Corfitz Ulfeldt

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Corfitz Ulfeldt with the Elephant Order

Corfitz Ulfeldt (born June 10, 1606 at Hagenskov Castle near Assens , † February 20, 1664 in the Rhine between Basel and Neuchâtel ) was a Danish nobleman and statesman. He is considered the worst traitor in Danish history. In 1641 he was made an imperial count and in 1658 the Swedish count of Sölvesborg.

Life

Ulfeldt came from an old, influential noble family that was mentioned for the first time in 1186. His father Jacob Ulfeldt (1567–1630) had been Danish Chancellor since 1609 and played a major role in the fact that King Christian IV was elected in 1625 as colonel of the Lower Saxony Empire .

Training and advancement under Christian IV.

Corfitz Ulfeldt initially received his education at the famous Herlufsholm Latin School . His father, who himself had traveled for fourteen years from 1581, mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, sent him on a long-term study trip abroad in 1617 for training. He last studied with Cesare Cremonini in Padua in 1628/29 , before returning to Denmark in 1629 and gaining the favor of the king, who in 1630 betrothed him to his 9-year-old favorite daughter of Kirsten Munk , Leonora Christina von Schleswig-Holstein . The wedding took place in 1636.

Ulfeldt was awarded the Elephant Order as early as 1634 . In 1636 he became chancellor, a year later governor of Copenhagen . In 1641 he was granted the status of imperial count of the Holy Roman Empire and in 1643 he was finally appointed Danish court master. In the peace negotiations that ended the Torstensson War with Sweden , which was catastrophic for Denmark in 1645 , he was the head of the Danish delegation. He also made several trips to various European countries as a diplomat. Because of his appearance, however, he was unpopular with the nobility. His extravagance and the limited success of his diplomatic missions made even Christian IV suspicious towards the end of his life.

Declining influence under Friedrich III. and escape

After Christian IV's death in 1648, Ulfeldt was initially regent as imperial court master, but the new King Friedrich III. was not prepared to tolerate the leadership position of Kirsten Munk's sons-in-law and the presumptuous behavior of Ulfeld and his wife towards Queen Sophie Amalie . However, Ulfeldt was initially left in his offices.

In 1650 Dina Schumacher, b. Vinhofvers , lover of Lieutenant Jørgen Walter, who was admitted to the Danish nobility in 1649, said Ulfeldt was not only the father of her unborn child, but she had also heard from Ulfeldt's mouth that he wanted to poison the king. Behind this charge was probably Christian zu Rantzau , a former friend and now a competitor of Ulfeldt. Although this accusation was initially kept secret by the king, Ulfeldt's financial transactions as Reichshofminister were investigated for possible embezzlement of several hundred thousand thalers. Before a public investigation could take place, however, Dina Vinhofvers told Ulfeldt's confessor Simon Hennings in 1651 about an assassination attempt on the Ulfeldts planned by Walter. Worried, Ulfeldt asked the king for protection. New investigations led to the arrest of Dina, who was executed for perjury in 1651 after confessing that Walter had instigated her with her charges . However, Ulfeldt no longer felt safe in Copenhagen and fled to Holland . The Ulfeldt couple later went to Sweden. Queen Christina leased her Barth Castle in Pomerania to them.

Waste to Sweden

In 1656 Leonora Christina traveled to Denmark to live with her half-brother Friedrich III. to reconcile. Since this attempt was unsuccessful, Ulfeldt entered the service of the new Swedish King Karl X. Gustav and lent him money for his war against Denmark . He also convinced the governor of Nakskov on Lolland to submit to the Swedes. In 1658 he negotiated the peace of Roskilde on the Swedish side and became governor of Skåne , which Denmark had to cede to Sweden. The Swedish king appointed Ulfeldt Count of Sölvesborg on March 10, 1658.

But Ulfeldt soon sank in Karl X. Gustav's favor, who accused him of having betrayed Sweden to Denmark again and of being to blame for the defeat at the siege of Copenhagen in 1658/59. In May 1659 he was sentenced to death but pardoned so that he and his wife could leave Sweden.

Return to Denmark, again betrayal and death

He returned to Denmark in 1660, where he and his wife were arrested and held for a year and a half under humiliating conditions at Hammershus on Bornholm . During this time, the nobility was disempowered through the introduction of absolute monarchy by Friedrich III. At the end of 1661 Ulfeldt was released against swearing an oath of allegiance, but lost almost all of his property to the king. He and his wife moved to an estate on Funen that they had inherited from their grandmother Ellen Marsvin .

Schandmal with the inscription Forræderen Corfitz WF Till Æwig Spott, Skam og Skiendsel (The traitor Corfitz to eternal ridicule, shame and shame).

In 1662 Ulfeldt traveled to Bruges with his wife . Driven by a thirst for revenge, he offered Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg to incite a revolt in Denmark in order to secure the Danish throne for him in this way. The elector himself communicated this betrayal to the Danes, who sentenced Ulfeldt to death on July 24, 1663 for high treason in absentia . His property was confiscated and his children banished. In the place of his demolished house on Gråbrødretorv, a mark of shame was erected. He himself died on the flight from Riehen on February 20, 1664, already seriously ill on the Rhine between Basel and Neuchâtel .

Meanwhile, Leonora Christina had traveled on to England, where she asked Karl II to return the money Ulfeldt had lent him in 1649. On her departure she was arrested in Dover and extradited to Denmark in 1663 and imprisoned by her enemy, the Queen, in the Blue Tower in Copenhagen, where she languished for 22 years until after the Queen's death in 1685. She died in 1698.

Of the ten children they shared, seven reached adulthood. One of the couple's children, Count Leo Ulfeldt (1651–1716), went to Austria and became a career officer. With the grandson Anton Corfiz Ulfeldt (1699–1760), an Austrian politician, the male line died out.

literature

  • H. Paus: Strange life and sad fall of the former world-famous Danish and empire = Count Corfritz von Ulfelds - former court master of the empire of Denmark. Described from safe news by HP "Translated by Philander von der Weistritz. 567 S. Ed ​​.: Friedrich Christian Pelt, 1757, Copenhagen u Leipzig.
  • Jens Kragh Høst : Life and fate of the imperial count Korfitz Ulfeld and the countess of Schleswig-Holstein Eleonore Christine . After d. dan. Orig. Free in German. transfer from the captain v. Jensen. Schleswig: Royal. Deaf-Mute Inst., 1829.
  • Johannes Ziegler: Memories of the Countess of Schleswig-Holstein Leonora Christina, Countess Ulfeldt wed from their captivity in the Blue Tower of the Royal Castle of Copenhagen 1663-1685 . (2nd edition, Vienna: Gerold, 1871); Leipzig: Insel-Verl, 1911.
  • Sophus Birket-Smith: Leonora Christina Grevinde Ulfeldt's history . Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendal , 1879–1881.
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Ulfeld, Corfiz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 48th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1883, pp. 294–296 ( digitized version ).
  • Steffen Heiberg: Enhjørningen Corfitz Ulfeldt . Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1996, ISBN 87-00-24616-6

Web links

Commons : Corfitz Ulfeldt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Explanations

  1. a b c Danmarks Adels Aarbog 1923. Gustaf Elgenstierna, Den introducerade svenska adelns ättartavlor, 1925-36, Adliga ätten Ulfeldt nr 19 †
  2. The office of Reichshofmeister came into being around 1430 and was the highest state office in the Danish Empire. He was a kind of prime minister and representative of the king. In addition to his prominent constitutional position, he had a number of important tasks, even if his duties were not clearly defined. In the 16th century he headed the financial administration and was in charge of the rent chamber and customs.
  3. ^ Franz Gräffer: Cabinet of historical funeral paintings and horror scenes , Volume 1, Bauer, 1813, p. 9 ff.
  4. Dina Vinhofvers (approx. 1620 - 1651) in: Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
  5. ^ Ludvig Holberg : Danish Empire History: Translated into German. With a complete register of all three parts , Volume 3, Korte, 1759, p. 78 ff. ( Digitized version )