George IV Ludwig (Leuchtenberg)

Landgrave Georg IV. Ludwig von Leuchtenberg

Coat of arms of Georg Ludwig, Landgrave von Leuchtenberg

Georg Ludwig (born July 27, 1563 ; † March 20, 1613 in Vienna ) was Landgrave von Leuchtenberg from 1567 to 1613.

Life

Georg Ludwig, son of Landgrave Ludwig Heinrich von Leuchtenberg († 1567) and his wife Mechthild von der Mark and Aremberg , studied in Ingolstadt . Thanks to his outstanding achievements, at the age of 17 he had to work for Duke Wilhelm V , who was his guardian, in Prague and Speyer. In 1586 Georg Ludwig took over the government in Pfreimd and married Marie Salome von Baden, the sister of Jakobes von Baden . Georg Ludwig escorted Jakobe to Jülich when she married Johann Wilhelm , the couple took over the sponsorship of Wilhelm , the son of Georg Ludwig.

Also Georg Ludwig was in 1587 in the Polish king election of Sigismund III. involved. Since he was surrounded by the Electorate of the Palatinate, i.e. Protestant countries, he marked the border with stones, some of which can still be seen today. He was a fierce advocate of the Counter Reformation . He expelled all Protestants who adhered to the faith. As a councilor to the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V and high marshal to the Würzburg bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn , he brought his wife to the King of Poland. In 1594 he was elected President of the Reichshof Council at the Regensburg Reichstag . Georg Ludwig made a trip to London as envoy, and in Germany trips to several royal courts that were in default with the Turkish tax .

His son Wilhelm married Erika von Manderscheid in 1604. The daughter of Mechthildis von Leuchtenberg (1588–1634) married Prince Albrecht IV of Bavaria , the son of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria (1548–1626).

After the death of his first wife Maria Salome in 1600, Landgrave Georg Ludwig married Elisabeth von Manderscheid -Gerolstein in the same year . After her death he married Anna Eusebia of Lobkowicz and was shortly thereafter by Emperor Matthias I. the Order of the Golden Fleece .

Initially living in Prague, he moved to Vienna at the beginning of 1613, where he and his wife died of typhus in April 1613 . He was transferred to the Franciscan monastery he had founded in Pfreimd and buried there next to his wife.

He had little luck with his territorial claims. In 1580 he had tried in vain to claim inheritance from the margraviate of Baden . For 40,000 guilders , he finally renounced the rule of Pleystein in 1600. Nevertheless, when he died, the Landgraviate had a debt of 200,000 guilders due to the tribute to emperors and princes.

literature

• Franz Michael Wittmann: History of the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg: 3rd and last department , Munich, 1852, pp. 487-513; (Digital scan)
• Johann B. Brenner: The Landgraves of Leuchtenberg , Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1834, p. 58; (Digital scan)
• Illuminatus Wagner: History of the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg , Volume 5, 1956, (detail scan) ; (Detail scan 2)
• Contributions to the history of the Diocese of Regensburg , Volume 36, Verlag des Verein für Regensburg Diocesan History , 2002, pp. 257-259; (Detail scan)

Web links

• Works by and about Georg IV. Ludwig  in the German Digital Library
• Website on the history of the Franciscan monastery in Pfreimd

predecessor	Office	successor
Ludwig Heinrich	Landgrave of Leuchtenberg 1567–1613	Wilhelm