Johann von Münchhausen (Bishop)
Johann von Münchhausen († January 23, 1572 ) was from 1540 to 1560 Bishop of Courland (as Johann IV. ) And 1542–1560 Bishop of Ösel-Wiek (as Johann V ), and in 1547 canon in Verden .
Life
Johann von Münchhausen's parents were Johann von Münchhausen (* approx. 1466 † approx. 1551), lord of Haddenhausen Castle , pledgee of Diepenau , and Anna von Wettberg . In 1530 the father got into a feud with the city because of the introduction of the Reformation in Minden , in the course of which he was captured with three sons (probably Christoph, Jobst and Heinrich) and his castle in Haddenhausen was burned down.
Johann was probably first canon in Bremen, as he is mentioned as such in 1525 as a member of an archbishop's embassy (State Archives Stade) . From 1540 he was Bishop of Courland , from 1542 also Bishop of Ösel-Wiek , and thus, in addition to his spiritual function, also ruling prince of two sub-territories of the Livonian Confederation . As bishop he arranged for many wealthy Jews to settle in Pilten in his dominion . He was considered selfish and unscrupulous.
His brother Christoph von Münchhausen , heir of the destroyed Haddenhausen Castle, followed him to Courland and supported him from 1557 to 1561 as a monastery vogt in the diocese of Ösel-Wiek , i.e. as a secular administrator on episcopal estates in one of the two Stiftsländer.
After the Livonian War began in January 1558 with the Russian invasion of Ivan the Terrible , the Livonian Estates met in Dorpat in June 1558 . There, Christoph von Münchhausen advocated turning to Denmark for help - and not to the nearby empires of Poland-Lithuania or Sweden . However, after the estates asked Sweden for support, he conquered the city and the Ordensburg Reval in the name of the Danish king and was appointed governor of Estonia. Bishop Johann had previously tried to bring his monastery under Danish sovereignty, but this was not done by the peace-loving Danish King Christian III. had been rejected. His young successor Friedrich II concluded a contract with Christoph von Münchhausen in September 1559, according to which Bishop Johann renounced his episcopal office in exchange for a sum of money and the king was given the right to appoint a successor. In fact, in the name of his brother Johann, he sold his founder Ösel-Wiek and Kurland , which he had secularized , to King Frederick II of Denmark, who handed them over to his brother Magnus as the new bishop. In April 1560, the young, easy-going, characterless Magnus landed with a bunch of mercenaries on Ösel , where the canons quickly submitted to his choice and rule.
Bishop Johann von Münchhausen left his donors in 1559 and is mentioned in Copenhagen in 1562. Afterwards he returned to Germany and turned to secular tasks. In 1563 he was appointed Drost at Rahden Castle. Around this time he married Lucie Hermeling, who had converted to Lutheranism , but had no children. In 1565 he became a pawn in Rehburg . After his death in 1572, she married Jürgen von Mandelsloh , Canon of Verden, for the second time . Johann von Münchhausen is buried in Verden Cathedral, where his grave slab used to be.
His sister Anna von Münchhausen was married to Dietrich von Behr auf Stellichte (1555 royal Danish canon in the Arensburg / Kuressaare district of Oesel / Saaremaa). In 1552 his nephew Ulrich von Behr (* 1532 in Stellichte) became provost and coadjutor of the monastery in Courland . As such, he would have had the right to become Johann's successor. Other brothers were Heinrich von Münchhausen (father of Hermann von Münchhausen, exp. 1555 as a tenant in Kurland Frauenburg, today: Saldus in Latvia) and Jobst / Justus von Münchhausen († 1559; Verden Canon).
literature
in order of appearance
- Johann Renner : Livonian Histories . Göttingen 1876, pp. 241, 300 and 305.
- Carl Schirren : Bishop Johann von Münchhausen. In: Baltic Monthly Journal , vol. 28 (1881), pp. 1–37.
- Martin Körber : Building blocks for a story of Oesel . Arensburg 1885, in it the section Johann von Münchhausen .
- Leonid Arbusow : Livonia's clergy from the end of the 12th to the 16th century . In: Yearbook for Genealogy, Heraldry and Sphragistics (Mitauer Jahrbuch), year 1900, pp. 33–80; Addendum to Volume 1902, pp. 39-74; Addendum in volume 1911–1913, pp. 1–3 and 145.
- Hans Mahrenholtz: Johann von Münchhausen, Bishop of Courland and Oesel 1543–1559. The addition of genealogy and heraldry in solving his ancestry . In: Norddeutsche Familienkunde , vol. 1 (1952), issue 4, pp. 86–90.
- Friedrich von Klocke : From the life story and family members of the Weserlander Johann von Münchhausen, Bishop of Courland and administrator of Oesel (1540 / 41–1560) . In: Norddeutsche Familienkunde , Volume 1 (1952), Issue 6, pp. 121–124.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The feud with Minden describes in detail: Albert Neukirch: Renaissance castles of Lower Saxony , text volume, 2nd half, Hanover 1939, p. 57 ff., Based on Wilhelm Schröder: Chronicle of the Diocese and the City of Minden , Minden 1886.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Münchhausen, Johann von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | John IV (as Bishop of Courland); Johann V (as Bishop of Ösel) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bishop of Courland, Bishop of Ösel and Canon in Verden |
| DATE OF BIRTH | before 1540 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 23, 1572 |