Conrad Holck

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Conrad Holck

Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Graf Holck (born September 28, 1745 on Orebygaard ( Lolland ), † December 7, 1800 in Kiel ) was a Danish court marshal and bailiff.

Live and act

Conrad Holck was a son of Lieutenant General Christian Christopher Holck on Orebygaard (* August 24, 1698; † September 23, 1774 in Holckenhavn ) and his wife Ermengard Sophie, née Freiin von Winterfeldt (* January 1, 1702 in Nijmegen ; † March 25 1756 in Holckenhavn). The family belonged to the Danish noble family von Holck with Henrik Holk as a well-known general of the Thirty Years' War . He had several older siblings, the sisters Hilleborg (1739-1817), Margrethe (1741-1826) and Caroline Sophie (1742-1811), married to Theodosius Levetzau , as well as the brothers Flemming (1732-1772) and Gustav Friedrich Holck-Winterfeldt (1733-1776).

Favorite of Christian VII.

Holck served as a page and junker at court from his early youth and was known to the Crown Prince, who was only a few years younger, from childhood. A year after 16-year-old Christian VII succeeded his father as king in 1766, Holck was appointed court marshal . Holck developed into the king's closest confidante and led the dissolute life at the royal court and in the inns of Copenhagen. Due to his proximity to the king, he also acquired considerable political influence and promoted Russian interests at court. So he ensured the dismissal of Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil , the Swiss-born, Enlightenment-inclined tutor of the king, and the French-born General Saint-Germain - probably mainly because he was a competitor in them for influence on the King saw. He also actively worked to ensure that the king did not develop a relationship with his young wife Caroline Mathilde . Instead, he arranged the king's acquaintance with the prostitute Stiefel-Cathrine. After the dismissal of Louise von Plessen , the Queen's chief steward , he made sure that his sister Margrethe, former maid of the Princess Louise and married von der Lühe since 1767, received this office.

As a royal favorite, Holck rose quickly. In 1767 he received the Ordre de l'union parfaite . In 1768 he was made a knight of the Dannebrog . In April he married 16-year-old Christine von Stockfleth, a wealthy heiress. However, she died of smallpox just three weeks after the marriage . Holck had to return the 80,000 Reichstaler dowry to her family.

A few days before his wife's death, Holck set out on May 6, 1768 as the king's companion on his journey through Germany, France and England. He usually traveled in the same carriage as the king. During this time, Holck was appointed Grand-Maître de la Garderobe et Surintendant des menues Plaisirs as a privy councilor. In this position he provided entertainment for the king through plays, masquerades and music. As a travel doctor for the mentally unstable king, he won Johann Friedrich Struensee , a poor doctor from Altona . In Oxford, Holck was awarded an honorary doctorate in law together with the king and other travel companions .

After returning from the trip, he was appointed to the Secret Conference Council. However, the more Struensee gained the trust of the royal couple, the more Holck lost the king's goodwill. Caroline Mathilde also urged him to be removed from the royal court. In July 1770 he had to give up all offices, from 1771 he received no further pension. The latter, however, was not a measure directed against him personally, but was part of the financial reform initiated by Struensee, in connection with which u. a. expenses for court posts that were considered superfluous were canceled. Holck then sold all Danish goods and was no longer politically active.

His older brother Gustav, who had become a member of the finance deputation in 1768 and a privy councilor in 1769, was one of those dismissed. His sister Margrethe von der Lühe also lost her position as the Queen's chief steward. However, after Struensee's fall and Caroline Mathilde's banishment, she was able to take the same position with Juliane Marie , the king's stepmother.

Squire and bailiff

After the death of his first wife and his return from the European tour of the King Holck had the only 12-year-old Juliane Sophie Danneskiold-Laurvig, the daughter of the September 1769 Lehnsgrafen of Larvik Christian Conrad Danneskiold-Laurvig married. In 1770 he bought Gut Eckhof near Strande . There he settled after his removal from royal service and the sale of his Danish goods and had a new manor house and a spacious park built. In 1774 the previous Meierhof was upgraded to an independent aristocratic estate . Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld reported on this English-style park in his theory of garden art . Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock often visited Holck and his wife here and wrote the Ode Mein Wäldchen for them in 1778 . Carl Friedrich Cramer reported in Klopstock. (In fragments from letters from Tellow to Elisa) about life on Eckhof and dedicated the work to Holck's wife. As part of enlightenment approaches, Holck released his peasants from serfdom in 1786 and converted them into leases.

In 1789 he became bailiff of Kiel , Kronshagen and Bordesholm . In early 1790 his wife died a few weeks after giving birth to the ninth child. A little later he sold Gut Eckhof, possibly due to financial problems. After that he lived in Bordesholm until the end of his life . Here he was considered a cheerful and reckless patriarch and host. Numerous visitors, including Jens Immanuel Baggesen and Johann Georg Rist , a college friend of his son Conrad, praised the festivities as the " Ancien Régime of Joy". In 1798 Holck married a third time.

family

Holck married Christine von Stockfleth on April 20, 1768 in Copenhagen (* May 4, 1751 on Ulriksholm ( Funen ); † May 13, 1768 in Copenhagen). She was the only posthumously born daughter of Christian von Stockfleth (1715–1750) and his second wife Margrethe von Heinen (1730–1805). The marriage ended after three weeks due to the death of the young woman.

On September 28, 1769 he married Juliane Sophie Countess Danneskiold-Laurvig in Copenhagen (born January 12, 1757 in Copenhagen; † January 11, 1790 in Kiel). She was the daughter of Lehnsgrafen of Larvik Christian Conrad Danneskiold-Laurvig (1723-1783) and Sophie Dorothea of Holstein (1713-66). From this marriage there were three sons and six daughters.

  • Sophie Dorothea Louise (1774–1863) ⚭ August 22, 1792 Hans Detlev von Hammerstein-Loxten
  • Conrad Christoffer (1775-1810)
  • Anna (1778–1855) married Johann Erich von Berger .
  • Friederike Ernestine, called Ina, (* October 24, 1784; † 1838) was the foster daughter of Friederike Juliane von Reventlow after the early death of her mother . She married the French diplomat and politician Joseph Marie comte de Portalis (1778-1858), from 1829 President of the Court of Cassation in Paris, who together with his father Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis had found refuge on Gut Emkendorf during the French Revolution .
  • Luisa Augusta (born September 3, 1786; † April 14, 1867) ⚭ Henning Bendix von Qualen (1777-1853)
  • Julius Carl Christian (December 9, 1789 - 1857)

In his third marriage, Holck married Elisabeth Christine Anna Baroness von Ende on April 24, 1798 in Stade (born August 28, 1761 in Celle ; † May 1, 1823 in Preetz ). The couple had a daughter, Adelheit Ermengard (* 1799).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Kr. Höst: Foreign trip of King Christian VII in 1768 . In: Copenhagen Stock Exchange Hall , No. 9, 10, 11 u. 12 (edited and re-edited by Friedemann Prose (Kiel, 2012))
  2. ^ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Doctor, enlightener and statesman. Stuttgart 1989, p. 159.
  3. ^ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Doctor, enlightener and statesman. Stuttgart 1989, p. 207.
  4. ^ Johann Georg Rist: Memoirs , p. 143
personal data
SURNAME Holck, Conrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holck, Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Graf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish court marshal and bailiff
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1745
PLACE OF BIRTH on Orebygaard ( Lolland )
DATE OF DEATH 7th December 1800
Place of death Kiel