Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg

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Friedrich Casimir
Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg
Johann David Welcker :Allegory of the acquisition of Suriname by Count Friedrich Casimir of Hanau in 1669 (1676). Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe Inv. #1164
Born(1623-08-04)4 August 1623
Bouxwiller
Died30 March 1685(1685-03-30) (aged 61)
Hanau
BuriedSt. Johann Church in Hanau
Noble familyHouse of Hanau
Spouse(s)Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau
FatherPhilipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg
MotherJohanna of Oettingen

Friedrich Casimir of Hanau (born 4 August 1623 in Bouxwiller; died 30 March 1685 in Hanau) was a member of the Hanau-Lichtenberg branch of the House of Hanau.

He was the ruling Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg from 1641 and of Hanau-Münzenberg from 1642.

Childhood and youth

Friedrich Casimir was born in

Oettingen-Oettingen (1602–1639). During his childhood, his parents and he had to flee to Strasbourg several times, due to the Thirty Years' War
.

On 14 February 1641, Friedrich Casimir succeeded his father as ruler of the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Legally, he was still a minor at the time, so that a

guardianship
had to be set up. Just one year later, in 1642, he also inherited the County of Hanau-Münzenberg. For the first time since 1458 all parts of Hanau were again united in one hand.

From 1643 to 1645, he made the Grand Tour that was usual for youngers of his standing. He visited countries that were not affected by the Thirty Years' War: France, Spain, Italy, England and the Netherlands. He was probably safer there than in his war-torn homeland.

Guardianship

Under the law at the time, he was a minor until the age of 25. A committee of guardians was established for him and his two brothers,

Johann Reinhard II. Initially, the committee consisted of Johann Ernst of Hanau-Münzenberg and Baron Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, who was a great-grandson of Count Philipp IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg. When Johann Ernst died in 1642, the Baron remained as the sole guardian. After he died in 1644, Count Georg Albrecht of Erbach [de
] acted as guardian, until his death in 1647. Since only a few months remained until the age of majority, no further attempt was made to establish a guardianship.

Family

When Friedrich Casimir took office in Hanau-Münzenberg, the county was financially in a precarious situation, due to the Thirty Years' War. When he arrived in Hanau, he was greeted by Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau, the widow of Count Philipp Moritz, who had been the ruling count until 1638. She had received Steinau Castle as her widow seat. As widow of a ruling count, she could raise substantial claims against the county. To avoid this, it was decided to marry Friedrich Casimir to the widow, who was 44 years old at the time, almost 20 years older than he. An added advantage of this marriage was that the Calvinist majority in the county was suspicious that the Lutheran count might undermine their position; the marriage with the Calvinist widow laid their fears to rest. The marriage was plagued by differences. One problem was that the count was continuously in financial difficulties and he sometimes dipped into his wife's resources to alleviate his problems.

The marriage with the elderly widow remained childless. Shortly before his death, Friedrich Casimir adopted his nephews Philipp Reinhard and Johann Reinhard III as his heirs.

Rule

Inheriting Hanau-Münzenberg

When Count Johann Ernst of Hanau-Münzenberg died on 12 January 1642, Friedrich Casimir was his next-of-kin. He was only a distant relative, but he was nevertheless the closest male relative and his hereditary claims were confirmed in a treaty of inheritance between Hanau-Lichtenberg and Hanau-Münzenberg dated 1610. Accepting the throne was not without its problems. Friedrich Casimir had to travel through enemy territory in disguise, accompanied by his guardian Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl and a small security detail. He arrived in Hanau on 21 January 1642.

Several

district of Schwarzenfels and the Winery of Naumburg
(the secularized Naumburg Abbey) as collateral for the debt.

Calvinist refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium). Its leadership was composed of wealthy merchants and traders who took advantage of the weak position of the new count to negotiate favourable conditions, in particular, they demanded guarantees that the religious status quo
would be maintained. After ten days of negotiating, Georg of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl gave this guarantee, so that Friedrich Casimir could finally accept his inheritance.

Friedrich Casimir was a

Johann Georg I
of Saxony, after whom the church was named. Lutheran congregation were formed in many communities in the county, leading to considerable controversy.

In 1650 and 1670, the two sides in the religious dispute came to agree on a compromise. The 1670 compromise is known as the Religionshauptrezeß ("religious main recess"). The compromise puts the two

Protestant
denominations on an equal footing and gives each its own church administration, so that there were two established churches in the County of Hanau and the count had to waive his jus reformandi. The Religionshauptrezeß became a permanent and solid foundation for a bi-confessional county until the early 19th century. It did not, however, stop the continuing debate between the two confessions. It wasn't until 1818 that the two churches formally merged.

The political framework

Under the

district of Rodheim to Hesse-Homburg for 9000 taler
.

The political landscape in which Friedrich Casimir had to operate, remained marked by uncertainty, even after the Peace of Westphalia. This was particularly true for the Hanau-Lichtenberg part of the country, which was within reach of

Peace of Nijmegen of 1678 and a verdict of the Chamber of Reunion in 1681, Friedrich Casimir had to pay homage to the French king for these areas. In 1672, French troops even occupied Friedberg, Aschaffenburg and Seligenstadt
. Hanau had declared itself neutral, but was completely surrounded by French troops.

Among his advisors were the doctor and

Georg Christian, a soldier and diplomat, and the author Johann Michael Moscherosch
. They provided no counterweight to Friedrich Casimir's ambition.

Successful projects

After decades of construction, the construction of the National High School was completed in 1665. The Lutheran School in Hanau, which had been founded in 1647, was expanded to a Lutheran High School in 1680. In 1813, it would be converted to a

Realschule. During Friedrich Casimir's reign, one of the first faience manufacturing plants in Germany was founded by Daniel Behaghel and Jacob van der Walle, using a countly privilege issued on 5 March 1661; it would operate successfully until the early 19th century. In 1678, the Hanauer Zeitung, one of Germany's oldest newspapers, was founded. Friedrich Casimir was a member of the literary Fruitbearing Society
.

Several treaties were concluded with the

Bishopric of Würzburg, which were both administered by Johann Philipp von Schönborn in apersonal union, on the one hand resolving disputes which had arisen during the Thirty Years' War
, on the other hand exchanging territories in order to make both countries more convex.

To compensate for the loss of population of the war, he promoted immigration of Swiss people from the

Lutheran, but Calvinism was tolerated.[1]

Fantasies

Many of Count Friedrich Casimir's projects remained castles in the sky. These include an Academy of Sciences and Arts. It would be established in Hanau and named Sophopolis.

The high point of his fantastic projects was the foundation of the

Hanauish Indies, a colony that would arise on the Orinoco river on the north coast of South America. The idea probably came from Johann Joachim Becher. This project progressed as far as a final contract with the Dutch West India Company
. Friedrich Casimir probably already saw himself as king of a tropical empire, however, he was derided as King of Cockaigne by the population of Hanau.

What was lacking was the money to implement such a project. Consequently, nothing happened in South America, and the project left behind huge debts in the county of Hanau. To compensate for this financial disaster, Friedrich Casimir considered pledging the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg to the

salt mine of Bad Nauheim, which was vital for the economy of Hanau. Friedrich Casimir's relatives opposed this plan; to get them out of the way, Georg Christian tried to have himself appointed regent
of Hanau.

Disempowerment

Friedrich Casimir's relatives then pulled the emergency brake. His brother, Johann Philipp of Hanau-Lichtenberg staged a coup in November 1669 and seized power while Friedrich Casimir was absent. However, his emergency government broke down after three days. His relatives and the guardians of successors, Christian II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler asked Emperor Leopold I to be appointed regents and heads of a new administration. They were appointed co-regent and given the right to veto any decision made by Friedrich Casimir. Friedrich Casimir's councillor were dismissed and a new government was installed, led by President of the Chamber Johann Georg Seyfried, who was later ennobled as Baron von Edelsheim. In practice, this limitation of the Count's power often led to conflicts with the government. The regents tried to implement rigorous financial policies to repay government debt; the Count was still far more generous. In the end, a sweeping financial turnaround did not materialize.

Death and inheritance

Friedrich Casimir died on 30 March 1685 in Hanau. He was buried in the crypt of the

Lutheran
St. Johann Church in Hanau.

The County of Hanau-Münzenberg was inherited by his nephew Philipp Reinhard, the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg by his nephew Johann Reinhard III. This division was reconfirmed in a treaty in 1691.

Friedrich Casimir's widow, Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau, survived him by less than a year. She was buried in the crypt of the Reformed St. Mary's Church, also in Hanau.

Ancestors

References

Footnotes

  1. ISBN 978-3-935395-15-9
    , pp. 277-320 (289)
Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg
House of Hanau
Born: 4 August 1623 Died: 30 March 1685
Preceded by
Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg

1641–1680 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Count of Hanau-Münzenberg

1642–1680 		Succeeded by
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