Eske Bille

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Eske Bille (* around 1480; † February 11, 1552 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish knight and imperial court master and member of the Norwegian imperial council.

Life

family

Eske Bille was the youngest child of the Danish knight Peder Bille zu Svanholm and his wife Anna Knudsdatter Gyldenstjerne. Around 1517 he married Sophie Krummedike, the daughter of Henrik Krummedike and his wife Anne Rud. They had 13 children, seven of whom the parents survived.

Career

In 1510 he was enfeoffed with the Copenhagen Castle. By then he was already trading in his own ships. In February or March 1513 he became engaged to Sophie Krummedike. On May 1, 1514, he moved to Hagenskov . Since he had the Vogt Hans Andersen executed in 1519 according to law and judgment because of his unauthorized and also illegal conduct of office, he fell out of favor with King Christian II on the complaint of Andersen's relatives and lost this fiefdom. After the fall of Christian, he received it back from King Friedrich I and became the Danish Imperial Councilor .

In 1529 he was sent to Bergenhus as the successor to Vincens Lunge , who had fallen out of favor with King Frederick because of his arbitrariness . This post as captain of the castle had almost the power of a governor over western and northern Norway. He was now able to support his father-in-law in his efforts to regain his fiefs that had been revoked in Norway. Vincens lungs and his wife's mother Ingerd Otter Datter from the mighty family of Rømer were inclined to Lutheranism to what brought them into conflict with the archbishop, while Eske Bille Catholic remained, but who behaved tolerant of the Lutherans. Since the times were very turbulent and he opposed all attempts at independence in favor of Christian II, he began to promote the defense of Bergenhus. In addition, he had many buildings near the castle, including the Apostle Church, the Christ Church, the Canons' Canons and the Bishop's Court torn down, which earned him the nickname "Church Destroyer". During Christian II's campaign against Norway in 1532, he had to take military action against this and against Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson , who practically ruled northern Norway. He held the fortress against Christian II's troops and sent his own troops to Trøndelag , had the taxes collected, burned the bishopric and two of the ancestral homes of the archbishop and ordered a trade blockade against the archbishop and his supporters in Bergen .

The father-in-law died in 1530 and Anne Rud died in early 1533. Eske Bille became extraordinarily rich through the inheritance. In the summer of 1533 after the death of Frederick I, the Norwegian Imperial Council broke away from Denmark. Eske Bille had to join the Norwegian Imperial Council and take Bergenhus again from its hand. On the way to the Danish-Norwegian gentlemen's day in 1534, on which Christian was to be elected king also for Norway, his ship was seized by Luebian pirates. He came to Lübeck in captivity. After the fall of Jürgen Wullenwever , he was released on November 5, 1535. In 1535, Vincens Lunge sent Claus Bille to the Archbishop of Trondheim with the demand for a joint Reichsrat homage and a tax permit. The councilors of Østlandet also had to appear there. When the councilors came to Trondheim, Archbishop Olav was forced to join his councilor Christian III. to be elected King of Norway and to approve the tax collection. But on January 3, 1536, at a meeting of officials and clergy, the archbishop brought serious charges against the Danish imperial councils, especially against Lunge, for having committed treason. A group of participants then moved to the council members' quarters, killed Vincen's lungs and captured Claus Bille and Bishops Hans Rev and Mogens Lauritsson . When Eske Bille came to Trondheim shortly afterwards, he was also arrested and all were imprisoned in Tautra . His loyal Vogt Thord Roed, however, kept Bergenhus. Eske and Claus Bille were released again in 1536. In the following time he campaigned for a conciliatory policy to King Christian III. enforce in Norway without bloodshed. But the king wanted a quick decision and on September 1, 1536 commissioned Bille to bring about a military decision. In February 1537 this campaign took place, during which both the archbishop's possessions and those of his rear passengers were looted and burned down. The archbishop fled to the Netherlands.

After his return to Denmark, Eske Bille took part in Christian III's coronation. part and was knighted in the process. This made him one of the leading figures in the empire. During the frequent absence of the king, he worked in Copenhagen Castle as its governor. In 1538 he participated in a meeting in Prince Braunschweig part and, together with Peder Svave to negotiate with the French king Francis I sent. In 1541 he led the Danish negotiating delegation that negotiated the Fontainebleau treaty with Francis I. He was entrusted with other diplomatic missions. In 1547 he was sent to Germany with many imperial councilors to mediate in the Narrow Kaldic War . In the same year he became Reichshofmeister. At the end of his life he converted to the Lutheran faith.

Its archive is the best preserved Danish archive of the 16th century.

literature

Footnotes

The article is essentially taken from the Internet edition of the Dansk biografisk leksikon . Other information is shown separately.

  1. According to Heise on February 9th on a plague-like epidemic.
  2. The office of Reichshofmeister came into being around 1430 and was the highest state office in the Danish Empire. He was a kind of prime minister and representative of the king. In addition to his prominent constitutional position, he had a number of important tasks, even if his duties were not clearly defined. In the 16th century he headed the financial administration and was in charge of the rent chamber and customs.
  3. a b A. Heise: Bille, Eske . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 2 : Beccau – Brandis . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1888, p. 228 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  4. A. Heise: Bille, Eske . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 2 : Beccau – Brandis . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1888, p. 224-225 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  5. a b A. Heise: Bille, Eske . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 2 : Beccau – Brandis . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1888, p. 225 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  6. a b c Bjørvik in Norsk biografisk leksikon .
  7. After the king's death, the fiefs reverted to the sovereign, who was the imperial council until the new king was appointed. Those were the rules of Reichsrat constitutionalism .
  8. The Lord's Day was a particularly solemn gathering of the Reichsrat in the 16th and first half of the 17th century, at which decisions by the highest judges were usually made. The gentlemen's day then also acted as the supreme court.
  9. See the article by Olav Engelbrektsson .
  10. Venge also mentions: 1540: conclusion of a treaty with the Netherlands in Ghent. In 1543 he represented Denmark in the assembly in Kampen. Both processes could not be verified otherwise. Heise mentions an armistice with Emperor Charles V for 1543 in Kampen, which later resulted in the Peace of Speyer.