George Frederick, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach | |
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Anna of Veldenz |
George Frederick of Baden-Durlach (30 January 1573 – 24 September 1638) was
He was the third son of margrave
He succeeded his brother Ernest Frederick as margrave in 1604. He also continued his brother's occupation of Baden-Baden. George Frederick was a prominent member of the Protestant Union.
He raised an army of 12,000 men at the beginning of the
In 1627 he joined the Danish army. He died at Strasbourg in 1638.
Life
Early life
George Frederick was born in Baden to
George Frederick was only four years old when he inherited the
In 1584, his elder brothers Ernest Frederick and James (d. 1590) and his mother (d. 1586) took over the guardianship. In 1595, George Frederick was declared an adult, and he took up government himself.
George Frederick learned the Latin, French and Italian languages and received his higher education in Strasbourg, where his brother James had studied earlier.
He went on a Grand Tour to Besançon, Dole, Basel and Siena.
Division of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach
His elder brothers were declared adults in 1584. Ernest Frederick and James wanted to divide the inheritance, although their father's testament forbade this. However, the testament had not been properly signed and sealed, and the remaining guardians held that this meant that they could allow the brothers to divide the Margraviate. Ernest Frederick received
George Frederick retained the southern parts of Baden-Durlach, the Lordships of Rötteln and Badenweiler and the County of Sausenburg. Thus, the Margraviate was fragmented further, after the earlier split into Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach.
When George Frederick's elder brother James died in 1590, Baden-Hachberg fell back to his eldest brother Ernest Frederick, who gave it to George Frederick in 1595.
Ruler of Baden-Hachberg (1595-1604)
Upon reaching adulthood, George Frederick became the ruler of Baden-Hachberg (Upper Baden). At first, he ruled from
George Frederick's lived in an ascetic manner. From the hand-written notes in his personal Bible, one can deduce that he has fully read through it at least 58 times.[7] Shortly after he took office in Upper Baden, George Frederick introduced Johann Weininger as the new General Superintendent at the Synod of Rötteln. On this occasion he held a speech that resembled a sermon.[8][9] In 1601, he promised the citizens of Pforzheim, who resisted the appointment of Reformed clergy by his brother Ernest Frederick, that he would support them when the case came before the Reichskammergericht.
In 1603, he issued a forestry regulation for the Margraviate of Sausenberg and the Lordship of Rötteln.
Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1604-1612)
When Ernest Frederick died in 1604, Baden-Durlach was inherited by George Frederick, reuniting it with Baden-Hachberg. He initiated a wide ranging set of legal, administrative, and religious reforms He established the Privy Council, which he presided himself. He created a high court and introduced a Church Order. George Frederick was aware that he could achieve his goal of a united Lutheran margraviate of Baden only with the support of the people. In return for approval of taxes to finance his defense policies, he conceded to the Estates the right to have a say in religious questions.[10]
As early as 1603[11] George Frederick founded, in cooperation with the Estates of Upper Baden an exchange bank, which also managed orphan's pensions and later developed into a deposit bank. This bank was also meant to organize the trade in wine and grain and eliminate Jewist merchants.[12] It also helped the margraviate to overcome the market crisis of the "Kipper und Wipper" period.
He initiated the codification of the civil code of Baden. The resulting statute has been describe as "the most thorough of any of the German territorial states".[13] It was published in 1622, but due to the Thirty Years' War, it could not be brought into force until 1654, under his son and successor Frederick V. It remained in force until 1809.[14]
In 1613, he had a religious dispute with Duke Francis II of Lorraine. He intended to argue the issue himself. This failed, however, when Francis, against an earlier agreement, sent Jesuits to argue the Catholic side of the dispute.[citation needed]
George Frederick saw the deteriorating situation in the empire, and in his own principality in particular, and studied not only theology, but also military themes. He was informed the
Outbreak of the Thirty Years' War
Under Catholic influence, the ongoing court case before the Reichskammergericht about the ongoing occupation of Upper Baden threatened against George Frederick in 1622. He reacted with an armed intervention in the Bohemian Revolt, a conflict that formed the initial phase of the Thirty Years' War.
In 1608, George Frederick joined the Protestant Union. He was appointed as a general of the Union, a position which he held until it was dissolved in May 1621.
On 19 August 1612, George Frederick concluded a defensive alliance with the Protestant cities of
The bishop of Speyer,
From March to June 1620 George Frederick blocked the road from
Wimpfen campaign
In 1621, George Frederick began recruiting troops to campaign against the Catholic forces, which had begun a successful advance in 1620. In order not to lose his Margraviate to an imperial ban for waging war on the emperor, he abdicated in 1622, in favour of his son, Frederick V.
In the spring of 1622, after the Estates granted him a special war tax for three years,[19] he had between 11000 and 12000[20] mercenaries at his disposal, with a relatively large amount of artillery, in addition to the regiment that would remain behind to defend Baden. On 24/25 April 1622, he began a campaign against the Emperor and his Catholic allies. However, he arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Mingolsheim on 27 April, where the Palatinate commander Count Ernst von Mansfeld crushingly defeated Lieutenant General Tilly of the Catholic League.
On 27 April, George Frederick declared war on the Habsburgs and combined his forces with those of Mansfeld, so as to fight the Catholic League together. When they were inexplicably separated a few days later, George Frederick came under attack from Tilly, who was assisted by Spanish troops under Córdoba. George Frederick was defeated in the Battle of Wimpfen on 6 May 1622. He was injured in the face and narrowly escaped to Stuttgart, where he abdicated in favour of his eldest son.
Already on 13 May 1622 George Frederick had returned to
Career after Wimpfen
In 1625, George Frederick retreated to Geneva, where he soon came into conflict with the Calvinist government, because he held Lutheran church services in his apartment. So in 1626 he moved to Thônes, where Duke Charles Emmanuel of Savoy allowed him to hold Lutheran church services.[21]
In the summer of 1627 he was appointed lieutenant general of the Danish army by King
Retirement and death
George Frederick retired to his home in Strasbourg and devoted himself mainly to the study of religious literature. He was, however, still in contact with France and Sweden, trying to realise his dream of a Lutheran Greater Baden.[24] He died on 24 September 1638 in Strasbourg. His body was probably transferred to the princely crypt in the S. Michael Church in Pforzheim in 1650.[25]
Marriages and issue
George Frederick married three times. His first marriage was to Juliane Ursula of Salm-Neufville (born 29 September 1572; died 30 April 1614), daughter of the Wild- and Rhinegrave Frederick of Salm-Neufville. This marriage took place on 2 July 1592 and produced fifteen children:
- Ursula Catherine (born 19 June 1593; died 15 February 1615), married on 24 August 1613 with Otto, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel(born 25 December 1594; died 7 August 1617)
- Frederick (born 6 July 1594; died 8 September 1659), Margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1622 to 1659
- Anna Amalia (born 9 July 1595; died 18 November 1651), married on 25 November 1615 Count William Louis of Nassau-Saarbrücken(born 18 December 1590; died 22 August 1640)
- Philip (born:30 December 1596; died 14 March 1597)
- Charles (born 22 May 1598, died 27 July 1625)
- Juliane Ursula (born 1 January 1600; died 31 August 1600)
- Rudolph (born 21 January 1602; died 31 May 1603)
- Christopher (born 16 March 1603; died 30 April 1632 at the siege of Ingolstadt)
- Anna Auguste (born 30 March 1604; died 2 April 1616)
- Sibylle Magdalene (born 21 July 1605; died 22 July 1644), married on 6 June 1629 Count John of Nassau-Idstein (born 24 November 1603; died 23 June 1677)
- Francisca (born 9 August 1606; died 27 August 1606)
- Ursula Marie (born 3 November 1607; 22 December 1607)
- Francisca Sibylle (born 4 February 1609, died 2 March 1609)
- Sophie Dorothea (born 14 March 1610; died 24 October 1633)
- Ernestine Sophie (born 26 December 1612; died 4 July 1658)
Following Juliane's death, George Frederick married for a second time, to Agathe of Erbach-Breuberg (born 16 May 1581; died 30 April 1621), daughter of Count George III of Erbach on 23 October 1614. This marriage produced three children:
- Agathe (born 2 September 1615; died 29 June 1616)
- Anna Maria, artist and poet (born 29 May 1617; died 15 October 1672)
- Elizabeth , author of proverbs (born 5 February 1620; died 13 October 1692)
George Frederick's third marriage was morganatic. On 29 July 1621, he married Elisabeth Stolz the daughter of his secretary, Johann Thomas Stolz. This marriage remained childless.
Ancestors
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References
- Karl Friedrich Ledderhose (1878), "Georg Friedrich (Markgraf von Baden-Durlach)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 8, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 596–600
- Karl Friedrich Ledderhose, Aus dem Leben des Markgrafen Georg Friedrich von Baden, 1890
- Arno Duch (1964), "Georg Friedrich - Markgraf von Baden-Durlach", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 6, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 197–199
- Karl Freiherr von Reitzenstein, Der Feldzug des Jahres 1622 am Oberrhein und in Westfalen bis zur Schlacht bei Wimpfen, 2 vols, Munich 1891 and 1893
- Hans Wertheim, Der tolle Halberstädter, 2 vols, Berlin, 1929 (about the Palatinate War of 1622)
- Golo Mann, Wallenstein; sein Leben erzählt von Golo Mann, S. Fisher, Frankfurt am Main, 1971
- Eberhard Gothein, Die badischen Markgrafschaften im 16. Jahrhundert, Heidelberg, 1910
- Werner Baumann, Ernst Friedrich von Baden-Durlach, Stuttgart, 1962
- Karl Obser, Die Grabstätte des Markgrafen Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach, in: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, vol. 51, 1897, p. 356
- Karl Obser, Eine Gedächtnisrede auf den Markgrafen Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach, in: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, vol 52, 1898, p. 124-139
- Michael Roth, Die Abdankung Markgraf Georg Friedrichs von Baden-Durlach. Ein Fürst im Unruhestand, in: Susan Richter, Dirk Dirbach (eds.): Thronverzicht. Die Abdankung in Monarchien vom Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit, Cologne, Weimar and Vienna, 2010, p. 191-212.
Footnotes
- ^ Baumann, p. 21-22
- ^ Jost Grosspietsch: Sulzburg. Ehemalige Markgräfliche Residenz, in: Das Markgräflerland vol. 2/1991, p. 6
- ^ Ledderhose: Aus dem Leben..., p. 19
- ^ Gothein, p. 50
- ^ Wolfgang Stopfel: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Gestalt des Sulzburger Renaissanceschlosses - und zur Geschichte des Tennisspiels in Sulzburg, in: Das Markgräflerland, vol. 2/2006, p. 45-50
- ^ Wolfgang Kaiser, Gitta Reinhardt-Fehrenbach: Kulturgeschichtliche und architektonische Ansichten aus Sulzburg, in: Das Markgräflerland, vol. 2/2006, S. 17
- ^ Gothein, p. 45
- ^ Ledderhose, p. 17
- ^ Gothein, p. 45
- ^ Gothein, p. 47
- ^ General State Archives
- ^ Gothein, p. 49
- ^ Gothein, p. 47
- ^ Table of Contents of the Civil Code
- ^ Reitzenstein vol. II, p. 172
- ^ Ledderhose, pp. 79-81
- ^ Ledderhose p. 63-64
- ^ Reitzenstein, vol. 1, p. 125-126
- ^ Siegfried Fiedler: Taktik und Strategie der Landsknechte, Bonn, 1985, p. 167 ff
- ^ Fiedler says it was 15000
- ^ Lederhose, p. 96
- ^ "About the Battle at the Oldenburg". Archived from the original on 2010-05-09. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ Ledderhose, p. 99
- ^ Duch, p. 99
- ^ Obser, p. 356-357