Georg Friedrich zu Castell-Rüdenhausen

Georg Friedrich Graf and Herr zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (* August 21, 1600 in Rüdenhausen ; † March 29, 1653 ibid) was from 1635 to 1653 a ruler of the divided county of Castell .

The county before Georg Friedrich

Two developments shaped the Grafschaft Castell before the arrival of Georg Friedrich. On the one hand, the Count's predecessors had introduced the Reformation in their areas of rule in order to be able to prevent further losses of power against the larger, Catholic diocese of Würzburg. Heinrich IV zu Castell in particular , the great-uncle of Georg Friedrich, distinguished himself as a Protestant sovereign and signed the concord formula in 1579 .

The other development concerned the territories of the counts. Two large parts of the country, one in Remlingen in the west of Würzburg and the other in Rüdenhausen in the east, had developed. With the death of Georg II zu Castell in 1597, the county was divided, probably also in order to be able to better govern the distant portions of the country. At the beginning of the 17th century, however, the Thirty Years War began and brought the two parts of the county many losses.

Life

Georg Friedrich was born on August 21, 1600 in Rüdenhausen in Lower Franconia, the residence of the counts. He was the first-born son of Gottfried zu Castell-Rüdenhausen and his wife Anna Schenkin zu Limpurg in Obersontheim . Georg Friedrich had a younger brother who, however, had no claim to the county. The early training of the future sovereign is then in the dark, the count probably received instruction from a tutor .

After Georg Friedrich received the basic education, he began studying. To this end, he first enrolled at the University of Strasbourg , later moving to Tübingen . Then he went on a typical gentleman tour of Europe. It took him first to France, then to the Kingdom of England and finally to the Netherlands. From here he returned to Franconia.

With the death of his father in 1635, Georg Friedrich took over the county of Castell-Rüdenhausen at the height of the conflict in the Thirty Years' War. The family had already had to leave the castle in Rüdenhausen several times before , but Georg Friedrich managed to return for the time being in 1636. Nevertheless, the county had to pay high war contributions alternately to the Catholic Imperial and Protestant Swedes.

In May 1636 there was food shortage in Rüdenhausen, the already sick count had to flee to Obersontheim . Here, in the castle of his mother's relatives, he stayed until autumn. Then he traveled on to Kitzingen in the Margrave of Ansbach and stayed in the fortified town until 1640. At that time, many of his subjects in Rüdenhausen had either fled or had been destroyed by the epidemics.

In 1641 Georg Friedrich returned to the emaciated Grafschaft Castell and again built a government. This consisted only of a bailiff and a clerk, which, however, were enough to administer the decimated population. On April 10, 1647, the count personally traveled to the Swedish headquarters in Niederwerrn to lower the demands of the Protestants. After the end of the war, Georg Friedrich lived in Rüdenhausen for a few years and died here on March 29, 1653 at the age of fifty-two.

Marriage and offspring

Count Georg Friedrich married Anna Schenkin zu Limpurg in Speckfeld on November 30, 1636 in Sommerhausen . With this he had a total of nine children, but not all of them reached adulthood. The first-born Philipp Gottfried was established as his successor.

• Philipp Gottfried (born November 11, 1641 in Rüdenhausen; † June 10, 1681 there)
• Friedrich Ludwig (born October 21, 1642 in Rüdenhausen; † December 8, 1680 there)
• Heinrich Albrecht (born November 5, 1643 in Rüdenhausen; † August 3, 1674 in Nuremberg)
• Sophia Christina (November 1, 1644 - June 20, 1647)
• Luise Juliana (born January 24, 1646 in Rüdenhausen; August 1, 1687 in Wiesenbronn)
• Maria Magdalena (* July 22, 1647; † April 11, 1648 in Sommerhausen)
• Eberhard (born February 17, 1650 in Rüdenhausen; † September 10, 1674 in Frankenthal)
• Johann Friedrich (* May 21, 1651; † August 12, 1651)
• Dorothea Elisabeth (* May 24, 1652 in Rüdenhausen; † February 14, 1726 in Würzburg)

literature

• Wilhelm Engel: House u. Reign of Castell in Franconian history . In: Society for Franconian History (ed.): Castell. Contributions to the culture and history of home and dominion. New Year's Sheets XXIV . Würzburg 1952. pp. 1-19.
• Otto Meyer: The Castell house. State and class rule over the centuries . In: Otto Meyer, Hellmut Kunstmann (ed.): Castell. State rule - castles - status lordship . Castell 1979. pp. 9-53.
• August Sperl: Castell. Pictures from the past of a German dynasty (reprint from 1908) . Neustadt an der Aisch 1993.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Engel, Wilhelm: Haus u. Reign of Castell . P. 9.
2. ^ Sperl, August: Castell . P. 299.
3. ^ Sperl, August: Castell . P. 312.
4. ↑ Angelfire.com: Castell family tree , accessed April 2, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Gottfried	Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen 1635–1653	Philipp Gottfried