Friedrich III. (Hessen-Homburg)

Friedrich III Jacob of Hessen-Homburg (1673–1746) ( Jacob Hauck , 1729)

Friedrich III. Jacob von Hessen-Homburg (born May 19, 1673 in Cölln ; † June 8, 1746 in Herzogenbusch ) was Landgrave of Hessen-Homburg .

Life

Friedrich Jacob was the second child of Landgrave Friedrich II of Hessen-Homburg (1633–1708), the famous Prince of Homburg , from his marriage to Luise Elisabeth (1646–1690), daughter of Duke Jakob von Kurland (1610–1662) , born. He received thorough training in the culturally and spiritually progressive atmosphere of the Berlin court, where his father served as commander of the Brandenburg troops.

After his confirmation in 1687, he entered the Rudolph-Antoniana Knight Academy in Wolfenbüttel , and then joined the Württemberg cavalry regiment. In 1690 he became Dutch cavalry master , in 1692 colonel of the Groningen cavalry regiment , 1701 brigadier , 1704 major general and after the battle of Höchstädt on August 13, 1704 lieutenant general . He remained in the Dutch service until the Peace of Utrecht and then took up residence in Homburg .

Since Friedrich III. was in the Dutch military and administrative service, he could not look after his residence much. The establishment of the Homburg orphanage in 1721, which still exists today as the “Landgravial Foundation”, is worth mentioning . The foundation's archive was transferred to the Bad Homburg city archive in August 2010.

Friedrich's tolerant religious policy allowed the publication of the work Ein Geistlicher Würtz-Kräuter und Blumen-Garten or the Universal-Gesang-Buch by Christoph Schütz in Homburg.

After the debts in Hesse-Homburg had grown considerably, an imperial debit commission worked in Homburg and Friedrich was forced to return to Holland in 1738. He became governor of the Belgian city of Tournai , then in 1741 governor of Breda . Promoted to general of the cavalry in 1742 , he died as governor of Herzogenbusch. He was buried in the crypt of Bad Homburg Castle . Since none of his children survived him, the son of his younger brother Kasimir Wilhelm followed him as Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.

progeny

Friedrich III. was married twice: in 1700 he married Elisabeth Dorothea von Hessen-Darmstadt (1676–1721); with her he had 7 children. In 1728 he entered into a second (childless) marriage with Christiane Charlotte von Nassau-Ottweiler , the widow of Count Karl Ludwig von Nassau-Saarbrücken .

Children from the first marriage (not counting three stillborn children)

• Friederike Dorothea (1701–1704)
• Friedrich Wilhelm (1702–1703)
• Luise Wilhelmine (1703–1704)
• Ludwig Johann Wilhelm Gruno (1705–1745), Russian Field Marshal General

⚭ 1738 Princess Anastassija Trubetskaja (1700–1755)

• Johann Karl (1706–1728)
• Ernestine Luise (* / † 1707)
• Friedrich (* / † 1721)

literature

• Johann Caspar Bluntschli, Karl Brater: German State Dictionary. Volume 5, Stuttgart and Leipzig 1860, p. 180. (digitized version)
• Johann Isaak von Gerning : The Lahn and Main areas from Embs to Frankfurt. Wiesbaden 1821, p. 155. (digitized version)
• Carl Eduard Vehse : History of the German Courts since the Reformation. Volume 27.4: History of the courtyards in Baiern, Würtemberg, Baden and Hesse. Part 5, Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1853, p. 453. (digitized version )
• Anton Balthasar König : Biographical lexicon of all heroes and military figures. Volume 2, 1789, p. 147. (digitized version)

Web links

• History of the "Landgräfliche Stiftung"
• Portrait of Friedrich III.  in the German Digital Library
• Hessen-Homburg, Friedrich III. Jakob Landgrave of. Hessian biography. (As of January 21, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich II.	Landgrave of Hessen-Homburg 1708–1746	Friedrich IV.