Amalia von Degenfeld
Amalia von Degenfeld , maiden name Amalia von Landas (born October 29, 1647 in London ; † December 24, 1683 ) was the maid of the Princess Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (better known as " Liselotte of the Palatinate "); through marriage to Baroness von Degenfeld and wife of the Oberamtmann zu Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , the brother of Marie Luise von Degenfeld ; Palatine countess and morganatic wife of Elector Karl I. Ludwig (Palatinate) .
Life and family
She was born as Amalia von Landas and was the daughter of the Electoral Palatinate Privy Council , Court Marshal and Fauts of the Heidelberg Oberamt Friedrich von Landas († 1676) and his wife Amalia von Hammerstein . The family professed the reformed faith and originally came from Hainaut ; Grandfather Karl von Landas, who died in Heidelberg in 1653, was born in Tournai .
Amalia von Landas was born in London, where her parents were in exile with the Elector Charles I Ludwig. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Palatinate ruler returned to Heidelberg; with him in 1649 the Landas family returned to the Electoral Palatinate. Amalia grew up in Heidelberg, her father was highly regarded at the court and was very influential. In 1662 she became the maid of honor of Princess Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, known as "Liselotte of the Palatinate". In her biography "Madame Liselotte von der Pfalz" , by Mathilde Knoop, it is recorded that Amalia's mother of the same name was involved in Liselotte's upbringing. The princess was impressed how she always left out the passage “... how we forgive our debtors ...” when praying together for the Lord's Prayer , as she honestly admitted that she could hardly forgive her debtors.
On September 30, 1671, Amalia von Landas married Maximilian Freiherr von Degenfeld, son of General Christoph Martin von Degenfeld (1599–1653) , at Heidelberg Castle . Maximilian von Degenfeld was the brother of Ferdinand von Degenfeld (1629–1710), electoral councilor and governor of the Palatinate, and Marie Luise von Degenfeld (1634–1677), Raugräfin and morganatic wife of Palatine Elector Karl I. Ludwig. At the wedding, Amalia von Landas was personally led by Elector Karl I. Ludwig, while Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig-Calenberg led her bridegroom to the altar.
Due to the close ties between brother and sister and the elector, Maximilian von Degenfeld advanced in 1672 to chamberlain , lieutenant colonel of the electoral bodyguard, chief magistrate of Neustadt an der Haardt (today Neustadt an der Weinstrasse) and administrator (administrator of the monastery property) of the dissolved Limburg abbey .
Amalia von Degenfeld died according to her grave inscription (probably in Neustadt) on Christmas Eve 1683 at the age of 36. In the year she died, she had donated a silver baptismal set for the Protestant community there. The noblewoman was buried in the collegiate church (Neustadt an der Weinstrasse) and received a grave slab made of black marble, on which her two sons Carl Philipp von Degenfeld († 1677, aged four) and Christoph Theodatus von Degenfeld († 1683, aged 1) ) are noted. In the epitaph says u. a. she loved God and her husband dearly. The man's funeral speech stated in 1697 that he had “lived his marital status with her with the greatest pleasure of the heart” and had fallen into “ heartfelt affliction” through the loss of his wife , “which then caused many hard and dangerous illnesses and greatly weakened his strength " .
The grave slab of Amalia von Degenfeld may have been lying horizontally in the floor, today it stands erect in the north side chapel of the Catholic collegiate church choir. After the Neustadt collegiate church had been divided by the Palatinate Religious Declaration of 1705, the choir fell to the Catholics and that area was administered by the newly settled Jesuits , they used the grave slab of Amalia von Degenfeld as an altar stone on one of their side altars. This is still clearly recognizable from the five crosses subsequently carved into the inscription, with which all the altar stones of Catholic altars are marked at the consecration.
The widower Maximilian von Degenfeld remained Neustadter Oberamtmann until 1691, then he worked as a diplomat for the Electoral Palatinate in Frankfurt am Main , where he died in 1697. On September 23, 1686 he married in Hanover in 2nd marriage with Margaretha Helene Freiin von Canstein (1665-1746). His son from his second marriage, Christoph Martin von Degenfeld-Schonburg (1689–1762), became a Prussian general and minister of war.
The aunt of Amalia von Degenfeld (sister of her mother), Anna Amalia von Hammerstein, converted to the Catholic Church, entered the monastery of the Annuntiatinnen in Düren as a nun and in 1653 became the first "ancilla" (superior) of the daughter monastery in Andernach .
literature
- Well-deserved laurel crone by the Frey-Reichs- Hoch- Wohlgebornen women Amalia, Frey women from Degenfeldt , Frankfurt am Main, 1686 (printed obituary); Digital scan of the obituary
- Funeral sermon for the husband Maximilian von Degenfeld, Frankfurt, 1697, pages 47–49; Digital scan
- Silke Burkhardt: Famous grave monuments in the Neustadter Stiftskirche , Historical Association of the Palatinate, District Group Neustadt, Volume 2 of the Association's series of publications, 1984, pages 34 and 35
Web links
- Website of the Heidelberg History Association on the von Degenfeld family (with separate sections on Amalia and Maximilian von Degenfeld)
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the Heidelberg History Association, on Friedrich von Landas
- ^ Albrecht Ernst: The Reformed Church of the Electoral Palatinate after the Thirty Years' War (1649-1685) , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1996, page 82; Excerpts from the source
- ^ Mathilde Knoop: Madame Liselotte von der Pfalz , Koehler Verlag, Stuttgart, 1956, p. 15
- ^ Funeral speech Maximilian von Degenfeld, 1697, page 48; Scan from the source
- ^ Website of the Evangelical Stiftskirchengemeinde Neustadt
- ↑ Christian von Stramberg: Memorable and Useful Rhenish Antiquarian , Part 3, Volume 6, Page 455, Koblenz, 1859; Scan from the source
- ↑ Website of the former Annuntian convent Andernach
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Amalia von Degenfeld |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Amalia from Landas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Noblewoman, chambermaid at the Electoral Palatinate court |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 29, 1647 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 1683 |