Christian I. (Anhalt-Bernburg)
Christian I (born May 11, 1568 in Bernburg ; † April 17, 1630 ibid) was the ruling Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg until his death , and from 1595 governor of the Upper Palatinate .
Life
He was the second son of Prince Joachim Ernst von Anhalt († 1586) and his first wife, Countess Agnes von Barby († 1569). From 1570 he was trained by Caspar Gottschalk in Dessau , mainly in Latin , Italian and French . As a child he was allowed to take part in diplomatic missions (including to Constantinople). Gifted and widely traveled, he developed into an ambitious, urbane diplomat.
At the beginning of 1586 he went to Dresden and stayed there for several years as the closest friend of his namesake, the Saxon Elector Christian I , whose Calvinist sympathies he shared, although he suffered from excessive alcohol at the Dresden court.
When the Strasbourg diocese dispute broke out in 1592 , he supported Brandenburg against Lorraine . In 1595 he entered the service of Elector Frederick IV of the Palatinate as governor of the Upper Palatinate and resided in Amberg . In the year he was appointed, on July 2, he married Countess Anna von Bentheim-Tecklenburg († 1624) , who was eleven years his junior .
At the age of 37 he publicly confessed to Calvinism and in 1608 founded the Protestant Union under the leadership of Friedrich V of the Palatinate , an anti-Catholic, anti-imperial association that was supposed to stabilize the Reformation.
With the succession of 18-year-old Friedrich V of the Palatinate to the throne in 1610, Christian's influence at the Heidelberg court grew. As the fatherly adviser of the young and inexperienced elector, he played a key role in his elevation to King of Bohemia ("Winter King"). In addition to the possibility of creating a new Central European power, there were also economic considerations why he wanted to help his employer to the crown. The Upper Palatinate was the European iron center at that time; Bohemia was a hot spot for the tin and glass trade. Merging could have meant a new export power in a central location. ( For details of Christian's activities in the Palatinate, see the article Friedrich V (Palatinate) . )
Prince Christian I was accepted into the Fruit Bringing Society in 1619 by his half-brother, Prince Ludwig I of Anhalt-Köthen . This gave him the company name of the longing and the motto after you . A long stalk full of sunflowers after the solstice ( Helianthus annuus L. ) was given to him as an emblem. In the Koethen society register there is the entry of Prince Christian under the number 26. There the rhyme law is also noted, with which he thanks for the admission:
- Meyn mouths it all say
- That may please you
- Meyn Hertz have nothing to do with him,
- That you are my rock O Lord.
- And my Heylant complained
- Angry or penultimate.
In the battle of the White Mountain (November 8, 1620) the Bohemian army led by Christian I was defeated by the army of the Catholic League . Christian was ostracized and fled into exile in Sweden and from there to Flensburg in Denmark . The union dissolved in 1621. Prince Ludwig sent Diederich of Werder the emperor to Vienna to the lifting of outlawry to obtain that on July 19, 1624 Christian I allowed to Schloss Bernburg return.
Prince Christian I died on April 17, 1630 at the age of 62 in Bernburg. During his lifetime he had a family crypt built into the St. Aegidien Castle Church in Bernburg and was the first Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg to be buried in it. His son, Prince Christian II von Anhalt-Bernburg , who was born in Amberg in 1599, succeeded him in the government.
His “diary” or diary, the original of which Johann Christoph Beckmann still had, has not survived.
progeny
Christian I married Anna (1579–1624), daughter of Count Arnold III in 1595 . from Bentheim-Tecklenburg . Of five sons and eleven daughters, only three sons and six daughters survived him:
- Friedrich Christian (* / † 1596)
- Amalie Juliane (1597–1605)
- Christian II (1599–1656), Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg
- ⚭ 1625 Princess Eleonore Sophie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (1603–1675)
- Eleonore Marie (1600–1657)
- ⚭ 1626 Duke Johann Albrecht II of Mecklenburg (1590–1636)
- Daughter (* / † 1601)
- Sibylle Elisabeth (1602–1648)
- Anna Magdalene (1603-1611)
- Anna Sophie (1604-1640)
- Luise Amalie (1606–1635)
- Ernst (1608–1632)
- Amoena Juliane (1609-1628)
- Agnes Magdalene (1612-1629)
- Friedrich (1613–1670), Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode
- ⚭ 1. 1642 Countess Johanna Elisabeth von Nassau-Hadamar (1619–1647)
- ⚭ 2. 1657 Countess Marie Elisabeth zur Lippe-Detmold (1612–1659)
- Sophie Margarete (1615–1673)
- ⚭ 1651 Prince Johann Kasimir von Anhalt-Dessau (1596–1660)
- Dorothea Mathilde (1617-1656)
- Friedrich Ludwig (1619–1621)
literature
- Johann Christoph Beckmann : History of the Principality of Anhalt , 7 parts, Zerbst 1710 (Ndr. Dessau 1995).
- Cancer: Christian von Anhalt and the politics of the Electorate of the Palatinate at the beginning of the Thirty Years War. Leipzig 1872.
- Walter Krüssmann: Ernst von Mansfeld (1580–1626); Count's son, mercenary leader, war entrepreneur against Habsburg in the Thirty Years War . Berlin 2010 (Duncker & Humblot, Historical Research , Vol. 94; previously Phil. Diss. Cologne 2007); ISBN 978-3-428-13321-5 (on Anhalt's policy, pp. 81–86, 98 ff., 134–139, 170–176 and more often).
- Anneliese Tecke: The Electoral Palatinate Politics and the Outbreak of the Thirty Years War. Hamburg 1931 DNB 571607845 (Dissertation University of Hamburg, Philosophical Faculty 1931, 119 pages).
- Ernst-Joachim Westerburg: Prince Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg and political Calvinism . Thalhofen: Bauer, 2003.
- House of Bavarian History (Ed.): The Winter King. Friedrich of the Palatinate. Bavaria and Europe in the age of the Thirty Years War . Stuttgart: Theiß 2003. ISBN 3-8062-1810-2 (exhibition catalog; Christian I. von Anhalt-Bernburg is also dealt with in detail).
- Amberg City Archives: Royal splendor in Amberg . Amberg 2004 (lectures at the 2003 state exhibition).
- Otto von Heinemann : Christian I, Prince of Anhalt . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 145-150.
- Friedrich Hermann Schubert: Christian I, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , pp. 221-225 ( digitized version ).
- Wolfgang Klose: The Wittenberger Scholar's Studbook: the studbook of Abraham Ulrich (1549–1577) and David Ulrich (1580–1623), Halle: Mitteldt. Verl., 1999, ISBN 3-932776-76-3 .
- Klaus Deinet: Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg (1568–1630). A biography of failure , Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag 2020 (History in Science and Research), ISBN 978-3-17-038316-6 .
See also
Web links
- Publications by and about Christian I in VD 17 .
- Correspondence from Christian I in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Johann Georg I. |
Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg 1606–1630 |
Christian II |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Christian I. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 11, 1568 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bernburg (Saale) |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 17, 1630 |
| Place of death | Bernburg (Saale) |