Henry VII (Ortenburg)

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Epitaph for Heinrich VII. In the choir of the Protestant Marktkirche Ortenburg .

Count Heinrich VII (born November 6, 1556 in Söldenau ; † July 4, 1603 there ) was the son of Count Johann III. von Ortenburg and the baroness Euphemia von Spaur and came from the Lower Bavarian noble house of the Ortenburgers . In his short reign he tried to compensate for the great damage that his family had suffered under his predecessor Count Joachim .

Live and act

Little is known about the life of Count Henry VII. Heinrich studied in Padua in 1576 . On the way home he was imprisoned by the Bishop of Brixen, who wanted to force him to turn away from his Calvinist faith and return to the Catholic faith. Heinrich's property at Söldenau and Saldenburg was always shared with his uncle Ulrich III. or his heirs. Several attempts at division failed. It was not until 1598 that Heinrich VII was able to fully secure Söldenau Castle as his residence.

All his life Heinrich was in the shadow of the incumbent Count Joachim and his conflict with the Duchy of Bavaria . It was just that argument of Joachim that forced the then 25-year-old to take his first major official act in 1581. The Ortenburg fiefs on Bavarian land had been confiscated by Duke Wilhelm V as a result of the introduction of the Reformation in 1563 and the religious conflict that had continued since then, including parts of the possessions of Heinrich and his uncle Ulrich III. Although they had the right to live in their castles and palaces, some of them received no income from their Bavarian properties. The Ortenburgers were thus forced to sell goods from their private assets. However, it is not known what it was. Together with his two uncles Count Joachim and Count Ulrich III. Heinrich VII signed the sales contract for the goods with Bishop Urban von Passau. This bought the lands for the considerable sum of 19,000 guilders.

Anna Jakobäa von Fugger, Heinrich's first wife.

In order to master the steadily growing financial problems, Heinrich soon looked for a well-paid position. In mid-1584 he came to the Palatinate Court in Heidelberg . There he met his first wife, Baroness Anna Jakobäa von Fugger , whom he married on February 21, 1585. This marriage brought Heinrich a rich dowry, which he could use in his financial need. A year later, on February 22, 1586, Heinrich entered the service of Elector Friedrich IV as a councilor. This also gave him the offices of district judge and caretaker at Waldeck near Tirschenreuth . However, on January 29, 1587, Anna Jakobäa died there. A year later, Henry VII married again. It was Johannetta Freiin zu Winneberg, near Cochem .

After the death of his uncle, Count Joachim, Heinrich was the oldest of the family. Due to the seniorate succession in the House of Ortenburg, which has been in force since 1566 , Heinrich was enfeoffed on July 4, 1600 by Emperor Rudolf II. With the imperial county of Ortenburg . Since Joachim died childless, according to his will, his inheritance fell to his widow Lucia Freiin zu Limpurg . Joachim pledged the county to her so that it would not remain indecent. Thus, all of the counts' possessions, with the exception of their private property, fell to Lucia. Only the high debt burden remained for the Ortenburgers. In order to be able to pay off the debts, Heinrich tried to acquire the county of Lucia by offering her a mortgage note for her requested sum of 19,000 guilders. However, Lucia refused this on February 7, 1601. It slowly became apparent that she had no intention of giving up the county again, but that she wanted to bequeath the county to her own family. Until her death in 1626 this led to protracted conflicts with the population of the imperial county.

The burden of debt was ultimately so overwhelming for Henry VII and his nephew Georg IV that they were forced to end the ongoing dispute with Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria. So they approached the duke together and asked him for help. Duke Maximilian promised them, if they would pay homage to him and swear allegiance, to provide help in their predicament. Henry VII and George IV followed his instructions. In return, the Ortenburgers got back all their Bavarian fiefs , with the exception of the rich Mattighofen rulership . Duke Maximilian feared that the Ortenburgers could soon become as powerful again as they were at the beginning of Joachim's reign due to the rich income of the Hofmark. For this reason he bought Heinrich VII and Georg IV the rule for 102,000 guilders. Heinrich was not averse to a sale because of the immense debts that the counts had accumulated. Most of these were settled through the sale of Mattighofen. In return for the restitution of their fiefs, the Ortenburgers withdrew all lawsuits and lawsuits that had been ongoing since Count Joachim before the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer , and Georg IV undertook to be the next ruling count to convert to the Catholic faith. This finally ended the almost 40-year conflict with the Bavarian dukes.

On July 30, 1603, Heinrich VII died in Söldenau Castle . He no longer succeeded in releasing the county and the market town of Ortenburg from Lucia. This was also denied to his two successors, Georg IV and Friedrich Casimir . Only Count Georg Reinhard was able to buy out the county in 1658. However, Henry VII succeeded in his very short term of office in protecting the counts from further damage and in greatly reducing their debts.

progeny

Heinrich VII was married twice, first to Anna Jakobäa Fugger , baroness of Kirchberg and Weißendorn, and in the second marriage to Johannetta, baroness of Winneberg. The following children are from these marriages:

1st marriage:

2nd marriage:

literature

  • Markus Lorenz: The Counts of Ortenburg and their Imperial Counties Ortenburg up to the introduction of the Reformation in 1563. In: Ortenburg - Imperial Counties and 450 Years of Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 26–39).
  • Stefan Wild: Söldenau Castle. In: Ortenburg - Reichsgrafschaft and 450 years of Reformation (1563-2013) , Ortenburg 2013 (pp. 442–449).
  • Friedrich Hausmann : The Counts of Ortenburg and their male ancestors, the Spanheimers in Carinthia, Saxony and Bavaria, as well as their subsidiary lines , published in: Ostbairische Grenzmarken - Passauer Jahrbuch für Geschichte Kunst und Volkskunde , No. 36, Passau 1994 (p. 9 -62).
  • Eberhard Graf zu Ortenburg-Tambach: History of the imperial, ducal and counts 'entire house of Ortenburg - Part 2: The counts' house in Bavaria. , Vilshofen 1932.
  • Carl Mehrmann: History of the Evangelical Lutheran community of Ortenburg in Lower Bavaria - memorandum for the anniversary celebration of the 300th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation there on October 17 and 18, 1863 , Landshut 1863 ( digitized version ).

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Joachim I. Count of Ortenburg
1600–1603 		George IV
personal data
SURNAME Henry VII
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count von Ortenburg, district judge and keeper of Waldeck
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1556
PLACE OF BIRTH Soeldenau
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1603
Place of death Soeldenau