Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg
Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg | |
---|---|
Born | Weilburg | 14 October 1542
Died | 12 March 1602 Saarbrücken | (aged 59)
Buried | Collegiate Church in St. Arnual (now part of Saarbrücken) |
Noble family | House of Nassau |
Spouse(s) | Erika of Manderscheid-Blankenheim Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg |
Father | Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg |
Mother | Amalie of Isenburg-Büdingen |
Philip IV of Nassau-Weilburg, also known as Philip III of Nassau-Saarbrücken (14 October 1542 in
Life
Philip IV was the son of Philip III of Nassau-Weilburg and his third wife Amalie of Isenburg-Büdingen.
Philip IV and his older half-brother Albert of Nassau-Weilburg were educated in the Protestant faith by Kasper Goltwurm at Neuweilburg Castle. Philip later studied at the University of Jena, where he was rector for a while.
On 4 October 1559 his father died. Philip and Albert inherited the County of Nassau-Weilburg. As Philip was only sixteen years old, John III of Nassau-Saarbrücken, the senior member of the Walram line of the House of Nassau took up the guardianship. Initially, the brothers Albert and Philip ruled together. However, the huge debt they had inherited from their father curtailed their ability to act. Nevertheless, they managed to slowly improve their fiscal situation.
On 15 May 1561, the brothers split their inheritance for the first time. Albert received the castle and
Philip belonged to the
In 1570 John III of Nassau-Saarbrücken wrote a last
Just one year later, in 1572, Philip managed to secularize the St. Mary Abbey in Rosenthal. The Nassau family had a close relationship with the abbey. Their ancestor
In 1572, Philip had Wanborn Castle, a 12th-century structure in the vicinity of Saarbrücken, torn down and a Renaissance style hunting lodge with four wings named Philippsborn constructed on the spot. This lodge was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War; only a vaulted cellar remains. The hunting castle Forsthaus Neuhaus was later built there; the remains of this castle now form the center of a nature preserve.
John III died in 1574 and the Catholic counties of Saarbrücken, Saarland and Ottweiler fell to Albert and Philip of the Weilburg branch of the House of Nassau. They divided this inheritance: Philip received Saarbrüchen,
Their inheritance of Saarbrücken was challenged from various quarters. Duke Charles III of Lorraine, demanded the county Saarwerden back as a completed fief. However, Albert as the Senior member of the Walram line of Nassau, managed to let Nassau law prevail before the Supreme Court of Appeal. The dispute went on for years and threatened several times to escalate to a militarily level. This was the main reason that Philip moved his main residence to Saarbrücken. His newly built "summer house at Saarbrücken", which forms the basis of today's Saarbrücken Castle, served as his residence.
The Elector Palatine, Frederick III also claimed parts of the inheritance. Here too, the House of Nassau managed to prevail on the essential points. Several large treaties were closed, in which the exact rights and boundaries of the Nassau and Palatinate territories were defined.
On the first of January 1575 Philip introduced the Reformation in his territories, after the example of Hesse. The court chaplain at Saarbrücken, Gebhart Beilstein from
Philip III. died on 12 March 1602 in Saarbrücken. He was buried in the traditional crypt of the house of Nassau-Saarbrücken, in the Collegiate Church (now the Evangelical Church) in St. Arnual (now part of Saarbrücken). As Philip had no sons, his territories were inherited by his nephew Louis II of Nassau-Weilburg, who then held all the territories of the Walram line of Nassau.
Marriages and issue
Philip married his first wife Erika of Manderscheid-Blankenheim on 9 April 1563. They had only child:
- Anna-Amalia of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1565–1605), who later married George of Nassau-Dillenburg.
After the Erika's death in 1581, Philip married on 3 October 1583 Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg, a daughter of
References
- Edith Bröckel; et al. (2006), Weilburg-Lexikon, Weilburg: Magistrat der Stadt Weilburg
- Christian Spielmann (2005) [1896], Geschichte der Stadt und Herrschaft Weilburg, Stadt Weilburg
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Dr. F. W. Th. Schliephake and Karl Menzel (1884), Geschichte von Nassau, vol. 6, Wiesbaden: Kreidels Verlag, pp. 341ff
External links
- "Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German).