Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau-Munzenberg

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Amalie Elisabeth as a young woman, portrait by Christian Gottlieb Geyser

Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau-Munzenberg (born January 29, 1602 in Hanau , † August 8, 1651 in Kassel ) ruled the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel for the heir of as yet underage after the death of her husband, Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hesse-Kassel 1637 to 1650.

The spelling Amelie Elisabeth or Amalia Elisabeth is also used.

childhood

As the daughter of Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Munzenberg and his wife Katharina Belgica of Orange-Nassau , Amalie Elisabeth probably enjoyed an excellent education, as her careful work in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel later showed. Her mother was a daughter of Wilhelm von Oranien-Nassau , who led the Netherlands' independence struggle against Habsburg in the 16th century. Amalie Elisabeth was related to many important houses in Europe through her mother's numerous siblings. This is also the case with the Palatine Wittelsbachers in Heidelberg , who were strongly influenced by the Reformation , where she grew up for a while with her aunt, Electress Luise Juliane (1576–1644), married to Elector Friedrich IV . After the early death of her father in 1612, she returned to Hanau. Later she stayed with her relatives in the Netherlands for a longer period of time.

Family table of Countess Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau-Münzenberg
Great grandparents

Philip III von Hanau-Münzenberg (1526–1561)
⚭ 1551
Helena von Pfalz-Simmern (1532–1579)

Philip IV von Waldeck (1493–1574)
⚭ 1554
Jutta von Isenburg († 1564)

Wilhelm von Nassau-Dillenburg (1487–1559)
⚭ 1523
Juliana zu Stolberg (1506–1580)

Louis III de Bourbon, duc de Montpensier (1513–1582)

Jacqueline de Longwy Countess of Bar du Seine (1538–1561)

Grandparents

Philipp Ludwig I of Hanau-Münzenberg (1553–1580)
⚭ 1576
Magdalena von Waldeck (1558–1599)

Wilhelm I of Orange-Nassau , the silent one (1533–1584)
⚭ 1575
Charlotte von Bourbon-Montpensier (1546–1582)

parents

Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg (1576–1612)
⚭ 1596
Katharina Belgica of Oranien-Nassau (1578–1648)

Amalie Elisabeth

For the family cf. Main article: Hanau (noble family)

In 1617 Albrecht Jan Smiřický von Smiřice (also: Albert; Johann) (* December 17, 1594, † November 18, 1618) appeared at the Hanau court to propose to Amalie Elisabeth. Since this step had not been discussed beforehand and the classification of the Bohemian nobility and rank in the Hanau context was probably not clear, this caused confusion at first. After all, Albrecht Johann Smiřický was the Bohemian estate director, reformed, and one of the richest large landowners in Bohemia. The engagement came off. Albrecht Johann Smiřický was then one of the six Bohemian aristocrats who threw the imperial governors out of the window on the second lintel in Prague , which is considered to be the beginning of the Thirty Years War . He was then even discussed as a candidate for the Bohemian crown. Albrecht Johann Smiřický died before the winter kingdom of Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate fell. A violent dispute over parts of the estate broke out between Amalie Elisabeth and his heirs, which in fact ended with the seizure of the property and its posthumous condemnation by the Habsburgs who came back to power in 1621.

marriage

Amalie Elisabeth, after Anselm van Hulle . Collection Peace Palace .

Amalie Elisabeth married the later Landgrave Wilhelm (V) of Hessen-Kassel in 1619. Her husband became regent of Hessen-Kassel in 1627 after the abdication of his father Moritz brought about by the Hessian estates .

Wilhelm joined the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War . After the victory of the imperial and Spanish troops in 1634 in the battle of Nördlingen over the Swedes , he lost his most powerful ally. Nevertheless, he was one of three princes who refused to accept the Peace of Prague of 1635. Rather, William V was allied with France . In the course of his participation in the war, on June 13, 1636, he freed the city of Hanau from a siege by imperial troops. But then he was subject to the imperial and therefore withdrew to the easily defensible Friesland . During this escape, Wilhelm and Amalie Elisabeth had to leave their three young daughters Amelia , Charlotte and Elisabeth behind in Kassel . Amalie Elisabeth did not see her daughters again until three years later. Wilhelm V, had already died in exile at the age of only 36 in Leer (East Frisia) . His will named his wife regent for the still underage son Wilhelm VI. As the most important instrument of power, he left his wife with a well-run army that could be rescued to Friesland .

Regency

Amalie Elisabeth

William V's successor in Hessen-Kassel was his eight-year-old son as Landgrave Wilhelm VI. Amalie Elisabeth was the guardian of the government until he was of legal age in 1650. She proved to be a skillful and energetic regent. Despite the poor starting position in 1637, she not only succeeded in maintaining the landgraviate for her son, but also in consolidating it permanently. So she initially had the troops in East Friesland pay homage to the new Landgrave and was also able to get the government remaining in Kassel to recognize their guardianship, despite a conflicting claim that George II of Hesse-Darmstadt (1626–1661) tried to enforce.

To the coins of her son Wilhelm VI. What counts are also the stamps that they had stamped during their reign. She left the stamp of Wilhelm V, the so-called Weidenbaumtaler , to be struck for two years after her husband's death.

Thirty Years' War

As regent, Amalie Elisabeth continued her late husband's policy of alliance as an ally of France. Her husband had left her with the army rescued in Friesland, a valuable instrument of power. Although she concluded an armistice with the emperor, she accepted alliances from Cardinal Richelieu and Duke Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar in 1639 and 1640 . She was thus in breach of contract with the emperor. Thanks to its clever alliance policy, Hessen-Kassel once again became a leading power in the German Protestant camp.

With the relatives in Hessen-Darmstadt she resumed the dispute over Upper Hesse . She had a legal opinion prove that the related contract concluded in 1627 was invalid. On March 6, 1645 Kassel troops moved into Upper Hesse. The " Hessian War " began. Landgrave George II's army was inferior to the experienced attackers.

Peace of Westphalia

The unification and peace treaty between the two parts of Hesse from 1648 was confirmed in the Peace of Westphalia . Hessen-Kassel then received a quarter of Upper Hesse with Marburg . Supported by Sweden and France, Hessen-Kassel was the only German territory to receive war compensation of half a million thalers for its army of around 20,000 men in the Peace of Westphalia. The Hersfeld Abbey and parts of the Grafschaft Schaumburg also belonged to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel in a legally secure manner.

So far it has been assumed that Amalie Elisabeth was one of the driving forces in the peace negotiations who pushed for and enforced the legal equality of the Reformed denomination alongside the Lutherans and the Roman Catholic denomination. Recent research has shown that the regent concentrated more on Hesse-Kassel interests.

County of Hanau

Amalie Elisabeth reclaimed the cost of liberating the city of Hanau from the siege in 1636 from the Count of Hanau . Since Hanau could not pay, they agreed on the mortgage as assignment of Hanauer Office Blackrock and the winery Naumburg as compensation.

When the Counts of Hanau-Münzenberg died out in 1642 and the distantly related line of the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg took over the inheritance, Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth supported this and had her support rewarded with an inheritance contract between Hessen-Kassel and the Hanau County of the content that, if the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg also die out, the County of Hanau-Munzenberg falls to Hessen-Kassel. This case occurred in 1736.

Age

The efforts that the war and the ongoing stresses brought with it did not leave Amalie Elisabeth unscathed. The first health breakdown occurred in 1648. On September 20, 1650, the Landgravine handed over the official duties to her son, Landgrave Wilhelm VI.

The last year of her life was overshadowed by the unhappy marriage of her daughter Charlotte to Elector Karl Ludwig von der Pfalz . She returned from a trip to Heidelberg to see her daughter, completely exhausted. Only four weeks later, Amalie Elisabeth died on August 8, 1651 in Kassel and was buried on September 30, 1651 in the Martinskirche in Kassel.

Worth knowing

children

  1. Agnes (born November 24, 1620 in Kassel , † August 20, 1626 in Hersfeld )
  2. Moritz (September 24, 1621 in Kassel, † the same day)
  3. Elisabeth (born October 21, 1623 in Kassel; † January 13, 1624 in Kassel)
  4. Wilhelm (born January 31, 1625 - † July 11, 1626 in Ziegenhain )
  5. Amelia (born February 11, 1626 - † February 15, 1693 in Frankfurt am Main ), married May 15, 1648 to Heinrich Karl, Prince of Talmont
  6. Charlotte (born November 20, 1627 in Kassel; † March 16, 1686 in Heidelberg ), married February 12, 1650 to Elector Karl I. Ludwig von der Pfalz, divorced April 14, 1657, mother of Liselotte von der Pfalz
  7. William VI. (* May 23, 1629 in Kassel ; † July 16, 1663 in Schmalkalden ), married July 9, 1646 to Margravine Hedwig Sophie von Brandenburg
  8. Philipp (born June 16, 1630 in Kassel, † August 17, 1638 in Groningen )
  9. Adolf (born December 17, 1631 in Kassel, † March 17, 1632 in Kassel)
  10. Karl (born June 18/19, 1633 in Kassel; † March 9, 1635 in Kassel)
  11. Elisabeth (born June 23, 1634 in Kassel; † March 22, 1688 in Kassel), as Elisabeth V Abbess of Herford Abbey
  12. Stillbirth February 8, 1635
  13. Louise (born November 5, 1636 - † January 6, 1638 in Kassel)
  14. Stillbirth May 28, 1637

Criticism and appreciation

“Amalie Elisabeth was indisputably the greatest princess of her century. Her picture emerges in strong outlines from the tangle of a fateful time. Her mature plans and her wise government proclaim her lofty spirit to posterity, and her rare domestic virtues reveal her noble disposition. If the hero name, which has so often been desecrated, is only due to those people who have withstood great obstacles and adversities vigorously and unbowed, Amalie is worthy of the name of a heroine. ... These leaves are supposed to offer a few branches to the wreath that the patriot, not without emotion, lays on the venerable memorial stone of this great princess. "

- Karl Wilhelm Justi : Amalie Elisabeth, Countess of Hesse. Attempt to depict their life and character . Giessen: Heyer 1812

“It is a painful thought that the completely uninvolved East Frisia had to become a not unimportant tool through the robbery system of this mischievous woman, that Germany was trampled underfoot, devastated and deserted by god-forgotten mercenaries for another ten years. We will be told: so let it be done for the cause of the gospel. Of course, if you will; but among the innumerable who were then swallowed up by death in a thousand forms, few will have died with a blessing of the Gospel on her lips for a woman who chose freely between the head of the kingdom and the enemy of the kingdom and again the one The torch ignited, which from then on shone for ten long years. "

- Onno Klopp : History of East Frisia from 1570–1751 , Osnabrück 1856

Individual evidence

  1. The details from Onno Klopp : History of Ostfriesland from 1570 to 1751 (1856), Fifth Section, pp. 308–331, "Die Hessen in Ostfriesland". The "land perishable Hessian invasion" is also described by Tileman Dothias Wiarda in Ostfriesische Geschichte , Vol. 4 , Book 18 (1794), pp. 390-554
  2. ^ Pp. Iii and xi.
  3. 5th period, 5th section, p. 320. - Klopp does not spare the East Frisian counts, estates and the city of Emden from his biting criticism.

literature

  • Ilse Bechert: The foreign policy of Landgravine Amalia Elisabeth of Hessen-Kassel - October 1637 to March 1642 . Unpublished dissertation, Marburg 1946 (manuscript in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg: VIIIB Ilse Bechert).
  • Karl BernhardiAmalie Elisabeth . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 383-385.
  • Erwin Bettenhäuser (Ed.): Family letters from Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth of Hessen-Kassel and her children (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hessen 56). Elwert, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-7708-1040-6 .
  • Erwin Bettenhäuser: The Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel at the Westphalian Peace Congress 1644–1648. Wiku-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-923552-00-9 (also: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 1982).
  • Otto Brandt: Amalia Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hesse, née Countess of Hanau. In: Hessenland. 10, 1896, ZDB -ID 501070-6 , pp. 170, 186, 202, 215, 228, 243, 256.
  • Simone Buckreus: The body of a regent. Amalia Elisabeth von Hessen-Kassel (1602–1651) (= Paderborn Historical Research 16). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89498-194-5 (also: Paderborn, Univ., Diss., 2006).
  • Claus Cramer:  Amalie Elisabeth. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 237 ( digitized version ).
  • Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in Hanau. The position of the lords and counts in Hanau-Münzenberg based on the archival sources (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 34). Self-published by the Hanauer Geschichtsverein, Hanau 1996, ISBN 3-9801933-6-5 .
  • Karl Wilhelm Justi : Amalie Elisabeth, Countess of Hesse-Kassel. Attempt to depict their life and character. Heyer, Giessen 1812 ( digitized version ).
  • Margaret Lemberg: In the vortex of the bohemian class catastrophe. The unfinished engagement of Albrecht Johann Smiřický with Amalie Elisabeth von Hanau and the struggle for the inheritance. In: Bohemia. Journal of the history and culture of the Czech lands . Volume 35, 1994, pp. 1-44 (digitized version ) .
  • Pauline Puppel: The regent. Guardian rule in Hesse 1500–1700 (= history and gender 43). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2004, ISBN 3-593-37480-3 (also: Kassel, Univ., Diss., 2003).
  • Pauline Puppel: The "Savior of Hesse" or "Sister of the Gorgon"? Landgravine Amelie Elisabeth and the Hessian knighthood. In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 57, 2007, ISSN  0073-2001 , pp. 99–125.
  • Pauline Puppel: Amelie Elisabeth - A woman from Hanau as Landgravine of Hessen-Kassel , in: The Thirty Years War in Hanau and the surrounding area, ed. from the Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1877 eV on the occasion of the 375th return of the relief of the city, Hanau 2011, p. 151–196.
  • Reinhard Suchier : Genealogy of the Hanauer count house . In: Reinhard Suchier (Hrsg.): Festschrift of the Hanauer Geschichtsverein on its fiftieth anniversary celebration on August 27, 1894 . Heydt, Hanau 1894, pp. 7-23.
  • Heide Wunder : "Then you probably know what a Hessian head is". Women in Peace Policy In: Klaus Garber u. a. (Ed.): Experience and interpretation of war and peace. Religion - gender - nature and culture (= Peace 1). Fink, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7705-3539-1 , pp. 495-506.
  • Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau, city and country. Cultural history and chronicle of a Franconian weatherwave city and former county. With special consideration of the older time. Increased edition. Self-published, Hanau 1919 (Unchanged reprint. Peters, Hanau 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2 ).
  • Tryntje Helfferich : The Iron Princess: Amalia Elisabeth and the Thirty Years War , Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2013, ISBN 978-0674073395

Web links

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