This year, the Hesse Day in Fulda is set to be a major feature in the month of June. Our find of the month therefore commemorates the origins of the Landgraviate of Hesse, which came into being after the male line of the Landgraves of Thuringia died out during of the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession (1247-1264).
Following the death of Heinrich Raspe, his niece Sophie of Brabant, as the closest blood relative, laid claim to the succession on behalf of her underage son Heinrich. Sophie was able to cite her deceased parents in support of this claim. These were Henry Raspe's older brother, Landgrave Louis IV, and Elisabeth of Thuringia, who had been canonised only a few years earlier. Sophie had her three-year-old son proclaimed Landgrave at Gudensberg by numerous nobles and with the participation of the Teutonic Order.
Even though Sophie renounced all claims in Thuringia after years of fighting, she was able to militarily enforce her son's claims in the Hessian territories. Henry the Child was officially recognised by the German king as the first Landgrave of Hesse and elevated to the rank of prince of the realm. The Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession marked the separation of the two territories in the Middle Ages and thus laid the basics for the later formation of the federal states of Hesse and Thuringia.
Our find is a depiction of Henry the Child at his mother's side. In addition to the separation of the Hessian and Thuringian territories, the accompanying text also thematises the rhyme: Born of royal blood, the child of Brabant is chosen. That he rules the land of Hesse, from him the princely house descends.
The illustration is taken from the Hessian Coat of Arms Book, which was printed in Kassel in 1623. The book can be viewed in full on our digitisation portal FulDig. It is one of the volumes of the Schwank Foundation, which Adam Joseph Schwank bequeathed to the Fulda State Library during his lifetime.
