Madenburg
Not far from the small town of Eschbach, Madenburg rises from the cliffs of the mountain Rothenberg in the Pfälzer Rheinebene. Madenburg is mentioned for the first time in 1076 in a document refering to a planned meeting of princes, where the removal of the Emperor Heinrich IV. was to be discussed. In the period predating 1112, the Archbishop Adalbert I. of Mainz took the castle from the Empire and the Hochstift Speyer. He returned the castle to its previous owners after a long period of imprisonement and applied pressure. The supposition that the castle was built by the bishops of Speyer on imperial property can not be proven.
The Countess Ida of Madenburg sold an estate in Friedelsheim to the Limburg monastery without the knowledge of her son Hermann of Madenburg. As this sale was peculiar Abbot Konrad of Limburg monastery provided a compensation to Hermann of Madenburg in 1176.
Unfortunately there is little more known about this mysterious lineage of Madenburg. In 1241 Eberhard from the family of Wersau, an officer of the Speyer bishopric who probably held the position of a cup-bearer from 1211 to 1220, took the byname “of Madenburg”. It is not clear if his position as cup-bearer for the Hofamt of Speyer has any connection with the castle.
The conditions of ownership and administration became clearer after the middle of the 13 th century. Konrad of Schüpf was the first member of the Schüpf family to name himself after Madenburg castle, although he did not systematically use this title, he was also the first Reichsministeriale until his death circa 1276.
In 1317 Madenburg Castle became a property of the counts of Leiningen. This is known due to an existing document which describes the division of the property between the two stepbrothers Friedrich V. and Jofried of Leiningen. From the late 14 th century a Burggemeinschaft, a castle community, inhabited Madenburg. In 1470 the troops of Count Palatine Friedrich I., the Victorious, besieged and conquered the castle.
When the Bishop Georg of Speyer bought Madenburg Castle in 1516, the entire property was held by a single owner. In 1525 during the Peasants’ War the castle was destroyed, it was rebuilt and renovated several times at the end of the 16 th century. It became the administrative seat of the Speyer bishopric and housed its archive, which had peviously been kept at Kästenburg Castle now called Harnbacher Palace. Since the 30 Year War the castle has been many times besieged and attacked. At the end of the 17 th century, during the Reunion War, French troops completely destroyed the castle.
