Erich II. (Braunschweig-Calenberg-Göttingen)

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Portrait with the Order of the Golden Fleece

Erich II "the Younger" , Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (born August 10, 1528 at the Erichsburg near Dassel , † November 17, 1584 in Pavia / Italy ), was a mercenary leader and sovereign of the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen .

Life

Erich on a donor picture from the Sint Janskerk in Gouda , 1566

His father was Erich I. zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg , who died in 1540 when Erich was 12 years old. Until he reached the age of majority in 1545, his mother Elisabeth von Brandenburg was in charge of government in the heavily indebted Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen. She introduced the Reformation there. However, Erich II converted to Catholicism in 1547 and after taking over the government tried, much to the chagrin of his mother, to enforce the Augsburg Interim in the principality. Because of this, he was viewed with suspicion by his subjects. As a young ruler, he completely withdrew from his mother's influence and went his own way. 1547, the end of the Schmalkaldic War , the only 19-year-old Erich suffered with his mercenary army of 6,000 mercenaries a crushing defeat in the battle of drakenburg against Count Albrecht of Mansfeld . While 2,500 of his men lost their lives, he could only save himself by swimming through the Weser .

Erich could hardly comply with a regular government of his principality because of his permanent stays abroad. In 1563 he moved to the bishopric of Münster with a mercenary army . The Herzog-Erich-Weg in the south of the city of Cloppenburg and the municipality of Emstek is said to be named after this event . From Bramsche , the Duke announced the feud to Prince-Bishop Bernhard von Munster on the pretext of back payments . Then he besieged the city of Warendorf , which was forced to open its gates for him, and extorted 3,000 guilders in arson money from the city and finally a further 32,000 guilders from the bishop of Munster as lord of Warendorf as a ransom for his departure.

In later years of life he would only stay longer periods in his principality between 1571 and 1574 and between 1581 and 1583. Otherwise he was far from his empire in Spain, France, the Netherlands and Italy. There he stayed on his possessions or took part as a mercenary leader in the Central European War between Spain and France (Sixty Years War) and later in the one between Spain and the Netherlands ( Eighty Years War ). During his quite successful military campaigns on behalf of others, mostly in Spain, he captured large sums of money and also got hold of property abroad. This was based on the fact that his warlords could often no longer meet the money demands for his mercenary army. Therefore they rewarded him with counties and castles as pledges. In this way Erich gained the Dutch glory Woerden and the barony Liesveld as well as the French county Clermont and the glory Creil .

In 1573 Erich was accepted into the order of the Golden Fleece by Philip II , which made him a distinguished personality.

buildings

Important building projects of the principality during his reign were the construction of Freudenthal Castle in Uslar , the rebuilding of the damaged Welfenschloss Münden and the expansion of Neustadt am Rübenberge as a fortress town with the construction of Landestrost Castle . Neustadt and the castle became a fortress with a citadel , casemates , ramparts and bastions . The expensive work had not yet been completed when he died in 1584.

family

In 1545, Erich married Sidonie von Sachsen , ten years older than him , a daughter of Heinrich of Sachsen and Katharinas von Mecklenburg . It was a love marriage, because Erich had broken off an engagement with Agnes von Hessen a year earlier . The marriage was childless and unlucky due to money disputes. Erich turned to another woman, Katharina von Weldam, mother of his two surviving children, with whom he lived in 1563 at Calenberg Castle . He bought his biological son Wilhelm three places in Italy, and married his daughter Katharina to the nobleman Andrea Doria Galeano from Genoa. Sidonie was denied access to Calenberg Castle. The clashes culminated with Sidonie on suspicion that her husband was trying to poison her. He in turn fell seriously ill in 1564 and suspected poisoning. As a result, four women were suspected of sorcery, charged in witch trials in Eldagsen and burned in Neustadt am Rübenberge . In 1572, through mediation, the financial disputes between the spouses were settled, but Erich did not comply. It should receive the Calenberg Castle . After Erich had six other women burned for alleged attacks on his life in Neustadt, Sidonie fled.

After her death, he married again in 1575, with Dorothea of ​​Lorraine (* August 20, 1545 , † 1612 ), a daughter of Francis I of Lorraine and Christinas of Denmark . However, it hardly kept him in his impoverished principality, he traveled around with his wife, to Lorraine and Venice, where he bought the splendid Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi by pledging a few lucrative offices , where he served "the nobles of the republic".

Both marriages remained childless. After his death as a result of a lung catarrh during a stay in Italy, first in Venice, then in Pavia, the indebted principality fell to his second nephew, Duke Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel .

literature

  • Klaus Friedland:  Erich II. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 584 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Veronica Albrink: "Great splendor leads to wealth ...". The buildings and finances of Erich d. J. von Braunschweig-Calenberg (1546-1584). in: The Weser area between 1500 and 1650. Society, Wirtsch. u. Culture in d. early modern times, ed. from the Institute for Architecture, Art and Cultural History in North and West Germany at the Weser Renaissance Museum Schloss Brake, Marburg 1993, pp. 143–173. ISBN 3-89445-138-6 .
  • Wolfgang Kunze: life and buildings of Duke Erich II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Catalog for the historical exhibition in Landestrost Castle, Neustadt am Rübenberge. Hanover 1993.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ O. Hagena: The Herzog-Erichsweg (with a map) . In: Yearbook for the history of the Duchy of Oldenburg . Vol. 11, 1902, p. 97
  2. ↑ Johannes Merkel: The errors between Duke Erich II and his wife Sidonia . In: Journal of the Historical Association for Lower Saxony. Year 1899, page 19. (PDF), accessed on April 28, 2016 online version. ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / digital.slub-dresden.de
  3. ^ Duke Erich II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Life and work .
  4. ^ History of the states of Braunschweig and Lüneburg by Wilhelm Havemann
predecessor Office successor
Erich I. Prince of Calenberg-Göttingen
1545–1584 		Julius
personal data
SURNAME Eric II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eric the Younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1528
PLACE OF BIRTH The same
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1584
Place of death Pavia