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– NÜRINGS –
The counts of Nürings descended cognatically from the middle Rhenish counts of Stromburg. Berthold I of Nürings was the eldest son of Emicho IV of Nahegau and Kunigunde, a sister of Berthold IV of Stromburg, whose father Berthold III of Maienfeld inherited the pagi of Wetterau and Niddagau at the death of Otto of Hammerstein in 1036. The dynasty of Nürings succeeded in those two counties, but was otherwise quite unremarkable. Occasionally two titles were used, as with Berthold II and his brother Siegfried I in the 1130s. Gerhard of Nürings (fl. 1141-71) was succeeded by Berthold III (fl. 1179-81), and the dynasty became extinct. There is a certain temptation to identify Bertholds I and II of Nürings as the contemporary counts of Hohenberg and Lindenfels – a somewhat more notable family from southern Franconia. A document of 1131 is witnessed by Berthold II and his brother Siegfried of Nürings on one hand, and Berthold of Lindenfels on the other, and hopefully it has authentic elements like most German documents of these centuries. Prinicipal heirs of Nürings were the lords of Münzenberg, by mechanisms unclear, and they inherited Malstatt, the original seat of Wetterau justice, though it did not continue in this function. Thus, towards the end of the twelfth century, the two comital titles of the house of Nürings fell into abeyance.
SHIELD It is believed that the civic shield of Königstein im Taunus preserves the Nürings arms in its upper left quadrant – lion in sable on field of or. The noble animals, and especially the lion, frequent the shields of the Emichonen in various guises. The lions (and in some instances eagles) play a role ostensibly because the Emichonen descend (via Stromburg) from a sister of the Ripuarian count Gerhard Flamens, as did the Rhenish antecedent of Emperor Lothar of Supplinburg, under which emperor the lion and eagle shields appear to receive their initial systematization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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