Hieronymus von Erlach

Johann Rudolf Studer , Portrait of Hieronymus von Erlach, around 1740.

Hieronymus von Erlach , Count of Erlach since 1712 (born March 31, 1667 in Bern ; † February 28, 1748 in Hindelbank ), was a Swiss in Austrian service, in which he rose to Lieutenant Field Marshal , but later a councilor and finally mayor of his hometown Bern has been.

Life

Hieronymus von Erlach joined the French Swiss Guard as a young man . As a captain in the Bern regiment of Erlach in French service, he married the French noblewoman Françoise Trouette de Montrassier in 1694 according to the Catholic rite and at the same time renounced the Protestant faith. In 1695 he left his wife and a daughter who had since been born. The marriage was not annulled.

He returned to Bern in 1695 and married the wealthy patrician Anne-Margarete Willading, daughter of the mayor Johann Friedrich Willading . When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out, he entered Austrian service and, as a colonel, commanded a regiment in the city of Bern. Now Louis XIV remembered the French marriage of the imperial colonel. In 1702 Hieronymus von Erlach was given the choice by the French ambassador in Bern to serve France as an “observer” and “informant” or to be socially ruined by announcing his first marriage and a process of bigamy . From 1702 to 1714 he served in the Imperial Army on the Upper Rhine during the War of the Spanish Succession and informed the French commanders about the plans and intentions of his superiors under the code name of a Baron d'Elcin . His reports ran through the French residents in Switzerland and contributed significantly to the success of the French. This double life did not become generally known until 1934.

He was close friends with Prince Eugene of Savoy and was in command of the sieges of Haguenau and Landau in the Palatinate . He was twice envoy from his homeland in Vienna and was highly favored by Emperors Leopold I and Joseph I. In 1712, he rendered Switzerland an extremely important service. Because he succeeded in preventing the emperor from interfering in the Second Villmerger War . In 1713 he served again in the imperial army, became a councilor in Bern in 1715 and returned here. In 1721 he became head of the city and republic of Bern as mayor .

From 1713 to 1715 Hieronymus von Erlach had Thunstetten Castle built, Hindelbank Castle in 1720 and the Erlacherhof City Palace in Bern in 1745 .

One of his sons, Count Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach , was an officer in the Austrian service.

Awards

Duke Eberhard Ludwig von Württemberg awarded him the Order of Hubert in 1708 , and Emperor Joseph I appointed him Chamberlain and Emperor Karl VI in 1710 . awarded him the hereditary title of imperial count in 1712.

literature

Barbara Braun-Bucher: Hieronymus von Erlach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Ernst Troesch: Hieronymus von Erlach. 1667-1748 . In: Jahrbuch des Oberaargaus, Vol. 24 (1981), pp. 109–120 ( PDF; 3.8 MB ).
Emil Blösch : Erlach, Hieronymus von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 216.

Individual evidence

^ Barbara Braun-Bucher: Hieronymus von Erlach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

Commons : Hieronymus von Erlach - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Christoph Steiger (I.)	Schultheiss of Bern 1721–1746	Isaak Steiger

personal data
SURNAME	Erlach, Hieronymus von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss general
DATE OF BIRTH	March 31, 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bern
DATE OF DEATH	February 28, 1748
Place of death	Bern

[1] Barbara Braun-Bucher: Hieronymus von Erlach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .