Ernst of Bavaria (1500–1560)

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Ernst of Bavaria (1500–1560)

Ernst Duke of Bavaria (born June 13, 1500 in Munich , † December 7, 1560 in Glatz , Kingdom of Bohemia ) was administrator of Passau and Salzburg as well as pledger of the Counties of Glatz and Count of Glatz.

Origin and education

Ernst came from the Bavarian aristocratic family of the Wittelsbach family . He was the third son of Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich and his wife Kunigunde , daughter of the Roman-German Emperor Friedrich III.

In 1506 Albrecht passed a primogeniture law with which Bavaria should remain as undivided as possible. As a result, his two younger sons Ludwig and Ernst were excluded from the government. Ernst was therefore chosen by his parents for the spiritual class. After his father died in 1508, the historian and Bavarian court historiographer Johannes Aventinus was entrusted with the upbringing of Ernst. Ernst traveled with him to Italy, where he also attended lectures by the famous lawyer Jason Magnus in Pavia . Together with Johann von Malentein , who later became Bishop of Seckau , Ernst undertook trips to Paris and Saxony.

In 1515 Ernst matriculated at the University of Ingolstadt . There he soon became a member of the Sodalitas Ingolstatiensis founded by Aventinus , a literary society that had been inspired by the humanist Conrad Celtis .

Administrator of Passau

With the support of Emperor Maximilian I , the brothers Wilhelm and Ludwig succeeded in getting Ernst to coadjutor of Passau Bishop Wiguleus Fröschl von Marzoll in 1514 . The papal confirmation came on January 28, 1517.

Although Ernst had not received any higher orders, after the death of Bishop Fröschl in 1517 he was appointed administrator of the principality of Passau . Nevertheless, he did not give up his claims to co-reign in the Duchy of Bavaria . Archduke Ferdinand I supported his inheritance claims . Finally, with the Linz Treaty of 1534, an agreement and reconciliation between the ruling houses of Habsburg and Wittelsbach was achieved. In 1536 Ernst renounced the inheritance. He then received a severance payment of 275,000 guilders .

As a Passau administrator, Ernst turned against the followers of Luther and against the Anabaptists . In 1522 he took part in the Provincial Synod in Mühldorf and in 1527 in the Salzburg Conference. In 1524 he joined the union of southern German bishops with the dukes of Bavaria and the Archduke Ferdinand to enforce the Edict of Worms . At Ernst's instigation, the reformer Leonhard Kaiser was handed over to secular power in 1527 and burned at the stake in Schärding , at that time part of the Burghausen Rent Office . In 1530 Ernst was present at the Augsburg Reichstag and in 1532 at the Regensburg Reichstag .

As an entrepreneur, Ernst took part in Bohemian mines and in trading in precious metals. He carried out transactions to Vienna, Prague, Leipzig and Antwerp and maintained close relationships with the southern German trading cities.

Administrator of Salzburg

In accordance with an agreement of 1516, the brothers Wilhelm and Ludwig tried to ensure that Ernst would take over the government of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. As early as 1525 they signed a contract with the Salzburg Cathedral Chapter , according to which Ernst was to become coadjutor of the Salzburg Archbishop as compensation for the Bavarian aid in the Peasants' War . Although Ernst was proposed for this office by the cathedral chapter on September 27, 1526, the Pope refused to approve. In order to enable a new coadjutor election, Ernst gave up the administration of the Diocese of Passau in early 1540.

After the death of the Salzburg bishop Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg , Ernst was elected administrator of Salzburg by the cathedral chapter on April 21, 1540. The papal confirmation of May 21st of that year was linked to the condition that Ernst would have to be ordained a priest within ten years or otherwise give up the archbishopric again. On October 12, 1540 he took possession of the diocese.

In Salzburg, too, Ernst showed a mild attitude towards the Protestant currents in the country. An understanding of the spiritual and social causes of the Reformation may have played a role here. He contributed little to a spiritual and spiritual renewal of Catholicism, but recognized the social and economic development of his time. In 1541 he took part in the Regensburg Reichstag, in 1544 and 1553 he held provincial synods. As a good economist, he rearranged the state finances and carried out administrative reforms.

As in Passau, his preference was for economic ventures. He was involved in alpine mining, in the cattle and grain trade and in the coin trade.

Even as the designated archbishop, Ernst had always postponed acceptance of the higher orders. In his will of September 25, 1550, he declared that he had never intended to become a priest. He repeatedly sought dispensation from the higher ordinations from the Pope , but this was finally refused to him in 1554. The Pope gave him the choice of being consecrated immediately or resigning. Ernst decided to resign on July 16, 1554 and left the bishop's seat to his successor Michael von Kuenburg .

Lender of the County of Glatz

After the failure of his ecclesiastical career had long been apparent, Duke Ernst von Johann von Pernstein acquired the County of Glatz, which at that time belonged to Bohemia . Together with her he acquired the rule of Hummel , which he gave to his son Eustach on December 10, 1549. This was in 1550 by Pope Julius III. legitimized as a noble descendant of Ernst. As early as 1546, Ernst had been accepted by the Bohemian estates as a Landsasse .

In Glatz, where Ernst finally settled in 1556, he did not resume his former economic and entrepreneurial activities. From 1556 he acquired the estates of Reichenau , Solnitz , Pottenstein and Lititz in Eastern Bohemia. They were located on the southwestern border to the Glatzer Land in the Eagle Mountains and belonged to the old Bohemian Königgrätzer Kreis . Ernst reformed the Glatz administration with qualified civil servants whom he had brought with him from Salzburg and Bavaria. In 1557, the Glatzer Castle , where he resided, was rebuilt in the Renaissance style by the court architect Lorenz Krischke , the lower castle, also known as the "Lower Castle", was built and the older fortress was expanded by several buildings. Since he was granted the privilege of holding the Glatzer coin at the same time as the pledge , he had coins minted there that show the Bohemian lion on one side , while the other side is decorated with the coats of arms of the Palatinate , Baierns and the County of Glatz.

Although he no longer held an ecclesiastical office, he campaigned for the Counter Reformation . In 1558, together with Emperor Ferdinand I , he convened a commission to examine the state of religion in the county, especially the religious status of the clergy. The corresponding questionnaire was created by the Cistercian abbots Johannes von Grüssau and Leonhard von Fürstenfeld . The commission also included: the administrator of the Archdiocese of Prague , the burgrave of Prague's old town , the provost of Heiligkreuz in Wroclaw , a representative of the Johanniterkommende Glatz and the archdeacon Magister Christophorus Naetius, who wrote the investigation report.

Ernst von Bayern died on December 7, 1560 in Glatz. His body was first buried in a crypt in the Augustinian Canon Monastery. On the tombstone with which the crypt was closed, there was the following inscription:

Anno Domini 1560 THE SIX
TEN DAY OF THE MONTH Decembris
IS IN ALLHIE GOT DIFFERENT
TO THE DURCHLEUCHTIG HO
CHGEBORN MEET AND CATH
olisch FVRST AND Lord
ERNST PFALLNTZGRAF BEY RHEIN
HERTZOG IN OBERN AND lowly B
AYRN 29 INNHABER COUNTY
GLATZ THE GOT GENEDIG SEY

Below the inscription is the Wittelsbach coat of arms.

In 1569 the body of Duke Ernst was transferred to Munich, where he found his final resting place in the Wittelsbach crypt of the Frauenkirche . The former grave slab remained in the Augustinian monastery in Glatzer. After its destruction in 1622, it ended up in the Marienkapelle ( Heidenkirchlein ) on the Schlossberg, which was devastated after the transfer of the County of Glatz to Prussia in 1763 as part of the expansion of the Glatz fortress . In 1771 the grave slab was walled into the inner wall of the donjon built at that time next to the gateway.

His efforts to bring the inhabitants of the Glatzer country back to the Catholic faith were not granted lasting success. The pledge for the county of Glatz inherited his nephew Duke Albrecht V , who sold it to the Bohemian sovereign Maximilian II in 1567 .

Private life and offspring

Duke Ernst entered into a secret marriage with Margareta von Plauenstein as administrator of Passau . With her he fathered the son Eustachius and the daughter Brigitta , the latter died unmarried. At the request of his father, Eustachius received a nobility diploma and named himself von Landsfried after Landfried Castle in the county of Glatz , which his father gave him on December 10, 1549. At the request of his father, he was ennobled by Emperor Charles V as Eustach von Landfried and in 1550 by Pope Julius III. legitimized as a noble descendant of Ernst. After Ernst's death in 1560, Eustach sold the Hummelherrschaft to Ernst Gelhorn von und zu Alten Greckau and Roge . Nothing is known about his other offspring.

After Margareta von Plauenstein's death, the Duke's next partner was a Clara Perger , with whom he fathered a son named Mansuetus . He remained single and nothing more is known about him.

The Perger's successor was Christine Schwarz from Munich . With this he had the son Justinian , a daughter Justiniana and another son Justus . Justiniana married a certain Giurra , the son Justus remained single, Justinian von Peilnstein had another son, Hans Georg , who however remained childless. Justinian studied in 1561 with his brother Justus at the University of Ingolstadt and 1563–1565 at the University of Bologna . Hermann von Plaß was assigned to them as steward . He became court junker with his cousin Albrecht V, received the noble freedom on Peilnstein and also the court brands Miltach and Tragenschwand. Justinian von Peilnstein was married to a born Geböck von Arnbach .

After Justinian's death († 1591), his widow moved with their two underage children, Hans Georg and Marianne Katharina, to Pfreimd in the Fürstete Landgraviate of Leuchtenberg . She asked several times for "grace money", but was refused. The two guardians of their children, Matthäus Jettinger von Chameregg, district judge zu Kötzting , and Georg Viktor Stöckl , carer on Mitterfels, were above all concerned with paying off the accumulated debt.

In 1610 Marianne Katharina married the Junker Hans Christoph Pullinger zu Dintzhausen , ducal administrator of Gossersdorf. He had stipulated that his wife's inheritance should primarily go to him if Miltach was sold.

Hans Georg married Maria , the daughter of Ludwig Poyßl zu Albershof and Haselstein, against the wishes of his guardians in 1599 . It was not until 1604 that he received his father's Peilnstein, Tratenschwand and Miltach estates. He quarreled with his subjects and neighbors mainly over money matters. The sale of Miltach was able to reduce the debt burden somewhat. He died in 1622, still involved in right-handing. Nothing more can be heard from his son, i. H. this should also have died during this time. Despite the measures taken by the Bavarian dukes against the Reformation, Hans Georg and his father Justinian von Peilnstein were supporters of Protestantism .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ondřej Felcman: "Český koutek" v Kladském Hrabství - Yeho české Koreny a následné vztahy k českému sousedství . In: Český koutek v Kladsku, Kladský sborník 5, 2008 (Supplementum), ISBN 978-80-903509-8-4 , pp. 23–34, here p. 28, note 12.
  2. ^ Johann Brunner, 1905, p. 22f: Confidential short report between Eustachia von Landsfried and that of Pleinstein .
personal data
SURNAME Ernst of Bavaria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ernst Duke of Bavaria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German administrator of Passau and Salzburg, pledgee of the County of Glatz
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1560
Place of death Glatz , Kingdom of Bohemia