Edzard II (East Frisia)

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Edzard II.

Edzard II (born June 24, 1532 in Greetsiel , † March 1, 1599 in Aurich ) from the house of Cirksena was Count of East Frisia from 1561 to 1599.

On October 1, 1559 he married in Stockholm Katharina Wasa (born June 6, 1539 in Stockholm (castle), † December 21, 1610 at Berum Castle ), the daughter of the Swedish King Gustav I. Edzard was the only East Frisian sovereign who ever married a king's daughter. The Swedish royal family wanted to secure influence on the North Sea coast through this connection. Edzard II hoped in vain to become Imperial Admiral in 1576 .

Edzard II struggled with his dominant mother Anna , who had taken his birthright from him, in order to curb the influence of the Swedish royal family. So she decreed that the county should be governed jointly by Edzard and his two siblings. Since Christoph died early, Edzard got into a strong and almost hateful rivalry with his brother Johann . The power struggle between the two increasingly paralyzed their rule. After Johann's death in 1591, Edzard II was the sole ruler of the county of East Friesland, but his authority had suffered greatly due to the constant disputes. At the instigation of the estates, Edzard II had the court court founded in Aurich in 1593.

In 1595 the Emden Revolution finally took place , in which the Cirksena were expelled from the Calvinist Emden and Edzard had to agree to the Treaty of Delfzijl on July 5, 1595 under pressure from the Dutch States General, which robbed him of much of his count's power.

Edzard's rule also included the final loss of Jeverland for the East Frisian counts caused by Enno II : Maria von Jever bequeathed the land to the Counts of Oldenburg after her death. She determined by her will of April 22, 1573 Count Johann XVI. von Oldenburg [(1573) 1577–1603] ("the dyke builder") to her legacy. That was the last demonstratively effective measure against the East Frisian count house. See Maria von Jever's Danielstaler , which she had minted as an allusion to her distressed situation.

After his death, the great church in Emden refused to use him as a burial place because he was a Lutheran. Edzard II had his family buried on May 13, 1599 as the first cirksena in the Lambertikirche in Aurich , which then housed the family crypt until the family died out in 1744.

family

The marriage of Edzard II and Katharina Wasa resulted in ten children:

  • Margarete, born November 22, 1560, † September 8, 1588,
  • Anna, born June 26, 1562 in Aurich , † April 21, 1621 in Neuhaus (Bohemia)
    • 1st marriage: Heidelberg , July 12, 1583 with Elector Ludwig VI. of the Palatinate (July 4, 1539 † October 22, 1583);
    • 2nd marriage: December 21, 1585 with Margrave Ernst Friedrich von Baden-Durlach (* 1560, † 1604);
    • 3rd marriage: Grabow, March 7, 1617 with Julius Heinrich von Sachsen-Lauenburg (* April 9, 1586, † November 20, 1665),
  • Enno III. Count of East Friesland (1599–1625), * September 30, 1563, † Leerort August 19, 1625;
    • 1st marriage: January 29, 1581 Walburga Countess von Rietberg, a daughter of Count Johann II. Herr zu Esens , Stedesdorf and Wittmund and Agnes Countess von Bentheim-Steinfurt (* approx. 1556, † May 20, 1586);
    • 2nd marriage: Esens, January 28, 1598 Anna von Holstein-Gottorp (* February 27, 1575, † April 24, 1625), daughter of Adolf I.
  • Johann III. , * 1566, † September 29, 1625; married his niece Countess Sabina Katharina von Rietberg on March 4, 1601 (* 1582, † May 31, 1618),
  • Christoph, * 1569, † 1636; married on August 13, 1613 Lambertine de Ligne (* June 22, 1593, † February 14, 1651),
  • Edzard, * approx. 1571, † 1572,
  • Elisabeth, * approx. 1572, † 1573,
  • Sophie, born June 5, 1574, † March 20, 1630,
  • Karl Otto, * 1577, † February 28, 1603,
  • Maria, born May 1, 1582, † July 9, 1616 in Dannenberg ; married Duke Julius Ernst von Braunschweig-Dannenberg in Dannenberg on September 1, 1614 (* March 11, 1571, † October 26, 1636).

Edzard II is, among other things, the direct ancestor of the Dutch King Willem-Alexander .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Deeters: Edzard II. (PDF; 145 kB) in: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland . Accessed June 13, 2012.
  2. ^ Max Wilberg: Regentenpabellen ... , Frankfurt (Oder) 1906. Photomechanical reprint of the original edition, Berlin: Transpress, 1987, p. 35
  3. ^ Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode: New German Biography , Volume 16, Berlin 1990, p. 186: Maria, Fräulein zu Jever
predecessor Office successor
Anna Count of East Friesland
1561–1599 		Enno III.
personal data
SURNAME Edzard II.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of East Frisia
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1532
PLACE OF BIRTH Greetsiel
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1599
Place of death Aurich