Johann (Nassau-Idstein)

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Count Johann
von Nassau-Idstein

Johann von Nassau-Idstein (born November 24, 1603 in Saarbrücken , † May 23, 1677 in Idstein ) was Count of Nassau-Idstein and Protestant regent.

Life

His parents were Count Ludwig II of Nassau-Weilburg († November 8, 1627 in Saarbrücken) and Countess Anna Maria of Hessen-Kassel (1567–1626). ( Ancestors ) In 1605 his father united the entire Walram property: Saarbrücken, Weilburg and Idstein. His brother was Wilhelm Ludwig . After the division of the estate, Wilhelm Ludwig received the county of Saarbrücken , the Ottweiler office , the Herbitzheim bailiwick and the Wellingen community on January 29, 1629 in Ottweiler . Johann received the rule of Idstein , Wiesbaden and Sonnenberg . The land of his two younger brothers, Wehener Grund and Amt Burgschwalbach , initially remained under Wilhelm Ludwig's administration.

Shortly thereafter, the property of the brothers was endangered by the edict of restitution of March 2, 1629, as the electors of Mainz and Trier raised claims to the church property confiscated since the Passau Treaty (1552). On July 7, 1629 decided Reichskammergericht in the dispute between Lorraine and Nassau that town and castle Saarwerden , Bockenheim and Wiebersweiler as Metzer fief should be issued to Lorraine, the rest of the county should remain in Nassau.

In 1629 he married Sibylle Magdalene von Baden-Durlach (* July 21, 1605, † July 26, 1644 in Strasbourg), daughter of Georg Friedrich , Margrave of Baden-Durlach and Countess Juliane Ursula von Salm, Countess of the Wild and Rhine of Neufville.

In 1630 witch hunts began in his area. Johann instructed the pastors to preach against the witchcraft. When the Swedish king Gustav Adolf came to the Rhine at the end of the year , Wilhelm Ludwig, Johann and his brothers made themselves available to him and thus declared war on their emperor. After King Gustav Adolf fell on November 16, 1632, the three counts united with the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna at the meeting of the Protestant estates in Heilbronn . On November 24, 1632, his youngest brother, Count Otto, died and on December 11, Count Ernst Casimir came of age, and so it was divided again: Ernst Casimir elected the offices of Weilburg , Gleiberg , Merenberg , Kirchheim and Stauf . The brothers shared the office of Usingen and the Stockheim court .

On September 5, 1633, Count Johann von Nassau-Idstein signed the alliance with France against the emperor. In Frankfurt in 1634 the Nassau brothers compared with the gentlemen von Geroldseck about their ownership rights to Lahr . After the defeat of Sweden and its allies, Emperor Ferdinand Johann and his brothers withdrew their lands. On May 30, 1635, a number of imperial estates, including Kurbrandenburg and Kursachsen, concluded the Peace of Prague and the Nassau counts were expressly excluded from this. Johann chose Strasbourg as an exile. In November 1635 the imperial commissioner Bertram von Sturm appeared in the Nassau region and declared the three brothers to have lost their counties and their and all property. Hunger, epidemics and soldiers' arbitrariness prevail in Idstein until 1646.

Countess Sibylla Magdalena died in 1644 at the age of 39. Count Johann married Countess Anna von Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg (born May 25, 1625 Dagsburg; † December 24, 1668 in Idstein), daughter of Count Philipp Georg zu Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg, in Strasbourg on December 6, 1646 and Countess Anna zu Erbach and returned to Idstein.

When the eldest son became a Catholic in 1653, Johann expelled him. In 1658, the witch hunt began in Nassau under bailiff Plebanus. In 1665 his youngest son Georg August Samuel was born, his later successor. In the following year, work began on the Idstein church . The plague raged in Idstein. Countess Anna died in 1668 at the age of 43. In 1672, Johann applied for the dignity of imperial prince .

Witch persecution in Idstein

In 1676/1677, on the initiative of Count Johann, witch hunts were carried out in Idstein , which ended with his death at the age of 74 on May 23, 1677. Unlike in other areas, the Idstein population was not very interested in prosecuting people accused of sorcery. Fanatical preachers like the pastors from Heftrich or Burgschwalbach only fueled the fears of the population; however, the person of the count remained dominant in this event. He self-directed every step his officers took, and he had to be given detailed reports of every occurrence. A total of 51 people were charged with witchcraft. Between February 3, 1676 and March 31, 1677 39 people were executed for witchcraft in Idstein, 31 women and 8 men, including Cäcilie Zeitlose Wicht , wife of the pastor Johannes Wicht from Heftrich, and Elisabeth Hoffmann , wife of the pastor in Sonnenberg . The victims were unanimously rehabilitated morally and socially and ethically by the Idstein City Parliament in 2014.

Succession

In his "Political Testament", Count Johann described the office of regent as a task for the fulfillment of which a regent must later give an account to God. The new lord and guardian of the heir, who was only twelve years old, was his maternal uncle, Count Johann Casimir von Leiningen (1619–1688), who immediately stopped the witch hunt.

progeny

Dorothea Amalia (* 1661) as a child
Georg August, the only son of Count Johann who survived

He and his two wives had a total of 25 children. Only two daughters and a son survived the father.

Of these are mentioned here:

  1. Anna Ottilie (1630-1632)
  2. Gustav Adolf (1632–1664, fallen)
  3. Ludwig Friedrich (1633–1656)
  4. Bernhardine Sophie (1634–1642)
  5. Johann (1638–1658)
  6. Sabine Juliane (April 1639 - October 2, 1639)
  7. Karl (1649–1651)
  8. Christine Elisabeth (1651–1676)
  9. Eleonore Luise (1653–1677)
  10. Ernestine (1654-1655)
  11. Georg Wilhelm (1656–1657)
  12. Johannette (1657–1733) ⚭ 1680 Count Christian Ludwig von Waldeck (1635–1706)
  13. Sibylle Charlotte (1658-1660)
  14. Dorothea Amalie (1661–1740) ⚭ 1679 Count Ludwig Friedrich von Wied zu Dierdorf (1656–1709)
  15. Philipp Ludwig (1662–1664)
  16. Georg August (1665–1721) ⚭ 1688 Princess Henriette Dorothea zu Oettingen-Oettingen (1672–1728), daughter of Prince Albrecht Ernst I (1642–1683)

See also

literature

  • Ernst Joachim:  Johann von Nassau-Idstein . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 260-262.
  • Gilla Flothmann, Hilke Müller, Ilse Schollmeyer, Maria Stoltefaut: On the trail of witches ... About witch trials using the example of Idstein 1676. Verlag Hexenbuchladen, Idstein 1986, ISBN 3-926305-00-2 .
  • Rouven Pons: For art and belief. The painting of the Martinskirche in Idstein under Count Johannes von Nassau-Idstein (1603–1677) (= publications of the historical commission for Nassau. 83). Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-930221-25-7 .
  • Ester Meier (ed.): "You have never seen anything like that in Germany". The ceiling design of the Idstein Union Church, Marburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-89445-503-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Descendants of Walram I, Count von Nassau , on Royalty Pages ( Memento from January 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Ingrid Nicolai: Idstein parliament rehabilitates Idstein victims of the witch madness. ( Memento from November 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt , from November 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ www.nassau-info.de: The witch persecution in Idstein , (with a list and explanations of the 39 deaths of Count Johann's witch madness), accessed January 12, 2019
  4. ^ Ernst Joachim:  Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 260-262.
  5. ↑ Johann Georg Hagelgans: Nassau family table of the Walram tribe, from Count Henrich the Rich to the descendants who are descended from him and who are currently flourishing in three princely houses of the Saarbrückische line. Fleischer, Frankfurt & Leipzig 1753, ( digitized ). Christian D. Vogel : Description of the Duchy of Nassau. Beyerle, Wiesbaden 1843, ( digitized version ). Ernst F. Keller: The tribulations of the Nassau people and the neighboring countries in the times of the Thirty Years War, their heroes, statesmen and other famous contemporaries. Perthes, Gotha 1854, ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ GENEALOGY.EU: Nassau 4. Accessed July 30, 2019 .
predecessor Office successor
Ludwig II. Count of Nassau-Idstein
1629–1677 		Georg August
personal data
SURNAME Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johann of Nassau-Idstein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Nassau and Idstein
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1603
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1677
Place of death Idstein