Carl Rudolf (Württemberg-Neuenstadt)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Rudolf
Carl Rudolf, depiction around 1770

Carl Rudolf (born May 29, 1667 in Neuenstadt am Kocher ; † November 17, 1742 ibid) was Duke of Württemberg and third in the Württemberg-Neuenstadt sideline , which died out in the male line when he died. He made a name for himself as a military leader in the Danish and imperial service.

Life

Carl Rudolf was the youngest son of Friedrich , who founded the Württemberg-Neuenstadt branch in 1649, and his wife Clara Augusta von Braunschweig. The members of this line were owned by the Württemberg offices of Neuenstadt , Möckmühl and parts of Weinsberg and carried the title of duke, but had no sovereign rights; these remained with the main line.

education

The young duke received a befitting upbringing, which brought him to the Collegium illustrious in Tübingen at the age of 15 . In 1684 he was sent to Strasbourg for further training , where he stayed for a year. Then the cavalier tour took him via Geneva and southern France to Paris , where he spent seven months at the court of the "Sun King" Louis XIV . He returned home via London and northern Germany.

Military career

As a later son with no prospect of rule in the country, he decided to pursue a military career. As early as 1687 he joined the Württemberg regiment that took part in the war between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire in Greece; for this purpose Carl Rudolf set up his own company of 150 men, which he commanded as captain. For two years he was involved in the fighting on Morea (today's Peloponnese) and Negroponte (today's Euboea). During the ultimately unsuccessful siege of Negroponte, he was hit in the chest by a musket ball , but survived. The bullet remained in his lungs until his death and was found during the autopsy .

When Carl Rudolf returned to Württemberg at the beginning of 1690, the War of the Palatinate Succession had broken out and had spread to half of Europe. Carl Rudolf entered the service of Denmark , which took part in the war in Ireland with an auxiliary corps, where France supported the deposed Catholic King James II against the Protestant King William of Orange ; Carl Rudolf's older brother, General Ferdinand Wilhelm , was in command of the Danish troops . The two brothers fought together in the victorious Battle of the Boyne and other endeavors.

In 1692 the two brothers were relocated to the Dutch theater of war and fought in the battles near Steenkerke and Neerlösungen . After the end of the Palatinate War of Succession, the Danish king sent them to what is now Ukraine, where they fought the Turks together with Polish-Saxon troops in 1698/99. In 1700 they also took part together in the Great Northern War , from which Denmark, however, left again in the same year without success. Ferdinand Wilhelm then ended his military career.

Only a year later, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out, in which a coalition led by France stood against a British-Dutch-Habsburg alliance. Denmark supported the latter alliance, and Carl Rudolf was given command of the 12,000 men dispatched to support the Netherlands. For his actions in 1702 he received the highest Danish award, the Elephant Order . In 1704 he took part in the battle of Höchstädt with his Danish corps . He distinguished himself at Ramillies 1706 and Malplaquet 1709 and played a decisive role in the two victories. At the end of the war he was made the commanding general of the entire Danish army .

Denmark had meanwhile re-entered the Great Northern War. Carl Rudolf was given the task of conquering Stralsund from the Swedes, which he succeeded in 1715 after a long siege.

Reign in Neuenstadt

In 1716 Carl Rudolf's eldest brother Friedrich August , who had taken over the government in Neuenstadt in 1682, died. Since Friedrich August died without male descendants and Ferdinand Wilhelm was no longer alive either, the inheritance fell to Carl Rudolf. Therefore, after more than 25 years, he said goodbye to the Danish army and moved back home. In 1729 Carl Rudolf was appointed imperial field marshal. In the course of the War of the Polish Succession against France, Carl Rudolf was entrusted with the supervision of the fortresses along the Upper Rhine .

After the reigning Duke of the main line in Stuttgart, Karl Alexander , died in early 1737 , Carl Rudolf was the closest relative of the reign of the underage Carl Eugen . Karl Alexander's rule had turned civil servants and estates against him because he brought in the Jewish financial advisor Joseph Süss Oppenheimer to reorganize the bankrupt state finances and renew the backward administrative and economic apparatus in Württemberg , who resorted to several unpleasant measures (e.g. tax on civil servants' salaries). To calm the anger, Carl Rudolf tacitly accepted the judicial murder of Oppenheimer. Soon afterwards, now over 70 years old, he felt that his health was no longer up to the task of regent, and in August 1738 he resigned this task to Karl Friedrich from the Württemberg-Oels line and returned to Neuenstadt.

At the end of 1742 he contracted a catarrh , of which he died on November 17th in Neuenstadt. With his death, the Württemberg-Neuenstadt line became extinct. He was buried in the crypt of the Nikolauskirche .

family

Carl Rudolf remained unmarried throughout his life. However, he lived together with Maria Theresia de la Contry († 1748) at the latest since 1710 and regarded this connection as a “marriage before God”. The couple had no children. Maria Theresa had the title of imperial countess from 1737 and after Carl Rudolf's death took her widow's seat in Kilian's house in Weinsberg , she was buried in the parish church of St. Dionysius in Neckarsulm in 1748 .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Eberlein: Maria Theresia. In: Sönke Lorenz , Dieter Mertens , Volker Press (eds.): Das Haus Württemberg. A biographical lexicon. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-17-013605-4 , p. 229.
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich August Duke of Württemberg, Neuenstadt line
1716 - 1742 		---
personal data
SURNAME Carl Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carl Rudolf of Württemberg-Neuenstadt; Karl Rudolf; Württemberg-Neuenstadt, Carl Rudolf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Württemberg, Neuenstadt line
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuenstadt am Kocher
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1742
Place of death Neuenstadt am Kocher