Heinrich Matthias von Thurn

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Heinrich Matthias von Thurn , copper engraving by Willem Jacobszoon Delff , 1625

Heinrich Matthias Graf von Thurn-Valsassina (Czech: Jindřich Matyáš z Thurnu ; born February 24, 1567 at Lipnitz Castle , Bohemia ; †  January 28, 1640 in Pernau , Livonia ) was one of the main leaders of the class uprising in Bohemia (1618) against Ferdinand II. In the first phase of the Thirty Years War . After the suppression of the uprising, he became the military leader of the Protestant Bohemian exiles in the Swedish service .

Life

Count von Thurn and Valsassina was born on February 24, 1567 as the son of Protestant parents whose ancestors were descended from a German branch of the Italian patrician Torriani family. His father Franz received some farms in Bohemia and Moravia through military service, and married there twice, first Lidmila Berka von Dauba and in the second marriage Barbora Countess Schlick . Heinrich Matthias came from the second marriage, the youngest of 14 children. After his father's death, he was raised by his Catholic uncle Johann Ambross, but despite intensive Catholic instruction he retained his Protestant faith. He spent most of his youth in Austria.

In the years 1585/1586 he belonged to the imperial embassy that visited Istanbul , from there he went to Egypt , Syria and Jerusalem . In 1592 he joined the imperial army and fought against the Ottomans in Hungary . After the war he returned to his farms near Jičín (Jitschin) and Vintířov in Bohemia, and after fifteen years he left the army as a colonel and councilor .

Veliš Castle (around 1650)

Through his marriage in 1591 to Magdalena Gall von Losdorf and a few inheritances, he has now made considerable fortunes in Austria , Gorizia and Krajina . In 1605 he bought the Veliš estate in northeastern Bohemia and became a member of the Bohemian estates. In 1606 he inherited Loosdorf Castle in Lower Austria from the family of his first wife, who had died in 1600 . He later married Susanne Elisabeth von Tiefenbach. His only son Franz Bernhard (1595–1628) came from his first marriage. Heinrich Matthias carried the titles Graf von Thurn , Freiherr von Valsassina and zum Heiligen Kreuz, Herr auf Loßdorf , Wellüsch , Godingen and Winterz , Burgrave of Karlstein .

Although he did not speak the Czech language , he was connected to the Bohemians by the Protestant faith. In 1609 he was one of the leading representatives of the class uprising , at that time he was already commanding their army and was considered the military leader of the opposition. In 1611 he led the Estates army in the fight against the Passau people. King Matthias II appointed him Burgrave of Karlstein for his services . However, he lost this title and thus the lucrative office to Jaroslav Borsita von Martinic in 1617 when he stood against the new King Ferdinand II . He was appointed court judge, but his income and reputation were far below those of the Burgrave of Karlstein.

Heinrich Matthias von Thurn was one of the authors of the apology written by the Bohemian estates , with which they tried to justify their behavior in connection with the Prague window lintel . Thurn was named one of the 30 defenders of the Protestant faith by the estates . On May 23, 1618, the uprising of the Protestant population began in Bohemia . Thurn was appointed by the board of directors of the Bohemian Confederation to be the military leader of the estates army, with whom he stood in front of Vienna on June 5 and October 26, 1619 , where, however, he had no military success due to the lack of heavy siege equipment and soldiers. After the defeat of the insurgents in the Battle of White Mountain (1620), in which he participated as regimental commander, Ferdinand II, following the Prague investigation committee, had all ringleaders of the Bohemian uprising ostracized, including Heinrich Matthias von Thurn, who had his entire Bohemian and lost Austrian property and escaped execution by fleeing to Gabriel Bethlen in Transylvania and later to the Ottoman Empire . His castle Veliš , which was confiscated by the Bohemian Chamber , was subsequently acquired by the imperial general Wallenstein , who incorporated it into his Duchy of Friedland .

In the period that followed, Thurn therefore continued to fight against the Habsburgs and participated in the Thirty Years' War as a diplomat and general . He was the self-appointed military leader of the Bohemian emigrants and commanded a small corps in Silesia in 1626 . He then served as lieutenant general in the Swedish army of King Gustav II Adolf , whom he - in contrast to the German Protestants - was the only one who had the will and ability to wrest Bohemia (and if possible also Austria) from the Habsburg rule. He is often wrongly said to have participated in the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) and the Battle of Lützen (1632). In fact, it was his younger cousin Johann Jakob von Thurn, commander of the so-called "Black Regiment".

Engraving with the portrait of Heinrich Matthias von Thurn, from Theatrum Europaeum from 1662

In 1631 he moved into Bohemia in the wake of the Saxon field marshal Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg , accompanied by numerous emigrants; In the same year he was involved in the creation of a secret communication channel between Gustav Adolf and Wallenstein , which was threaded by his brother-in-law Trčka . When Arnim was pushed out of Bohemia again by Wallenstein in 1632, Thurn went with him again. He deeply mistrusted Arnim, whom he suspected of seeking a compromise with Wallenstein between the German Protestants and the emperor - on the back of the Bohemian emigrants. After Gustav Adolf had died in the Battle of Lützen against Wallenstein in 1632, the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna appointed Thurn in 1633 as the leader of a small Swedish corps of around 6,000 men, which was actually a Bohemian Protestant emigre corps. With this Thurn advanced into the Silesia occupied by Arnim the previous year; The purpose was to support the Saxons against the imperial ones, at the same time to keep an eye on the neighboring Poland and to control or fight the Saxons in case they should come to an understanding with the imperial ones. He was involved in the discreet contacts between Wallenstein and Oxenstierna operated by emigrants, including Wilhelm Kinsky . In the summer of 1633, like Arnim, he met for negotiations with Wallenstein during an armistice in Silesia.

On October 11, 1633, the Thurns corps near Steinau an der Oder was enclosed by Wallenstein's army and he himself was taken prisoner, while he showed himself to be a very inept military leader. Thurn, however, was released again after military concessions to Wallenstein (handing over of all Silesian fortresses), which aroused great indignation at the imperial court in Vienna and intensified the mood against Wallenstein. Friedrich Schiller describes the background to this in his “History of the Thirty Years War” from 1792:

“People in Vienna await the arrival of this great criminal with bloodthirsty impatience and already enjoy in advance the terrible triumph of slaughtering its noblest victim for justice. But to spoil this lust for the Jesuits was a much sweeter triumph, and Thurn received his freedom. It was lucky for him that he knew more than one could learn in Vienna, and that Wallenstein's enemies were also his. The Duke (Wallenstein) in Vienna would have been forgiven for a defeat, but this disappointed hope was never forgiven. "

Thurn then retired into private life, which he spent in Pernau (in what was then Swedish Livonia ). He died on 28 January 1640 and found his burial place in the cathedral to Reval . In his "Defensionschrift" written in Sweden, Thurn described the events of 1618 as a responsible defense of one's own faith. In the Baltic states, the branch of the family went out with his grandson Heinrich von Thurn (* 1628 - 19 August 1656), Swedish general, imperial council, governor in Riga and Reval.

Fonts

Two memorable letters: I. An angel from the nobility to his good friends and country folk left an awkward one: Except for which all circumstances, those of November 8th. That different 1620 year, suffered the Prague defeat, to see and the same was originally caused. II. So Count Heinrich-Matthes vom Thurn, [et] c. to a noble Austrian landlord, because of said defeat in front of Prague, and his planned campaign, [et] c. sub dato Newhäusel / the 14 Iulii / this 1621 year, let go of digitized material in: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Digital, Munich digitization center

literature

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Matthias von Thurn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Golo Mann : Wallenstein. His Life , Frankfurt am Main 2016 (first 1971), p. 903
  2. ↑ Golo Mann, ibid., P. 900
  3. ↑ Cicely Veronica Wedgwood : The Thirty Years War . Cormoran Verlag GmbH licensed edition 1999, Paul List Verlag, Munich 1967, ISBN 3-517-09017-4 , p. 307 .
  4. ↑ Friedrich Schiller, "History of the Thirty Years War" , P 1123-28
personal data
SURNAME Thurn, Heinrich Matthias von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thurn, Heinrich Matthias Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Main leader of the Bohemian uprising
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1567
PLACE OF BIRTH Lipnitz Castle , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1640
Place of death Pernau , Livonia