Johann VIII. (Nassau-Siegen)

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Count Johann VIII of Nassau-Siegen, by Jan van Ravesteyn

Johann VIII. Zu Nassau-Siegen , also: Johann VIII., The Younger, (born September 29, 1583 in Dillenburg , † July 27, 1638 in Renaix ) was Count of Nassau, Count of Katzenelnbogen, Vianden and Diez, Marchese di Monte Caballo and Baron zu Beilstein. He was an imperial and Spanish general in the Thirty Years War .

Life

He was the second son of Johann VII von Nassau-Siegen (1561-1623) and Countess Magdalena von Waldeck-Wildungen (1558-1599). He and his brothers were brought up strictly Calvinist , but converted to Catholicism on December 25, 1613, which he informed his father from The Hague. Until 1595 he attended the high school in Herborn . He then continued his training at the Collegium Mauritianum in Kassel and Geneva . After completing his studies, the Grand Tour through France and Italy followed in 1603 . He was imprisoned in Naples because he was believed to be a brother of Moritz von Orange . Only through the intervention of the emperor and popeClement VIII's captivity was ended. On the return journey from Naples, John therefore met Pope Clement VIII.

Johann VIII gained his first military experience in the imperial army in Hungary during the Turkish wars . However , following the Orange-Nassau family tradition, he continued his officer career in the Dutch army. In 1610 he was involved in the conquest of Jülich .

John VIII converted to Catholicism in 1608, but initially kept it a secret. In 1612 he stayed in Frankfurt for the imperial coronation and was appointed imperial chamberlain by Emperor Matthias . In December of the same year Johann officially professed his Catholic faith in Rome. Thereupon he was disinherited by his father Johann VII, who designated Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen as his successor by will. Since the change from the Catholic side was celebrated as a victory in the media, some older literature only contains this date for the change of faith.

In 1614 Johann changed to the military service of the Duchy of Savoy , an ally of the Netherlands. Through Duke Karl Emanuel I , Johann was accepted into the Order of Annunciations and appointed Marchese di Monte Caballo. From 1615 to 1617, John VIII was then in the service of the French king.

After the death of his brother Johann Ernst in 1617, Johann VIII claimed the paternal inheritance. To this end, he signed an act of insurance on December 31, 1617 , in which he promised not to touch the Reformed denomination in the country when he took office. Emperor Matthias supported him by declaring his father's will to be invalid. After the death of Johann VII in 1623, Johann VIII occupied Nassau-Siegen with imperial troops. As early as 1624 he began to recatholize the county together with Jesuits from Cologne . He remained Count of Nassau-Siegen until his death. John VIII tried to use the early imperial successes in the Thirty Years' War for himself and to take over the entire property of the Ottonian house of Nassau. He pointed out to the emperor that the other sidelines had supported the winter king Friedrich V of Bohemia in 1619/20 . However, the conversion of Count Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar to the Catholic faith in 1629 prevented the success of Johann VIII.

With the marriage of Ernestine Yolande Princess de Ligne in 1618, there was a break in his military-political biography. Johann switched to the service of the Spanish House of Habsburg , the opponent of the Dutch in the Eighty Years' War . Johann became a member of the imperial court war council in 1623 . In 1625 he besieged Breda with Ambrosio Spinola , which was successfully defended by his great cousin Justinus von Nassau . In 1628 Johann VIII was on the road as a diplomat for the emperor. He had the order to enforce the claims of the Habsburgs on the Duchy of Mantua . Although John VIII achieved the recognition of the claims by France, the Mantuan War of Succession broke out the following year . On July 1, 1629 Johann became imperial field marshal , 1630 knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece . In June 1630 he was taken prisoner in the Netherlands, from which he was only released at the end of the year against payment of a large ransom. From 1631 John VIII was General of the Spanish Cavalry.

While John VIII fought in the Netherlands and France, Swedish troops occupied his county of Nassau-Siegen in 1632. His half-brother Johann Moritz ( the Brazilian ) took the opportunity to reverse the re-Catholicization and to drive out the Jesuits.

Johann VIII died on July 27, 1638 in his castle near Renaix. The cause of death was presumably a dysentery infection .

family

John VIII with his family, 1634, painting by Anthony van Dyck

Johann married on August 13, 1618 in Brussels Ernestine Yolande Princess de Ligne (born November 2, 1594 to June 4, 1668 in Renaix), who came from one of the leading Catholic families in the Spanish Netherlands . The following children were born from the marriage:

  • Maria (1619-1620)
  • stillborn daughter (1620)
  • Clara Maria (1621–1695)
⚭ 1634 Albert Heinrich 2nd Prince of Ligne
⚭ 1642 Claude Lamoral 3rd Prince of Ligne

literature

  • Rolf Glawischnig:  Johann VIII .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 501 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Holger Th. Gräf: Count Johann VIII. Von Nassau-Siegen (1583–1638) . In: Nassau Annals . tape 119 , 2008, pp. 131-145 .
  • Ernst Joachim:  Johann VIII . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 266-268.
  • Otto Renkhoff : Nassau biography. Short biographies from 13 centuries (=  publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau . Volume 39 ). 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition. Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1992, ISBN 3-922244-90-4 , p. 558 f .
  • Gerhard Specht: Johann VIII. Von Nassau-Siegen and the Catholic Restoration in the County of Siegen (= studies and sources on Westphalian history. Vol. 4, ZDB -ID 503931-9 ). Association for the history and archeology of Westphalia, Paderborn department, Bonifatius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1964.

Web links

Commons : Johann VIII., Graf von Nassau-Siegen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolf Müller: Milestones from the Siegerland past. In: Siegerland home calendar. Vol. 41, 1966, ZDB -ID 529717-5 , p. 98.
  2. ↑ Joachim.
predecessor Office successor
John VII Count of Nassau-Siegen
1623–1638 		Georg Friedrich
personal data
SURNAME John VIII
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johann VIII at Nassau-Siegen; John VIII, the younger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Nassau-Siegen, general in the Thirty Years War
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1583
PLACE OF BIRTH Dillenburg
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1638
Place of death Renaix