Friedrich III. (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf)

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Duke Friedrich III. by Jürgen Ovens , in the background the globe house
Duke Friedrich III.

Friedrich III. von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (born December 22, 1597 in Gottorf ; † August 10, 1659 in Tönning ) was Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf from 1616 to 1659 . The Thirty Years War fell during his reign . With the help of Sweden, in 1658 he achieved the abolition of Danish feudal sovereignty over the Gottorf shares in the Duchy of Schleswig .

Life

Friedrich III. von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf was the first-born son of Johann Adolf and Augusta , daughter of King Friedrich II of Denmark .

Childhood and youth

Although there was a plague epidemic at the time of his birth , the christening of the firstborn son of the young duke couple was celebrated on January 22, 1598. His grandmother, the Danish king widow Sophie , and the separated Duke Johann were among his godparents . His religious education was directed by the court preacher Jacob Fabricius . In 1603 he also elected Ludwig Pincier's relative Johannes Pincier as tutor of the dukes' sons. Friedrich enjoyed an excellent education, mastered Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew as well as several modern foreign languages ​​and was also interested in mathematics and natural sciences. In 1615/16 he undertook the usual cavalier tour of Europe with his brother Adolf, several young noblemen, their teacher Johannes Pincier and Hofmeister Johann Berndt von Dalwigk . This trip served to perfect the foreign languages ​​and to acquire court skills. In Paris they saw the preparation for the wedding of the young King Louis XIII. With. They stayed in Angers for several months because there was a famous equestrian academy there, where the princely sons were supposed to complete their riding and fencing skills.

Although Archbishop of Bremen , Johann Adolf's brother Johann Friedrich claimed his share of the inheritance in the duchies in 1599. In return he had promised Johann Adolf his dioceses for his sons. Until his death in 1634, Johann Friedrich received the income from the offices of Tremsbüttel, Steinhorst, Cismar, Oldenburg, Fehmarn and Neustadt. For this, Friedrich's two-year-old brother Adolf received a preamble in Bremen and became his father's coadjutor as Prince-Bishop of Lübeck . When Johann Adolf ceded the diocese of Bremen to his brother in 1608, Adolf was elected as his successor. By circumventing all canon law provisions - after all, the Evangelical Lutheran Frederick was ordained a subdeacon . - the Duke managed to get Friedrich 1611 a prebend from Bremen. Despite the residence obligation of the canons , none of the brothers stayed longer in Bremen. Friedrich kept his prebend well beyond his marriage until 1647.

Regency

On March 31, 1616, Johann Adolf died suddenly at the age of 41, while Friedrich was still in Angers. Friedrich immediately broke off his trip and reached Gottorf at the beginning of August. Because of the primogeniture introduced by his father, there was no election by the estates, but instead a hereditary homage . Unlike his predecessors, Friedrich did not have to share with his brothers Adolf and Johann . Johann Adolf had looked after his two younger sons as coadjutors for Bremen (Adolf) and Lübeck (Johann). But the Danish King Christian IV also claimed the Archdiocese of Bremen and the Diocese of Verden for his second son Friedrich . In order to enforce his claims, he occupied the lands of the incumbent Archbishop Johann Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf in 1621. Friedrich had no choice but to have Adolf elected as coadjutor of the Diocese of Lübeck and Johann as its subcoadjutor.

Before Friedrich was declared of legal age, he was under the influence of his mother, who also ensured that cryptocalvinism was pushed back at the court and that the Lutheran general superintendent and court preacher Jacob Fabricius was reinstated.

Domestic and financial policy

Friedrich took over the duchy in a difficult situation. The high debts his father had left him were countered by sharply reduced income, because family members were entitled to the income from a large part of the country: not only did his uncle receive the income from several offices, his mother († 1639) stood in Trittau, Reinbek and Husum as Wittum too. And Kiel, Bordesholm, Neumünster, Aabenraa and Lügumkloster were pledged to his grandmother and godmother, the Danish king widow Sophie. Until the middle of the 1630s, the duke could only dispose of the offices of Tondern and Gottorf and the landscapes of Eiderstedt , Norderdithmarschen and Nordstrand . Although his income rose again when the offices returned to him after the death of his mother and uncle, he had to maintain an expensive standing army during the Thirty Years' War, unlike his predecessors . The most important concern for Friedrich therefore had to be the consolidation of state revenues. Therefore, in 1649 he even sold the Barmstedt office for 201,000 speciestalers to Christian zu Rantzau , who formed the County of Rantzau from it . This office was assigned to him after the death of Otto V , the last Count of Schauenburg and Holstein from his northern Elbe possession Holstein-Pinneberg .

Friedrich tried to push back the influence of the Equites Originarii by employing non-knightly councilors, of which from 1636 Johann Adolph Kielmann von Kielmannsegg became the most important. The centralization of government and modern bookkeeping by academically trained civil servants were intended to make its administration more effective and strengthen its position.

Foreign policy

Friedrich had the difficult task of leading his widely scattered country through the Thirty Years' War. Despite the conflict over the occupation of the Archdiocese of Bremen, he renewed the union of 1533 with Denmark in 1623 , in which the two dukes undertook to provide mutual assistance. When Christian IV was elected colonel of the anti- imperial Lower Saxony Empire in 1625 , Frederick plunged into a loyalty conflict between the Danish king, his liege lord in the Duchy of Schleswig , and the Emperor, his liege lord in the Duchy of Holstein . After Christian's defeat against Tilly and Wallenstein in the Battle of Lutter , the ducal territories were occupied as well as the royal ones. In order to buy himself free from billeting and looting, Friedrich offered the victorious generals, bypassing King Christian, to make Friedrichstadt available to the imperial troops . Christian reacted to this breach of loyalty with the siege of the ducal castles. When in 1629 Friedrich's subjects refused to give quarters to imperial troops on the island of Nordstrand , Christian also occupied the island and was the only sovereign to pay homage . The Peace of Lübeck on May 22, 1629 gave Friedrich his lands back, but his attempt to achieve independence from Denmark failed. The "relationship between the two sovereigns [was] permanently disturbed".

Maria Elisabeth of Saxony

As a result, Friedrich pursued a policy of neutrality. As early as 1626 he had courted Maria Elisabeth of Saxony , the daughter of Johann Georg I of Saxony . Her father, although Protestant, initially maintained neutrality towards the emperor. A connection with the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, who was dependent on Denmark, therefore did not seem advisable to him. Through the intercession of Frederick's grandmother, the Danish royal widow Sophie, the betrothal took place in September 1626. Political circumstances prevented the wedding. After the Peace of Lübeck, Friedrich asked again for Maria Elisabeth. In February 1630 the wedding was celebrated in Dresden with a two-week festival.

Swedish troops occupied Schleswig-Holstein in 1643/44 . Friedrich was forced to sign a neutrality treaty with Sweden. When imperial troops subsequently devastated his lands, he turned Tönning into a fortress . In the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, Denmark had to cede the dioceses of Bremen and Verden to Sweden . In order to secure a land bridge to the new property over Jutland , Sweden supported Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf against Denmark. In this phase Kielmannsegg, who was appointed Chancellor in 1644, played the most important role. He managed to negotiate the marriage of Friedrich's daughter Hedwig Eleonora with the Swedish King Karl X. Gustav , which took place in 1654. Supported by Sweden, Frederick pursued the plan for the complete sovereignty of his duchy and the abolition of the joint government with Denmark.

At first this alliance seemed to pay off when Sweden entered the Second Northern War in 1657 , achieved a quick victory against Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, which had allowed the Swedish troops free passage, gained sovereignty in the Peace of Roskilde on February 24, 1658 was awarded. This meant that the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf no longer had any feudal obligations to the Danish king in the Duchy of Schleswig. In addition, he received the office of Schwabstedt and half of the possessions of the secularized diocese of Schleswig. However, the union with Denmark enshrined in the Ripen Treaty and the common government have not been repealed. In the middle of 1658 Karl X. Gustav started a new campaign against Denmark. This time no surprise attack succeeded. The Danish King Friedrich III. was supported by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg , who drove the Swedish troops out of Holstein and occupied the lands of the Gottorf Duke.

Friedrichstadt houses from the founding time

Long-distance trade

His attempts to increase his country's income included promoting long-distance trade. For this he was looking for a connection to the developing overseas trade. For this purpose he founded Friedrichstadt in 1621 in what is now the district of North Friesland, based on the example of Glückstadt founded in 1617 by Christian IV on the Lower Elbe . In order to attract foreign merchants, he issued two octroys in 1620 , which guaranteed the Dutch Remonstrants land, religious freedom , economic privileges, Dutch as the official language and an administration modeled on Amsterdam and Leiden . In order to establish his new city as a trading center, he sent embassies.

He also tried to find a trade route to Russia and Persia that did not go around Africa. For this reason he sent an expedition from Hamburg to Moscow on November 6, 1633. The merchant Otto Brüggemann and the ducal councilor Philipp Crusius were in charge . Adam Olearius was secretary of the 34-person expedition . On August 14, 1634, the delegation arrived in Moscow . Although it was not possible to conclude a trade agreement with Tsar Michael I, preparations for the next expedition began immediately after the delegation returned to Schloss Gottorf on April 6, 1635 . This should lead to the Persian court in Isfahan . The management was back in the hands of Brüggemann. Members of the delegation, in addition to the secretary Olearius, included Johann Albrecht von Mandelslo , Hans Christoph von Uechtritz and Paul Fleming . The journey began in Hamburg on October 22nd, 1635. Via Moscow and after a shipwreck in the Caspian Sea , the expedition reached Isfahan on August 3, 1637. Due to the high-handed behavior of the members of the delegation, the trip was a total failure. On December 21st, the expedition had to leave without having achieved anything. On August 1, 1639, it reached Gottorf again. The leader Brüggemann was held solely responsible for the failure, charged with gross abuse of office and sentenced to death. The public execution took place on May 5, 1640. With Brüggemann, Friedrich's trade plans were also buried.

Map of the west coast by Johannes Mejer shortly after the Burchardi flood. The flooded areas are painted lighter.

Burchardi flood

The catastrophic storm surge that devastated the west coast in October 1634 fell during Friedrich's reign . The fertile island of Nordstrand was almost completely destroyed. The ambitious plan to dike the entire Dagebüller Bay and thereby gain more land was also destroyed. Neither Friedrich nor the survivors of the catastrophe had the means to regain the lost lands, so the Duke forgave Oktroys to attract capable dike builders from the Netherlands. They were granted far-reaching privileges, including freedom of religion .

Gottorf Castle around 1600
Sphaera Copernicana (now Frederiksborg slot)

Culture

Friedrich was more successful as a promoter of science, art and culture. So he had his court scholar and librarian Adam Olearius construct the giant Gottorf globe according to his own design . As with the Sphaera Copernicana, the gunsmith Andreas Bösch was responsible for the execution .

Duke Friedrich employed the Rembrandt student Jürgen Ovens as court painter and Hans Gudewerth the Younger , the most important carver of the 17th century in northern Germany. Friedrich III had the plantings of his Neuwerk garden at Gottorf Castle . cataloged in the Gottorfer Codex by the Hamburg flower painter Hans Simon Holtzbecker . The collections of his Kunstkammer, based on the Cranach paintings from the dowry of his wife Maria Elisabeth of Saxony , and his extensive library were famous . He made Gottorf Castle the most important cultural center in the north.

Together with Christian V, he commissioned Johannes Mejer to map Schleswig-Holstein . In 1652 Caspar Danckwerth's New State Description of the two Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein appeared with Mejer's maps.

Together with Kielmannsegg, Friedrich prepared the establishment of a Nordic university . In 1652 he obtained an imperial privilege to found a university on his territory. His place of residence Schleswig was therefore out of the question because the new university had to be in the area of ​​the Holy Roman Empire . The war with Denmark delayed the founding of the university. Only his son Christian Albrecht was able to complete this plan in Kiel in 1665 .

On September 3, 1642, Ludwig I of Anhalt-Köthen Friedrich III. with the company name The highly respected in the fruitful society .

Death and burial

Friedrich died on August 10, 1659 in the besieged Tönning fortress. His body was stored in a triple coffin in the basement of the castle. Because of the war, he could only be buried after the Peace of Copenhagen . First the coffin was transferred to Husum on September 26, 1660, where it remained until the funeral procession headed by the new Duke Christian Albrecht set off for Schleswig on January 29, 1661 . On January 31, the funeral procession reached the Schleswig Cathedral , where Friedrich III. was buried in the royal crypt. Arthur Quellinus I designed his tomb.

family

progeny

On February 21, 1630 in Dresden, he married Maria Elisabeth of Saxony , the daughter of Johann Georg I of Saxony . They had 16 children together:

  1. Sophie Auguste of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1630; † 1680); ⚭ 1649 Prince Johann von Anhalt (* 1621, † 1667)
  2. Magdalena Sibylla of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1631; † 1719); ⚭ 1654 Duke Gustav Adolf of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (* 1633, † 1695)
  3. Johann Adolf (* 1632, † 1633), Hereditary Prince
  4. Marie Elisabeth (* 1634; † 1665); ⚭ 1650 Ludwig VI. of Hessen-Darmstadt (* 1630; † 1678)
  5. Friedrich (* 1635; † 1654), Hereditary Prince
  6. Hedwig Eleonora of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1636; † 1715); ⚭ 1654 Karl X. Gustav of Sweden (* 1622; † 1660)
  7. Adolf August (* / † 1637)
  8. Johann Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1638; † 1655), Hereditary Prince
  9. Anna Dorothea of ​​Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1640; † 1713)
  10. Christian Albrecht of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1641; † 1695), Duke of Gottorf and Prince-Bishop of Lübeck; ⚭ 1667 Friederike Amalie , daughter of King Friedrich III. of Denmark and Norway (* 1649; † 1704)
  11. Gustav Ulrich (* 1642; † 1642)
  12. Christine Sabine (* 1643; † 1644)
  13. August Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1646; † 1705) 1666 Prince-Bishop of Lübeck; ⚭ 1676 Christine, daughter of Duke August von Sachsen-Weißenfels (* 1656; † 1698)
  14. Adolf (* 1647; † 1648)
  15. Elisabeth Sophie (* 1647; † 1647)
  16. Augusta Maria of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (* 1649; † 1728); ⚭ 1670 Friedrich VII. Magnus (Baden-Durlach) (* 1647; † 1709)

ancestry

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christian I (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) (1426–1481)
King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick I (Denmark and Norway) (1471–1533)
King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dorothea of ​​Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1430–1495)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Adolf I (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf) (1526–1586)
Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bogislaw X. of Pomerania (1454–1523)
Duke of Pomerania
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sophia of Pomerania (1498–1568)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna Jagiellonica (1476–1503)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Johann Adolf (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf) (1575–1616)
Bishop, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wilhelm II. (Hesse) (1469–1509)
Landgrave of Hesse
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Philip I (Hesse) (1504–1567)
Landgrave of Hesse
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna of Mecklenburg (1485–1525)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christine of Hesse (1543–1604)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
George the Bearded (1471–1539)
Duke of Saxony
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christina of Saxony (1505–1549)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Barbara of Poland (1478–1534)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Friedrich III. (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf) (1597–1659)
Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick I (Denmark and Norway) (1471–1533)
King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christian III (Denmark and Norway) (1503–1559)
King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna of Brandenburg (1487–1514)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick II (Denmark and Norway)
King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Magnus I (Sachsen-Lauenburg) (1470–1543)
Duke of Sachsen-Lauenburg
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dorothea of ​​Sachsen-Lauenburg-Ratzeburg (1511–1571)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Katharina of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1488–1563)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Augusta of Denmark (1580-1639)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Albrecht VII (Mecklenburg) (1486–1547)
Duke of Mecklenburg
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ulrich (Mecklenburg) (1527–1603)
Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna of Brandenburg (1507–1567)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sophie of Mecklenburg (1557–1631)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Frederick I (Denmark and Norway) (1471–1533)
King of Denmark and Norway
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elisabeth of Denmark (1524–1586)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sophia of Pomerania (1498–1568)
 
 
 
 
 
 


literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Friedrich III, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz-Dietrich Buttgereit: Childhood and youth of Duke Friedrich III. Represented from contemporary sources and documents . In: Gottorf in the splendor of the baroque. Art and culture at the Schleswiger Hof 1544–1713 I. The dukes and their collections. Exhibition catalog. Schleswig 1997, pp. 69-83; P. 70.
  2. ^ The Princes of the Country , p. 156.
  3. ^ Buttgereit: Childhood and youth of Duke Friedrich III. , P. 75.
  4. ^ Buttgereit: Childhood and youth of Duke Friedrich III. , P. 77.
  5. ^ Franz-Dietrich Buttgereit: The spiritual career of a secular prince, Duke Friedrich III. of Schleswig-Holstein Gottorf as a member of the Bremen cathedral chapter. In: Journal of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History . Vol. 132 (Neumünster 2007), pp. 7-39.
  6. ^ The Princes of the Land , p. 157.
  7. ^ The princes of the country , p. 158 f.
  8. ^ The Princes of the Country , p. 160.
  9. Lohmeier (Lit.), p. 112
  10. Ute Essegern: Princesses at the Electoral Saxon Court: Concepts of life and life courses between family, court and politics in the first half of the 17th century; Hedwig of Denmark, Sibylla Elisabeth of Württemberg and Magdalena Sibylla of Prussia . Leipzig 2007, p. 363.
  11. Melanie Greinert: "Auff dem Hoch-Fürstlichen Beylager". Procedure, staging and dynastic significance Gottorf marriages in the 17th century at the Electoral Saxon, Danish and Swedish courts. In: Journal of the Association for Schleswig-Holstein History 139 (2014), pp. 49–76; Pp. 51-57.
  12. Godela von Randow: The funeral for Duke Friedrich III. from Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf. In: Gottorf in the splendor of the baroque. Art and culture at the Schleswiger Hof 1544–1713 I. The dukes and their collections. Exhibition catalog. Schleswig 1997, 398-405.
predecessor Office successor
Johann Adolf Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf
1616–1659
Christian Albrecht