Gertrud von Plettenberg

Gertrud von Plettenberg († October 26, 1608 in Arnsberg ) was the administrator of some of the castles of the Cologne electors in the Duchy of Westphalia and was the mistress of Ernst of Bavaria .

Gertrud von Plettenberg (painting detail)

Life

Gertrud von Plettenberg came from the noble family von Plettenberg . Her father was the eldest son of Ulrich von Plettenberg and Catharina von Thülen . He owned the Serkenrode manor . Her mother was a "person from Livonia ". The family often seems to have been in financial difficulties because the family's manor was too small and insignificant to allow a noble lifestyle. Siblings were Anton, Anna and Eva. Anton was temporarily gographer in the office of Fredeburg , while Eva was abbess in the Drolshagen monastery from 1599 to 1602 . At this time Anna was living in Oelinghausen Monastery, where she held the post of " waitress ".

Gertrud von Plettenberg was in the service of the Elector of Cologne as the administrator ( " Beschließerin ") of the locks in Arnsberg , Hirschberg and Höllinghofen .

In addition, she was the mistress of Cologne's Archbishop Ernst von Bayern and since 1605 his secret wife. Because of her, the archbishop stayed almost permanently in Arnsberg since 1595. He accepted that a short time later his nephew and later successor Ferdinand von Bayern was placed at his side as coadjutor . With this Ernst kept the title, but no longer had the full political and ecclesiastical rights of an archbishop and elector.

There is little more information about the life of Gertrud von Plettenberg. One source is the diaries of the landdrosten Kaspar von Fürstenberg . There she appeared for the first time in 1598 as "jungfrauw Gertraut von Plettenbergh" in her capacity as administrator of Hirschberg Castle. Once, von Fürstenberg entertained her with pies and pheasants that had come from Liège . Ernst was also sovereign there at the time. Another time it is mentioned in connection with the food for the estates. In 1605 the Archbishop gave her what was later called the Landsberger Hof in the city of Arnsberg. There are indications that the elector, who never received the priestly ordination, officially married Gertrud von Plettenberg in the same year.

According to Caspar von Fürstenberg, Gertrud died on October 26, 1608 in Arnsberg. Archbishop Ernst died in Arnsberg at the beginning of 1612 at the age of 58.

Gertrud had two children by him, a son and a daughter. In the Landsberger Hof (today the Sauerland Museum ) hangs a picture that shows Gertrud with her little son. The son Wilhelm von Bayern or Wilhelm de Bavaria was Landdrost of the Duchy of Westphalia between 1618 and 1624 and thus the highest official and deputy of the elector. Wilhelm later embarked on an ecclesiastical career and became prince abbot of the Stablo and Malmedy monasteries . After her death in 1608, her daughter Katharina inherited the Arnsberg estate.

There are various legends about Gertrude's early death. She was murdered by relatives of her lover at Schloss Brühl . Even if the entry in Kaspar von Fürstenberg's diary speaks against it, at least one seems to have thought something like that possible. Only a few years earlier, as was certainly not wrongly believed, the Duchess of Cleves had been poisoned by her sister-in-law.

His successor, Ferdinand von Bayern, was very different from Archbishop Ernst in temperament and character. In the same year as his uncle died, he began to enforce the celibacy of the priests with great emphasis in the Duchy of Westphalia. Many priests were married there at that time. From now on, priests were only allowed to be those who no longer lived with a “concubine”, according to the visitation protocols handed down from 1612 onwards.

literature

• Magdalena Padberg : Jungfer Gertrud and her family. In: Yearbook Hochsauerlandkreis 1990. Brilon 1989, pp. 120–126.
• Karl Feaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1895. Reprint, 1983, pp. 251, pp. 258-261.
• Harm Klueting: History of Westphalia. The land between the Rhine and Weser from the 8th to the 20th century. Paderborn 1998, ISBN 3-89710-050-9 , p. 132.

Web links

• Literature by and about Gertrud von Plettenberg in the catalog of the German National Library