Ambrosius Volland

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Ambrosius Volant on a medal from Weidlitz (1533)
Medal with the improved coat of arms of Ambrosius Volland (Source: StadtA M)
City silhouette of Volland's hometown Grüningen (Markgröningen)

Ambrosius Volland (* around 1468 in Grüningen ; † June 4, 1551 in Stuttgart ) was a German scholar of both rights who switched from a spiritual and scientific career to politics and made history and literature as the feared Chancellor Duke Ulrichs von Württemberg . During his exile from 1519 to 1551 he was a counselor in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Württemberg Prince Christoph , who under the supervision of the Habsburg Emperor V. Karl stood.

In contrast to his family, Ambrosius, who was raised to imperial nobility by the emperor in 1530, wrote himself “Volant”. With this he suggested a derivation of his name from volare (Latin for to fly ) and thus countered the derivation of Fahland (= devil), which was obvious at the time .

Origin and education

Family background

Ambrosius Volland was born around 1468 as the son of the merchant and cellar Heinrich Volland II and his wife Elisabeth Lyher in the Württemberg residence and official city of Grüningen (today Markgröningen ). The Volland clan , which had dominated Grüningen for a hundred years, belonged, like the Lyher or Lamparter families, from whom his predecessor as Württemberg chancellor came, to a small group of related, wealthy and increasingly influential patrician dynasties who, instead of the nobility, gradually became the most important officials of the Duchy of Württemberg provided. His maternal grandfather Konrad Lyher Vogt was already in Grüningen and Chancellor of Württemberg. The Vollands, who were based in the then flourishing Grüningen, also held offices as judges, cellars and bailiffs, represented the city in the countryside and were also active as successful merchants. His grandfather Heinrich Volland I had acquired by far the largest taxable wealth in Württemberg, largely in the supra-regional trade in wine, cloth, metal and grain. The so-called “Fugger Württembergs” also benefited from credit transactions - presumably also with the heavily indebted sovereign Ulrich von Württemberg.

While Ambrosius made a career out of town, his younger brother Philipp Volland (1472–1537) held the position in Grüningen : the lawyer and businessman was Vogt in Grüningen from 1501 to 1519 and represented the city from 1514 to 1519 as a member of the Stuttgart countryside. With the invasion of the Swabian Confederation, he too had to flee the country in 1519. In exile he became Vogt in Pforzheim and after Duke Ulrich's return from 1534 to 1537 again Vogt in Grüningen.

academic career

Ambrosius Volland completed his university education, which he began in the winter semester of 1482/1483 at the University of Tübingen and continued in Heidelberg in 1484, after studying law in Italy in the mid-1490s with a doctorate in ecclesiastical and secular law (doctor utriusque iuris) at the university Padua off.

Because of his planned marriage to Sibylla Wächter, he gave up a brief clerical position in his hometown of Grüningen and began working in Stuttgart as a lawyer or procurator. Since February 2, 1500 he was in the Württemberg government and was probably also a law teacher at the University of Tübingen. Here he met Johann von Staupitz , who placed him in 1502 as Professor of Law at the newly founded University of Wittenberg . However, he returned to Württemberg in 1504 at the latest.

Political career

Councilor and Chancellor at Duke Ulrich's court

Volland has been a ducal councilor in Stuttgart since 1505, without first appearing at the Württemberg court. His name is particularly mentioned in 1511 as a company cavalier on duty at the glamorous and lavish wedding of Duke Ulrich von Württemberg to Sabine von Bayern. As a brilliant lawyer and speaker, he then came closer and closer to the Duke. This was threatened when he urged the Duke in an expert opinion with other ducal councilors on January 6, 1515 to return to the Swabian Federation and to observe the Tübingen Treaty of 1514 with its obligation to be more frugal. Ulrich was so outraged that Volland followed his line of resistance against imperial demands. Ulrich responded to the imperial demand for a six-year resignation from government and attendance with the decision to become the Führer der Ehrlichkeit, ie. H. to get rid of the representatives of the ruling class in the state parliament who had advocated his removal. Some were captured in November 1516, others, such as the Württemberg Chancellor Gregor Lamparter , who had been in office since 1496 , were able to flee the country. Lamparter's successor in the Chancellery was Ambrosius Volland. He steered the high treason proceedings and used the confessions extorted through torture to execute uncomfortable, supposedly “covenant” representatives of respectability - including the governors of Tübingen, Cannstatt and Weinsberg.

With Volland's chancellorship, another faction of the urban ruling class came to the helm of state. In foreign policy she came closer to the opponents of Habsburg, and domestically she helped the sovereign in reorganizing the duchy. Without affecting the state constitution, the state parliaments were brought into line under the skilful direction of Volland and thus became a docile tool in the hands of the duke. With ruthless severity and tactical skill, Volland maneuvered the Austrian-minded faction, deprived of its leaders, of respectability in Württemberg on behalf of the Duke. Volland's “diplomacy” so intimidated the landscape that the Blaubeurer contract concluded by the emperor with the duke in October 1516 regarding Ulrich's six-year resignation from government and attendance could not be carried out and the regiment provided for in this contract did not gain any political influence.

  • Duke Ulrich served Volland as councilor and chancellor until his betrayal was exposed in exile

  • Emperor Charles V raised Volland as imperial councilor to the imperial nobility with a personal palatine

  • Archduke Ferdinand of Austria also ruled over Württemberg from 1519 to 1534

  • Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, Ulrich's brother-in-law and military leader of the Swabian League

  • Duke Christoph ended Volland's 32-year banishment from Württemberg in 1551

Changing sides in exile

When Duke Ulrich, after the death of Emperor Maximilian I, used the power vacuum in the empire on January 12, 1519, the imperial city of Reutlingen, a member of the Swabian Federation , was forcibly annexed and then expelled from Württemberg by the Swabian Federation, Volland had to give the Duke follow out of the country, but not without getting his sheep dry: In 1519, for example, he promised Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria in writing, as troop commander of the armed forces, to inform him of the possibility of taking Hohenasperg after his invasion of Württemberg, if the latter would spare his Grüningen property . Since this letter later fell into Ulrich's hands, Volland was forced to leave Ulrich in the summer of 1522. The Duke no longer forgave him for this betrayal, which was continued in the Habsburg service, and after his return in 1534 had Hohenasperg expanded into a modern fortress.

From the monastery of Schussenried Volland was reconciled in 1522 with the Swabian Confederation and the House of Habsburg, which now ruled in Württemberg, and from 1523 to 1533 served the Salzburg Archbishop Matthäus Lang. It did not harm his political career that he had pursued anti-Habsburg politics as Duke Ulrich's Chancellor. In 1530 he received from Emperor Charles V the imperial nobility with improvement of the coat of arms, the dignity of the court palatinate and the title of imperial council. On the side, Volland had dealt with casting technology and invented a usable fire ball.

Return only after Duke Ulrich's death

In 1533, Volland, located at the Bavarian court in Landsberg am Lech, joined Prince Christoph of Württemberg , who was under the supervision of the imperial court, as an advisor, in agreement with the Archbishop of Salzburg , who called him back to Stuttgart after taking office in early 1551. However, the very old man no longer acted as advice for him, as he died on June 2 of this year in Stuttgart. The construction of a new law firm that he had initiated was then abandoned, although the first floor had already been built, and the ruin was mocked as a "floor building". Despite this post-mortem degradation, Volland was given an honorary grave in the collegiate church.

From his first marriage to Sibylla Wächter, who died before 1533, he left behind a daughter Margarethe, who had married Wilhelm von Brand zu Nybling and Brandhausen. From his second marriage to Barbara Angst (stallion) he still had six children, despite old age, who were not of legal age when he passed away and who were returning to Landsberg with their mother. The traditional distribution of the estate documents the loss of assets in Grüningen, where there was apparently not much to inherit because of the expropriation that took place in 1519: His “daughter” Wilhelm von Brand received “for his seventh part” only 100 guilders and a few “treasures ". In addition to Volland's books, household and foundry utensils, three halberds, three hunting rifles, two “target rifles”, three armor and an apparently remarkable silver coin, which showed the Pope on the one hand and the devil on the other, were to be distributed.

reception

In Wilhelm Hauff's popular novel Lichtenstein (1826), Chancellor Ambrosius Volland found expression as an ugly distorted fictional character, which prompted the Markgröningen pastor and historian Ludwig Friedrich Heyd to write a biographical replica.

Additional information

literature

  • Wilhelm Bertz: "I, Elisabetha Lyherin, Heinrich Volland's blessed widows ..." Considerations on the wording of a Markgröninger foundation charter from 1483. In: Volume 4 of the series Durch die Stadtbrille. Pp. 54-76, ed. v. Working group on historical research and monument preservation. Markgröningen 1989.
  • Hilde Fendrich: The Volland in Markgröningen put under the microscope. In: Südwestdeutsche Blätter for family history and heraldry . Vol. 23, H. 9 (2003), pp. 353-368.
  • Peter Fendrich: The city and its citizens in the late Middle Ages. On the social structure of the Württemberg district town of Markgröningen in the context of state history. In: Volume 3 of the series Through the city glasses. Edited by Working Group on Historical Research and Monument Preservation Markgröningen, pp. 94–119, Markgröningen 1987.
  • Karl Konrad Finke: From chancellor to chancellor - first Württemberg chancellor until 1520. In: Swabian homeland. Journal for regional history, Württemberg regional culture, nature conservation and monument preservation. 63 (2012), pp. 302-308.
  • Karl Konrad Finke: Ambrosius Volland (around 1469 to 1551). In: The professors of the Tübingen Faculty of Law (1477-1535). (= Tübingen professor catalog, vol. 1,2), pp. 353-360. Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7995-5452-7 .
  • Werner Fleischhauer: Renaissance in the Duchy of Württemberg. (Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg) Stuttgart 1971, pp. 92f., 213.
  • Wilhelm Hauff : Lichtenstein . Romantic legend from the history of Württemberg. Stuttgart 1826 ( full text at Wikisource )
  • Ludwig Friedrich Heyd : The Wirtemberg Canzler Ambrosius Volland. Stuttgart 1828 ( digitized version ).
  • Ludwig Friedrich Heyd: History of the former Oberamts-Stadt Markgröningen with special regard to the general history of Württemberg, mostly based on unpublished sources. Stuttgart 1829, 268 p., Facsimile edition for the Heyd anniversary, Markgröningen 1992.
  • Otto-Günter Lonhard: The Volland family and their connections to Entzlin, Dreher and Lyher. In: Südwestdeutsche Blätter for family history and heraldry. Volume 23, H. 9 (2003), pp. 368-373.
  • Hans-Martin Maurer: The poor Konrad - an uprising in Württemberg. In: Thomas Schwabach (Hrsg.): An assistants to justice ... Lectures and documents on the peasant war. Hennecke, Remshalden-Buoch 2004, ISBN 3-927981-11-7 , ( City Archives and Museums Weinstadt - Small Series 5). Pp. 17-33.
  • Klaus Militzer: The Markgröninger Heilig-Geist-Spital in the Middle Ages. A contribution to the economic history of the 15th century. 214 pp., Sigmaringen 1975.
  • Hermann Römer : Markgröningen in the context of regional history I. Prehistory and the Middle Ages. 291 p., Markgröningen 1933.
  • Andreas Schmauder : Württemberg in the uprising - the poor Konrad 1514. A contribution to the rural and urban resistance in the Old Kingdom and to the territorialization process in the Duchy of Württemberg at the turn of the early modern period. DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1998, ISBN 3-87181-421-0 , ( writings on south-west German regional studies 21).
  • Andreas Schmauder: Gaispeter and the uprising of the poor Konrad in Beutelsbach in 1514. In: Bernd Breyvogel (Hrsg.): 925 years Beutelsbach. BAG-Verlag, Remshalden 2006, ISBN 3-935383-95-9 , ( City Archives and Museums Weinstadt - Small Series 6), pp. 75–110.
  • Volland, Ambrosius. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 50, Leipzig 1746, column 417 f.
  • Gustav Wais : Old Stuttgart's buildings in the picture: 640 pictures, including 2 colored ones, with explanations of city history, architectural history and art history. Stuttgart 1951, reprinted Frankfurt am Main 1977, pages 168–170.
  • Friedrich Wintterlin :  Volland, Ambrosius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 247.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Wilhelm Hauff : Lichtenstein . Romantic legend from the history of Württemberg . Stuttgart 1826 ( full text at Wikisource )
  2. ↑ See Ludwig Friedrich Heyd: The Wirtemberg Chancellor Ambrosius Volland. Stuttgart 1828, p. 1 and the medal above
  3. ↑ Volland added wings to his improved coat of arms (see reverse of the medal)
  4. ↑ See Hermann Römer : Markgröningen in the context of regional history I. Prehistory and the Middle Ages. 291 S., Markgröningen 1933, p. 168, who derived the name Volland from Fahland , an older synonym for devil . Fahland as a family name can still be found today, but more in northern Germany.
  5. ↑ A cellar is responsible for the manorial financial management of a castle, town and / or an “office” (former form of the district).
  6. ↑ See Wilhelm Bertz: "I, Elisabetha Lyherin, Heinrich Vollands blessed widows ..." Considerations on the wording of a Markgröninger foundation charter from 1483. In: Volume 4 of the series Durch die Stadtbrille. Pp. 54-76, ed. v. Working group on historical research and monument preservation. Markgröningen 1989, p. 54ff
  7. ↑ See Peter Fendrich: The city and its citizens in the late Middle Ages. On the social structure of the Württemberg district town of Markgröningen in the context of state history. In: Volume 3 of the series Through the city glasses. Edited by Working group for historical research and monument preservation Markgröningen, pp. 94–119, Markgröningen 1987, pp. 102ff
  8. ↑ See also Klaus Militzer: The Markgröninger Heilig-Geist-Spital in the Middle Ages. A contribution to the economic history of the 15th century. 214 pp., Sigmaringen 1975
  9. ↑ See Ludwig Friedrich Heyd: History of the former Oberamts-Stadt Markgröningen with special consideration for the general history of Württemberg, mostly based on unpublished sources. Stuttgart 1829, p. 71ff
  10. ↑ See also Karl Konrad Finke: From Chancellery to Chancellor - first Württemberg chancellor until 1520. In: Schwäbische Heimat. Journal for regional history, Württemberg regional culture, nature conservation and monument preservation. 63 (2012), pp. 302-308
  11. ↑ See Ludwig Friedrich Heyd: The Wirtemberg Chancellor Ambrosius Volland. Stuttgart 1828, p. 155ff
  12. ^ After Duke Ulrich's brief return in 1919, the interim government of the Swabian Federation decided to expropriate the Duke's supporters to finance their mercenaries.
  13. ↑ According to Werner Fleischhauer, Volland's estate also contained valuable furnishings such as a four-legged maple table, several mirrors and paintings, clocks in a gold-plated case or with a gold-plated disc, in particular 16 gold-plated drinking dishes, 14 white and silver mugs, 3 burl heads and 15 spoons, what one documented upscale lifestyle.
  14. ↑ See Wilhelm Hauff : Lichtenstein . Romantic legend from the history of Württemberg . Stuttgart 1826 and Ludwig Friedrich Heyd: The Wirtemberg Canzler Ambrosius Volland. Stuttgart 1828

See also

Web links

Commons : Volland  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Lichtenstein  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Volland, Ambrosius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Volant, Ambrosius; Fahland, Ambrosius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar and Württemberg politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1468
PLACE OF BIRTH Markgröningen
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1551
Place of death Stuttgart