Caspar von Schönberg (officer)

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Caspar von Schönberg , in France Gaspard de Schomberg or Gaspard comte de Nanteuil-le-Haudouin , (* 1540 - March 17, 1599 ) was a French officer from the Saxon noble family Schönberg .

origin

His father was Wolf von Schönberg auf Schönau, war captain and official of Rochlitz, under Elector Moritz Field Marshal in the battle of Sievershausen , his mother Anna von Minckwitz from the Dohna family . His brothers were called Georg, Moritz and Hans Wolf von Schönberg , his sister Anna married Rudolf von Gersdorf on Güteborn, he had another sister named Margareta.

Life

In 1560 he attended the Academy of Johannes Sturm in Strasbourg and fought numerous duels. In 1561 he went to Angers, where he headed the defense of the city on May 5, 1562. Then he fled to Orleans to Condé . In July of the same year he led a French embassy to Zweibrücken and Kassel. Elector August of Saxony approved his entry into the service of the French crown. The Turkish procession with Henri Guise in 1566 was followed by a lifelong friendship. After his return to France he was appointed Chamberlain Charles IX. appointed.

In 1568 he commanded 1000 horsemen and fought against his own relative Dietz von Schönberg, who was on the side of the Huguenots . In December 1568 he persuaded Orange to leave. After he had fought for victory at Moncontour in 1569 , he was appointed Colonel des Bandes noires. In 1570 he was naturalized as a French (when he converted to Catholicism is not known). An embassy to Saxony, which he led, was welcomed, but in Mainz he and his brilliant entourage were mocked by Landgrave Wilhelm , who sympathized with the Huguenots.

During the Bartholomew Night he stayed as envoy in Germany. The French king sent him a courier to appease the angry Protestant princes. In fact, he succeeded in reconciliation with Hesse (he had "dug Wilhelm the fleurs de lys in the heart"). But Elector August refused to see him - he was tired. The Huguenot Hubert Languet from Dresden reported maliciously that the Elector wanted to have Schönberg beheaded. He hid on the family estate and returned to Paris in the same year.

He bought a house in Paris and summoned his brother Georg from Meißen, who was killed in the duel of the Mignons in 1578 .

In 1573 he campaigned as an envoy in Germany for the election of the Prince of Anjou as Polish king and convinced both the suspicious Johann Casimir of the Palatinate and Wilhelm of Hesse, only Saxony could not be talked into. Here Hubert Languet agitated for his candidate, Archduke Ernst . The Polish queen-widow Sophia gave Schönberg a bonus of 1,000 thalers. He sent his brother Hans Wolf to Denmark to allow the passage of 4,000 hookers from France to Poland. He made sure that the desperate Huguenots received no help from the Protestant countries of Germany that year.

In December he accompanied his candidate Anjou as a travel marshal to Poland. In Heidelberg he had to listen to warning words from the Count Palatine, who held up a picture of the murdered Huguenot Coligny to him.

When Anjou (Henri III) became King of France, Schomberg rose to the State Council. In 1578 he was appointed Comte de Nanteuil.

In April 1585, Henri III sent Schomberg went to Germany for help, but was arrested at the instigation of François de Bassompierre . As a recruiter for soldiers for the Catholic army, Schomberg then spoke to Joachim Ernst von Anhalt , who, however, did not hear him and Henri III. wrote that he should grant his subjects peace.

On April 15, 1586, Elector Christian I wrote to Caspar von Schönberg in France: he wanted to employ his brother Hans Wolf, who was in French service and had recruited a number of riders for the French crown, into service and appointed him court marshal; Caspar should present this to the king and obtain the resignation, which was done.

After the murder of Henri III. (August 2, 1589) Schomberg's sons were captured by the Catholic League. Henri fled, Annibal was freed by Charles II. De Lorraine, duc de Mayenne . Schomberg went to Saxony, he should take over the leadership of the German relief platoon against the league. But Elector Christian, influenced by his Chancellor Nikolaus Krell , did not trust Schomberg's change of heart. In return, Schomberg spread that Krell had been bribed by the Spanish.

Schomberg had recruited 700 horsemen in Germany to help Henri IV, whom he led via Basel into Bourgogne in April 1591. But with Elector Christian's death and Krell's arrest, the Saxon commitment to the Huguenots ended.

Schomberg's art of persuasion was partly thanks to Henri IV's conversion to the Catholic faith. He also helped to prepare the Nantes Edict of Tolerance.

family

In early 1572 he married the widow Jeanne de Chastaigner , with whom he had five children: Catherine (married to Louis de Barbançon), Henri , who later became Marshal of France, Marguerite, Françoise (married to François, Count von Lude) and Annibal.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dynastie de Schomberg ( Memento from March 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Schönberg, Caspar von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schomberg, Caspar von; Schönberg, Kaspar von; Schomberg, Gaspard de; Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, Gaspard comte de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general
DATE OF BIRTH 1540
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1599