My spouse’s paternal grandmother was a Spangler. From the Bavarian region of Germany, Spangler (Spengler) was an occupational name for a maker of buckles, a derivative of a diminutive form of Middle High German spange, meaning clasp or buckle. My spouse’s family spans back to the 12th century to George, the earliest known Spangler (Spengler).
George was born in the year 1150. He served as the cupbearer to the Prince Bishop of Wurtzburg, Godfrey of Piesenburg, of the ecclesiastical principality of Wurtzburg. Godfrey of Piesenburg was also chancellor to German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.
Godfrey of Piesenburg and George Spengler joined the Third Crusades that started in 1189. The purpose of this crusade was to recapture Jerusalem from Saladin, the Saracen conqueror. The call to crusade was answered by Frederick I Barbarossa, French King Philip Augustus, and English King Richard the Lionheart.
However, on June 10, 1190, after two successful battles in Asia Minor, Frederick I Barbarossa drowned while crossing the Calycadmus near Pisidia on horseback. The emperor’s camp was then removed to Antioch, where he was temporarily buried.
Not long after, Godfrey of Piesenburg and George Spengler died in 1190 in Antioch, Turkey, succumbing to the black plague. They were buried in The Church of St. Peter. (The church, composed of a cave carved into the side Mount Starius, is one of Christianity’s oldest churches, built sometime in the 4th or 5th Centuries.)
History records that less than one in ten of those who crossed the Bosphorus with Frederick I Barbarossa lived to reach Antioch.
From George descends my spouse’s paternal grandmother, 18 generations later:
George Spengler (1150 – 1190)
George Spengler, son of George
Killian Spengler (1270 – ), son of George
Killian Spengler (1320 – ), son of Killian
Peter Spengler, son of Killian
Hans Spengler (1390 – 1435), son of Peter
Hans Urban Spengler ( – 1527), son of Hans
George Spengler (1443 – 1496), son of Hans Urban
George Spengler (1480 – 1529), son of George
Franz Spengler (1517 – 1565), son of George
Lazarus Spengler (1552 – 1618), son of Franz
Hans Georg Spengler (1594 – 1685), son of Lazarus
Jacob Spengler (1618 – 1664), son of Hans Georg
Hans Rudolf Spengler (1657 – 1712), son of Jacob
Hans Casper Spangler (1684 – 1759), son of Hans Rudolf and one of four Spangler brothers to emigrate to the New World
Philip Caspar Spangler (1730 – 1786), son of Hans Casper
Charles “Carl” Spangler (1756 – 1833), son of Philip Caspar
Jacob Spangler (1805 – ), son of Charles “Carl”
George J Spangler (1847 – 1928), son of Jacob
Walter Lee Spangler (1883 – 1954), son of George J
Reba Gwendola Spangler (1919 – 2005), daughter of Walter Lee and my spouse’s grandmother
#ancestry #crusades #genealogy
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