Lamoral from taxis
Lamoral von Taxis , French Lamoral de Tassis , (* 1557 - † July 7, 1624 in Brussels ) was the son of the Brussels postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis . In 1579 he married Genoveva von Taxis, the daughter of the Augsburg postmaster Seraphin II von Taxis , who died in 1628. Emperor Rudolf II appointed him together with his father in 1606 as Imperial Chamberlain and on January 16, 1608 as hereditary imperial baron . On July 27, 1615 he was appointed hereditary general postmaster and on June 8, 1624, one month before his death, he and his heirs were raised to the rank of imperial count . In the genealogy he is also called Lamoral I. von Taxis to distinguish him from his grandson Lamoral Claudius Franz von Thurn und Taxis .
Career
In July 1574 Leonhard I von Taxis obtained a patent from the Spanish King Philip II , in which the claim of his still underage son Lamoral to the Dutch postal generalate was confirmed in the event of Leonhard's death or resignation. As a result of the escalation in the uprising in the Netherlands , Leonhard and Lamoral von Taxis had to flee Brussels at the end of January 1577. Both went to the camp of Don Juan de Austria in Luxembourg, where Lamoral initially began a military career. After a year-long stay at the royal court in Madrid , he continued his career as an officer in the Netherlands in 1581.
Intrigue in the postal service
At the beginning of 1584 Lamoral entered the postal service to support his father without leaving the military. In March 1584 Leonhard sent him together with the Cologne postmaster Jacob Henot to the Reich in order to pay 3,000 crowns from Spanish funds to the post office owners of the Dutch postal route . Lamoral left Jacob Henot in Cologne, traveled to Augsburg with the Cologne citizen Johann Baptista Bosco, married the underage daughter Genoveva of the late Seraphin II von Taxis there, demanded from the Cologne council that Henot be replaced by Johann Baptista Bosco and demanded from the Augsburg commission and from the emperor the postmaster general office in the empire in place of his father. Not least for this reason he earned the nickname "L'Amoral" (the amoral one).
On April 3, 1585 the dispute between Henot and Lamoral von Taxis was settled by a commission consisting of Valentin von Eisenberg, Dr. Andreas Gail and later Count Hermann von Manderscheid-Blankenheim existed. On July 14, 1585, the Augsburg Commission and the Tyrolean Archduke Ferdinand II recommended Lamoral for the postmaster general office. Emperor Rudolf II agreed to this, but not the Spanish King Philip II. As a result, Lamoral had to put back his ambitious plans. Henot remained postmaster in Cologne, and Leonhard I von Taxis became postmaster general in the empire in 1595.
Social advancement
On August 28, 1603, Emperor Rudolf II approved the successor to Lamoral and his son Leonhard II von Taxis in the postmaster's office. On October 25, 1603 Lamoral von Taxis obtained the prescription of the post office in Cologne and the posts to Wöllstein to Leonhard, Lamoral and Leonhard II at the imperial court in Prague , after he had waived the annual subsidy of 500 guilders from the Reichspfennigamt in Augsburg.
In 1606 Lamoral was appointed imperial treasurer, and on January 16, 1608 Emperor Rudolf II elevated Leonhard and Lamoral von Taxis to the status of hereditary imperial barons. After the death of the court postmaster Georg Pichl von Pichelsberg in December 1610, Rudolf II appointed Lamoral in May 1611 imperial court postmaster. So he was head of the imperial territorial post. But Lamoral had never sought this office. On October 12, 1611, he made sure that he was awarded the postmaster general post in the empire while his father was still alive. Shortly after Emperor Rudolf's death on January 20, 1612, Lamoral's father Leonhard also died in May 1612.
Act as postmaster general
The new Emperor Matthias confirmed Lamoral on September 28, 1612 the prescription from 1603 via the post office in Cologne and the route to Wöllstein. He also received the certificate of appointment for the postmaster general office in the Reich, the Netherlands, Lorraine and Burgundy. On November 19, 1612 Lamoral von Taxis resigned from his postmaster office to take over the postmaster general office in Brussels.
On July 20, 1615 Lamoral, a committed Ordinaripost from Cologne via Frankfurt and Nuremberg to the Bohemian border to place. From there to Prague, the Hofpost took over the business. Lamoral had to undertake not to compete with the Austrian Territorial Post. In return, on July 27, 1615, Lamoral was guaranteed the inheritance of the postmaster general office. By the end of August 1615, the Cologne postmaster Coesfeld had set up the new postal rate.
Lamoral's Frankfurt postmaster Johann von den Birghden took care of the other expansions of the postal network. By the end of June 1616, he set up a postal route from Frankfurt via Fulda , Suhl and Erfurt to Leipzig . By the end of August 1616, von den Birghden organized the postal service from Hamburg via Rotenburg (Wümme) , Minden , Unna and Schwelm to Cologne.
Failures and a warning
By resolution of the Reichshofrat on March 13, 1623, the post office in Cologne was reassigned to Jacob Henot. Emperor Ferdinand commissioned Karl von Manderscheid and Johann von der Hövelich with the reinstatement of Henot, which took place on April 3, 1623. While Henot reached a contractual agreement with Lamoral von Taxis on August 2 and October 2, 1623, Lamoral's son Leonhard II von Taxis continued to fight the consequences of the imperial decision.
On March 31, 1623, Lamoral leased the Frankfurt post office to Johann von den Birghden for 600 Reichstaler annually. One reason was that Lamoral had found a mistress and needed money. At the instigation of his son Leonhard, Lamoral received an imperial warning on July 3, 1623. that he may not move the post offices or give them as " afterfief " in order not to diminish his son's feudal fortune. Allegedly, Lamoral had already sold some post offices such as Augsburg, Venice, Hamburg, Cologne, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rheinhausen, rented them out for high lease sums, or mortgaged them. Emperor Ferdinand II declared these contracts to be invalid. Lamoral should n't be so “scolding” with this “impudent” Reichsregal , especially because he wasted the income on a dissolute woman. Lamoral was able to refute the allegations through affidavits from its local postmaster, and the emperor withdrew his allegations.
Elevation to the rank of imperial count
One month before his death, on June 8, 1624, Lamoral and his heirs were raised to the rank of imperial count. After Lamoral's death on July 7, 1624 in Brussels, he was buried in the Notre Dame du Sablon cathedral. On August 17, 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II transferred the Reichspostlehen to Lamoral's son Leonhard II von Taxis.
Oddities
The nickname Lamorals von Taxis as "the immoral one" was still remembered around 1690. An archivist from Brussels, for example, who wrote the oldest repertory in the Fürst Thurn und Taxis Central Archives (FZA HFS 790) around 1689 , always wrote the name as “L'Amoral de Tassis” .
progeny
Lamoral's descendants of Taxis are known
- Leonhard (born July 5, 1597), the later successor
- Johann Franz, who died young
- a daughter Leonora (* 1587), Carmelite nun in Brussels
literature
- Enfeoffment of the Baron von Taxis with the postmaster's office (July 27, 1615). In: Karl Zeumer: Collection of sources on the history of the German constitution in the Middle Ages and modern times. 2nd edition, Mohr, Tübingen 1913, p. 390 f. ( E-Text at Wikisource )
- Wolfgang Behringer : In the sign of Mercury . Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-35187-9
- Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis . Munich / Zurich 1990
- Martin Dallmeier: Sources on the history of the European postal system 1501–1806 . Kallmünz 1977
- Engelbert Goller: Jakob Henot (died 1625), postmaster of Cologne. A contribution to the history of the so-called Post Reformation at the turn of the XVI. Century . Dissertation, University of Bonn 1910
- Josef Rübsam: Taxis, Lamoral Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 508 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quotation and evidence from Martin Dallmeier: Sources for the history of the European postal system. Part II, Michael Lassleben, Kallmünz 1977, p. 89.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Leonhard I of Taxis |
Postmaster General 1612–1624 |
Leonhard II of Taxis |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taxis, Lamoral from |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Taxis, Lamoral I. von; Tassis, Lamoral de (French) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish-Dutch and Imperial Postmaster General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1557 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 7, 1624 |
| Place of death | Brussels , Spanish Netherlands |