Heidelberg succession agreement
The Heidelberg Succession Treaty was a contract in the Wittelsbach house , which was signed on November 2, 1553 in Heidelberg between the Palatine Wittelsbachers as presumptive heirs of the Electoral Palatinate and the electoral dignity . Within this family, it was the last of several contracts in which the succession and inheritance after the expected extinction of the Heidelberg line of the Count Palatine near the Rhine were regulated. The aim was to maintain the electoral dignity among the Palatinate Wittelsbachers and to defend against the claims of the Bavarian Wittelsbachers to the Palatinate electoral dignity. The house contract of Pavia of 1329 determined for the house of the Wittelsbachers that the Palatinate and Bavarian Wittelsbachers should alternate in the electoral dignity, but this had not been the case until now. The Golden Bull of 1356 designated the Count Palatine near Rhine as Archdean of the Holy Roman Empire . The secular electorships were inherited according to the primogeniture , so only exactly one male heir could become a successor to an electorship.
Involved
Contractual partners were all of the Palatinate Wittelsbachers living at the time: Elector Friedrich II of the Palatinate, whose marriage had remained childless, his unmarried brother Duke Wolfgang von Pfalz-Neumarkt, and both nephews of Duke Ottheinrich von Pfalz-Neuburg, whose marriage had also remained childless. They represented the Heidelberg line of the Count Palatine, whose extinction was foreseeable. The remaining Palatine Wittelsbachers joined the treaty as presumptive heirs: from the Pfalz-Simmern line, the old Duke Hans and his three sons, Dukes Friedrich , Georg and Reichard , from the Pfalz-Zweibrücken line, Duke Wolfgang for himself and as guardian of his underage cousin Duke Georg Hans von Pfalz-Veldenz . The underage Georg Hans was also represented by his two sub-guardians Ludwig von Eschenau, Grand Court Master of the Palatinate, and Job Weidenkopf von Okenheim, Landschreiber zu Lichtenberg . Georg Hans later believed he was being cheated. The historian Bachmann rejected this, because “it is not even imaginable that the only underage prince would have wanted to be favored by so many excellent princes, or that his master guardian, who was equally interested in him, or his sub-guardians would have such a thing happen to let."
Content of the contract
Both lines, Pfalz-Simmern and Pfalz-Zweibrücken, had previously agreed in secret contracts, the Disibodenberg Treaty of 1541 and its renewal from 1546, to strive to preserve the electoral dignity with united forces when the Kurlinie became extinct and to divide the Palatinate among themselves. In 1545 and 1551 the Count Palatinate had allied themselves against the claims of the Bavarian lines. On the day of the treaty of 1551, March 18, 1551, the secret treaties were made known to the elector, whereupon he made a new settlement on the following day, March 19, 1551, stating that the Duke of Palatinate-Simmern to succumb to him and to keep the Courland undivided.
This was now solemnly repeated and confirmed between all the Count Palatine in 1553. Duke Hans von Pfalz-Simmern or, if he had already died when the Kurlinie became extinct, his eldest son in the lay state should succede in the Electoral Palatinate and the Kurlande should be kept undivided, Duke Wolfgang and Duke Georg Hans should be resigned to other territories.
In 1559 the Kurlinie died out and the succession was regulated as it had been determined in the Heidelberg succession contract six years earlier. Duke Friedrich von Pfalz-Simmern received the electoral dignity and the Electoral Palatinate, Duke Wolfgang von Pfalz-Zweibrücken received the Principality of Palatinate-Neuburg , the so-called Young Palatinate , that had been created a generation earlier . Duke Georg Hans von Pfalz-Veldenz received the county of Lützelstein .
literature
- Johann Heinrich Bachmann: Reflections on the foundations of the Pfalzbaiern family, namely the general family fideicommiss in connection with the rights of the firstborn , Mannheim 1780
supporting documents
- ↑ Bachmann 1780, p. 49
- ↑ Bachmann 1780, p. 50 f.
- ↑ Bachmann 1780, p. 37
- ↑ Bachmann 1780, p. 37 f.
- ↑ Bachmann 1780, p. 38 ff.