Anton von Schlieffen

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Anton von Schlieffen or Schlieff (born July 11, 1576 in Köslin , † September 7, 1650 in Stettin ) was an officer from Pomerania in imperial and Swedish services.

Life

Anton von Schlieffen was a son of Lorenz von Schlieffen († 1580) and his wife Katharine, daughter of the Köslin councilor Sander. After receiving home tuition from Joachim Micraelius, he went to Königsberg University at the age of 15 to study for three years. He then became a page with Duke Philip II of Pomerania for a short time before embarking on a military career.

Turkish war in Hungary

During the Long Turkish War he fought in Hungary in 1594 and 1595 . After his regiment abdicated in 1597, he traveled to Livonia . On the onward journey to Moscow he was taken prisoner by the Poles, but came through the intercession of the Pomeranian dukes Barnim X. (XII.) And Casimir VI. (IX.) Free again. With mercenaries he had recruited himself, he went back to the Turkish war in Hungary as captain in Colonel von Pentz's regiment . With most of the regiment he was taken prisoner by the Turks, from which he was only released after a peace agreement was made 22 months. After that he was stationed at the border fortress Komorn until 1606 .

Bohemia

Because of the conflict between Emperor Rudolf II and his brother Matthias , he resigned from the imperial military service and went to Prague . The evangelical estates of Bohemia gave him the supreme command over Pilsen . On behalf of Philipp Hainhofer he obtained pictures for the family book of Duke Philip II of Pomerania, which he sent to Stettin.

After the situation had changed in favor of the imperial camp, he returned to the imperial service as a lieutenant colonel in the regiment of Prince Karl von Liechtenstein . Because of the increasing persecution of the evangelical believers, he had to give up his position in 1627 and sell his estate Warensdorf and his house in Prague far below their value.

In 1628 he belonged to an embassy that Duke Bogislaw XIV had sent to Prague to ask for protection because of the occupation of Pomerania by imperial troops. Because of his knowledge of the situation and an advance payment of 10,000 Reichstalers, he was very useful to the Duke. In the same year he went to Pomerania, where the Duke pledged the Torgelow office to him for his services . After the occupation of Pomerania by the Swedes from 1630, the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf had the office move in, leaving it to his secretary Philipp Sattler.

Electorate of Saxony

Schlieffen was in Wallenstein's favor, whose life he is said to have saved during the Turkish wars, and was used by him as a negotiator during the siege of Stralsund , among other things . At the beginning of 1634 he accompanied Count Kinsky from Dresden to Wallenstein to Pilsen. From there he returned to Dresden to persuade Hans Georg von Arnim , the commander of the Saxon army, to negotiate personally with Wallenstein and to inform Elector Johann Georg I about Wallenstein's plans. In February 1634 he stayed again in Pilsen, where he was sent from Lípa to Silesia with a letter from Adam Erdmann Trčka to convey secret orders from Wallenstein to Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch . He was arrested on February 22, 1634 in Prague and taken to Vienna for examination . Despite threats of torture, he managed to maintain his allegation of ignorance of Wallenstein's plans. Instead, he reported on an offer of peace by the Saxon elector who wanted to support the emperor against the Swedes. After about a year he was released and went back to Dresden. He stayed in contact with the Bohemian opposition, particularly with Countess Thurn. Due to careless statements about the relationship between the emperor and the Saxon electorate, he lost the favor of the elector and had to leave the country with his family in 1637.

Swedish Pomerania

In the following years he stayed in Breslau , Thorn and Danzig . After the death of his wife in 1644 he went to Pomerania and entered Swedish services. He came back into the possession of the Torgelow pledge. In 1647 he was appointed to the council of war and promoted to colonel. In 1648 he became castle captain in Stettin , where he died two years later and was buried in the Marienkirche .

Anton von Schlieffen had been married to Anna († 1644), the daughter of War Commissarius Nicolaus Schwarzenberger von Hersemersitz, since May 13, 1618. A son and a daughter survived him:

  • Katharina Martha ⚭ 1648 Peter von Weyher, Herr auf Labehne
  • Nikolaus Ernst ⚭ Sophie Hedwig von Wachholtz

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A daughter of District Administrator Wilhelm von Wachholtz , heir to Torpislaff, Multzow and Schrubtow
personal data
SURNAME Schlieffen, Anton von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schlieffen, Anton; Schlieff, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Officer in the imperial and Swedish service
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1576
PLACE OF BIRTH Koslin
DATE OF DEATH 7th September 1650
Place of death Szczecin