Andreas Lorck

Andreas Lorck , also Lorichs , Lorichius , (* around 1530 in Flensburg ; † October 1584 in Stockholm , executed) was a German diplomat and adventurer.

Childhood and youth

Andreas Lorck came from the Lorck family . He was the son of Flensburg mayor Thomas Lorck († 1531) and his wife Christine, who died after April 29, 1542. Her father was Andreas Brodersen from Klixbüll . He had several siblings, including the merchant Balthasar (around 1520–1589), the painter and copper engraver Melchior and his sister Anna († 1600), who worked as a fully capable merchant and from 1564 as a royal customs collector. Andreas Lorck himself remained unmarried.

As a youth, Lorck served in Charles V's army . Later he was in French service and took part in campaigns in Italy and the Netherlands in 1555. At the beginning of 1558 he was in Lübeck as the envoy of King Henri II of France . Here had to appear in court because of several debt claims.

In Danish service

Lorck probably entered the service of the Danish King Frederick II around 1561. He himself said that he was only sent to Denmark together with 30,000 fighters from Gascony in 1563 , which is very unlikely, since he had different diplomatic and took over military orders for the Danish king. At the beginning of the three-crown war that began in 1563, he took part in peace negotiations in Rostock and visited Dresden and Braunschweig as envoy . In February 1564 he and his brothers Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar were raised to the nobility by Emperor Maximilian II . When he returned to Rostock in May 1564, he was enrolled on an “honorary basis”. Then he visited Pomerania in the same year. He himself reported that he had traveled to Sweden in 1565 with an embassy from the emperor. Correspondence with Frederick II of Denmark indicates that the king sent him to Gascony at the end of 1565, where he was supposed to recruit soldiers.

In January 1566 Lorck was in Brussels , in April he posted a letter to the Danish king in Copenhagen and asked for his credits to be paid out. The king obviously did not like this request and the intention to want to profit from the war itself, so that a little later Lorck obviously lost the favor of the king. In October of the same year Lorck stayed in Flensburg. From there he wrote a letter to the king and explained in detail how Stockholm could be besieged and taken by the sea. The answer was obviously not satisfactory. A little later, Lorck entered service in Sweden.

In Swedish service

The Swedish King Erik XIV distrusted Lorck and had him shadowed. The following Johann III. Lorck, however, showed benevolence. In 1569 he became court squire and secretary for Latin correspondence. After the Peace of Szczecin , which ended the Three Crown War in 1570, he was the permanent Swedish envoy in Poland-Lithuania . Since Johann III. Wanted to secure the Polish throne after the death of the last Jagiellonian Sigismund II August for his family, but the Union of Lublin had established an elective monarchy, Lorck's task was complicated. In the context of his duties as a diplomat, he always tried to economically profit and take revenge on the Danish king.

In 1574 Lorck asked the papal nuncio in Poland to help him with a self-planned capture of Denmark. In 1578 he made this proposal again together with an alliance of Poland, Sweden and Spain. During this time he may have converted from the Protestant to the Catholic faith, but there is no reliable evidence for this. Lorck gradually expanded his plans to capture Denmark and considered that Portugal could join the alliance. He offered to lead a holy league as admiral to implement the project. As a wage he should get part of Denmark. He wanted to create an order of knights modeled on the Order of Malta and, as its grand master, drive heretics and pirates out of the Nordic sea. When Lorck's goods and ships were confiscated by the cities of Lübeck and Danzig, Lorck sought support for his claims against the cities from the papal nuncio in Poland, Cagliari. In 1579, Lorck negotiated in the Netherlands with the governor Alexander Farnese about an alliance between Spaniards and Swedes. He then traveled to Rome , where he wanted to present his plans to the Pope. However, the curia did not make a clear statement. To ensure that Lorck stood up for Catholic interests in the north, however, he received several letters of recommendation.

In July 1579, Lorck met the papal envoy Antonio Possevino in Braunsberg . Both moved to Sweden together, where the Catholic mission was unsuccessful. In 1580 he went to Poland again. Obviously not satisfied with the income from work for the Swedes, he occupied himself with other things afterwards. He focused on the city of Narva , which had been occupied by Russians since 1558. Lorck asked Friedrich III in the spring of 1581. unsuccessful for money and ships for a war against the Poles. Thereupon he found German farmhands and concluded an alliance with several caper captains that Narva was to take. With the people he recruited, he placed himself in the service of the King of Poland. The project failed, perhaps because he could not pay the people he had committed. They turned to Pontus De la Gardie and took the city with him. Lorck, on the other hand, fled to Danzig via Reval.

execution

In 1583 Lorck visited the English, French and Spanish courts, the Pope and the Emperor, where he advertised his far-reaching plans with little success. This included the Swedish King John III. to be replaced by Gustav, the son of Erik XIV, who was deposed in 1568 and died in 1577. In the summer of 1584, Swedish captors successfully trapped him near Danzig . They took him to Sweden and interrogated him thoroughly. A brief trial was followed by a betrayal conviction and beheading. His skull was placed on the main north gate of the Swedish capital. At the request of Antonio Possevino, the Pope wrote several letters and petitions to the Swedish King and Crown Prince Sigismund. He also asked his nuncio to arrange for Lorck to intervene at the emperor's court. At this point, however, Lorck's execution had already taken place.

literature

• Vello Helk: Lorck, Andreas . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 6 - 1982. ISBN 3-529-02646-8 , pages 170-172.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vello Helk: Lorck, Andreas . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 6 - 1982. ISBN 3-529-02646-8 , page 170 and Lorck (family) .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Vello Helk: Lorck, Andreas . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Vol. 6 - 1982, p. 170.
3. ↑ His name is not in the Rostock matriculation portal .
4. ^ Vello Helk: Lorck, Andreas . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Vol. 6-1982, pp. 170-171.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Vello Helk: Lorck, Andreas . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Vol. 6 - 1982, p. 171.