Since my last post, I have been doing deeper research on the life of Countess Margaret "Maultasch" particularly in very reliable German sources (thanks to some excellent translation tools available today, since I do not read German). I will share more of their details sometime in the future, if interest is expressed.
Much of what I shared previously in the last post about her life have been reconfirmed, except for an important, most interesting, update regarding her older sister, and also some updates/adjustments re. her children's number and fate.
1.
First, regarding children, it appears she may have had five children, not four, with her second husband.
The first was a son, given birth a year after marriage, who "died" soon after birth due to a painful foot ailment, and other maliciously blamed it on her second marriage controversies. His name was not Hormann and is not known, perhaps since he died very soon after birth.
Then she is reported to have had two sons, Hormann and Meinhard III, seven years into her marriage, but by 1352 only one had survived (so the other son's having lived by 1360 has been recently rejected).
She is reported to have had at least two daughters who "died" young. Names of children who died young, especially girls, were not usually recorded.
So, the only son who survived is Meinhard III who "died" in 1363, as I reported in more detail in my last post.
It has been noted that Countess Margaret "Maultasch" could have had more children had it not been for frequent travels and missions of her (second husband) away from home.
2.
The second, more important update, is regarding her sister, Adlheide (b. 1316 or 1317). It appears that not only she did not die young, but outlived Margaret and died in 1375 (six years after Margaret's death in 1369)!
But she remained chronically ill throughout her life, in the sense of needing constant care physically, likely because of a childhood accident. Not much is known about her illness and how debilitating it was, but in novels she has been portrayed as bright and intelligent. Being physically ill does not mean she was mentally so. In fact, a lifetime of physical immobility may have given her ample time to learn.
Her not having died young does not, for me, necessarily negate my "legacy massacre" interpretation at all, since she was for all practical purposes not a legacy threat to Margaret's enemies due to her illness, also given the more details I have learned about where she was being taken care and is buried. She was in safe hands (read further below).
The notion of "legacy massacre" threat is something I have hypothesized given the odd timeline of the deaths of everyone around her, as I outlined in my previous post. Even if others or even experts think it is not likely, I will still doubt it, since no one can be sure and facts of the events are strange and nobody is going announce they poisoned their enemies! It does not make sense how quickly and suddenly all those folks died just around the time her sole heir and legacy was being decided.
And the culprit, in my view, is her first husband, John Henry, again my own suspicion. Amid such a domino effect of deaths it seems he is the one who survived last. He died in 1375. In any case, that is just my plausible speculation.
My sense is that given the deep animosity and hatred between him and Countess Margaret, he may have retained insider contacts in Margaret's household since childhood and after being expelled by her, or he knew how to get his way into her or her relative's kitchen or travel plans!
In those days, if the woman was a higher status sovereign and sole heir, the arrange-married young husband would go to live in her residence, than vice versa. So, he had already been a household member for years with Margaret before he was expelled by her.
3.
What is most interesting about Adelheide story, however, is that throughout her life she was taken care of the Dominican nuns monastery at Logundo founed in 1241 (later called Maria Steinach convent in South Tyrol, and is actually buried there and died as a convent sister!
In fact, the important women's monestary was founded by Margaret and Adelaide's grandmother, who is also buried there, and for which it was founded. Had Margaret not been exiled, she may have as well been buried there, in my view.
Their parents also founded a carthusian men's monestary (Allerengelsberg) a few years after Margaret's birth, a strictly silent cloister in South Tyrol at Schnals Valley.
Re. the Dominican nun's organization at Logundo, their father was adamant (I think obviously because he had a sick daugher being taken care of there, and another daughter as sole heir) to give women more power in governing the convent, since still men were being assigned to run the place.
The Dominican nun's monastery is most interesting given the Dominican tradition's fame for being the astronomer/astrologer and natural science esoteric inclined and I assume nuns (and priests in their male monasteries) were highly educated and interested in those topics. They would have certainly had their own medicinal plant garden and pharmacy, especially to take care of the ill in their sisterhood. Countess Margaret is reported to have a pharmacist on board, which would have obviously also a plant specialist, and why would she not drawn on the nun's resources to help her sister and her own household and court, when needed?
4.
Now, legend has it that the Logundo Dominican nun's monastery was founded on a spot where two "doves" sat on a stone by a "river" (hence the name "Steinach"). That seems to explain what we see on f86v3, just before the rosetta foldout! The two figures "hiding" on that page may as well be our two sisters, or, their grandparents who had founded the nun's monastery in 1241!
The latter speculation being plausible or not (it is to me), new findings about Margaret's sister have led me to update my hypothesis, considering that in its production her sister and Margaret's association with that nun's Dominican contvent may have played also key roles.
Margaret was in exile in Vienna during her "golden cage" retirement from 1363-1369, and Adelhaide must have still been taken care of in the Dominican nun's convent in Logundo, where she is buried. This means, they may not have daily contacts, and not likely possible for Margaret to visit her regularly, or perhaps she could visit for personal reasons when needed (but not live, in Tyrol, as part of her exile arrangements).
But Margaret was her closest relative and caretaker throughout her active public life in Tyrol, and the possibility of her having been inspired to leave not just her own but also her ill sister's legacy based on the tradition of learnings in the monastery in Logundo (which they ancestors had founded and parents helped fund) is now, for me, quite plausible.
The effort could have been mutual in fact, but finalized by Countess Margarent "Maultasch" in her "retirement years" since she would have wanted to make sure it is legally left for later vellum production after her enemies had died (recall, John Henry was still alive when she died in 1369).
It seems their family had been more interested with monastic and esoteric side of Christianity, and not too enthusiastic about the offical church. That also explains why Countess Margaret "Maultasch" would find support and interest in a Franciscan William Ockham (or Occam) spending his exile in Tyrol.
Perhaps, the Dominican nuns monastery at Logundo may end up being the ground zero of where its inspiration came from.
Good luck with your own preferred efforts in VM research.
5.
"Ursprung des wirtigen gottshaus und closters Stainach bei Meran gelegen.
(Fol. 31' bzw. 457'). - Als man zölt nach Christi gehurt 1241 jar, es sich begabe,
dass graf Albrecht der leste graf zu Tyrol sambt seiner frauen gemachl, ein kinigin
aus Schotten, am fenster lagen und gedachten ain closter zu pauen, so sy inen
lengst hetten fürgenomen. Jn dem es sye zuetriege, dass zway weisse tauben lange
zeit ob Meran auf dem felt umbgeflogen und nach langen schwaif und flug sich auf
Tyrol nidergelassen. Jndeme es obgemelter graf und sein frau gemochl gesehen und
gedochten an ir lang vorhabente verhaisung, es ain ermanung von got und ain ausstöck
- und markung des closters weren sein, und sachen sollichen tauben nach, wohin
sye sich begeben und sezen weren; in dem sachen sye leztlichen, dass die tauben
sich bei aines ainsigl heisl nidersezten und daselbst verbliben bleiben; und deswegen
an denselben gemelts closter in ehren Unser Lieben Frauen angefangen under der
obgemelten jarzol 1241 zu bauen und den heiligen orden sanct Dominico oder predigerordens
darein gestift, wellichen ursprung und stiftung fleisig beschriben und von
ainem alten gemöl auf obgemelte weis gemerkt und zue getechtnus verhanden." (Marx Sittich v. Wolkenstein, Landesbeschreibung von Sudtirol. You are not allowed to view links.
Register or
Login to view., p. 169)
Google Translation:
"Origin of the host church and monastery of Stainach, located near Merano. (Fol. 31' or 457'). - In the year 1241 after Christ's death, it happened that Count Albrecht, the last Count of Tyrol, together with his wife, a queen from Scotland, were lying by the window and were planning to build a monastery, which they had long intended to do. At that moment, two white doves flew for a long time over the field above Merano and, after a long flight, landed in Tyrol. The aforementioned count and his wife saw it and thought of their long-planned promise, that it would be a reminder from God and a marker of the monastery, and inquired about the doves, where they had gone and settled; in this matter they concluded that the doves settled at a single shrine and remained there; and therefore, in the aforementioned year 1241, they began to build the aforementioned monastery in honor of Our Lady and founded the holy order of Saint Dominic or the Order of Preachers therein, diligently describing its origin and foundation and noting it from an old church in the aforementioned manner and making it available for inspection."