Elisabeth Lukretia (Teschen)

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Elisabeth Lukretia von Teschen (Czech Alžběta Lukrécie Těšínská , Polish Elżbieta Lukrecja Cieszyńska ; born June 1, 1599 - May 19, 1653 ) was Duchess of Teschen from 1625 . With her death in 1653, the Teschen branch of the Silesian Piasts died out . The Duchy of Teschen therefore fell as a settled fiefdom to the Bohemian crown .

Life

Elisabeth Lukretia's parents were the Duke of Teschen Adam Wenzel and Elisabeth, daughter of the Duke Gotthard Kettler of Courland and Semgallia . At Christmas 1609 she converted to Catholicism together with her father. Since her brother Friedrich Wilhelm, who was entitled to inheritance, had not yet reached the age of majority when her father died in 1617, Elisabeth Lucretia effectively took over the reign of the Duchy of Teschen. The emperor transferred the guardianship of the still underage Hereditary Duke Friedrich Wilhelm to a noble body consisting of the Breslau bishop Archduke Karl of Austria , the Duke of Troppau, Karl I of Liechtenstein , and the governor of Opole - Ratibor , Hans Christoph I. Proskowski von Proskau existed. They carried out counter-Reformation measures and married Elisabeth Lukretia in 1618 to Gundaker von Liechtenstein , a brother of Charles I of Liechtenstein, nineteen years her senior . Children came from marriage

After the death of her brother Friedrich Wilhelm in 1625, with which the Teschen line of the Silesian Piasts in the male line became extinct, Elisabeth Lucretia led a long legal dispute over her property rights to the Duchy of Teschen, which was to revert to the Crown of Bohemia as a settled fiefdom. Elisabeth Lukretia referred to the will drawn up by her brother shortly before his death, according to which she should inherit the duchy including the dominions of Skotschau , Schwarzwasser and Jablunkau . In addition, she relied on a privilege granted by the Bohemian sovereign Vladislav II , according to which female succession should also apply in the Duchy of Teschen from 1498 up to the fourth member. It was not until 1638 that it received the approval of Emperor Ferdinand III. , after which she was allowed to keep the duchy for life for personal use and use the title of duke. As early as 1629 it had issued a religious statute in which it was stipulated that the council and citizens of Teschen had voluntarily accepted the Catholic faith and that in future no people of other faiths would be allowed to live in or become members of the guilds. However, this regulation was not implemented during her reign. Her duchy was affected by the Thirty Years' War and plundered by various troops who demanded large contributions . In 1626 she had to hand over her castle in Teschen to the Protestant military leader Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld , who was on his way to Hungary.

After Elisabeth Lucretia's death in 1653, the claims of her husband and her children to the succession in the Duchy of Teschen were rejected. The duchy, which had been a fiefdom of the Bohemian crown since 1291 , fell as a settled fiefdom to the Kingdom of Bohemia , which had been ruled by the Habsburgs since 1526 .

literature

  • Norbert Conrads : The politics of recatholization in Teschen . In: Joachim Bahlcke (Hrsg.): Schlesien in der Frühmoderne: On the political and spiritual culture of a Habsburg country (= new research on Silesian history, vol. 16). Böhlau, Weimar 2009, ISBN 3-412-20350-5 , pp. 29, 31, 33, 34.
  • Rudolf Žáček: Dějiny Slezska v datech . Praha 2004, ISBN 80-7277-172-8 , pp. 153, 160f., 175 and 451.
  • Moritz Landwehr von Pragenau: History of the city of Teschen (= sources and representations on Silesian history, vol. 18). Edited by Walter Kuhn . Holzner, Würzburg 1976.
  • Gottlieb Biermann : History of the Duchy of Teschen . Karl Prochaska publishing house and court bookstore, Teschen 1894.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See note 30 in Norbert Conrads: Schlesien in der Frühmoderne. In the previous literature it is erroneously stated that the governor was Friedrich von Oppersdorf at the time.
  2. ↑ Historical Commission for Silesia : History of Silesia / Die Habsburger Zeit 1526–1740 , ISBN 3-7995-6342-3 , pp. 54 and 64.
  3. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke , Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of historical sites . Volume: Bohemia and Moravia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 329). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-32901-8 , p. 608.
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich Wilhelm Duchess of Teschen
1625–1653 		Ferdinand IV.
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth Lucretia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth Lucretia of Teschen; Alžběta Lukrécie Těšínská (Czech); Elżbieta Lukrecja Cieszyńska (Polish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Teschen
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1599
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1653