Georg (Bavaria)

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Duke George the Rich, portrait by Peter Gertner , oil on wood, around 1531/32
George the Rich and Hedwig of Poland in a window of the Landshut town hall

George the Rich (born August 15, 1455 in Burghausen , † December 1, 1503 in Ingolstadt ) was Duke of Bavaria-Landshut from 1479 until his death . He was the third and last of the three “rich dukes” who ruled Bavaria-Landshut in the 15th century. He is best known for the Landshut wedding . With his will, Georg conjured up the Landshut War of Succession , which would eventually reunite the Duchy of Bavaria with territorial losses.

Origin and youth

Georg was born in 1455 as the son of Duke Ludwig IX. and Amalias of Saxony and grew up in the Burghausen castle . Since arriving in Landshut at the age of 13, he was drawn into government business. In the Landshut wedding in 1475 he married Hedwig , the daughter of the Polish king Casimir IV and his wife Elisabeth von Habsburg . Even before he took office, he expanded the castle in Lauingen .

Domination

On January 18, 1479, Georg, 23 years old, succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria-Landshut. In 1485, because of violation of his territory, he had a strong army deployed in front of the imperial city of Nördlingen , whose withdrawal they had to pay dearly. George's famous wealth was otherwise based, as with his father and grandfather, mainly on the possession of the mines in the lords around Kitzbühel .

In the next few years he made intensive efforts to acquire land in front of Austria . In 1486 he bought the margraviate of Burgau, including Günzburg, pledged to the Bishop of Augsburg from Sigmund von Tirol for 52,011 guilders . In 1487 he bought together with his cousin Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich for 50,000 guilders from Duke Sigmund for 10 years the administration of the frontal lands of Tyrol . However, this displeased Emperor Friedrich III. Against the expansion efforts of the two Wittelsbachers , he called the Swabian League into being. In 1489 Georg not only had to pay 36,000 guilders as the price for the conclusion of peace with the emperor, but also had to forego the margraviate of Burgau. On July 10, 1489, he also made peace with the Swabian League and separated from Albrecht.

Georg's chancellor was the learned Altöttingen provost Friedrich Mauerkircher , who later became Bishop of Passau . After his death in 1485, Wolfgang Kolberger became the Duke's most important advisor. With his help he enforced Roman law in his territory. In 1491 he changed the state order created by his father, about which the knighthood complained in 1497, because the previously applicable land law was largely repealed. Nevertheless, further reforms followed in 1501.

He was an important pillar of King Maximilian I , whom he assisted on his campaigns in Swabia , Switzerland , Geldern and Hungary .

He had the Burghausen castle expanded into a permanent palace and the Ingolstadt New Palace built almost completely from scratch.

Question of succession

Contrary to the Wittelsbach house contracts, which provided for mutual succession in the absence of male descendants, Georg bequeathed his duchy to his daughter Elisabeth on September 19, 1496 in a will .

Despite secrecy, Albrecht found out about this breach of contract. Georg accused his chancellor Kolberger of treason and had him imprisoned in 1502. With his behavior he drew not only the opposition of Albrecht and most of the imperial princes , but also that of the emperor.

Unimpressed by this, he and his opponents began preparing for war. In the autumn of 1503 he went to the Wildbad in Württemberg , but had to turn back in Lauingen and returned to Ingolstadt. He put his nephew and son-in-law Ruprecht from the Palatinate on the deathbed as governor and handed over the castles in Landshut and Burghausen to him early. On November 25th he ordered all the estates for December 10th to Landshut.

Georg died on December 1, 1503 in Ingolstadt , without leaving a legitimate male heir, and was buried on December 9 in the Seligenthal monastery . As his daughter and son-in-law continued on his course, the Landshut War of Succession (1504/1505), in which large parts of Bavaria were devastated, and as a result, a peace treaty that was associated with painful territorial losses for the duchy. Georg's breach of contract was fatal for his house too: both the Wittelsbachers in Bavaria and those in the Palatinate suffered extensive territorial losses as a result of the war, while the Habsburgs benefited and gained even more power.

and display information about the image
Landshut Town Hall. On the walls of the state hall there are scenes from the prince's wedding of 1475. Here we see the car of the Polish princess Hedwig. Next to her rides the Duke's son George the Rich. The picture was created at the end of the 19th century and was painted by August Spieß, Rudolf Seitz, Ludwig Löfftz and Konrad Weigand.

Marriage and offspring

Duke Georg married on November 14, 1475 in Landshut Princess Hedwig of Poland (* 1457; † 1502), daughter of Casimir IV. Jagiełło (1427–1492), King of Poland. The marriage had two children:

Other children are reported in later sources, but the contemporary documents do not mention them:

  • Ruprecht of Bavaria († 1477)
  • Wolfgang of Bavaria († 1482)

family tree

Friedrich the Wise
Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
 
 Maddalena Visconti
 
 Albrecht IV
Duke of Austria
 
 Johanna Sophie of Bavaria
 
 Friedrich I.
Elector of Saxony
 
 Catherine of Brunswick-Lüneburg
 
 Ernst I.
Duke of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola
 
 Cimburgis of Mazovia
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Heinrich the Rich
Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
 
 
 
 
 
 Margaret of Austria
 
 
 
 
 
 Friedrich II.
Elector of Saxony
 
 
 
 
 
 Margaretha of Austria
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ludwig the Rich
Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Amalia of Saxony
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 George the Rich
Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Honors

Herzog-Georgen-Strasse in Bad Reichenhall

The Herzog-Georgen-Straße in Bad Reichenhall is named after Georg the Rich, who bought most of the city's brewhouses between 1494 and 1501 and thus laid the foundation for a monopoly of salt production on the one hand, but also for an improvement in production on the other put. The Herzog-Georgen-Straße begins not far from the historic brine springs of the Alte Saline on Salinenstraße and leads in an arched north-west direction to Kammerbotenstraße.

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg von Bayern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ On Georg's death and burial: Helga Czerny: The death of the Bavarian dukes in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period 1347–1579. Preparations - dying - funeral ceremonies - burial - memoria (=  series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 146 ). CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-10742-7 , p. 176–184 (also dissertation, University of Munich 2004).
  2. ^ Johann Dorner: Duchess Hedwig and her court: everyday life at Burghausen Castle based on original sources from the 15th century , Burghausen 2002
predecessor Office successor
Louis IX Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
1479–1503 		Albrecht IV.
personal data
SURNAME George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES George the Rich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Bavaria-Landshut
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1455
PLACE OF BIRTH Burghausen
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1503
Place of death Ingolstadt