Ernst Ludwig (Pomerania)

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Ernst Ludwig von Pommern-Wolgast
Ernst Ludwig and his wife Sophia Hedwig von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, from the picture family tree of the Griffins by Cornelius Krommeny (1598).

Ernst Ludwig (born November 2, 1545 in Wolgast ; † June 17, 1592 ibid) was Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast .

Life

He was the third surviving son of Duke Philip I of Pomerania-Wolgast and his wife Maria of Saxony , the daughter of Elector Johann von Sachsen .

Ernst Ludwig was trained by Jacob Runge , among others , and studied at the University of Greifswald and the University of Wittenberg . At the University of Greifswald he was honored in 1560 with the appointment of rector for a year, the actual official business was taken over by a vice- rector elected for this purpose, the law professor Christoph Gruel ; In the winter semester of 1563 he was rector of the University of Wittenberg, the office of law professor Veit Winsheim the Younger took over as vice rector. In 1565 he visited France and England. As the third-born son, Ernst Ludwig, who was also known as “the most beautiful” at the time, had little prospect of taking over government affairs. That is why he initially chose a military career that led him back to France. Here he wanted to take part in the Second Huguenot War , but was not deployed because peace had been made beforehand. During these years he also met his future father-in-law Julius von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.

Medallion with Duke Ernst Ludwig and his wife Sophia Hedwig von Braunschweig, 1589

Since his great-uncle, Barnim IX , who ruled in Szczecin, , remained without male heirs and also his older brother Bogislaw XIII. renounced the takeover of the rule in Wolgast, Ernst Ludwig got the chance with the inheritance of the year 1569 after all. He took over rule in the Principality of Pomerania-Wolgast, created in 1532/41, whose territorial holdings were only slightly changed on the Lower Oder. His eldest brother Johann Friedrich had received the rule in Pomerania-Stettin and was also until the age of the youngest brother Casimir VI. also titular bishop of Cammin . Bogislaw XIII. received the offices of Barth and Franzburg in Pommern-Wolgast as apanage, the fifth brother Barnim X. the offices of Rügenwalde and Bütow .

Ernst Ludwig is generally characterized as a weak ruler. After the departure of the councilors Ulrich von Schwerin and Valentin von Eickstedt , who had long determined politics at the Wolgaster court, Henning von Ramin and, in the second half of his reign, increasingly the chamber councilor Melchior Normann took over the leading role. The Duke's health was obviously very unstable, which led to gloom and melancholy. A mental illness diagnosed in his youngest daughter, Elisabeth Magdalena, intensified this even further and at the same time promoted the alcohol consumption of the princes of the Reformation era even more. His marriage to the Brunswick Princess Sophia Hedwig is described as impeccable, but later tradition wants to know that a ultimately broken relationship with the noble Sidonia von Borcke is said to have been the reason for her conviction and execution as a witch . Allegedly she cursed the Pomeranian ducal house because of the rejection by Ernst Ludwig. The rapid death of the still childless dukes and princes around 1620 seemed to confirm this rumor, which is why the then almost eighty-year-old lady of the monastery was accused, sentenced and executed.

While Ernst Ludwig did not appear too politically, he developed a splendid court in Wolgast . He had the residential castle Wolgast on a small island between the mainland and the island of Usedom on the Peene river expanded. For his mother, the Dowager Duchess Maria , he had the former abbey of the secularized Pudagla monastery expanded into a widow's residence in 1574 ; this is how the Pudagla Castle came into being . He also rebuilt Loitz Castle, which his wife had made a widow's residence, into a renaissance complex, which has not existed for a long time. Around 1600 he had Ludwigsburg Palace built for his wife.

The relationship with his brother Johann Friedrich , who lived in Stettin, was not always the best. When the latter wanted to introduce the excise tax to increase the sovereign income in 1588 , Ernst Ludwig refused to give his consent. In his will he named his second oldest brother Bogislaw XIII. became the guardian of his widow and children and broke a family tradition according to which the senior of the family, in this case Johann Friedrich, took over the guardianship.

Relief plate of the Duke from Wolgast Castle in the auditorium of the University of Greifswald

He kept a lasting memory at the University of Greifswald by starting with the construction of a college building named after him shortly before his death, on the foundation of which the current university main building, erected in the 18th century , stands. Therefore, in today's auditorium of the main building there is also a stone relief of the Duke recovered from the ruins of the Wolgast Castle. As early as 1571 he had given the university a new order and in 1581 ordered a visitation process. At his instigation, Valentin von Eickstedt put together a High German compilation of the “Annales Pomeranie” by the Pomeranian chronicler Thomas Kantzow .

Furthermore, several place names in Western Pomerania still remember this duke today , in addition to the aforementioned Ludwigsburg, the villages of Klein Ernsthof and Groß Ernsthof , both of which go back to noble estates that were acquired during his time and transformed into ducal outbuildings.

Ernst Ludwig died in 1592 and was buried in the family crypt set up by his father in the St. Petri Church in Wolgast. The arrangement of his burial is contained in the so-called Pomeranian Chronicle . His sarcophagus, like that of his wife and son, was recently extensively restored and can now be viewed in the Greifenkapelle .

Marriage and offspring

Ernst Ludwig married Sophia Hedwig , daughter of Duke Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , in 1577 . Sophia Hedwig outlived her husband by almost four decades. She died in Loitz in 1631 and, like her husband, was buried in the St. Petri Church in Wolgast.

The marriage resulted in two daughters and a son:

References

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Ludwig von Pommern-Wolgast  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Rector's Chronicle of the University of Greifswald.
  2. ↑ Wulf-Dietrich von Borcke: Sidonia von Borcke: The witch from the Marienfließ monastery 1548-1620 . Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 2002, ISBN 978-3-931185-45-9 .
predecessor Office successor
Philip I. Duke of Pommern-Wolgast
1569–1592 		Philipp Julius
personal data
SURNAME Ernst Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1545
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolgast
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1592
Place of death Wolgast