George II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl

George II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl

Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl (* February 2, 1588 , † January 31, 1644 in Hanau ) was the last of his house. He was the eldest son of Philipp Wolfgang von Fleckenstein - Dagstuhl († 1618) and his first wife, Anna Alexandria von Rappoltstein (* March 7, 1565, † April 9, 1610). Georg II gained considerable importance as the guardian and regent of the underage Count Friedrich Casimir von Hanau-Lichtenberg and the counties of Hanau-Lichtenberg and Hanau-Münzenberg in the final phase of the Thirty Years' War .

origin

Family table of Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl
Great grandparents	Georg I von Fleckenstein -Dagstuhl († 1553) ∞ Johanna von Salm -Kyrburg († 1595)	Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1514; † 1590) ∞ Eleonore von Fürstenberg (* 1523; † 1544)	Ulrich IX. von Rappoltstein (* around 1493; † 1531) ∞ Anna Alexandria von Fürstenberg (* 1504; † 1581)	Johann VIII. Von Sayn -Hachenburg (* 1493; † 1529) ∞ Odilia von Nassau - Saarbrücken († 1554)
Grandparents	Ludwig von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl (* 1542; † 1577) ∞ Anna Sibylle von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1542; † 1580)		Egenolf IV. Von Rappoltstein (* 1527; † 1585) ∞ Elisabeth von Sayn (* 1529; † 1549)
parents	Philipp Wolfgang von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl († 1618) ∞ Alexandra von Rappoltstein (* 1565; † 1610)
George II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl

youth

At the age of twelve he became a page at the court of Charles III. , Duke of Lorraine , in Nancy . Later he was a member of an embassy to the English court in the service of Württemberg . His further career was determined by a military career.

Military career

It began in the Turkish War in Hungary . His rise to colonel took place in the service of the Protestant Union . After its dissolution in 1621, he entered the service of Margrave Friedrich V of Baden-Durlach . In the feud between the Hanseatic League and the Duke of Braunschweig , he killed a member of the House of Ysenburg with a pistol shot . In 1622 he withdrew from the military - although there were offers for general posts from the emperor, Sweden , England and Denmark - and took care of his own rule.

government

Since the military leader Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld wintered on the Upper Rhine in 1622, the Fleckenstein rulership felt the full force of the Thirty Years' War at that time. Georg II tried to pursue a policy of neutrality following the Hanau-Lichtenberger Count Johann Reinhard I and his cousin Philipp Wolfgang von Hanau-Lichtenberg (1595–1641). However, the further strengthening of the imperial party ruined this policy. In this situation Georg II sold the Dagstuhl share of his rule to the Archbishop of Trier , Philipp Christoph von Sötern . With the Hanau-Lichtenberg count family, Georg II had to go into exile in Strasbourg , where he lived in the “Fleckensteiner Hof” on Münstergasse. He had to leave the government of the Fleckenstein rule to a representative of the Fleckenstein-Bickenbach-Sulz line.

The Hanau Guardianship

Establishment of guardianship

Here in Strasbourg, Count Philipp Wolfgang von Hanau-Lichtenberg made a will that confirmed his son, Hereditary Count Friedrich Casimir von Hanau-Lichtenberg, as the sole heir due to the primogeneity right in the family of the Lords and Counts of Hanau and - should he still be a minor - Georg II appointed executor and regent together with Count Johann Ernst von Hanau-Munzenberg-Schwarzenfels . Georg von Fleckenstein owed this position to the fact that he was a grandson of Anna Sibylle von Hanau-Lichtenberg , a daughter of Count Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg , and that there were no more adult members of the Hanau-Lichtenberg family. It is the only case in the Hanau House that a minor guardian has been appointed. Count Johann Ernst from the Hanau-Munzenberg family, on the other hand, was the next of age relative in the rank of a count, but resided in the distant Hanau , but maintained the rank of guardianship.

Count Philipp Wolfgang von Hanau-Lichtenberg died on 14./24. February 1641 and on his death he left behind his second wife, Dorothea Diana von Salm , and his underage children, Friedrich Casimir, Johann Philipp , Johann Reinhard , Sophie Eleonore and Agatha Christine . Due to the minority of the heirs, a guardianship had to be established. George II took over the task, although he received the attractive offer to become governor of the sequestered Duchy of Württemberg .

The Hanau-Munzenberg inheritance

When Count Johann Ernst died on January 12, 1642, on the one hand Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl remained as the sole guardian and on the other hand his ward, Count Friedrich Casimir, inherited the deceased in a politically precarious situation:

• Even the external circumstances of the accession of his ward Friedrich Casimir in the county of Hanau-Munzenberg were difficult. Friedrich Casimir von Hanau-Lichtenberg had to travel through hostile territory to Hanau, where he arrived on January 21, 1642, only in disguise and with a small number of escorts, including Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl.

• Various feudal lords of the County of Hanau-Münzenberg, above all the Archdiocese of Mainz , but also the Electorate of Saxony , Hessen-Darmstadt , the Diocese of Würzburg and the Prince Abbey of Fulda, saw the only distant relationship between the testator and heir as a favorable opportunity to collect fiefs given to Hanau-Münzenberg . The legal positions for these claims might be weak (because in addition to the distant but unambiguous relationship there was also an inheritance contract from 1610 between the houses of Hanau-Münzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg), but in the situation of the Thirty Years War, the actual power constellation counted more than the legal position. Georg II von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl recognized the situation clearly and secured the support of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel . The widow of Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hessen-Kassel, Amalie Elisabeth , a née Countess von Hanau-Münzenberg and at that time regent of the Landgraviate, provided diplomatic and political support. She was concerned with the complete preservation of the County of Hanau-Munzenberg, as it was heavily indebted to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel. In return, Georg II, as guardian of Friedrich Casimir, signed a contract of inheritance with her in 1643, according to which the county of Hanau-Münzenberg should fall to Hessen-Kassel when the Hanau family died out. In addition, Georg II left Hessen-Kassel to the Hanau office of Schwarzenfels and the Hanau cellar of Naumburg as security for the Hanau debts .
• The county seat, Hanau, at that time consisted of two legally independent cities: Alt- and Neuhanau. The latter was a plan to be established in which Reformed religious refugees from France and the Spanish Netherlands (today's Belgium ) were settled at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century . Its ruling class consisted of wealthy merchants and tradespeople who, due to their economic power, held a very strong position in the County of Hanau-Munzenberg, and who took advantage of the weak position of the new count and his guardian when taking office to impose conditions on him. George II had no choice but to grant the demands after ten days of negotiations so that Friedrich Casimir could take over his inheritance at all. The main point of the demands of the urban ruling class was the preservation of the denominational status quo , because Friedrich Casimir, like the whole family of the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg, was Lutheran . The county of Hanau-Munzenberg, however, had been reformed since the reign of Count Philipp Ludwig II (* 1576, † 1612). Whereas 50 years ago Philipp Ludwig II. The Jus reform andi , the principle cuius regio , the right to determine the denomination of his subjects, had easily prevail in favor of the Reformed confession can, had George II. Now de facto the Jus reform andi refrain and not only continue to allow the Reformed religious freedom to practice their religion, but also initially limit the Lutheran service for the count and his court to the chapel in the castle . The Lutheran Johanneskirche in Hanau could not be built until 1658 . The county of Hanau-Münzenberg became so biconfessional, which was confirmed with a "religious recession" in 1670. However, the denominations continued to argue violently in everyday dealings with one another. It was not until 140 years later that the two churches of the county were united in the Hanau Union in one uniate church .

death

Georg II von Fleckenstein died in 1644. He was the last of the Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl line. He was buried in the princely crypt in Hanau's Marienkirche .

Since adulthood did not come of age until the age of 25, according to the then valid view, Count Friedrich Casimir was still not of legal age in 1644. Count Georg Albrecht von Erbach stepped in as the new guardian .

literature

• Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in Hanau . Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 34. Hanau 1996. ISBN 3-9801933-6-5 .
• Ferdinand Hahnzog Georg II von Fleckenstein, baron of roof trusses. A Hanau administrator in the final phase of the Thirty Years War. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 18, 1962 pp. 223–242.
• Detlev Schwennicke: European family tables: Family tables for the history of European states . NF VII, plate 26.
• Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country . 3rd edition, Hanau 1919, reprint 1978.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ferdinand Hahnzog, Georg II. Von Fleckenstein, Freiherr zu Dachstuhl. A Hanau administrator in the final phase of the Thirty Years War. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 18, 1962 pp. 223–242.
2. ↑ Reinhard Dietrich: "... because of large government led, but poor payment of debts ..." - On the financial situation of the County of Hanau in the 17th century. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 31 (1993), pp. 123-147.