Claus of torments

Claus von Qualen (born November 5, 1602 , † September 19, 1664 ) was the landlord of Siggen , bailiff of Trittau and Reinbek as well as Cismar and Oldenburg and the ducal-Holstein ambassador and diplomat .

Origin and education

Claus von Qualen was the son of the Danish court marshal Otto von Qualen (1541-1604) from the ancient Holstein family Qualen and his second wife Lucia von Pogwisch .

He was taught with his older brother Otto (1597–1635) by the Holstein poet Heinrich Hudemann . He then studied law, first from 1617 in Helmstedt , then in Heidelberg (1619), Leiden (1620) and finally in 1622 in Oxford . In 1623 Duke Friedrich III brought him . from Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf back to the court in Gottorf and appointed Qualen junior chamberlain . In 1627 he went to Padua to study, but returned to the Duchy of Holstein in 1630 and became district administrator in Trittau.

Magistrate in Holstein and envoy to the Danish court

Before 1641, Qualen became the bailiff of Trittau and Reinbek. In 1649 he moved to Cismar and Oldenburg as a clerk and later also took over the Neumünster office . After the death of Friedrich III. In 1659 the latter decreed in his will that in the absence of his son Duke Christian Albrecht, his widow Marie Elisabeth and the four bailiffs Claus von Qualen, Friedrich von Ahlefeldt , Paul von Rantzau and Wulf von Blome with the privy councilors at the Danish court Johann Graf Kielmannsegg and Levin Claus von Moltke should head the government. Besides the privy councilors, two of the four district administrators always had to be at court for six weeks. After the return of Duke Christian Albrechts from the Swedish camp from the Danish-Swedish War (1659–1660) , he promoted agony and appointed him ambassador to the Danish court of King Christian V in Copenhagen . The new alliance between Denmark and Holstein, concluded in 1661, was signed by Count Kielmannsegg and Moltke on behalf of the King and by Qualen and Blome on behalf of the Duke.

Torment as a Holstein diplomat and negotiator

In addition to his official offices, Qualen was one of the most important diplomats of his time and was appointed by Duke Friedrich III. used for many European agencies between 1632 and 1659.

As early as 1632 he was sent to the court of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony in Dresden , in order to mediate between Duke Friedrich III. von Holstein and King Christian IV of Denmark in the dispute to win the Christianpries fortress . In 1636 Qualen was back in Dresden, this time to negotiate an Elbe privilege proposed by Hamburg . In the winter of 1644/1645 he represented the Duke in the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia and in August 1645 took part in the negotiations that led to the Peace of Brömsebro and the end of the Torstenson War between Denmark and Sweden.

In 1654 Duke Friedrich entrusted him with the security of his daughter Hedwig Eleonora , who he then took to her promised husband, King Charles X Gustav of Sweden in Stockholm . In 1655 he was authorized to inventory the estate of Johann von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1606–1655), who ruled the prince-bishopric of Lübeck as Bishop Hans . When Schleswig was detached from the Danish fiefdom after the Peace of Roskilde in 1658 and the Danish king had to renounce the overlordship of the Gottorf portion, Qualen received these parts of Schleswig as a fiefdom for Duke Friedrich III. When he died in 1659, his widow not only commissioned Qualen to deliver the news of his death to Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg and Imperial Field Marshal Raimondo Montecuccoli , who were in Gottorf, but also authorized him to negotiate with the Elector.

family

Claus von Qualen had been married to Lucia Beate von Rantzau (1613–1643), the sister of Marshal Josias von Rantzau , from 1636 , but who died in the childbirth of the third daughter. His second daughter Anna Hedwig (1642-1717) was married to District Administrator Friedrich von Reventlow .

Claus von Qualen married Abel von Rantzau (1625–1699) for the second time in 1647, who after the early, violent death of her father in 1629 and the death of her mother in 1647, brought the Siggen estate into the marriage. She became the father of four daughters and one son. After his death, the well-known literature professor Daniel Georg Morhof published a funeral death report about Claus von Qualen.

literature

• Hans-Hellmuth Qualen : Those of Qualen. History of a noble family from Schleswig-Holstein. Mühlau, Kiel 1987, ISBN 3-87559-055-4 , pp. 151-160.
• Hermann Kellenbenz : From the Secret Consilium to the Secret Council College. A study on the history of the organization of the authorities in Gottorf. In: Journal of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History . Vol. 73, 1949, pp. 197-231, ( digitized version ).
• Ludwig Andresen, Walter Stephan: Contributions to the history of the Gottorf court and state administration from 1544–1659 (= studies and sources on the history of administration and economy in Gottorf from 1544–1659. 1–2 = sources and research on the history of Schleswig-Holstein. 14-15, ISSN  0173-0940 ). 2 volumes. Society for Schleswig-Holstein History, Kiel 1928.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andresen, Stephan: Contributions to the history of the Gottorfer court and state administration 1544-1659. Volume 1. 1928, p. 272.
2. ↑ Kellenbenz: From the Secret Consilium to the Secret Council College. In: Journal of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History. Vol. 73, 1949, pp. 197-231, here p. 205 .