Hilmar von Munchausen
Hilmar von Münchhausen (* 1512 ; † April 19, 1573 in Steyerberg ) was a German mercenary leader and royal Spanish colonel .
Life
origin
Hilmar von Münchhausen, from the black line of the old Lower Saxon noble family Münchhausen , was the son of Stacius von Münchhausen , pledgee at Aerzen Castle and Drost at Lauenstein Castle ; he was born the youngest of four brothers. After the early death of his father, who was slain in 1518 because of a dispute over the property of the Aerzen pledge and Lauenstein Castle, the boy grew up under the sole care of his mother, Margarethe von Oberg .
Like his older brothers, he was drawn to the arms trade and at the age of 17 he took part in the battles of the Habsburgs against Francis I of France in Italy, where he was certified as having excellent military virtues and skills. Fascinated by the world of military campaigns and military camps, Münchhausen, who was thirsty for action, did not accept the canonical at the Hildesheim Cathedral Foundation opened to him at the time , but instead left it to his cousin in exchange for compensation. Then in 1539 he married Lucia von Reden , the daughter of Drosten von Marienburg , with whom he had eight children.
Military service career
In 1542 he had chosen Duke Heinrich d. J. von Braunschweig and Lüneburg joined and quickly rose to its most important field captain. When Heinrich, who wanted to force his reluctant subjects back to the Catholic faith, was chased out of the country in the summer of this year by the Schmalkaldic League under the leadership of Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Münchhausen entered the service of the Duke of Cleve as colonel . He was one of the mercenary leader or military contractor that was delivered to the armies of their princely patron for fixed sums contractually agreed quotas to the people of war, in this case a troop mercenaries .
With this he defended the city of Düren bravely against the imperial forces in the War of the Geldr Succession in 1543 , but lost almost his entire team when they stormed them and was himself captured. After the release, Münchhausen recruited 1,200 foot servants and marched with this troop in August 1545 to the coastal land of Hadeln of the Archbishopric of Bremen, where Colonels Christoph von Wrisberg and Georg von Holle had already gathered with a significant force. The three mercenary leaders entered the service of Duke Heinrich the Elder. J., who wanted to recapture the Wolfenbüttel principality with this army. But neither Braunschweig nor Wolfenbüttel could be defeated and when a relief army of the Protestant Union under Philip of Hesse approached, Heinrich moved impetuously towards him and, despite warnings, dared the battle on October 21, 1545 at Höckelheim . He could not withstand the superior opponent for long; Munchhausen tried in vain in the midst of the struggle for peaceful mediation. Duke Heinrich d. J. had to surrender, was arrested and incarcerated for several years.
In the period that followed, Münchhausen and his cousin, Colonel Georg von Holle , with their mostly Protestant pennons, took part in almost all wars in Germany on the side of the imperial army. They usually raised their troops together; one of their opponents in the region was Wrisberg . Münchhausen also brought his 12 pennons of recruited infantry to Charles V in the Battle of Mühlberg, which was decisive in the Schmalkaldic War , in April 1547 .
In 1553 he pulled the riders of his brothers Jobst and Johann, who died in the battle of Sievershausen on the Brunswick side, to himself and pressed Duke Heinrich's part of their pay. Since the Franconian estates did not want to pay their contributions after Albrecht von Kulmbach was defeated at Sievershausen, Hilmar and Holle rushed through Thuringia, forced Mühlhausen to open the gates, devastated the area of Erfurt and thus scared the Franks into making large payments. In the conflict between the brothers Ulrich and Johann Albrecht von Mecklenburg, Münchhausen let Ulrich take him into service, moved into position with his mercenaries in front of Schwerin, but then negotiated a settlement. In addition to Holle, there was also another cousin in arms, Börries von Münchhausen from Apelern .
In February 1556, Münchhausen was appointed Spanish colonel by Philip II with the order to raise ten ensigns (3,000 men) High German or Lower Saxon mercenaries and lead them personally in the Netherlands against France. Münchhausen's regiment fought in the battle of St. Quentin in August 1557, when the fortress defended by Coligny was overrun by the German colonels Schwendi and Hastatt, then by Münchhausen and Holle. All four stormed through a wide breach in the wall, in front of which - with many victims - a deep moat had to be overcome. After the successful storming, the looting began and a fifth of the houses burned down. During the following winter he met with all colonels in Spanish service in Brussels to discuss further developments after the end of the war, including Otto von Schaumburg , Johann von Braunschweig, Günther von Schwarzburg , Hilmar von Quernheim, Schwendi, Boyneburg and from southern Germany Hastatt, from the Netherlands Orange and Egmond . In the following July 1558 there was a final attack by troops not yet signed off at Gravelingen , where Münchhausen, with command of the entire German infantry, contributed significantly to the victory of the Spaniards under Egmond and was able to capture the French commanders in chief. His later release brought him a fortune of 6000 thalers in ransom, which he had to fight against Egmond before a supreme court.
After the troops were released, Münchhausen lived on his property, provided with Brandenburg and Spanish pensions. Philip II highly valued the colonel and even sat down personally with Duke Heinrich the Elder. J. for the payment of outstanding war money from his brothers who died near Sievershausen.
The silence did not last long, because as early as 1560, the Danish King Friedrich II obliged the tried and tested Feldobristen Münchhausen and Georg von Holle to wage war against Sweden, the so-called three - crown war . Within a short time they had brought together more than 20,000 mercenaries and invaded southern Sweden in 1561; the sea fortress Älvsborg was successfully besieged. This largest and most independent company of the two failed in the vastness of southern Sweden because there was no supplies, money or quarters and an epidemic broke out. Münchhausen decided to withdraw from the war with his regiment and achieved an honorable and lucrative abdication. He first had to pay out the pay out of his own pocket and for several years still had to struggle to get the king to pay the 14,860 thalers.
Acquisition of possessions
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The enormous financial returns brought about by the military undertakings can be seen in the extensive holdings of Münchhausen. Initially, after the murder of his father in 1518, he and his brothers were only able to hold onto the controversial pledged property of Schloss Aerzen with difficulty , while the family's fiefdom only included a few Meierhöfe zu Schwöbber, Wulffersen and Afferde and a few Kothöfe before Aerzen. (Hilmar and his brothers were also enfeoffed in 1527 by Count Jobst von Schaumburg for 600 guilders with the free Burgmannshof zu Rinteln ). Thanks to the rich spoils of war, however, he was soon able to acquire one property after another, partly as a fiefdom, partly as a pledge, thus laying the foundation for the considerable wealth of his descendants. He and his sons furnished some of the estates with magnificent castles of the Weser Renaissance , which are still of cultural and historical significance .
From 1547 to 1562 he was Drost at Stolzenau Castle , from 1547 to 1562 Drost zu Lauenau , 1557 for life pledge to Aerzen , in 1564 he acquired the former Premonstratensian Canons' Monastery of Leitzkau near Magdeburg with 8,000 acres of land on which he began for 70,000 Reichstaler to convert the Romanesque cloister wing into a renaissance castle (which his son Statius von Münchhausen completed from 1593). From around 1570 Hilmar had a splendid renaissance castle planned and possibly started by the Hamelin architect Cord Tönnies at Hof Schwöbber , which after his death in 1573 was carried out by his widow Lucia von Reden between 1574 and 1578 with the construction of the central wing and by his son Hilmar the Younger 1588–1607 was supplemented by the side wings. In 1565 he acquired Steyerberg Castle in pledge and in 1566 as a fiefdom of Wendlinghausen . On the Burgmannshof in Rinteln he built next to a large granary in 1565 the heated archive house, which has been preserved to this day, for his numerous feudal and real estate deeds; on the facade there are sandstone relief portraits of Hilmar and Lucia. His entire written estate was there until 1933, but after being transferred to the Hanover State Archives in 1943 it was burned there during an air raid (small remains have been preserved in Bückeburg ). Münchhausen and his sons Statius (built 1603 to 1612 Bevern Castle and Neuhaus Castle in Leitzkau as well as the Bolzum and Bodenwerder manor houses ) and Hilmar the Younger (completed Schwöbber and built Wendlinghausen Castle ) are among the great builders of the Weser Renaissance.
Münchhausen had his daughters Mathildis (Mette) and Margarete from the well-known painter Ludger tom Ring the Elder. J. portray; the paintings hang today in the Kunsthalle Hamburg and the art museum Havana.
Last years
Munchhausen spent the last years of his life mostly far away from the war on his estates, still entrusted with all kinds of business by the greats. So he often appeared at important embassies, as in 1566 in a delicate atonement matter of his former comrade-in-arms, Duke Erich the Elder . J. von Calenberg , whom he represented in Vienna before the emperor. In the same year, Philip II extended Hilmar's expiring appointment as Spanish colonel (which was only formally effective) for another three years, paid out pension arrears and promised more - in order to prevent Münchhausen from supporting the Geusen who opposed themselves in the Netherlands the autocratic Spanish rule began to revolt. He feared that Münchhausen and Holle could lead them to 5,000 horsemen. Even Emperor Maximilian , Philip's cousin, sent a warning letter. Münchhausen was well informed about all decisions in Madrid, as he paid the private secretary Philipps for ongoing information. When the Duke of Alba arrived in 1567 with an army as the new governor to hold his blood court , Colonel Münchhausen and his twelve-year-old son Statius were present at the magnificent reception in Antwerp. He had to leave Statius in Alba's care for three years. Nevertheless Hilmar lent the rebel leader Wilhelm von Oranien - who fled from Alba to Dillenburg - secretly 40,000 thalers for a (initially unsuccessful) campaign against Alba, in which he did not take part. However, when Alba's marching orders arrived, Obrist Münchhausen deliberately let his advertisements run so slowly that it amounted to a refusal. Most of his old comrades in arms were in Alba's service, but secretly sympathized with Orange. Even the Catholic Duke Heinrich d. J. von Braunschweig covered the reluctant colonels. When he died in 1568, his successor Julius asked Münchhausen to make suggestions for a better fortification of his Wolfenbüttel fortress. Hilmar came to the Netherlands for the last time in 1570 when he led the emperor's daughter, Anna , in a convoy to Nijmegen , where she was handed over to Alba, to whom she embarked for Spain as the fourth wife of Philip II. On the way home Hilmar was allowed to take his son Statius back with him.
When the 61-year-old Hilmar von Münchhausen died in April 1573 at his Steyerberg pawn shop near Nienburg, 200 personal cuirassiers escorted him to a pompous funeral ceremony. In the St. Martin's Church in Nienburg / Weser , an epitaph still commemorates him and his wife Lucia.
The colonel, who had distinguished himself on all the battlefields in Europe, was, alongside his cousin Georg von Holle and Christoph von Wrisberg, probably the most important Low German mercenary leader of his time.
children
With Lucia von Reden he had eight children:
- a son who died young
- Otto (* 1547 † 1574) (was shot by his servant in Cleveschen; epitaph in Wesel )
- Hans (* 1550 † 1602), lord and Drost zu Steyerberg, pledgee of the official castle in Stolzenau ; ∞ I. (1598) Armgard Hasberg († 1598), his housekeeper, whose 11 illegitimate children he had legitimized by Emperor Rudolf II in 1594 ; ∞ II. Elizabeth of Hoym
- Mette (* approx. 1552 † 1576), died unmarried
- Statius (* 1555 † 1633), lord of Leitzkau, Bevern, Elbingerode, Stapelburg, Dornburg, Meinbrexen, Grohnde Office, the city courtyard of Hildesheim, Bolzum and Bodenwerder; ∞ I. (1578) Anna von Lattorff from Dornburg († 1600); ∞ II. (1602) Dorothea von Bothmer from Rotenburg
- Hilmar the Younger (* 1558 † 1617), Lord of Rinteln, Schwöbber, Wendlinghausen and Meinbrexen; ∞ Dorothea von Münchhausen , daughter of Börries the Elder (1515–1583), lord of Apelern , Drosten and pledgee of Lauenau and Heilwig Büschen of Oldendorf
- Kurt (* 1560 † 1604), lord of Wendlinghausen (sold to Hilmar the Younger) and Haddenhausen (bought in 1602 from Heinrich von Münchhausen), pledgee of Ehrenburg ; ∞ I. Elisabeth von Holle († 1603); ∞ II. Anna Maneel
- Margarete (* approx. 1564 † after 1613) ∞ Heinrich v. Bortfeld , gentleman on Wellersen, Rinteln and Wendhausen
Daughter Mette (1552–1576)
Daughter Margarete, married von Bortfeld
Archive house in Rinteln
Hilmar and Lucias burial place: St. Martinskirche zu Nienburg / Weser
Individual evidence
- ↑ Report on the epitaph in Nienburg ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Karl Ernst Hermann Krause: Münchhausen, Hilmar Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 5 f.
- Dieter Brosius: Münchhausen. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 521 f. ( Digitized version ).
- GS Treuer: Thorough gender history of the gentlemen from Münchhausen . 1740, pp. 99-111
- AF v. Münchhausen: Gender history of the von Münchhausen family from 1740 to the most recent times . 1872, pp. 46, 95ff., 149f.
- G. Angermann: Colonel Georg von Holle 1514–1576 . 1966
- H. Schelp: The richest builder of his time . In: Jahrbuch d. Heimatmuseum Hameln, 1969, pp. 56–60
- G. von Lenthe, H. Mahrenholtz: genealogical tables of the von Münchhausen family . 1976
- Joachim Schmid: Hilmar von Münchhausen . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon, 2006, p. 508f.
- Manfred Orlick: builder and mercenary . In True Stories about the Romanesque Road , pp. 32–41, Tauchaer Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-89772-276-7
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Münchhausen, Hilmar von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German nobleman and mercenary leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1512 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 19, 1573 |
| Place of death | Nienburg / Weser |