Johann Christian (Brieg)

Johann Christian von Brieg

Johann Christian von Brieg (Czech Jan Kristián Břežský , Polish Jan Chrystian Brzeski ; born  August 28, 1591 in Ohlau ; †  December 25, 1639 in Osterode , Duchy of Prussia ) was Duke of Brieg , Liegnitz , Wohlau and Ohlau . He came from the Liegnitz branch of the Silesian Piasts and held the post of governor of Silesia from 1617 to 1620 . At the outbreak of the Thirty Years War he was a leading class politician in Silesia.

Life

Johann Christian's parents were Joachim Friedrich , Duke of Brieg, Ohlau, Liegnitz and Wohlau and Anna Maria , daughter of Prince Joachim Ernst von Anhalt . On September 14, 1591 he was baptized in the name of his two uncles: Johann after Johann Georg von Ohlau and Wohlau and Christian after Christian I. von Anhalt-Bernburg .

When his father died in 1602, Johann Christian was only eleven years old, his younger brother Georg Rudolf only seven. Therefore, the guardianship over them as well as the reign over their inherited duchies was exercised by her mother Anna Maria von Anhalt, who was assigned the Duchy of Ohlau as Wittum in her will. Johann Christian lived for a while at the court of his aunt, the widow elector Elisabeth von Brandenburg in Crossen and then in Berlin. There he was confirmed to the Reformed Confession in 1604 , as a result of which he came into conflict with his Habsburg sovereign, the Bohemian king, in terms of faith . He then attended the University of Strasbourg, after which he went on an educational trip through western Germany and France. After the death of his mother in 1605, Johann Christian and his brother Georg Rudolf were under the tutelage of Duke Karl II , Duke of Münster , whose wife Elisabeth Magdalena was a sister of their father.

After coming of age in 1609, Johann Christian returned to Silesia and took over the government of the duchies of Liegnitz and Brieg. On October 7th of this year he paid homage to the Bohemian King Rudolf II in Breslau . After his brother Georg Rudolf was declared of age by the Emperor in 1611, the country was divided. Johann Christian decided on Brieg with Ohlau, Strehlen , Nimptsch , Kreuzburg and Pitschen , the younger Georg Rudolf received Liegnitz with Wohlau, Goldberg , Gröditzburg , Lüben , Parchwitz , Winzig , Herrnstadt , Rützen and Raudten . On December 12, 1610, Johann Christian married Dorothea Sibylle von Brandenburg (1590–1625), a daughter of Elector Johann Georg and his third wife Elisabeth von Anhalt, in accordance with the previous family policy . In April 1611 he appeared at the head of the Silesian princes at the general assembly in Prague. In 1614 he accepted the Calvinist faith. Nevertheless, he was appointed governor of Silesia by Emperor Matthias in 1617 as the successor to the Catholic Duke of Teschen Adam Wenzel , as Matthias adhered to the majesty letter issued in 1609 by his brother Rudolf II , which granted the Protestant estates of Silesia religious freedom. The appointment was confirmed again by the Emperor in August 1618 at an audience in Vienna.

Class uprising in Bohemia and Thirty Years War

The Bohemian King Ferdinand II, who had already been elected in 1617, immediately began counter-Reformation measures, which made it clear that he was not prepared to guarantee the religious freedom granted in 1609 with the letter of majesty. This is why the Bohemian Protestant estates turned against him, and the protests eventually led to the Prague fall . Because of these events, riots also broke out in Silesia, the driving force of which was the Jägerndorfer Duke Johann Georg . He was supported by Johann Christian's brother Georg Rudolf and the dukes Heinrich Wenzel and Karl Friedrich . Although the Silesian estates acted hesitantly at first, Duke Johann Georg von Jägerndorf, who was a cousin of Johann Christian, raised a Silesian army that moved into Bohemia at the beginning of October to reinforce the rebels.

In 1619 Duke Johann Christian signed the Bohemian Confederation Act and was elected to one of the twenty defensors. After Ferdinand II was deposed, Johann Christian supported the election of the Calvinist Friedrich V of the Palatinate , to whom he was linked by faith. When King Friedrich V came to Silesia in February 1620, Johann Christian accommodated him in his Castle in Ohlau and on February 27, 1620 led the homage of the Silesian princes in Wroclaw .

After the imperial army succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the Bohemian troops in the Battle of White Mountain on November 8, 1620, Prague was occupied by the Habsburgs. On February 28, 1621, the so-called Dresden Accord was signed in Dresden with the mediation of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony . The Silesian princes swore allegiance to the emperor and broke off relations with his enemies completely. In addition, they paid Ferdinand II 300,000 guilders to make amends for their participation in the uprising. An exception was the leader of the Silesians, Duke Johann Georg von Jägerndorf, who was ostracized. Johann Christian, who was still accused of treason by the Habsburgs, resigned from the office of governor on April 1, 1621 in order not to be removed from office. Then he went to the Brandenburg city of Frankfurt , where Georg Wilhelm von Brandenburg , who was a nephew of his wife Dorothea Sybille, granted him protection and where the ducal family had been living since the end of February. J. stayed. In November 1621, however, Johann Christian came to Breslau to take the oath of homage for Ferdinand II. With the mediation of the Elector of Saxony, Johann Christian was able to return safely to his duchy on December 8th and reside at the castle in Brzeg. His wife Dorothea Sybilla died there in 1625. In 1626 he married Anna Hedwig, a daughter of Marshal Friedrich von Sitzsch, for the second time.

Due to the events of the last few years, Johann Christian held back politically, which restricted his freedom of action. He was succeeded as governor by his brother Georg Rudolf, who resigned from office in 1628.

On August 9, 1633, Johann Christian, his brother Georg Rudolf and Duke Karl Friedrich from Oels, as well as the city of Breslau, founded an alliance whose goal was to defend freedom of belief. The alliance was initiated by the Saxon general Hans Georg von Arnim-Boitzenburg and placed itself under the protection of Saxony, Brandenburg and Sweden. As a result, Johann Christian and his allies again lost the emperor's favor.

Exile in Poland and Prussia

After the imperial victory under the general Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch on October 11, 1633 near Steinau , the defeated Protestant allies evacuated the country, whereby the Silesian princes and estates no longer had any military and political support. Johann Christian and his brother Georg Rudolf, whose sister was married to Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch, then fled. Johann Christian, whose court had previously been moved to Herrnstadt , was only a few miles from the Polish border. He arrived in the Polish border town of Lissa on the morning of October 12, 1633 , his brother in the late evening of the same day. As a longer stay on the border with Silesia was considered dangerous, they decided to go to Thorn in Royal Prussia , where they wanted to wait and see how things went. Johann Christian's sons Georg and Ludwig , who studied abroad, and in February 1634 the poet Martin Opitz , who was in Johann Christian's service and subsequently carried out diplomatic and political assignments for him, were also sent there.

After the arrest of his brother-in-law Schaffgotsch and the murder of Wallenstein in February 1634, Johann Christian pursued an independent policy in which he no longer wanted to take the emperor into consideration. From Thorn he contacted the Silesian evangelical estates and urged them to join the Protestant allies. For their part, the estates demanded the return of Johann Christian and his brother, and on July 11, 1634, elected the absent Johann Christian as director of the Silesian Princely Congress . Thereupon both brothers returned to Breslau, where on August 23, 1634 the first meeting of the Prince's Day took place under the chairmanship of Johann Christian. In an anonymous writing from the Duke's circle, the right of resistance was emphasized and new coins were struck in the Wroclaw imperial mint without the imperial coat of arms. After the imperial victory in the battle of Nördlingen in September 1634, the Saxons, allied with the Silesian princes, pushed for a peace with the emperor, which could be foreseen to be at the expense of the Silesians. At the beginning of January 1635 Johann Christian left Silesia and went back to Thorn, where he arrived on January 13, 1635. His two sons Georg and Ludwig, who stayed in Brieg, were not there. With the Peace of Prague on May 30, 1635, the privileges of the Majesty's letter were revoked, the Dresden Accord was revoked and the Silesian princes were asked to submit.

To his son Georg III. To secure the Principality of Brieg, Johann Christian von Thorn from the Emperor Ferdinand II informed him in writing of his submission, which he repeated on September 20, 1635 in the required form. In order to avoid the personal homage, he apologized with illness, so that instead of him Georg made the hand vow. By paying homage, Johann Christian was able to keep his Duchy of Brieg, which he now handed over to his son Georg. In 1637 he appointed him his governor.

The renewed exile in Thorn took place with the consent of the Polish king Władysław IV. Wasa , with whom Johann Christian was on friendly terms. That changed when his marriage to Archduchess Cäcilia Renata , the daughter of Ferdinand II, was negotiated. Therefore, at the beginning of 1636, Johann Christian was informed that the Kingdom of Poland could no longer grant him asylum. After negotiations with the Elector Georg Wilhelm , in the summer of 1636 Johann Christian received the Prussian office of Osterode , about 150 kilometers north-east of Thorn, as a pledge. The Duke and his court now resided at the palace. There, in 1637 Johann Christian's daughter Sybille Margaretha married the royal Polish administrator of the Marienburg and voivodes of Pomerania , Count Gerhard von Dönhoff .

Johann Christian died on December 25, 1639 in Osterode, six months after his second wife Anna Hedwig von Sitzsch. Only four months later, on April 19, 1640, was his body transported to Brieg, where it arrived on May 1. Because of the preparations for the funeral ceremonies, his body was initially kept in the princely silver chamber. The funeral next to his first wife Dorothea Sybille did not take place until December 12, 1640 in the church of St. Hedwig in Brieg. Probably for political reasons, his brother Georg did not attend the funeral.

Offspring from the first marriage

The children came from the marriage with Dorothea Sibylle von Brandenburg († 1625)

1. George III von Brieg (1611–1664)
2. Joachim (December 20, 1612 - February 9, 1613)
3. Heinrich (February 3, 1614 - February 4, 1614)
4. Ernst (February 3, 1614 - February 4, 1614), twin of Heinrich
5. Anna Elisabeth (born March 23, 1615 - † March 28, 1616)
6. Ludwig IV. (1616–1663)
7. Rudolf (April 6, 1617 - February 8, 1633)
8. Christian (1618–1672)
9. August (18 March 1619 - 12 March 1620)
10. Sibylle Margareta (1620–1657), married Count Gerhard VII von Dönhoff on October 23, 1637
11. Dorothea (born August 16, 1622 - † August 26, 1622)
12. Agnes (August 16, 1622 - September 3, 1622), twin of Dorothea
13. Sophie Magdalena (born June 14, 1624 in Brieg; † April 28, 1660 in Ohlau), married Karl Friedrich von Podiebrad , Duke of Münsterberg and Oels on December 2, 1642 .

Offspring from the second marriage

After the death of his first wife Sybille von Brandenburg in 1625, Johann Christian married Anna Hedwig von Sitzsch, who was only fifteen years old, on September 13, 1626 (* January 13, 1611, † July 16, 1639 in Osterode). She was a daughter of Friedrich von Sitzsch, the court marshal to his nephew, the Breslau bishop and governor of Silesia Johann VI. von Sitsch was. Since it was a marriage that reduced their status , the descendants from this marriage were not allowed to take over the title of duke or a corresponding inheritance. On June 24, 1626, the descendants of this marriage were financially secured in a contract, eighteen months later Emperor Ferdinand II granted Anna Hedwig the rank of baroness. On February 18, 1628 in Regensburg he also raised the eldest son August and his future children to be barons of Liegnitz . Anna Hedwig died on July 16, 1639 in Osterode, where she was buried on October 5. The children came from marriage:

1. August von Liegnitz (born August 21, 1627 in Brieg; † May 14, 1679 in Siebenhufen ), raised to baron in 1628. Married Elisabeth von Ruppau († 1660) on October 8, 1653. On August 2, 1665, he was married to Karoline von Nassau-Dillenburg (1643–1686) for the second time.
2. Dorothea Sybille von Liegnitz (* July 17, 1628 - † June 18, 1629)
3. A son died on the day of his birth, June 30, 1629
4. Ernest von Liegnitz (* November 27, 1630 - † March 16, 1631)
5. Sigismund von Liegnitz (born January 31, 1632 in Brieg; † July 14, 1664), married Baroness Eva Eleonore von Bibran und Modlau on October 1, 1659 (December 1644; † July 6, 1671), the connection remained childless.
6. Johanna Elisabeth von Liegnitz (born June 8, 1634 in Thorn; † October 30, 1673 in Schwentnig), married Baron Zdenko Howora Berka von Duba and Leipa on November 3, 1651
7. Anna Christina von Liegnitz (born October 18, 1636 in Osterode, † September 5, 1642 in Brieg)

literature

• Norbert Conrads : The Prussian exile of Duke Johann Christian von Brieg. In: Joachim Bahlcke (ed.): Silesia in early modernity. On the political and intellectual culture of a Habsburg country (= New Research on Silesian History. Vol. 16). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20350-4 , pp. 39-52.
• Historical Commission for Silesia (Ed.): History of Silesia. Volume 2: Ludwig Petry , Josef Joachim Menzel (ed.): The Habsburg Era, 1526–1740. 2nd, revised edition. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1988, ISBN 3-7995-6342-3 , pp. 41, 49, 51, 54, 57, 59, 62 f., 78, 81 f. and 153.
• Carl Krebs:  Johann Christian, Duke of Brieg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 189-200.
• Hugo Weczerka (Hrsg.): Handbook of the historical places . Volume: Silesia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 316). Kröner, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-520-31601-3 , family table on p. 592.
• Rudolf Žáček: Dějiny Slezska v datech. Nakladatelství Libri, Praha 2004, ISBN 80-7277-172-8 , pp. 151, 155 f., 158, 164 f., 413 and 428.

Web links

• Genealogy Brieg
• Genealogical classification at SILESIA
• List of inappropriate connections at heraldica.org
• Illustration by Mathias van Somer from 1665: Christianus Dux Silesiae ... ( digitized )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Sinapius : Silesian Curiosities First Presentation. Verlag des Autoris, Leipzig 1720, p. 901 .
2. ^ Norbert Conrads: Regionalism and centralism in the Silesian corporate state. In: Joachim Bahlcke (ed.): Silesia in early modernity. On the political and intellectual culture of a Habsburg country (= New Research on Silesian History. Vol. 16). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20350-4 , pp. 345–358, here p. 354.