For as long as I have had the name “Marx” I have made a joke spelling it for people and saying “spelled like Harpo and Groucho, and not like Karl”. Little did I know that there was a Roman lineage that was Christian and later Catholic, and a Jewish lineage that was Jewish. I was also intrigued to discover that “Marx” is a surname from “Marcus” and “Marcus” is derived from Saint Mark, the Apostle. The story in these brief pages, should serve those within our family to make our noble ancestry real.
Yours in Christ, John David Marx
fo. j
Incipit liber de Marco de Eckwersheim milite
The Name that Rode before the Army
Marcus von Eckwersheim, Hausbergen, and the medieval roots of Marx von Eckwersheim
An account drawn from historical & genealogical sources Argentina · the field of Husbergen · MCCLXII
DEMARCO
Capitulum primum.
The Eighth Day of March
On the eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord MCCLXII, two armies stood face to face in the open country to the north-west of Strasbourg.
¶The quarrel was one between the citizens of Strasbourg and their prince-bishop, Walter of Geroldseck, over who should rule the city.
¶Among the men who fought upon Strasbourg’s side was a knight whose name the record has kept for us: Marcus von Eckwersheim.
Anno Domini m.cc.lxij. octavo die mensis Martii
Husbergen
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. ij
De bello apud Husbergen.
Hausbergen · viij Martii · mcclxij
The knight of Eckwersheim before the host of Strasbourg, the town and its spire behind him.
DEMARCO
Of the house of Eckwersheim.
Marcus came of an old Strasbourg family that took its name from the village of Eckwersheim.
¶The Oberbadisches Geschlechterbuch, compiled by Julius Kindler von Knobloch for the Baden Historical Commission, records his father, Hetzel von Eckwersheim, as sitting many times upon Strasbourg’s council from the 1230s onward, and as magister civium, one of the leading offices of the city.
¶The same genealogy states plainly that Marcus took part in the Battle of Hausbergen, on the eighth day of March, 1262.
Hetzel, magister civium · father Marcus, miles · son
As the forces
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. iij
Capitulum secundum.
The Knight who Rode Forward
As the forces of Strasbourg and of the bishop made ready to fight, Marcus of Eckwersheim rode out from the Strasbourg ranks and challenged a knight of the other side to single combat. A knight named Beckelar accepted.
¶The two men fought before both armies. Both were unhorsed. Marcus was carried off by his comrades; Beckelar was slain.
¶Then the greater battle began.
DEMARCO
How the battle was joined.
The men of Strasbourg were citizen foot-soldiers and crossbowmen as well as mounted warriors. In the fighting the city’s infantry went for the horses of the bishop’s knights, while the crossbowmen kept the bishop’s own foot from coming to the aid of his cavalry.
¶The bishop’s horse was broken, and Bishop Walter at last fled the field.
¶Hausbergen became a turning point in Strasbourg’s struggle against the bishop’s rule. That Marcus stood at the very opening of the battle sets him at a remarkable hour in the history of the city.
Mappa
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. iiij
Mappa campi de Husbergen.
A drawing of the field after the telling, not a survey of it.
DEMARCO
Capitulum tertium.
From the Field to the Council
Marcus survived Hausbergen. The genealogy next names him a knight, miles, in 1270, and sets him again and again among the councillors and chief magistrates of Strasbourg:
m.cc.lxx.
1270
knight; of the council
m.cc.lxxij.
1272
Stättmeister
m.cc.lxxiij.
1273
of the council
m.cc.lxxvj.
1276
of the council
m.cc.lxxvij.
1277
Stättmeister
m.cc.lxxix.
1279
of the council
m.cc.lxxxj.
1281
of the council
m.cc.lxxxiij.
1283
of the council
m.cc.lxxxvij.
1287
of the council
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. v
De consilio civitatis Argentinensis.
Hetzel Marx, filius Marci · the first of the name Marx
¶Marcus’s story did not end upon the field. The record shows a man who fought in Strasbourg’s struggle and afterward helped to govern the city: Hausbergen in 1262, knighthood, many years of council service, and the chief magistracy.
DEMARCO
Capitulum quartum.
Marcus and the Name Marx
The family was at first called von Eckwersheim. Marcus’s son, Hetzel, was the first to bear the name Marx, and later records name the line Marx von Eckwersheim.
¶The historical federation of Alsace observes that the names which recur, Hetzel and Marx, together with the lasting use of von Eckwersheim, show the two to be one and the same lineage.
¶Marx is a German form of the Christian name Marcus or Markus. In Hetzel, the father’s Christian name became the family’s own.
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. vj
Stemma familie de Eckwersheim.
Hetzel von Eckwersheim
Of the council from the 1230s; magister civium.
Marcus von Eckwersheim
At Hausbergen, 8 March 1262. Knight, 1270. Stättmeister, 1272 and 1277. Of the council, 1270 to 1287.
his son
Hetzel Marx
Son of Marcus, and the first to bear the name Marx. Knight, recorded 1307 and 1323; many times of the council. His wife, Gertrud von Kageneck.
Marx von Eckwersheim
The lineage under the name Hetzel first bore.
DEMARCO
Before there was Marx, there was Marcus.
¶This does not mean that all who bear the surname Marx descend from Marcus von Eckwersheim. The name arose on its own in many German-speaking families.
¶What the sources record is one medieval Alsatian lineage, Marx von Eckwersheim, whose recorded ancestry includes Marcus.
DEECKWERSHEIM
fo. vij
Capitulum quintum.
A Family Story Grounded in History
Seven and a half centuries lie between us and the muddy fields of Hausbergen. We do not know his face, his armour, what he said as he rode out, or what he thought as he faced Beckelar. Those things are best left where history left them: unknown.
¶What survives is remarkable enough. Marcus is named in the genealogy, and recorded at Hausbergen on 8 March 1262. The tradition of the battle makes him the knight who began its famous single combat. He lived. Later records put him again and again in the government of Strasbourg. His son Hetzel was the first to carry the name Marx, and the line that was von Eckwersheim became Marx von Eckwersheim.
DEMARCO
¶The truest telling needs no invented royal decree, no imagined title, no made-up deed of valour. The history that survives gives us something worth more:
A name, a date, a battlefield, a knight who rode forward, and a family name that endured for centuries afterward.
Explicit historia. Deo gratias.
LITTERE
fo. viij
Litterae de Marco de Eckwersheim.
In nomine Domini. Amen.The charter as it is pictured, with the arms of von Eckwersheim.
LITTERE
The charter, put into English.
In the name of the Lord. Amen. We, Rudolf, by the grace of God King of the Romans, ever august, to all who shall see these letters, greeting and grace.
¶Be it known to all that the knight Marcus von Eckwersheim, for his faith, his valour and the service he gave in the defence of the city of Strasbourg, is by our special grace confirmed in the order of nobles and received among our faithful, with all the honours, rights and liberties that belong to the knightly and noble estate.
¶In witness whereof we grant these our letters, sealed with our seal. Given at Hagenau, the eighth day of March, anno Domini m.cc.lxij.
An artistic reconstruction: see Of the illustrations.
FONTES
fo. ix
Fontes: the historical sources.
jJulius Kindler von Knobloch, Oberbadisches Geschlechterbuch, vol. III (M–R), Badische Historische Kommission, Heidelberg, 1919, pp. 36–37. The entry for Marx von Eckwersheim, with Marcus at Hausbergen and his later offices.
ijFédération des Sociétés d’Histoire et d’Archéologie d’Alsace, “Marx von Eckwersheim,” Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne. Treats the two names as one lineage.
iijJoseph Fuchs, “Marx von Eckwersheim,” Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 16, 1990, pp. 350–351.
iiijAccounts of the Battle of Hausbergen (8 March 1262), which keep the single combat of Marcus of Eckwersheim and Beckelar.
DEIMAGINIBVS
Of the illustrations.
The portraits, the arms worn upon the knight’s coat, the battle scene, and every seal and flourish in this book are artistic reconstructions, unless a contemporary source bears them out.
¶No claim is made here that any royal charter was ever issued, or that Marcus received a grant of nobility from a king. The record needs no such ornament.
Written in the manner of a book of the thirteenth century, in a textura hand with rubrics in red and lapis.
ARGENTINAHODIE
fo. x
Argentina hodie.
Strasbourg Today
¶Strasbourg from the air in morning light. The Ill winds through the city; in front stands the church of Saint-Paul, raised in the 1890s, and far off the single spire of the cathedral of Notre-Dame rises before the Vosges.
¶The cathedral lit at dusk above the rooftops. Its west front was begun in 1277, the year Marcus served as Stättmeister. The spire, finished in 1439, still overlooks the city his family helped to govern.
ARMAFAMILIE
Arma familie Marx.
The Marx crest is dominated by the traditional heraldic colors gold (Or), blue (Azure), and black (Sable). Gold was traditionally associated with honor, distinction, and generosity, while blue came to symbolize loyalty and constancy.
¶The black eagle is its most striking emblem. Eagles were ancient symbols of authority and martial strength and, in this region, inevitably evoke the Holy Roman Empire, of which medieval Alsace was a part. Its repetition above the helmet makes the eagle especially prominent in the family’s heraldic identity.
¶On the blue half of the shield, the gold crown and ceremonial staff or scepter suggest authority, dignity, or public office. This is particularly evocative for the Marx von Eckwersheim family because surviving records place Marcus and his descendants in Strasbourg’s civic government, although we cannot establish that this was the specific reason those symbols were adopted.
¶Above the shield is the knight’s helmet, representing the family’s armigerous and martial identity. The flowing blue-and-gold mantling originated in the protective cloth worn from a knight’s helmet and later became an elaborate heraldic decoration using the principal colors of the arms.
¶Taken together, the achievement presents a fitting visual language for a medieval family whose documented history included knights, soldiers, and civic leaders. The precise original meaning of each charge, however, can only be established if an early blazon or grant of these particular arms is found.
Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo.
The book is finished; praise and glory be to Christ.
About the Author
John David Marx was born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1962, the youngest of the seven children of William Joseph Marx and Virginia Zelfel Marx, and raised — of course — in a Roman Catholic house.
He made this book for the plainest of reasons. He had spent a lifetime spelling his surname for strangers — like Harpo and Groucho, not like Karl — and wanted to know where it came from. It came from Marcus, who rode out before the army at Hausbergen in MCCLXII.
He is pictured here at home in Hillsboro, Oregon, where he runs the Webspinner Foundation. The arms he is holding honour those who have gone before; the family they name is the God-given gift he treasures.
