Johann Zobel

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Johann Zobel (* 1576 or 1578 in Bremen ; † January 20, 1631 ibid) was a German lawyer , 1601 to 1625 adviser and envoy to Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel , 1625 to 1627 mayor of Bremen and most recently a diplomat in the Danish service.

Life

His father was the Bremen businessman Heinrich Zobel , who was elected councilor in 1583 and was mayor of Bremen from 1597 to 1615.

In the service of Hessen-Kassel

Johann Zobel studied law at the universities of Altdorf , Rostock , Franeker and Marburg and then entered the service of Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel in 1601 without graduating. He quickly proved himself and accompanied the landgrave as early as 1602 on his journey through Switzerland to France to the court of the French King Henry IV. In the following years he was repeatedly on diplomatic missions, including an extended stay from December 1605 to autumn 1606 in Paris , and on October 1, 1608, he was appointed to the Privy Council . He represented Landgrave Moritz in the lengthy negotiations for the formation of the Protestant Union and, after Hesse-Kassel joined, he was one of the sworn councilors who regularly took part in the Union meetings. In 1609 he negotiated in Wesel and The Hague for his sovereign during the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute . In 1609 in Bremen and in 1613 in Lübeck he promoted the desired accession of the Hanseatic cities to the Protestant Union. In 1612 he was at the English court to negotiate the impending election of the emperor , a reconciliation between Denmark and Sweden, and relations between the Protestant powers. In 1614, Landgrave Moritz sent him to Stockholm and Narva to negotiate with the Swedish King Gustav Adolf about the cooperation of the evangelical powers. His last important mission in the service of the landgrave was the trip in 1622 with the landgrave's son Philip to the royal courts of England and France to introduce the 18-year-old prince there.

The Landgrave's increasingly conflictual relationships with his territorial neighbors, with Hesse-Darmstadt , with the Kaiser, with the Hessian knighthood and the estates and with his son Wilhelm finally prompted Zobel to consider leaving Kassel and, if there was no other option would result in moving to an estate near Bremen. In 1625 he asked for his departure, but Landgrave Moritz did not approve. Shortly afterwards it came to his departure.

Councilor and Mayor in Bremen

Already in 1615 the council of the city of Bremen had elected him councilor after the death of his father, but at that time Zobel was unwilling to give up his influential position in Kassel. Attempts by his Bremen acquaintances from 1619 to have him appointed syndic of the Hanseatic cities failed because of Lübeck's contradiction , which Zobel's legal competence did not seem to be sufficient. When in 1624 the agent of the Hanseatic League in The Hague, Dr. Ryswick, who died, Zobel tried unsuccessfully to obtain this office; it was given to Lieuwe (Leo) van Aitzema .

Then, to his surprise, Zobel was again elected councilor of Bremen in April 1625. He accepted the election, renewed his resignation to the Landgrave and took office in Bremen in May 1625. He was elected mayor just six months later. However, he only held this position for a year and a half.

In April 1626 he was sent to Wolfenbüttel with the Bremen council syndic, Johann Preiswerck, to report to the Danish king Christian IV about harassment of the Weser trade by Danish warships . In doing so he was persuaded by Christian to travel to the courts of Bohemia , England and France on his behalf and to pay the promised subsidies . Zobel started the trip without asking the Bremen council for a vacation. He said he would be on the road for a maximum of three months and then be able to convince the council that his mission was also in the interests of the city. However, the negotiations in London and Paris dragged on for so long that the Bremen council forced Zobel to submit his departure in June 1627.

Last years and death

He then remained in Paris as a Danish agent until the end of 1630, from where he also traveled several times to London. Gustav II Adolf of Sweden also used his services, as did Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel, with whom he had already reconciled in 1626.

When he wanted to travel to King Christian in January 1631, he fell ill while passing through Bremen and died there.

marriage

His wife was Juliane geb. Heugel, a daughter of the landgrave chamber master Johann Heugel in Kassel, who in 1600 became chief magistrate of the Lower County of Katzenelnbogen at Rheinfels Castle . Her grandfather was the Kassel composer and court conductor Johann Heugel .

Zobel's son Sebastian (born October 11, 1617 in Kassel, † January 12, 1671 in Regensburg) also served in Hessen-Kassel and became a secret rest and comitial envoy at the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg . His daughter Maria Zobel (around 1626–1693) married the later mayor of Kassel Heinrich Haxthausen in 1651 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ↑ In 1609 the Hanseatic League established a residence in The Hague and Dr. Ryswick used as their agent. ( Magnus Ressel: The purchase of Lübeck sailors from North Africa and the founding of the Lübeck slave fund (1580-1640) , in: Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte , Volume 91, 2011, p. 142)
  3. ↑ Christian IV visited his sister there, the Dowager Duchess Elisabeth

literature

personal data
SURNAME Zobel, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hesse-Kassel Council, Bremen Mayor, Danish diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH 1576 or 1578
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1631
Place of death Bremen