Elisabeth Katharina Smiřická from Smiřice

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Elisabeth Katharina Smiřická von Smiřice (Czech Eliška Kateřina Smiřická ze Smiřic ; * 1590 ; † February 1, 1620 in Jičín ) was a Bohemian noblewoman. She came from the Smiřický family of Smiřice , which was one of the richest families in Bohemia at the beginning of the 17th century.

Elisabeth's parents were Sigmund ( Zikmund ) Smiřický († 1608) and Hedwig von Hasenburg ( Hedvika z Házmburku ; † 1610), who resided at the castle in Schwarzkosteletz . As a teenager, Elisabeth is said to have entered into a love affair with one of her subjects, according to popular tradition with a shepherd or a blacksmith. For this reason, her parents placed her under house arrest in the castles of Hrubá Skála and Kumburk from 1608 .

When her brother Albrecht Jan died childless in 1618, Elisabeth was entitled to part of the family fortune. Since she was in custody, however, her younger sister Margareta Salomena ( Markéta Salomena ), married Slawata , took over the entire inheritance along with the guardianship of her older, weak-minded brother Heinrich Georg ( Jindřich Jiří ). The eldest brother Yaroslav died in 1611. Elisabeth was released from custody by Otto Heinrich von Wartenberg († 1625) in 1619 , taken as his wife and taken to the castle in the north Bohemian town of Jičín under the protection of his soldiers. There she is said to have made suggestions to her sister about an amicable division of the property, but they were unsuccessful.

Margareta Salomena was not ready to give up part of the family inheritance. Elisabeth turned to King Friedrich , who agreed with her request. He summoned Otto von Wartenberg to Prague, took him into custody and sent a commission to Jičín to inventory all assets and to bring about an agreement between the sisters. After a dispute with Margareta Salomena, Elisabeth had the horses harnessed during the inventory on February 1, 1620, because she probably wanted to flee to another family castle. However, this was refused to her by her brother-in-law Heinrich ( Jindřich ) Slawata, who refused to give up the horses. So Elisabeth returned to her living quarters, where she lured the mercenaries who had sworn her husband. On the same day, between five and six in the evening, there was a gunpowder explosion in Jičín Castle , which left 41 people dead and 24 injured, and most of the castle destroyed. Elisabeth, Margareta's husband Heinrich Slawata, the class politician Rudolf von Stubenberg and most of the members of the commission perished. The cause has never been clearly established. In contemporary, but also in more recent reports, Elisabeth is blamed. You or the mercenaries are said to have climbed into the vaulted cellar with a torch, where the powder store was located, which caught fire.

After the battle of White Mountain , Margareta Salomena had to leave the country; their property was confiscated by the emperor. Albrecht von Waldstein , whose mother was born Smiřický from the Náchod line, protested against the expropriation . He had successfully sought guardianship for the incompetent Heinrich Georg Smiřický and argued that he could not have been involved in the uprising of 1618 in any way because of his state of mind . As a result, Waldstein managed to bring about half of the Smiřický estates into his hands.

Elizabeth's life story was in the following years a popular Bänkelsängerlied ( ZNAM já each krásný zámek - dt. I know a beautiful castle ) processes.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lydia Baštecká, Ivana Ebelová: Náchod: History, kultura, lidé. Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, Náchod 2004, ISBN 80-7106-674-5 , p. 89.
personal data
SURNAME Smiřická from Smiřice, Elisabeth Katharina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smiřická ze Smiřic, Eliška Kateřina (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION bohemian nobles
DATE OF BIRTH 1590
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1620
Place of death Jičín