page_title: Kyburg family
section_title: Neu-Kyburg
hierarchical_section_title: Kyburg family / Neu-Kyburg
caption_attribution_description: Wappen der Kiburg
context_page_description: Kyburg was a noble family of grafen in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th century ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of what is now Northeastern Switzerland.
  The family was one of the four most powerful noble families in the Swiss plateau beside the House of Habsburg, House of Zähringen and the House of Savoy during the 12th century.
  With the extinction of the Kyburg family's male line in 1264, Rudolph of Habsburg laid claim to the Kyburg lands and annexed them to the Habsburg holdings, establishing the line of "Neu-Kyburg", which was in turn extinct in 1417.
context_section_description: In 1250/51 the childless Hartmann IV gave the western part of the property with the center of Burgdorf to his nephew Hartmann V. As a result, Hartmann V, who was supported by the Habsburgs, came into conflict repeatedly with the growing city-state of Bern.
  His uncle had to step in often to keep the peace.  When Hartmann V died in 1263, Count Rudolf von Habsburg became the guardian of Hartmann's daughter Anna, and also took over the administration of the western section. In 1264, after the death of Hartman IV, Rudolf stepped in to control the eastern half as well.  Though this brought him into conflict with the claims by the widow Margaret of Savoy and her family.
  Anna, daughter of Hartmann V,  married  Eberhard I of Habsburg-Laufenburg. This marriage was intended to secure Habsburg interests in Aargau (Argovia) against Savoy.
  The son of Eberhard and Anna, Hartmann I (1275–1301) again called himself "of Kyburg".
  His line came to be known as that of Neu-Kyburg or Kyburg-Burgdorf, persisting until 1417.
  In 1322, the brothers Eberhard II and Hartmann II started fighting with each other over who would inherit the undivided lands.  The fighting led to the "fratricide at Thun Castle" where Eberhard killed his brother Hartmann.  To avoid punishment by his Habsburg overlords, Eberhard fled to Bern.  In the following year, he sold the town of Thun, its castle and the land surrounding Thun to Bern.  Bern granted the land back to Eberhard as a fief.
  The decline of Neu-Kyburg began with a failed raid by Rudolf II on Solothurn, on 11 November 1382.
  The ensuing conflict with the Old Swiss Confederacy is known as the Burgdorferkrieg (also Kyburgerkrieg). Bern took the opportunity to assert its interests in Aargau against the Habsburgs, and after the Bernese laid siege to Burgdorf, Neu-Kyburg was forced to concede an unfavourable peace. Friedrich V, count of Toggenburg acquired Kyburg and Winterthur in 1384 (lost again in 1402 by Friedrich VII), and Bern bought Thun and Burgdorf, the most important cities of Neu-Kyburg, and their remaining towns passed to Bern and Solothurn by 1408.
  The last of the Neu-Kyburgs, Berchtold, died destitute in Bern in 1417.
caption: Arms of the Grafen von Kyburg in the Zürich armorial, c. 1340
exif: {}