Johann Reinhard I. (Hanau-Lichtenberg)

Silver coin Johann Reinhard I of Hanau-Lichtenberg.

Count Johann Reinhard I von Hanau-Lichtenberg (born February 13, 1569 in Bitsch ; † November 19, 1625 in Lichtenberg ) ruled the county from 1599 to 1625.

Childhood and youth

Johann Reinhard I was the son of Count Philipp V von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1541; † 1599) and his first wife, Count Palatine Ludovica Margaretha von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1540; † 1569). Johann Reinhard I was baptized in Bitsch on February 28, 1569.

Pedigree of Count Johann Reinhard I von Hanau-Lichtenberg
Great grandparents	Philip III von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1482; † 1538) ∞ Sibylle von Baden -Sponheim (* 1485; † 1518)	Friedrich II. Von Fürstenberg (* 1496; † 1559) ∞ Anna von Werdenberg († 1554)	Reinhard von Zweibrücken-Bitsch († 1532) ∞ Anna von Salm († 1541)	Ernst V. von Honstein († 1552) ∞ Anna von Bentheim
Grandparents	Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1514; † 1590) ∞ Eleonore von Fürstenberg (* 1523; † 1544)		Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1510; † 1570) ∞ Katharina von Honstein († 1570)
parents	Philipp V. von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1541; † 1599) ∞ Ludovica Margaretha von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1540; † 1569)
Johann Reinhard I.

For the family cf. Main article: Lords and Counts of Hanau

Johann Reinhard I attended the University of Strasbourg and completed a cavalier tour through France , Italy , the Netherlands and England . After his wedding, Babenhausen Castle was assigned to him as his residence. He had the nave of the local church of St. Nicholas designed and painted. He was interested in history, genealogy and heraldry .

family

Gravestone of Countess Maria Elisabeth von Hohenlohe, wife of Count Johann Reinhard I in the church of Buchsweiler

Johann Reinhard I married Countess Maria Elisabeth von Hohenlohe-Neuenstein on October 22, 1593 in Weikersheim (* June 12, 1576; † January 21, 1605 in Wörth ), daughter of Count Wolfgang von Hohenlohe-Neuenstein (* June 14, 1546; † March 28, 1610) and Countess Magdalena von Nassau (* December 15, 1547; † May 16, 1643), a daughter of Juliana zu Stolberg and Count Wilhelm the Rich of Nassau . Maria Elisabeth was buried as the last member of the family in the old town church in Buchsweiler. Their marriage revealed:

1. Philipp Wolfgang (born July 31, 1595 in Buchsweiler - today: Bouxwiller (Bas-Rhin); † February 14/24, 1641 in Buchsweiler).
2. Agatha Marie (born August 22, 1599 in Buchsweiler; † May 23, 1636 in Baden ), married to Georg Friedrich von Rappoltstein (* 1593; † 1651).
3. Anna Magdalene (born December 14, 1600 in Buchsweiler; † February 22, 1673), married several times.
4. Elisabeth Juliana (born June 29, 1602 in Buchsweiler; † April 21, 1603 in Wörth, also buried there)

Johann Reinhard I married again on November 17, 1605 after the death of his first wife: Countess Anna von Salm, Countess of the Rhine and Wildlife in Neufville (* March 14, 1582; ​​† 1636), daughter of Count Friedrich I, Rhine and Wildgraf in Neufville (February 3, 1547 - October 26, 1608). There were no more children from this marriage. She was buried in the Schwarzach monastery .

government

Postcard with the Buchsweiler Latin School and the portrait of Johann Reinhard.

Between 1604 and 1606 a compromise was found with the Duke of Lorraine in a dispute that had been held before the Reich Chamber of Commerce since 1572 over the legacy of Zweibrücken-Bitsch . The subject of the dispute was the two Lorraine fiefdoms , the County of Bitsch and the Lemberg Office . The compromise included a division: The County of Bitsch fell back to Lorraine and the Lemberg office was added to Hanau-Lichtenberg. In terms of content, this was sensible, as it roughly corresponded to the denominational conditions of the territories. Johann Reinhard I compared himself with the county of Isenburg with regard to disputed rights in the Dreieich .

During his reign, a Latin school, the Protestant grammar school , was founded in the residential town of Buchsweiler in 1612 and existed until 1792. It represented the counterpart to the High State School in Hanau in the Hanau-Munzenberg region. A year later, school regulations were issued for the county. The new town church in Buchsweiler also followed in 1613.

With the regent of the other branch of the family, Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg , Johann Reinhard I signed a mutual inheritance contract in 1610 (renewed: 1618), confirmed by Emperor Rudolf II , so that the parts of the country would receive the entire house in any case stayed. At that time it looked as if Hanau-Münzenberg, where there were several male family members, was more likely to benefit, in contrast to Hanau-Lichtenberg, where there was only one legacy. There may be relatively generous loans from Hanau-Münzenberg to Johann Reinhard I in connection with the conclusion of the contract. He needed a lot of money because he ran a generous household. The succession then actually occurred under his grandson, Friedrich Casimir , in 1642. But contrary to what was expected when the contract was signed, the Hanau-Lichtenberger inherited the county of Hanau-Münzenberg.

Johann Reinhard I also took part in the coronation celebrations of Emperor Matthias in 1612 and the election of Emperor Ferdinand in 1619.

In the Thirty Years War from 1618, the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg also suffered with its location near the Electoral Palatinate on the military roads in the Rhine Valley and the German-French border area. Count Johann Reinhard I tried to protect his country through strict neutrality . But this was only partially successful. The Babenhausen office was hit hardest . Occupied several times by different warring factions, its villages were devastated in the first years of the war, the residents fled, 2,500 to the city of Babenhausen alone, where the plague broke out. The parts of the county on the right bank of the Upper Rhine were also badly damaged in the course of the war. The areas in Lower Alsace, on the other hand, were not hit that hard: For a payment of 100,000 guilders, Johann Reinhard I bought protection for these parts of the country.

Count Johann Reinhard I opened a hedge mint in Willstätt , a mint that put inferior coins into circulation. With this fraud he made significant profits. In 1621/22 alone he had 110 quintals of silver minted in coins and generated a " treasure trove " of more than 70,000 guilders from it .

death

Johann Reinhard I died on November 19, 1625 in Lichtenberg in Lower Alsace and was buried there.

literature

• Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in the Hanauischen = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 34. Hanau 1996. ISBN 3-9801933-6-5
• Hans Dörr: The travels of Count Johann Reinhard I. von Hanau-Lichtenberg to Italy, Bohemia and Babenhausen . In: Contributions to the history of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Published for the 20th anniversary of the partnership between the two former royal royal cities of Babenhausen and Bouxwiller = Babenhausen once and now 49 (2004), p. 31ff.
• M. Goltzené: From the history of the office Buchsweiler . In: Pays d'Alsace, issue 111/112, p. 64f.
• Franz Domenicus Häberlein: The latest German Empire history from the beginning of the Schmalkaldic War to our times . No. 8 and 9. Hall 1779, 1780.
• Heinrich Hermelink: The matriculations of the University of Tübingen . Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1906.
• JG Lehmann: Documented history of the county Hanau-Lichtenberg in the lower Alsace . 2 vol., O. O. 1862 (?), ND Pirmasens 1970.
• Wilhelm Morhardt: Hanau old - in honor of b'halt - The Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg in history and stories = Babenhausen then and now 10th Babenhausen 1984.
• Reinhard Suchier : Genealogy of the Hanauer count house . In: Festschrift of the Hanau History Association for its 50th anniversary celebration on August 27, 1894. Hanau 1894.
• Ernst J. Zimmermann: Hanau city and country . 3rd edition, Hanau 1919, ND 1978.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg : 81st Hanau Government E1 XXI, No. 8: Correspondence with Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg.
2. ↑ Goltzené, p. 68, states differently: † January 21, 1605, a difference that probably results from the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar .
3. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt , holdings D7, 1/1.
4. ^ Fried Lübbecke : Hanau. City and county. Cologne, 1951, pp. 279 ff. (281).

predecessor	Office	successor
Philip V.	Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg 1599–1625	Philipp Wolfgang