Edzard I. (East Frisia)

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Count Edzard I around 1520/30. Painting by Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen

Edzard I. (called "the great"), (* January 1462 in Greetsiel ; † February 14, 1528 in Emden ) was Count of East Frisia from the East Frisian noble family Cirksena .

Edzard was the second son of Count Ulrich and Theda Ukena . After the early death of her father, Theda led the government alone, before it gradually passed to her eldest son Enno from around 1480 . In 1481 Edzard started studying Roman law at the old University of Cologne ( Universitas Studii Coloniensis ) together with his brother Otto (Uko) . Enno had a fatal accident in 1491, so that Edzard, who returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1492 , where he had been knighted by the Holy Sepulcher , initially took over the government of East Friesland together with his mother and, when she died in 1494, together with him his brother Uko took over.

Edzard I. is primarily through the submission of the chiefs Hero Omken from Harlingerland and Edo Wiemken the Younger from Jever , the favoring of the Reformation in his country, the creation of a new land law , the reform of the coinage and the introduction of the primogeniture in the house of the Cirksena stepped forward.

In foreign policy, his participation in the Saxon feud led him into serious complications. Edzard took sides against the imperial governor of the Netherlands , Duke George of Saxony , whose power the city of Groningen refused to submit. Edzard tried to extend his power permanently to the province of Groningen on this occasion. From 1506 to 1514 he was the owner of the city and province of Groningen. For this Edzard fell into the Eight of the Empire and the ban . East Friesland has suffered severe devastation on the part of the imperial governor. Finally Edzard was forced to evacuate Groningen.

It was only when Charles V , the new ruler of the Netherlands, came to power that Edzard succeeded in gaining grace, being freed from imperial ban and being enfeoffed with East Frisia in its previous dimensions. However, he succeeded in bringing Jeverland under his control in 1517 by promising the heir, Maria von Jever and her sisters, that she would marry his sons.

In the Reformation, which had penetrated East Frisia since 1519, Edzard tolerated both the Lutheran and the Zwinglische direction and even outsiders persecuted elsewhere, which led to bitter disputes between the denominations among his successors.

Edzard I died on February 14, 1528 in Emden and found his final resting place in the Marienthal monastery to the north .

family

On July 27, 1497 he married Elisabeth von Rietberg († July 1512), with whom he had seven children, three sons and four daughters. His wife was a niece of the Munster Bishop Konrad . Since Edzard had introduced the Primogenitur in 1527 , after the incapacitation of the eldest son Ulrich due to mental illness, his second son Enno II became his successor, who however led the government together with his brother Johann . Of the daughters, Margarethe (* 1500; † 15 July 1537) married Philip IV of Waldeck .

literature

predecessor Office successor
Theda Count of East Frisia
1491–1528 		Enno II.
personal data
SURNAME Edzard I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edzard I the Great
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of East Frisia
DATE OF BIRTH January 1462
PLACE OF BIRTH Greetsiel
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1528
Place of death Emden