George IV (Ortenburg)

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Imperial Count Georg IV (born October 4, 1573 at Söldenau Castle , † April 13, 1627 in Burghausen ) was the son of Count Ulrich III. and his second wife Katharina Freiin zu Waldburg and came from the Lower Bavarian aristocratic Ortenburg family . Due to the pledge of the imperial county of Ortenburg by Count Joachim in 1600, Georg was only officially acting count. Georg was also the Bavarian ducal council, captain von Burghausen, caretaker of Wasserburg am Inn and Eggenfelden .

Live and act

Little is known about the youth of George IV. There is also less news from him during his lifetime. One reason for this is that although he was the incumbent Count of Ortenburg, he never really owned the county. This was pledged to his widow Lucia von Limpurg after Count Joachim's death in 1600 .

After Joachim's death, Georg and his uncle Heinrich VII tried to redeem the county again. Countess Lucia refused in 1601, however, to surrender the county in exchange for a promissory note for her required sum of 19,000 guilders. Rather, she planned to bequeath the imperial county to her own family.

Henry VII and George IV, however, were in financial need. The reason was Joachim's almost 40-year dispute with the Duchy of Bavaria about the imperial immediacy of the county, as well as the introduction of the Reformation in 1563. During this time, the fiefs of the Ortenburgers in the Duchy of Bavaria were included several times. Thus the counts were cut off from most of their sources of income. Furthermore, Joachim led years of trials before the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer against the Bavarian duchy. Some of them were still running. After the county was now additionally pledged and the Ortenburgers only inherited Joachim's immense debts, Henry VII and George IV were forced to act. They asked Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria for help and an end to the decades-long conflict. He was ready to help them. However, he made the condition that both had to pay homage to him and accept his demands. George IV and Henry VII agreed in 1602.

So the count family got back all feudal areas in Bavaria, with the exception of the rich Mattighofen rule . Duke Maximilian feared that if the Ortenburgers regained this fiefdom they would soon be as powerful and influential as they were when Joachim took office in 1551. Instead, the duke offered the incumbent Count Heinrich 102,000 guilders to buy Mattighofen. Henry VII accepted this offer with thanks because of the enormous debt burden. The Ortenburgers thus paid off most of their debts. George IV also undertook to convert to the Catholic faith as Heinrich's successor . He followed the Duke's request not only to end the conflict with Bavaria for good, but also because he hoped to gain access to richly paid offices through the Catholic faith. Furthermore, Georg and Heinrich withdrew all ongoing lawsuits and trials against the Duchy of Speyer.

On July 30, 1603, Georg's uncle Heinrich VII died. According to the law of seniority succession in the Ortenburg house, Georg IV became the incumbent Count of Ortenburg. However, since he did not own the county himself and Countess Lucia was now trying to acquire the Bavarian fiefs, Georg's enfeoffment with the county was delayed. Emperor Rudolf II supported Lucia's request and recommended George to hand over the fief. However, this refused. Due to the commitment of Duke Maximilian, who had promised in 1602 to help the Ortenburgers, Lucia's possession was temporarily prevented.

Due to the ongoing dispute over the county's possessions with Lucia, Georg was forced to develop additional sources of income. In 1612 he entered the service of the Bavarian duke as a councilor. A little later he got the well-paid office of Chamberlain of Maximilian I.

Through Duke Maximilian's intercession with Emperor Matthias that the Ortenburg counts would not be able to redeem the county with him and Lucia without the fiefdoms, Georg and his family were finally allowed to keep the possessions. On May 12, 1617, Georg was officially enfeoffed with the county by Emperor Matthias. Thus, with Bavarian help, Georg succeeded in preserving the claims of his family to the imperial county.

In 1618 the Thirty Years War broke out in Europe. Georg remained in the duke's service. It is particularly noteworthy that the imperial county of Ortenburg remained Protestant throughout the entire conflict in a Catholic area.

In 1624 Emperor Ferdinand II expelled the Protestants from his country. Many stopped in Ortenburg on their way to the imperial cities of Regensburg and Nuremberg . Count Friedrich Casimir , a nephew of George, gave some of them land from his private fortune so that they could settle. This resulted in the still existing villages of Vorder- and Hinterhainberg. Emperor Ferdinand II and Duke Maximilian I, who had meanwhile become elector , were angry about this. Both sent orders to Georg to take action against the Protestants. George IV could not evade the orders and prevented further immigration to the county. However, the 200 now settled refugees were allowed to stay.

On January 2, 1625, Georg took over the office of the keeper of Wasserburg . He also took over the vicarage of Burghausen and became captain of the fortress there. A year later he resigned from the position of carer at Wasserburg. Instead, he received a nursing office in Eggenfelden .

Georg IV died in Burghausen on April 13, 1627. He had not achieved his goal of redeeming the county, but he had succeeded in asserting claims to the county and thus preventing Lucia of Limpurg from incorporating the county into her family.

progeny

Georg IV was married to Anna Maria Countess von Leiningen. The following children were born from this marriage:

literature

  • Walter Fuchs: Ortenburg Castle, Ortenburg monuments and the history of the imperial county of Ortenburg , Ortenburg 2000.
  • Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte Kunst und Volkskunde , No. 36, Passau 1994 (p. 9 -62).
  • Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( digitized version ).


Web links

predecessor Office successor
Henry VII Count of Ortenburg
1603–1627 		Friedrich Casimir
personal data
SURNAME George IV
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reichsgraf von Ortenburg, Bavarian-ducal council, captain von Burghausen, keeper of Wasserburg and Eggenfelden.
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1573
PLACE OF BIRTH Söldenau Castle
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1627
Place of death Burghausen