Anselm von Justingen

Lord of Justingen · Court marshal (1212) · Imperial marshal (attested from 1215)

Anselm von Justingen, mentioned from 1207 and last recorded after 1244, probably in Austria, was a Swabian free lord whose family took its name from the castle of Justingen, on the edge of the Swabian Jura near Schelklingen. Descended from a line of Staufen marshals, he was one of the envoys sent by the German princes in 1211 to Italy to win over Pope Innocent III and the young Frédéric II to the latter's election, and then to escort him back to Germany, together with Heinrich von Neuffen. Appointed court marshal in autumn 1212, he first had to cede the office to Heinrich von Kalden, and from 1215 he bore the title of imperial marshal. He accompanied Frédéric to his imperial coronation in Rome in 1220 and in 1221 led a fleet to the crusaders at Damietta. Later, close to King Henry (VII), the emperor's son, he became one of the leaders of his revolt: in December 1234, at Milan, he concluded on the king's behalf the alliance with the Lombard cities directed against Frédéric II. The failure of the rebellion cost him his ancestral castle, which was taken and destroyed in 1235 or 1236; he took refuge with Duke Frederick II of Austria, then under the imperial ban, and he is last mentioned there on 1 juillet 1244. A Staufer memorial stone has commemorated him at Justingen since 2012.