On the opposite side of the Rhine from Coblenz, and towering above
Lahnstein, rises Castle Lahneck, a keep shaped somewhat in the form of
a pentagon. Lahneck succumbed to the hordes of Louis XIII. in the same
year as the castle of Heidelberg was destroyed. The following stirring
tale is associated with Lahneck.
It was the Templars of Jerusalem who erected this fortress whose
imposing watch-tower rises nearly 100 feet above the main building.
The riches of the Templars led to their destruction. The contemptible
French king, Philip the Fair, by making grave complaints to the Pope
obtained an order for the abolition of this much-abused order, and
dragged the Grand Master with fifty of his faithful followers to the
stake. Everywhere a cruel policy of extermination was immediately
adopted against the outlawed knights, the chief motive of the
persecutors being rather a desire to confiscate the rich possessions
of the Templars than any religious zeal against heretics and sinners.
Peter von Aspelt, Archbishop of Mainz, had cast envious eyes on proud
Lahneck which sheltered twelve Knights-Templars and their retainers.
Alleging some faulty conduct on the part of the soldiers of the cross,
he gave orders that the castle should be razed, and that the knights
should exchange the white mantle with the red cross for the monk's
cowl, but to this the twelve as knights _sans peur et sans reproche_
issued a stout defiance. This excited the greed and rage of the
archbishop all the more. From the pontiff, whom with his own hands he
had successfully nursed on his sick-bed at Avignon, Peter von Aspelt
procured full power over the goods and lives of the excommunicated
knights of Lahneck. He then proceeded down the Rhine with many vassals
and mercenaries, and presented the Pope's letter to the Templars, at
the same time commanding them to yield. Otherwise their castle would
be taken by storm, and the inmates as impenitent sinners would die a
shameful death on the gallows. The oldest of the twelve, a man with
silvery hair, advanced and declared in the name of his brethren, that
they were resolved to fight to the last drop of their blood, and
further, that they were quite prepared to suffer like their brethren
in France. And so the fight between such fearful odds began. Many
soldiers of the Electorate fell under the swords of the knights and
their faithful servants, but ever the furious archbishop ordered
forward new bands to fill the gaps. Day by day the ranks of the
defenders became thinner. Prominent everywhere in this hand to hand
struggle were the heroic forms of the twelve Templars, in white mantle
with blood-red cross. At last, at a breach which had been defended
with leonine courage, one of the noble twelve sank beneath his
shattered shield, and closed his eyes in death. A second shared his
fate, then a third. The others, bleeding from many wounds and aided by
the sorely diminished remnant of their retainers, redoubled their
brave efforts, but still death made havoc in their ranks. When, on the
evening of the day of fiercest onslaught the victorious besiegers
planted their banner on the captured battlement, the silver-haired
veteran, the former spokesman, stood with blood-flecked sword among
the bodies of his fallen comrades, the last survivor. Touched by such
noble heroism the archbishop informed him that he would be allowed to
surrender; but calling down the curse of heaven on worldly churchmen
and their greed of land, he raised on high his sword and rushed upon
his foes. Pierced with many wounds the last of the twelve sank to the
earth, and over the corpse of this noble man the soldiers of Mainz
pressed into the fortress itself.
Peter von Aspelt preserved Lahneck as a place of defence and residence
for an officer of the Electorate of Mainz, and nominated as first
holder of the post, Hartwin von Winningen. The castle remained in the
possession of the Electorate of Mainz for 300 years, but the sad story
of the twelve heroic Templars is remembered in the neighbourhood of
Lahneck to this day.