Christian (Ortenburg)

Imperial Count Christian (born November 20, 1616 at Neudeck Castle near Bad Birnbach , † September 11, 1684 in Amberg ) was the youngest son of Count Georg IV and his wife Anna Maria Countess von Leiningen. He came from the esteemed Lower Bavarian noble family of Ortenburg . Together with his older brother Georg Reinhard , he succeeded in releasing the imperial county of Ortenburg from pledging in 1662 and leading the family of counts almost back to their former glory. From 1666 until his death in 1684 he was the counting count of Ortenburg. His reign was shaped by the longstanding conflict, the so-called Great Weaving Trial , with the weavers 'guild and the weavers' masters in his county.

Live and act

Youth and time to reign

Neudeck Castle near Bad Birnbach, Christian's birthplace.

Christian was born on November 20, 1616 at Neudeck Castle. Although his father Georg IV converted to the Catholic faith in 1612 for purely political reasons in order to end the conflict with the Wittelsbachers , which had been going on for decades , he was brought up as a Protestant due to his parents' attitude. It can be assumed that Christian spent most of his youth at Neudeck Castle.

During his studies at the Jesuit Gymnasium Munich (today Wilhelmsgymnasium Munich ), which he graduated in 1630, Christian and his brother changed to the Catholic faith in 1624, which the Jesuit order celebrated pompously. However, as with their father, the two counts changed their faith for purely political reasons. On the one hand they wanted to finish their studies without any problems, on the other hand they both hoped that this would later lead to important and influential positions. Her hopes continued to go through these offices to be able to acquire the county again later. Initially, this posed a threat to the Protestant faith in the imperial county of Ortenburg. Despite the change of faith, Christian's brother, Count Georg Reinhard , had his children raised in a Protestant manner. The fact that Count Christian became an increasingly religious Catholic over the years should lead to tensions between the two brothers in the following years.

On June 14, 1636, during his studies in Siena , Italy, Christian was appointed chamberlain and councilor of Maximilian I of Bavaria .

The increasing closeness of Christian to the Catholic faith and the resulting improved relationship to the now electoral Wittelsbach house became particularly evident in 1640. Christian married the daughter of Johann the Elder, Count Fugger zu Kirchberg and Weißenhorn, Maria Katharina in the electoral residence in Munich. This marriage brought Christian a rich dowry.

A year later he was given the office of carer in Eggenfelden . He held this until July 29, 1644.

Neu-Ortenburg Castle became Christian's ancestral seat for his family after the Imperial Counties were dissolved.

Over the years he and his brother Georg Reinhard tried to find donors for the release of the imperial county of Ortenburg and its Bavarian fiefdom. Since Count Joachim's death in 1600, the county had been pledged to his widow and her descendants. Most of the remaining fiefdoms were also pledged due to Count Friedrich Casimir's lavish lifestyle . The counts were financially very troubled. Christian and Georg Reinhard slowly seemed to be able to raise the amount they needed to buy the county free. So both signed a division and inheritance contract in 1660, if the redemption came about. It stipulated that Georg Reinhard would receive the ancestral castle Alt-Ortenburg and the surrounding properties, while Christian would receive Schloss Neu-Ortenburg and the surrounding property. The remaining income from the trade and the tax income from the town should be divided equally between the two lines. The ruling imperial count, however, should continue to operate under the law of Count Joachim, Ulrich III. and Johann III. , the then ruler of the individual houses, from 1566. This stipulated that there would be a senior succession and that only the eldest of the counts could rule. This should only represent and administer the county externally. Georg Reinhard and Christian also stipulated that the oldest son is always the inheritor of a line. Should one of their lines in the male tribe die out, the entire property would fall to the other line of the noble family. This already happened in 1684 after the death of Christian, who at that time did not expect to remain childless.

In 1662 the two brothers finally succeeded in releasing Ortenburg from Count Johann Joachim von Sinzendorf . On February 5, 1662, Emperor Ferdinand I accepted the sum and made it safe. At the same time, the county returned to the possession of the noble family. After 61 years, Ortenburg was again ruled entirely by the Ortenburg counts. Elector Maximilian I also commissioned the courts in Griesbach and Vilshofen to immediately release the confiscated fiefs in Bavaria to the two brothers. Thus, the Ortenburgers received back most of their other possessions in addition to sovereign rights for the county.

Reign

On September 4, 1666, the incumbent Count Georg Reinhard died at Alt-Ortenburg Castle . Due to the applicable seniority law, Christian followed him as regent. The official investiture took place on 13 November 1668 by Emperor Leopold I. instead.

During his reign, Christian continued to maintain close contact with the Bavarian elector. So on August 29, 1671 he was appointed to the real electoral secret council .

Kidnapping of the nephew and heir to the throne Georg Philipp

Due to the current inheritance law of the two brothers from 1660, Christian became the guardian of his brother's Protestant children. Among them was the future Count Georg Philipp . Since he was supposed to be the next imperial count, Christian demanded from his mother that Georg Philipp must convert to the Catholic faith. Countess Esther Dorothea was unwilling to obey her brother-in-law and tried to remove the children from their guardian's sphere of influence.

Just six days after her husband's death on September 10, 1666, she made a first attempt to escape. Disguised as a trip to distract the children, everyone set off for Regensburg together. Count Christian learned of the escape and hurried after them with some Bavarian horsemen. At Plattling he was finally able to catch the fleeing people. When everyone was back in Ortenburg, he threatened the countess to want to inform the emperor about her behavior. The countess then feared that she would lose the children entirely through an imperial decree and immediately planned a new escape, which was implemented that same night. Christian found out again about the escape and rode with his men again on the road in the direction of Regensburg. However, this time he couldn't find the refugees. These had fled to Ulm via the St. Nikola monastery near Passau and via Salzburg and Tyrol .

Since Christian still thought that the countess and the children were in Regensburg, he asked his friend Cardinal Guidobald Graf von Thun and Hohenstein to track down the children there. Its efforts were understandably unsuccessful.

Countess Esther Dorothea met with the Protestant Duke Eberhard III. von Württemberg, who was ultimately ready to take over the guardianship for the children. The future regent Georg Philipp was immediately sent to Tübingen to be educated and trained there.

When Christian finally found out about it, he immediately left the guardianship of Duke Eberhard III. dispute, which broke out a year-long conflict between him and Countess Esther over guardianship. Although Christian managed to enforce his legal guardianship in all instances (Kaiser, Perpetual Reichstag, arbitration awards), he was unable to bring the children back to Ortenburg.

Countess Esther Dorothea, Georg Philipp and his two sisters only returned to Ortenburg after Georg was of legal age. Thus Christian could no longer demand a change of faith from Georg Philip. This remained Protestant and thus secured the Protestant faith in Ortenburg. To this day, Ortenburg is an evangelical enclave in the Catholic area.

Curiously, after the hasty escape of his family, the body of his brother Georg Reinhards remained embalmed on a chair at Alt-Ortenburg Castle for years. Just before his return, Christian had his brother buried in a Catholic hereditary funeral in the Sixtus Chapel next to the Passau Cathedral . It is believed that he wanted to spare the family the horrific sight of the corpse, which had rotted despite embalming.

Great weaver trial (1671–1679)

In 1671 the Great Weaving Trial began in the imperial county . This was supposed to be an eight year conflict between the count and the local weavers.

The trigger was an exchange of words between master weavers Adam Sayler and Mathias Paueröker. In it Sayler called his interlocutor a rogue . However, this was seen as a violation of the guild rules, which forbade insulting or vilifying other master weavers. Paueröker then complained to the guild in Linz .

Adam Sayler then complained to Count Christian. He was afraid of being expelled from the guild and asked the count for his help. Christian understood the concerns of the weaver master, furthermore he saw the guild Linz as responsible only for Bavaria, but not for his free imperial county. The count then granted protection to Sayler. The weavers, in turn, complained to the count because of the interference in the craft and guild system, but were unsuccessful. The master weaver looked so forced against the imperial Reichshofrat to come and complain against the conduct of the count.

Count Christian felt betrayed and thereupon blocked trade with the Electorate of Bavaria for all local weaving mills. Trade ultimately remained blocked from 1672 to 1679. Furthermore, he had all goods in Ortenburg and the surrounding area confiscated. In the end he even prevented the weavers from doing their work in Ortenburg. With the help of the count's troops, he always had the weavers checked. If cloth is found on a loom during a search, it should be destroyed immediately. This inevitably led to the impoverishment of the weavers and their families. Out of their distress, they asked the Reichshofrat for help and went on to complain. However, the court did not react as the weavers wanted.

In 1679 an imperial commission finally brought the blockade to an end, but not the end of the process. The Commission negotiated a settlement with both parties. The weavers had to accept Adam Sayler back into their guild and apologize in writing to Count Christian. However, this did not lead to the hoped-for success for the weavers, because the trade ban remained in place even after the settlement. It was only after a master weaver was sent to Munich and the weavers made several requests to the count that the trade ban with Bavaria was lifted and the confiscated goods were released.

Governor of the Upper Palatinate and death

On January 3, 1680, Christian accepted the office of governor of the Principality of Upper Palatinate with his seat in Amberg. In spite of the high expenditure for him, he tried to consolidate the prosperity of his house and his position in the empire again with the rich income that this office brought with it. The new, rich income made it possible for him to redeem many of Friedrich Casimir's bonds and to repurchase goods. In his efforts to regain the Ortenburg possessions, however, he soon encountered resistance from the surrounding abbeys of St. Salvator and Aldersbach as well as the barons of Deuttenhofen and Münchsdorf. They tried to take multiple lawsuits against the Ortenburg count to prevent them from losing their influence. Count Christian won these trials through all instances. However, since he died on September 11, 1684, the judgment of the legal disputes has not yet become final. The dispute over these possessions would not be resolved until a century later.

Count Christian died in Amberg without a direct heir. In his will he disinherited the actual heir, his evangelical nephew Georg Philipp. Part of the market and half of the county of Ortenburg threatened to become heir to the Counts of Salm. However, Georg Philipp was able to win the inheritance lawsuit and claim the property for himself according to the inheritance contract from 1660.

At his will, Count Christian was buried in various places. His body was buried in the hereditary burial in the Sixtus Chapel in Passau, while his heart and entrails were buried in the Church of St. Martin in Amberg.

progeny

Count Christian was married to Countess Maria Katharina von Fugger. There are no children from this marriage.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich, 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976; Vol. 1, p. 59.
2. ^ Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , p. 37.
3. ^ ^{A b} Walter Fuchs: The seat burial of Count Georg Reinhard (1607-1666), p. 216 f.
4. ^ Heinz Hans Konrad Schuster: Ortenburg after the death of Count Joachim , p. 44 f.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , p. 74 ff.

literature

• Stefan Wild: The most important events after Count Joachim's death up to the year 1787. In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 202–207).
• Gunter Wieland: The Catholic Counts of Ortenburg after the Reformation. In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years of Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 216–217).
• Walter Fuchs: The seat burial of Count Georg Reinhard (1607-1666). In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 Years of Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 218–221).
• Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde, No. 36, Passau 1994 (p. 9 -62).
• Walter Fuchs: Seated burial of an Ortenburg count - legend or truth? In: Donau Bote, Volume 10, No. 12 of October 24, 1989 (pp. 30–31).
• Kurt Malisch: Ortenburg, Christian Graf von. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 563 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Heinz Hans Konrad Schuster: Ortenburg after the death of Count Joachim. In: Hans Schellnhuber (Hrsg.): 400 years Evang.-Luth. Kirchengemeinde Ortenburg 1563–1963 , Ortenburg 1963 (pp. 43–48).
• Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Christian in the CERL Thesaurus
• Family tree of the entire Ortenburg house

predecessor	Office	successor
Georg Reinhard	Count of Ortenburg 1666–1684	Georg Philipp