Anton I (Oldenburg)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Count Anton I of Oldenburg (1505–1573), grave slab of St. Lamberti Church in Oldenburg

Count Anton I of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (* 1505 ; † January 22, 1573 in Oldenburg ) from the House of Oldenburg was sovereign and imperial count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . His parents were Count Johann V. von Oldenburg (* 1460; † 1526) and Anna von Anhalt-Zerbst.

Life

Takeover of power in Oldenburg

Anton I was born as the youngest son of Count Johann V. After the death of his father, he was initially in the shadow of the older brothers, especially since John VI. (1501–1546), and the mother who co-ruled until 1526. When he, together with his brother Christoph (1504–1566), who was the third son to become a clergyman, and probably motivated by him, without the knowledge of Johann VI. and the last brother, Georg, pursued a policy of the Oldenburg rapprochement with the county of East Friesland , he was able to gain his own political profile. Anton I bridged the traditional Oldenburg-East Frisian conflict because of the Frisian Wesermarsch in favor of Oldenburg and because of the mutual claims to Jever in favor of East Frisia. Johann VI. behaved hesitantly in this matter and also - depending on their mother - clung to Catholicism , while Anton I and Christoph, again on his initiative, favored the Reformation in Oldenburg. At the beginning of May 1529 both succeeded Johann VI. to completely oust them from sovereignty. Anton I became Count of Oldenburg and, with the Treaty of Utrecht on October 26, 1529, brought the unification with East Frisia to a conclusion, also thanks to the mediating help of King Christian II of Denmark, who had been expelled from his country, and Floris van Egmond . In order to support the agreement, Anna , the sister of the Oldenburg counts, was married to Count Enno II of East Friesland in 1530 . The agreed marriage between Anton and Anna, the sister of the East Frisian Count, did not materialize due to illness and the rapid death of the East Frisian woman. In 1531 Anton was officially enfeoffed by Charles V with the county of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst. After the death of his brother Christoph in 1566, he became the sole Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.

Foreign policy

In addition to the agreement with Friesland, Anton also sought support from the Catholic Heinrich the Younger of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , who was the liege lord of the Oldenburg counts for Stadland and part of Butjadden's . Here he increasingly broke away from the influence of his brother Christophs. Anton held on to his close relationship with Heinrich the Younger for a long time and even offered him first refuge in Ovelgönne when the Schmalkaldic League expelled the Guelphs from his rule in 1542. Only when the people of Schmalkalden seemed to settle down in Wolfenbüttel for a long time and rapprochement seemed politically necessary, did Anton distance himself from him. When, in the Schmalkaldic War, imperial troops besieged Protestant Bremen from February to May 1547 , where Anton's brother Christoph had been canon since childhood , Anton allied himself with the Protestant commanders and assured them of support with soldiers, guns and provisions. In return, he won her approval for his attack on Delmenhorst , which was under the control of the Catholic diocese of Münster . The loss of Delmenhorst to the diocese of Münster had remained an open wound for the Oldenburg counts since 1482 and the - political or military - recapture of the city was one of their central foreign policy goals. Already in 1538 Anton had rather unwillingly allowed himself to be drawn into the bloody, but inconclusive Muenster feud that Christoph broke off the fence because of Delmenhorst . In 1547 an opportunity arose which Anton took advantage of and, with the backing offered by the Protestant side, was able to win back Delmenhorst for Oldenburg through a night raid on April 3rd. With the rule of Delmenhorst, he also moved a part of Stedingen under the Oldenburg rule, which should have been legally granted to the Archbishopric of Bremen .

Relationship to the Church

Anton drew the guidelines of his politics from the pragmatic needs to assert power, increase in authority and increase in property. This also marked his relationship to the Reformation , which Oldenburg reached around 1525 through some pastors, including students of Luther . As a religious movement, Anton was rather indifferent to the Reformation. However, he supported them, because they offered him the opportunities of material enrichment, which he used step by step, namely through secularization of monastery property, through reduction and partly through the collection of parish foundations , in particular from vicariates and in many places, particularly noticeable in the Wesermarsch , through access to church jewels and the Vasa Sacra of the parish churches. Because of the confiscated Johanniter goods, a long-term lawsuit ensued, which he finally won. An exception to the secularizations under Anton was the Rastede Monastery , which he left to his brother Christoph. He used the confiscated church property, among other things, for arming the country by expanding the fortifications. In the church's personnel policy, he remained cautious and also tolerated clergy who persisted in old faith. He also showed no zeal to regulate church life and services through a separate Oldenburg church order. It was only introduced in Oldenburg after his death in 1573 and thus much later than in other Protestant territories. Anton avoided religiously motivated partisans in his foreign policy. As sovereign he had no sense of responsibility for the salvation of his subjects' souls.

Domestic politics

The conquest of Delmenhorst in 1547 served Anton for the dynastic self-affirmation of the count's house and increased his income, the increase of which was one of his primary objectives. His special attention was given to the fertile marshland , which he developed into the basis of cattle breeding and the profitable ox trade. He had received access to this area from his father's expansion of power to Stadland and Butjadingen . So he concentrated the embankments begun by Johann V on these areas and, in contrast to his father, designated almost half of the new land directly to counts' Vorwerke and thus became their direct landowner. He was also keen to increase the number of farms subject to tax and interfered in the peasant ownership of the Frisian Wesermarsch. He tried, for example, by legal means, such as pressure, to take farmland and push free owners down to tenants after Meierrecht . In Butjadingen he forced services and taxes from free peasants without considering their legal position. Like his father before him, he was pursuing a policy of restricting the old Frisian freedom through his sovereign authority. Since 1567 the Butjadinger farmers tried to defend themselves with legal remedies and also obtained - in 1568 and 1571 - settlements brokered by their liege lord Heinrich the Younger of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, which, however, did not result in any fundamental change in Anton's behavior. Only after his death did the situation in Butjadingen relax. Anton's rule was marked by profit-oriented selfishness, hardship and intolerant self-righteousness, which, however, corresponded to the more general trend towards the expansion of sovereign authority and which benefited Oldenburg in its realization. With his rigorous management style, Anton ruled the comparatively small county in a manorial style. However, this enabled him to advance its development into a state with a territorially closed state area and approaches to a central state administration. Furthermore, he succeeded in reducing regional special rights and reforming the judiciary by incorporating references to Roman law . He kept estates and churches under close control. The small knighthood , the Oldenburg city council, the canons of St. Lamberti in Oldenburg and other state representatives served Anton to legitimize the change of rule of 1529, but otherwise could not establish themselves as a permanent class counterweight to the state rule. Anton was too economically superior to the Oldenburg nobility - insofar as they still existed in Anton's time - to have to rely on his tax permits, and also the cities of Oldenburg and, even more so, since 1547, the small town of Delmenhorst, lacked the strength to be politically independent. Anton's way of ruling lived out of his egoism of power, but it strengthened the fundamental stability of state rule in Oldenburg.

progeny

The premature death of the East Frisian count daughter and sister Anna repealed the Oldenburg-East Frisian marriage agreement of 1529, which had been agreed between the two counties as part of the settlement. On January 1, 1537, Anton was able to marry Duchess Sophie von Sachsen-Lauenburg († October 7, 1571 in Oevelgönne) in Oldenburg, a daughter of Duke Magnus I of Sachsen-Lauenburg-Ratzeburg and Katharina von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. They had the following children:

  • Katharina (8 August 1538 - 1 February 1620)
⚭ 1561 Count Albrecht II of Hoya (* 1526 - † March 18, 1563)
  • Anna (April 3, 1539 - August 25, 1579)
⚭ February 16, 1566 Count Johann Günther I von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (* December 20, 1532; † October 28, 1586)
  • John VII (September 9, 1540 - November 12, 1603)
⚭ 1576 Elisabeth von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (born April 13, 1541 - † December 26, 1612)
  • Christian (7 November 1544 - 6 August 1570)
  • Clare (November 1, 1547 - May 30, 1598)
  • Anton II (8 September 1550 - 25 October 1619)
⚭ 1600 Sibylle Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Dannenberg (* June 4, 1576; † July 9, 1630)

After his death, his son Johann VII followed him as Count of Oldenburg.

literature

Web links

Commons : Anton I.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Johann V. Oldenburg Stammwappen.png
Count of Oldenburg
1526–1573 		John VII
personal data
SURNAME Anton I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anton I. Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nobleman, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst
DATE OF BIRTH 1505
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1573
Place of death Oldenburg