Frederick von Saarwerden (c. 1348 in Saarwerden - April 9, 1414 in Bonn) was Archbishop of Cologne as Frederick III from 1370 to 1414. Through the promotion of his great-uncle, Archbishop Kuno II of Falkenstein of Trier, Frederick von Saarwerden was elected Archbishop of Cologne at the age of 20, which the Pope in Avignon also confirmed two years later after some misgivings. Frederick found the archbishopric completely plundered by his two predecessors of the County of Mark, Adolf and Engelbert, and had himself promised high payments to the Curia on the occasion of his election. Nevertheless, with the help of his very rich great-uncle Kuno, he succeeded in paying off the debts of the archbishopric within a few years.
Frederick von Saarwerden supported Emperor Charles IV and was therefore granted privileges by him that supported Frederick's policy of rule. Right at the beginning of his term of office, he successfully suppressed hereditary conflicts among the landed nobility as well as autonomy efforts in the towns of the archdiocese, thus asserting his sovereign supremacy, which was not challenged again until the end of his reign. However, he was unable to take advantage of a conflict within the city of Cologne between the city council and the juryman over high justice to renew the position of power in the city lost by his predecessors. The dispute, which was ultimately also conducted militarily with the participation of neighboring princes, ended with a compromise in 1377.
Frederick was able to expand the territorial holdings of the archdiocese. Even before Frederick took office, Kuno von Falkenstein, as diocesan administrator, had acquired the county of Arnsberg in 1368. Frederick was able to secure this acquisition as well as the gain of the land of Linn on the Lower Rhine in three feuds against the two brothers of the counts Adolf and Engelbert of the Mark. His work as a territorial ruler can hardly be overestimated, even though his initiatives in imperial or ecclesiastical politics were pushed into the background.
When Frederick III von Saarwerden died in 1414, he left a rich and well-ordered archbishopric and lordship to his nephew and successor, Dietrich II of Moers.
Life and work
Childhood and youth
Frederick's parents were Count Johann II of Saarwerden and his wife Klara of Finstingen. The Counts of Saarwerden had their seat in the eponymous town of Sarrewerden on the upper Saar. While his brother Heinrich was destined to succeed him in the county, Frederick was destined at the age of ten for a career as a clerical and secular prince of the church and was therefore placed in the care of his second-degree uncle, the Archbishop of Trier, Kuno II of Falkenstein. In 1366, the latter was appointed coadjutor of the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert III of the Mark, by the Cologne cathedral chapter and now sought to provide his second-degree nephew with a favorable position in Cologne. Thus Kuno obtained for Frederick some lucrative Cologne benefices, namely the provostship in the stift St. Maria ad Gradus as well as a canonry. He did not need to hold these offices personally while still studying canon law at the University of Bologna.
Nomination as Archbishop of Cologne
On August 25, 1368, Archbishop Engelbert III died. Kuno von Falkenstein initially continued to administer the archbishopric, because the cathedral chapter appointed him already on August 28 as momper or administrator for the time of the sede vacante. Immediately Kuno tried to build up his nephew 2nd degree Frederick as the new archbishop. He also obtained a postulation from the cathedral chapter, although not unanimous, i.e. a proposal for appointment, since the appointment of the archbishop at that time already belonged to the pope. Pope Urban V at the Avignon Papacy, however, rejected this request on November 7, 1368: Frederick was too young - he had not yet reached the canonical age of 30 -, was inexperienced in ecclesiastical matters, and his person and way of life were still completely unknown to the Curia. The Pope's request for the appointment of the Archbishop was rejected. In addition, Emperor Charles IV wanted the ecclesiastical electorates to be filled with suitable candidates for the planned election of his son Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia as King of the Romans and pressed the Pope, who for his part was dependent on imperial support to regain the Papal States. In his letter of refusal to Frederick von Saarwerden, the pope therefore transferred his great uncle Kuno from Trier to Cologne, John of Luxembourg-Ligny, the relative and Protégé of Emperor Charles, from Strasbourg to Trier, and Frederick von Saarwerden to Strasbourg.