Das Heroldsbuch des jülich-bergischen Hubertusordens und die Chorfenster von Ehrenstein

THE HERALD’S BOOK OF THE JÜLICH-BERG ORDER OF ST. HUBERT AND THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS IN THE CHOIR OF EHRENSTEIN CHURCH Some years ago I was doing research on the 15th century stained glass windows of our parish church. There, in the choir of Ehrenstein church I came across the Jülich-Berg Order of St. Hubert. Very few contemporary sources relating to the Order remain. They are the Statuten, the Heroldsbuch, the Bruderschaftsbuch and half a dozen images. The Herald’s Book, berol. ms. germ. quart. 1479, is in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska of Krakow University. Hitherto the manuscript was erroneously known as the Herald’s Book of Hermann von Brunshofen and was thought to have been made around 1480. Apparently it had never been thoroughly examined. As it turned out, the manuscript does not only date back to the reign of Wilhelm IV Duke of Jülich-Berg (1475–1511), but even to the early history of the Order during the reign of its founder, Gerhard II Duke of Jülich-Berg (1437–1475). Once seen in this light, the Herald’s Book revealed more hitherto disregarded information about the Order of St. Hubert. Thus establishing the manuscript as a most important primary source for the history of the Order indeed. On October 22nd, 2009 the new appreciation of the Herald’s Book was presented in a lecture at the Institute of History of Krakow University. The contents of that lecture form ‘the backbone’ of the following essay. In order to put the results of the research into context, the essay begins with a presentation of the stained glass windows in the choir of Ehrenstein church and an introduction into the Order of St. Hubert. It ends by pointing out, how the Herald’s Book contributed to the understanding of these stained glass pictures. The historical backdrop – in connection with the Herald’s Book in particular the fortunes of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy – is given much attention throughout