- Günther von Schwarzburg
Günther von Schwarzburg (1304 – 1349), German king, was a descendant of the counts of
Schwarzburg and the younger son ofHenry VII, count of Blankenburg .He distinguished himself as a soldier, and rendered good service to the
Emperor Louis IV on whose death in 1347 he was offered the German throne, after it had been refused byEdward III of England . He was elected German king at Frankfurt onJanuary 30 1349 by four of the electors, who were partisans of the house ofWittelsbach and opponents of Charles of Luxemburg, afterwards theEmperor Charles IV .Charles, however, won over many of Gunther's adherents and defeated him at
Eltville , and Günther, who was now seriously ill, renounced his claims for the sum of 20,001 marks of silver. He died three weeks afterwards at Frankfurt and was buried in the cathedral of that city, where the headstone (a masterpiece of gothic art) was erected to his memory in 1352.Opera
"Günther von Schwarzburg" is also the subject of a
Singspiel in three acts byIgnaz Holzbauer , first performed in 1777.References
*Graf L. Utterodt zu Scharffenberg, "Günther, Graf von Schwarzburg, erwählter deutscher König" (Leipzig, 1862)
*K. Janson, "Das Königturn Günthers von Schwarzburg" (Leipzig, 1880).
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