County of Toggenburg | ||||||||||||||||
Grafschaft Toggenburg | ||||||||||||||||
State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
Territories held by the counts of Toggenburg
|
||||||||||||||||
Capital | Lichtensteig | |||||||||||||||
Government | Principality | |||||||||||||||
Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||||||||
• | first mention | 1209 | ||||||||||||||
• | Partitioned | 1394 | ||||||||||||||
• | Comital line extinct | 1436 | ||||||||||||||
• | Sold to the Abbot of St Gall | 1468 | ||||||||||||||
|
The counts of Toggenburg (Grafen von Toggenburg) ruled the Toggenburg region of today’s canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland and adjacient areas during the 13th to 15th centuries.
A baronial family of Toggenburg is mentioned in the 11th and 12th centuries, but their genealogical connection to the comital family is unclear. They are named for their ancestral seat, now known as Alt-Toggenburg, near Kirchberg, St. Gallen. The castle was built in the 10th or 11th century, and was destroyed in 1085 in a conflict with the Abbot of St. Gallen, later rebuilt and in 1226 given to St. Gallen Abbey by count Diethelm of Toggenburg.
The family is attested from the early 13th century, as Toccanburg, later Tochimburc. Diethelm I (possible mention 1176, died 1205 or 1207) was followed by Diethelm II (possible mention 1210, died c. 1230). Either of these was the beneficiary of the inheritance of a number of local noble families (among these Alt-Rapperswil) in c. 1200 and adopted the title of comes (count) from 1209. In 1187, one Werner of Toggenburg became abbot of Einsiedeln. The legend of a Saint Idda of Toggenburg is recorded in 1481, making her the wife of a count of Toggenburg, possibly either Diethelm, or one Heinrich. According to the legend, the husband defenestrated his innocent wife on suspicion of adultery. She survived and lived as an anchoress in Fischingen. Her veneration there is attested for 1410.
The early counts were in competition with St. Gallen Abbey, the bishops of Constance and the counts of Kyburg. The inheritance disputes motivated the donation of religious establishments in Bubikon, Rüti, Oberbollingen and Wurmsbach in the 1190s, and a fratricide by one Diethelm (fl. 1209–36) of his brother Rudolf in 1226.