Philip III of Falkenstein


Philip III of Falkenstein, Lord of Falkenstein, Münzenberg and Lich, Hesse was a member of the Lich line of the Falkenstein dynasty, son of, Lord of Münzenberg and Falkenstein, who founded the Lich line, and his wife Mechtild of .

Ancestry

Philip III was a member of the -Falkenstein family, which were originally based at, in Donnersbergkreis in the Palatinate and had held part of the Münzenberg Inheritance in Wetterau since 1255.

Lordship

Before 1295, his father Werner I had moved his seat away from Münzenburg to the nearby town of Lich after he had inherited another part of the Münzenberg Inheritance. Philip had a large water castle built at Lich, in order to protect the spot where the road crossed the Wetter river. While in the service of the German King Albert I, the king promoted Lich to the rank of town by a charter of 10 March 1300 – it had already been referred to as "oppidum nostrum" in 1297. In 1313, Emperor Henry VII promoted Königstein im Taunus to town rank as well, which had formerly belonged to the and had been part of the Falkensteins' domains since 1255.
A long-running conflict with Ulrich I of Hanau over the Münzenburg Inheritance and especially the Jewish tax of and Münzenberg was brought to an end in 1304 with an arbitration in Philip's favour.

Family

Philip married, first, in 1287, Mechthild of Eppstein, daughter of and Mathilde of Isenburg. They had the following children:
He married, secondly, in 1303, Luckard of Isenburg, an illegitimate daughter of Ludwig I of Isenburg von Cleeburg, Burggrave of Gelnhausen, with whom he had the following children:
He married thirdly, on 11 October 1309, Mechtild of Hesse, widow of of, daughter of Landgrave Henry I of Hesse and Adelheid of Brunswick, who was a descendant of Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia.
Most of the tombs of the Lich line of the Falkenstein family are located in the Marienstiftskirche in Lich.