Andreas Hannewaldt

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Andreas Hannewaldt von Eckersdorf (also Hanniwald , Hannewald ; Czech Ondřej Hannewald z Eckersdorfu * around 1560 , † after 1622 ) was a politically influential Reichshofrat at the court of Rudolf II in Prague .

family

He came from a Silesian family from Bunzlau . His father Simon Hannewaldt was a councilor for the Silesian estates in Breslau and was admitted to the imperial aristocracy in 1569 . The mother Eva was born Wolf. His brother Adam (1567–1621) was a Silesian chamber councilor. Hannewaldt's first marriage was a daughter of the Reichshofrat Andreas von Erstensberger. After her death, he married Magdalena Helena, widowed Michalowitsch, nee Freiin von Waldstein, in Prague on May 4, 1609 .

Life

Andreas Hannewaldt studied at the Universities of Padua and Bologna . Probably before that he had converted from the Protestant to the Catholic faith.

Hannewaldt initially worked in the office of Archduke Maximilian and the Breslau Bishop Andreas von Jerin . In 1588 he came to the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague as the Archduke's envoy . He changed to the imperial service and was court secretary in 1590. From 1593 at the latest he was secretary of the Privy Council . In 1594 he was successful at the Reichstag in Regensburg on the imperial mandate . This was followed by his appointment as imperial councilor and imperial court secretary.

In 1594 Hannewaldt became a member of the Reichshofrat , in which he exercised considerable political influence. He was also significantly involved in the preparation of the Regensburg Reichstag of 1597 and also worked there himself. From 1601 the emperor entrusted him with embassies to various imperial estates. This year he was in East Friesland to ask the estates for financial support for the Turkish war . This was one of the triggers for unrest directed against Count Enno's tax policy . For the Reichstag of 1603, which also took place in Regensburg, he drafted the imperial documents on behalf of Archduke Matthias as imperial deputy. At the instigation of the Reich Vice Chancellor Leopold von Stralendorf , Hannewaldt was appointed to the Privy Council in 1606. Together they played a decisive role in determining imperial policy.

Because of his unlimited access to the emperor and his influence on imperial politics, he is sometimes referred to as the Gray Eminence of Rudolf II. His strong emphasis on Catholicism and the wealth he had acquired in the imperial service had created opponents for him. They accused him of excessive alcohol consumption and betrayal of state secrets to his Protestant relatives. His bourgeois origins were greatly exaggerated and the rumor spread that the father was born to a common public whore . Together with his brother Adam, he also campaigned for Silesian interests at court. In 1608, for example, he advocated the elevation of Charles of Austria to the position of bishop of Breslau.

At the Diet of 1608 he was clearly against the Protestant classes. He campaigned for the re-Catholicization of Donauwörth . With his stance in the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute , he turned the Protestant estates into opponents. However, despite his counter-Reformation stance, he was also a political realist. He advised the emperor to compromise over the Bohemian Estates and also advocated the imperial royal charter , which he criticism of the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I drew upon. He was also on the side of Margrave Ernst Friedrich von Baden and his brother Georg Friedrich von Baden , although both were Protestants.

His position in the dispute in the House of Habsburg is not entirely clear. The imperial side ascribed the blame for the conflict, which intensified around 1606, to Bishop Melchior Khlesl . This in turn identified the advice of Hannewaldt as the cause. After Archduke Matthias marched on Prague in 1611, Hannewaldt was arrested, but released a few months later. A little later he was appointed imperial envoy for the Electoral Congress of Nuremberg. After Rudolf II's death, his successor, Emperor Matthias, took it over in 1612. In his name he prepared the upcoming Reichstag. After 1613 he hardly played a political role. In 1616 he acquired the Průhonice Castle, west of Prague .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claudia Zonta: Silesian students at Italian universities. (PDF) A prosopographical study on the early modern history of education. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008 ; accessed on August 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Winkelbauer : Prince and Prince Servant. Gundaker von Liechtenstein (1580–1658) an Austrian aristocrat in the denominational age . Munich, 1999 p. 512f.
  3. ↑ Piotr Oszczanowski: Silesians at the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II. In: Studia Rudolphina 4/2004 5f.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hannewaldt, Andreas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hannewaldt, Andreas von; Hannewaldt von Eckersdorf, Andreas; Hanniwald, Andreas; Hannewald, Andreas; Hannewald z Eckersdorfu, Ondřej (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Silesian Reichshofrat
DATE OF BIRTH around 1560
DATE OF DEATH after 1622