Christoph von Taxis

Christoph von Taxis (* around 1529; † after March 24, 1589 ) was court postmaster under Ferdinand I. His history is closely linked to the Augsburg post office.

origin

Christoph von Taxis, who was probably born in 1529, was a son from the second marriage of the later Augsburg postmaster (Johann) Anton and his wife Ursula Meyer. To this day, it is controversial among postal historians whether Johann Anton and Anton are identical people. Christoph von Taxis was married to Regina (Rosina) von Taxis, a daughter of the Postmaster General Johann Baptista von Taxis , from March 3, 1551 . The following is known about his origins: On February 27, 1514, Christoph's father, along with his father Christoph and two other members of the Taxis family, the brothers Seraphin and Bartholomäus, received the simple letter of nobility from Maximilian I. Christopher's father took over in 1522 finally the Augsburg post office, which I both Ferdinand and for Charles V was active.

Disputes over the operation of the Augsburg post office

After Anton's death in 1542, the two Augsburg post offices were separated. Anton's son Johann from his first marriage took over the court post office and Seraphin I took over the imperial post office, which is confirmed by the award document from Franz II von Taxis . Seraphin leased the office to Ambrosius von Taxis, the second son from Johann Anton's first marriage. The guardian of the children from Anton's second marriage protested in court against Johann's takeover of the Hofpost in Augsburg. The widow Ursula Meyer demanded the management of this post office for her underage son Christoph.

Christoph's takeover of the Augsburg court post office

Augsburg post office 1616

In 1546 the Protestant council of Augsburg went into opposition to the emperor. The city fortifications were expanded and the post office in front of the city gate was torn down. The brothers Johann and Ambrosius resigned from their offices and fled. Ambrosius died that same year.

In 1550, Christoph von Taxis, who was still a minor, took over the Augsburg court post office. At first, Christoph was still under the tutelage of the Innsbruck postmaster Joseph von Taxis and the Bozen postmaster Ludwig von Taxis. Rudolf Höflich was Christoph's post administrator in Augsburg. In 1551 Christoph married Regina von Taxis, a daughter of the late Postmaster General Johann Baptista von Taxis and sister of the incumbent Brussels Postmaster General Leonhard I. von Taxis . In 1552 Christoph appeared publicly for the first time by replacing the Augsburg administrator Rudolf Höflich with Mundin von Paar in Augsburg.

Lease of the Spanish Post Office

The Imperial Spanish post office in Augsburg was again administered by Seraphin I from 1550. After his death in 1556, Seraphin's brother Bartholomew's two sons were to succeed him. However, Georg renounced the office in favor of his underage brother Seraphin II von Taxis , which had been given to Christoph v. For six years until Seraphin came of age. Taxis were leased.

New postal rates, court postmaster

Christoph von Taxis, like his Brussels brother-in-law Leonhard I von Taxis, endeavored to improve his income. For example, he tried to introduce foreign delivery of letters to the Hofpost, but the postmasters in Vienna, Innsbruck and Trento refused to deliver such letters. In the autumn of 1558, Christoph received postal instructions from Emperor Ferdinand in Vienna for the post office in Augsburg, where he was forbidden to use official mail outside of the country.

Ferdinand's post coordinator Matthias von Taxis died on January 11, 1559, and Ferdinand appointed Christoph his successor at the Reichstag in Augsburg. At the same time he approved the establishment of a weekly Ordinari-Post from Augsburg to Venice, since Christoph and Roger von Taxis shared the costs. Afterwards, Christoph stayed almost exclusively in Vienna or Prague.

Inspection trip

In autumn 1561 Christoph von Taxis received the order from the Kaiser to investigate a post robbery in the Hunsrück and to have the guilty arrested. One month after the imperial instructions, passport letters and letters of recommendation were available, Christoph rode with a few servants on the court post route from Prague to Augsburg. After initial inquiries, he followed the Dutch postal route to Deizisau and Cannstatt , where he stayed for a week, but delegated the interviews to the Deizisau post office operator. Then Christoph rode to Rheinhausen , Speyer and Worms , where he continued the investigations. Then he traveled by ship to Koblenz and rode rental horses to Lieser , where there was a post office next to a ferry to the Hunsrück . There he concluded the interrogations by questioning two post office owners from the Hunsrück, after a detour via Trier rode to Brussels and sent a twenty-page report to the emperor. Ferdinand reprimanded Christoph's inaction and demanded that he carry out further investigations on site himself on the return journey. Nothing is known about Christoph's success or failure, except that in January 1564 he had the costs of the inspection trip reimbursed and that his position at court deteriorated.

The end of a career

In 1562 Christoph organized a postal course for the Polish king from Krakow via Vienna , Linz , Innsbruck , Trento to Venice. After complaints, the route ran via Vienna and Graz from September 1563 . In 1563 Christoph refused to return the Spanish-Burgundian post office in Augsburg, which had been leased for six years, to the rightful successor Seraphin II von Taxis. He needed this post office to secure the connection of his own ordinari post from Augsburg to Venice. Leonhard I von Taxis protested from Brussels and sent his brother Johann Baptista , who later served as a diplomat in the Spanish service, to Augsburg. Johann Baptista appointed the Füssen postmaster Innocent to be the administrator of the Dutch post office, and Christoph received an imperial warning on December 17, 1563.

After Emperor Ferdinand's death on July 25, 1564, the Habsburg hereditary lands were divided among his sons Maximilian , Ferdinand and Karl . This resulted in three independent post offices. A coordinator for the Hofpost was no longer needed, and so Christoph lost this office.

On August 24, 1564, the new emperor Maximilian II signed a contract with the postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis, according to which the two Augsburg post offices were merged and Brussels was placed under the control. The Füssen postmaster Innozenz von Taxis was to become the head of this new post office. The court post office in Augsburg was closed and the administrator dismissed. With that Christoph had lost all offices and his career in the postal service was over. Little is known about his subsequent life, except that he died after 1589.

progeny

In Deizisau there was a postmaster named Carlin von Taxis around 1590 , who died in 1628 at the age of about 63. After Kunert he was a son of Christoph von Taxis. Since the mother's name is not mentioned in any source, he was probably a natural, later legitimized son of a Protestant woman. Carlin is the progenitor of the middle-class Protestant branch of the Taxis family in Deizisau.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to the minutes of the Imperial City of Esslingen in 1562 (fol. 106), he stayed in Esslingen in February 1562: " Mr. Christoph von Taxis, Postmaster ".
2. ↑ Effenberger, From old postal files, p. 126.
3. ↑ Descent according to Kunert .
4. ↑ Otto von Alberti : Württembergisches Nobility and Arms Book. Published by the Württembergischer Altertumsverein , Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt ad Aisch 1975, ISBN 3-87947-105-3 , p. 808.

literature

• Hermann-Josef Becker: The post course Brussels - Innsbruck in the Eifel, Moselle and Hunsrück area , in: Postgeschichtliche Blätter (PgB) Saarbrücken 1962/1, p. 12–17, 1962/2, p. 4–10
• Wolfgang Behringer, Thurn and Taxis, Munich 1990
• Martin Dallmeier, Sources for the History of the European Postal Service, Kallmünz 1977
• Martin Dallmeier, in: Arch. FdPg 2/90, pp. 13–32
• Eduard Effenberger, History of the Austrian Post, Vienna 1913
• Eduard Effenberger, From old postal files, Vienna 1918
• Rudolf Freytag, in: AfPuT 1921/49, pp. 289–295
• Leo M. Gard , in: PgB Trier, 1966, p. 27f
• Ludwig Kalmus, World History of the Post, Vienna 1937
• Otto Lankes, The Post Office in Augsburg. . ., Dissertation, Munich 1914
• Joseph Rübsam, Johann Baptista von Taxis, Freiburg 1889
• Joseph Rübsam, in: AfPuT 1905, pp. 650–652.
• Ernst-Otto Simon: The postal course from Rheinhausen to Brussels over the centuries , in: Archive for German Postal History 1/1990, pp. 14–41

Weblinks to Christoph and Carlin von Taxis

• Descent according to Ralph Kunert
• Contribution to Carlin von Taxis ( Memento from December 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

See also

• Habsburg Post (1557–1597)