Johann Helwig Sinold called Schütz

Johann Helwig Sinold called Schütz (born June 25, 1623 in Gießen ; † July 30, 1677 in Celle ) was Chancellor of Duke Georg Wilhelm of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Since 1668 he was a member of the Fruit Bearing Society under the name of the Marked .

origin

He came from a Hessian noble family. His parents were Justus Sinold called Schütz and his wife Anna Margarethe Vietor (1601-1670). His father was the Privy Councilor and Chancellor of the Hessian government and University of Giessen .

Life

He owed his early contact with the diplomatic service to his father. Before he even attended a university, he accompanied it to the Regensburg Reichstag of 1641. After his academic studies, he followed him on his missions for the Peace of Westphalia . He accompanied the young Landgrave Ludwig VI. von Hessen-Darmstadt on his cavalier tour through Germany and Italy, Denmark and Sweden and thus completed his training.

Like his father, he then taught as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Giessen. His works are the "Ad ius publicum et feudalia placita praelectiones" (Frankfurt and Gießen, 1694) published after his death. Like his father, he was also practically active as a Hessian government councilor. Emperor Ferdinand III. appointed him to the Reichshofrat in 1655, and Leopold I renewed this appointment in 1658. Both of them also carried out important diplomatic missions on him: for example, in 1658 he was sent to the Brandenburg court to reverse the article in the electoral capitulation that forbade the emperor to intervene in the Franco-Spanish war.

The fact that the emperors placed their constant trust in him honors him all the more, as evangelicals testify that he, as the evangelical councilor of the imperial court, unwaveringly accepted the interests of his co-religionists. These “good qualities and years of experience in public affairs” recommended him to Duke Georg Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg. The appointment of Schützen was decided in the Hanoverian Secret Council as early as 1661, and he has remained the Duke's confidante in negotiations with the Viennese court since then. He was also related by marriage through his wife Anna Barbara, née Fabricius, the then agent of the Duke Weipart Ludwig von Fabrice at the Viennese court , who had also started his career as a professor of law in Giessen and decided it as the first president of the Higher Appeal Court in Celle , which opened in 1711 . When three of the most distinguished ministers died in 1669, Georg Wilhelm, who had in the meantime ascended the throne of Celle, renewed the call to Sinold. The prince improved his offer with the title of chancellor and second place in his secret council. In June 1670 Sinold followed this call and soon became the decisive leader of Cellian politics in the struggle of the endeavors that wrestled with one another at the court and in the heart of Georg Wilhelm. It wanted to say something. Because chevalesque frivolity and heroic emotions, French soldiers of fortune and German patriots, a selfishly calculating brother and an ambitious maitresse vied for rule over the highly inflammable disposition of the noble-minded prince who lacked all purposeful stability.

If the patriotic pathos of Count Waldeck gave the prince's soul impetus in great moments, he at the same time took pleasure in the company of French adventurers and agents; but for his brother Ernst August , Bishop of Osnabrück, to whom he was warmly devoted, the care of his numerous family remained the top priority. The prince's lover, the graceful and ambitious Eleonore d'Olbreuse , who ruled the court under the title Frau von Harburg, wanted the rank of an equal wife. In this struggle, the imperial-minded Chancellor gave the anti-French party the upper hand. With that he stepped onto the world stage, because when Louis XIV began the Dutch War , Georg Wilhelm moved to the Alsatian theater of war with Ernst August, attended the glorious battle at the Konzer Bridge and then took an excellent part in the expulsion of them France allied Sweden from the German Empire . Sinold succeeded in keeping the Duke on this line not least because he was able to combine the personal ambitions of Frau von Harburg with the interests of imperial politics. The influence of Ernst August, to whom Georg Wilhelm had once committed himself to permanent celibacy by letter and seal, in order to secure his successor in the duchy stood in the way of their striving for a higher rank. Georg Wilhelm's tender heart could not withstand the influence of his lover and the chancellor, whose aims were no less in the way of the influence of Ernst August. First they considered the legitimacy of the daughter that Frau von Harburg had borne to the Duke, because with the child the mother had to rise in rank. But the emperor was needed for legitimation. The emperor, however, who was in constant tension with France with regard to the Spanish inheritance, could not refuse his approval if Georg Wilhelm held firm against France. Schützen's familiarity with the Viennese court came to the rescue. An imperial patent was obtained in 1674, which elevated Eleanor and her daughter Sophie Dorothee to imperial countesses and at the same time awarded the daughter the title and coat of arms of a duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg in the event that she would marry into an old princely house. Bishop Ernst August could not avoid recognizing Eleanor not as a duchess, but as the true wife of his brother. But the fact that after her daughter had won the rank of prince by engagement with the Hereditary Prince of Wolfenbüttel, in the presence of the Duke of Wolfenbüttel and the Chancellor Sinold, she was also officially married to her brother and recognized as Duchess by the Imperial Ambassador in Celle, had a break in the Brothers as a consequence. The letters and memoirs of Duchess Sophie , Ernst August's wife, therefore pursue Chancellor Sinold with just as hateful gossip as Eleanor, who has risen to become Duchess: they depict Sinold as a worthless intriguer. The official files, however, confirm the testimony that his son-in-law and Bernstorff's successor in office has issued that he was one of the most skilled statesmen of his time. His last political action was the preliminary battle against the preeminence of the electors, which the House of Brunswick had long been hostile to, and which he took on his shoulders as the most effective representative of the Princely House at the Peace of Nijmegen . Appearing with a prestige that overshadowed many electoral ambassadors, he demanded the same rights and ceremonies for the envoyés of the royal houses as for the electoral ambassadors. The resistance he encountered prepared the duke to move from the imperial to the French camp. He himself did not live to see the decisive turning point, as he died on July 30, 1677.

The Duchess Eleonore thereby became the sole ruler of the Cellischen court, and nothing stood in the way of the change of the Cellischen politics. The Schützen family, however, remained highly respected in the Lüneburg civil service.

Works

• Ad ius publicum et feudalia placita praelectiones academicae, 1694, (posthumous), digitized

family

He married October 14, 1644 Anna Magarethe Gerlach († August 31, 1645), a daughter of the Privy Councilor Helferich Gerlach (1597–1662). The couple had a daughter:

• Jeannette Lucie (* July 31, 1645; † 1706) ∞ Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff (* March 2, 1649; † July 6, 1726), Privy Councilor

On September 29, 1651, he married Anna Barbara von Fabricius (1634–1693), a daughter of the Chancellor Philipp Ludwig Fabricius . The couple had several children:

• Valentin Justus (1652–1681), envoy in Den'Haag
• Ludwig Justus († 1709), envoy to the court of Wilhelm III. of Orange ⚭ Anne (Jeanne) de Lescours († 1738)
• Philipp Balthasar (May 5, 1657 - March 6, 1742), writer ⚭ 1708 Maria Elisabeth von Poser (1684–1742)

His grandson Georg Wilhelm Helwig (* 1683; † June 16, 1740), son of Ludwig Justus, was the electoral Hanoverian ambassador to the court of Queen Anne of England.

literature

• Adolf Köcher :  Sinold (called Schütz), Johann Helwig von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 397-399.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder, Basis for a Hessian Scholar and Writer History from the Reformation to the Present Times , Volume 8, S.15f
• Lupold von Lehsten, The Hessian Reichstag Emissaries in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Appendix: Lists and biographical-genealogical sheets of the Hessian ambassadors for the Reichstag in the 17th and 18th centuries , p. 189
• Viri Illustris Dn. Joh. Helvici Sinoldi dicti von Schüz / ICti ... Ad Ius Publicum Et Feudalia Placita, Praelectiones Academicae, 1694, digitized

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to other sources, he was married once and his daughter was born in 1653
2. ↑ https://www.lagis-hessen.de/pnd/104317175
3. ↑ (ed.) Matthew Glozier, David Onnekink, War, Religion and Service Huguenot soldiering, 1685-1713