstlichen Hauses Waldburg in Schwaben_ (Kempten: 1888-1907). Vochezer had access to all of the family's archives and also did considerable research in the state archives at Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, and the book is mostly a lightly digested summary of all the documents he found.

Based on my reading of Vochezer, I have some doubts as to who the mother of Jakob was.

According to Vochezer, there is only a single document that references Johann's third wife Elisabeth von Montfort: on 26 April 1399 the abbey of Isny issued a receipt to Johann for 1,000 Pfund Heller to endow a mass for, among others, his late wife Elisabeth von Montfort, her death to be commemorated on 16 October (Vochezer, I: 475-476, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_VdwSAAAAYAAJ/page/n475/mode/2up). So she died on a 16 October of some year between 1390 and 1398 (Johann's second wife, Catharina von Cilli / Katharina z Celje, is known from her epitaph to have died 17 July 1389).

The only other relevant document is a charter from 4 July 1399 in which Johann made testimentary provisions for his son Jacob, his daughter Walpurg, and his wife Ursula von Abensberg (Romberg, "Repertorium über die Pergamenturkunden im freiherrl. von Hornstein'schen Archiv zu Binningen, Bez.-Amts Konstanz," _Mittheilungen der badischen historischen Commission_, 4 (1885): 134-194, on p. 136, nr. 21, at https://archive.org/stream/ZeitschriftFrDieGeschichteDesOberrheinsvolume38/ZGO38#page/n517/mode/2up, also referenced in Vochezer, I: 481, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_VdwSAAAAYAAJ/page/n481/mode/2up). This is the first reference to Johann's fourth wife.

Given that the 4 July 1399 charter mentions a son Jakob at the same time that the fourth wife is named for the first time, it is entirely possible that Jacob was a product of an earlier marriage (Jakob's two younger brothers Georg and Ernst were still minors in 1424, as is apparent from the homage document of 5 April 1424 cited by Vochezer, I: 499, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_VdwSAAAAYAAJ/page/n499/mode/2up. Thus, they were clearly the sons of Ursula von Abensberg, contrary to the ESNF and Genealogics.org reconstruction). However, there are three circumstantial lines of evidence that at least suggest some doubt on this.

1) At least in the reconstruction of ESNF and Genealogics.org, the second marriage (ca. 1436/37) of Jakob to Ursula Markgräfin von Baden-Hochberg would have been consanguineous in the third degree (Elisabeth of Montfort's parents are shown as Konrad Graf von Montfort in Bregenz and Agnes von Montfort; this same couple were the great-grandparents of Ursula von Baden-Hochberg - see https://genealogics.org/pedigree.php?personID=I00105308&tree=LEO&parentset=0&display=standard&generations=5). There is, however, no record of a papal dispensation for such a marriage (I know too little about German church practice in the 15th century to know whether a dispensation would even have been possible for consanguinity in the 3rd, as opposed to the 4th, degree). It should be noted, though, that I have seen no evidence whatsoever, in either the Waldburg family history or the Montfort family history (J. N. v. Vanotti, _Geschichte der Grafen von Montfort und von Werdenberg_ (Belle-Vue bei Konstanz: 1845), at https://books.google.com/books?id=mGcPAAAAQAAJ), for the parentage of Johann's third wife Elisabeth von Montfort, so it is possible that this reconstruction is incorrect and that Jakob Truchseß von Waldburg's marriage to Ursula von Baden-Hochberg might not have been consanguineous in a prohibited degree even if Elisabeth von Montfort was Jakob's mother.

2) Waldburg family chronicler Matthäus von Pappenheim, writing sometime before his death in 1541, asserted that Johann had no children with his third wife Elisabeth von Montfort (Matthäus von Pappenheim, _Chronik der Truchsessen von Waldburg_ (Memmingen: 1777-1785), I: 70, at https://books.google.com/books?id=f4dOAAAAcAAJ). However, Matthäus mistakenly calls her Magdalena von Montfort. Moreover, he was demonstrably wrong in the next generation when he claimed that Jakob had no surviving children with his second wife Ursula von Baden-Hochberg (von Pappenheim, I: 76); contemporary documents clearly show that Jakob's surviving son Johann Truchseß von Waldburg was Ursula's child (see a 1452 property settlement cited in Vochezer, II: 58, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Dt0SAAAAYAAJ/page/n81/mode/2up, as well as a 1466 document in Staatsarchiv Nürnberg: Reichsstadt Nürnberg, Losungamt, 7-farbiges Alphabet, Urkunde 3207, digitized at https://www.gda.bayern.de/findmitteldb/Archivalie/387427/).

3) The only known daughter of Jakob was named Ursula (https://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00105310&tree=LEO), suggesting a special relationship with his father's fourth wife Ursula von Abensberg. However, given the fragmentary nature of surviving documents, it is possible that Jakob might have had an earlier daughter Elisabeth who left no trace in the record.

Thus, it appears to me that there is no firm documentation for asserting that either Elisabeth von Montfort or Ursula von Abensberg was Jakob's mother - there is circumstantial evidence pointing in both directions, but nothing firm. To me the best solution (unless ESNF had access to evidence not available to Vochezer) seems to be that adopted by Cawley at Medieval Lands, to show Jakob as a son of Johann's [third/fourth] wife (https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/WURTTEMBERG.htm#JohannIIWaldburgdied1424B)

Carl-Henry Geschwind

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Feb 17, 2021, 6:18:30 PM2/17/21
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There is one further line of evidence that strongly suggests that Jakob's mother was indeed Ursula von Abensberg.

In 1432, when the widow's portion of Agnes von Abensberg, widow of Hugo Graf von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg, was being determined, Jakob Truchseß von Waldburg (identifiable as our Jakob through his office as Landvogt von Schwaben) stood surety for half of this portion and in the process called Agnes his "Muhme" (maternal aunt). This document is reproduced in _Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch_ (Tübingen: 1877-1891), VI: 308-309, nr. 202, at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433000359210&view=1up&seq=328. Apparently Agnes had already given all of her goods to Jakob in 1429 in return for her widow's portion, and the 1432 agreement merely added two of her late husband's relatives to the arrangement (_Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch_, VI: 309).

In 1434, Johann von Abensberg was ordered to pay an annuity to Agnes Gräfin zu Heiligenberg, sister of Jobst von Abensberg, his (that is, Johann von Abensberg's) "Tante" (paternal aunt) and Jakob Truchseß zu Waldburg's "Muhme" (maternal aunt). See Emil Krüger, "Die Grafen von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg und von Werdenberg-Sargans," in _Mitteilungen zur vaterländischen Geschichte_, 22 (187), Appendix p. cxxxii, nr. 1158, at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433066611413&view=1up&seq=1056

In 1468 Jakob's son Johannes Truchseß von Waldburg, Landvogt von Schwaben, wrote to his "Vettern" ("cousins" - the term is as elastic in German as in English at this time and merely means "relatives") Hans and Nicolaus von Abensberg that their "Muhme" von Heiligenberg had died (the letter is quoted in Wiguleus Hund, _Bayrisch Stammen Buch_, 2nd ed. (Ingolstadt: 1598), I: 17, which can be seen at https://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/1194617). This obviously was the same Agnes von Abensburg. The following year Johannes gave a receipt to Georg Graf von Werdenberg, relative of Agnes's husband Hugo, for money that was due him under the 1432 agreement (_Fürstenbergisches Urkundenbuch_, VI: 309; see also Joseph Vochezer, ¬Geschichte des fürstlichen Hauses Waldburg in Schwaben_ (Kempten: 1888-1907), II: 81, fn. 1, at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Dt0SAAAAYAAJ/page/n103/mode/2up).

The genealogy of the von Abensberg family published for the first time in the 1580s by Bavarian genealogist Wiguleus Hund (1514-1588) in his _Bayrisch Stammen Buch_ (I: 16 to 1: 17) shows both Jobst and Agnes as children of a Hans von Abensberg (died around 1400) and his wife Agnes von Liechtenstein. The Nicolaus von Abensberg mentioned in the 1468 letter was a grandson of this Jobst. This Hans von Abensberg in turn, according to Hund (I: 15, see https://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/1194615), was the son of Ulrich IV von Abensberg (died 1375) and his wife Catharina von Abensberg. According to the same page in Hund, the Ursula who married Johann Truchseß von Waldburg under a 1395 contract was the daughter of this Ulrich IV. Hund also explicitly states that Jakob Truchseß von Waldburg was Ursula's daughter. Note that genealogics.org, following ESNF 5:148, has Ursula von Abensberg as daughter of Ulrich IV von Abensberg and wife Agnes von Liechtenstein (https://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00141131&tree=LEO); this seems to mix and match couples.

According to Hund's genealogy, if Jakob was indeed Ursula's daughter, then Agnes von Abensburg would have been his cousin (not his aunt), and Jakob's son Johann would have been Agnes's first cousin once removed. However, it seems to me likely that Agnes (who, according to Hund, I: 17, had married her first husband Leopold von Leuchtenburg in 1391) and Ursula (marriage contract in 1395) were of the same generation and may have been sisters. In this case, if Jakob was Ursula's son, Agnes would indeed have been his maternal aunt.

Regardless of the exact reconstruction of the von Abensberg family tree, it does seem to me that the fact that both Jakob and his son Johann referred to Agnes von Abensberg as their "Muhme" (maternal aunt or great-aunt) provides strong evidence that Jakob was indeed the son of Ursula von Abensberg rather than of Elisabeth von Montfort.

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