Laurentius Ramée

Laurentius Ramée as general chief, engraving by Lucas Kilian (1611)

Laurentius Ramée (also called Laurentius Ramaeus ; Laurent Delle Ramée , Laurent La Ramée or Laurent Ramey ) (* around 1560 in Liège ; † April 23, 1613 in Hohbarr Castle near Zabern ) was an archducal-Austrian generalobrist and mercenary leader of the Passau people of war .

Live and act

Laurentius Ramée came from the Spanish Netherlands and is said to have been of Walloon origin. He embarked on a military career from an early age. He was first mentioned in documents in 1602 when he was appointed captain over 100 dragoons in imperial service. In 1605 he was promoted to colonel. After a mission in the Jülich-Klevischer succession dispute from 1609, Ramée was appointed commander-in-chief of the bishopric of Strasbourg by his master Leopold V , then also Bishop of Strasbourg, in 1610 .

By 1600, it came to the fraternal strife between Emperor Rudolf II. , And Matthias . Emperor Rudolf had to forego most of his dignities and possessions in the Peace of Love , but that did not prevent him from commissioning his favorite nephew Leopold V, who was also Prince-Bishop of Passau , to raise a mercenary army against Matthias in 1610. The two-time bishop complied with this request and at the end of March 1610 had recruited 2,000 horsemen, mostly Walloons and French, as well as 6,000 infantry in Passau under the orders of Count Althann and his Strasbourg general chief Laurentius Ramée. The city of Passau, however, was not able to feed such a large number of war people; there was also an epidemic that cost the lives of several hundred soldiers. When the wages were no longer paid, Leopold V sat down. and Count Althann exits.

The command then took over Laurentius Ramée. On December 21, 1610, he set out with his mercenary army, the Passau war people, consisting of 9,000 foot servants, 4,000 horsemen and 2,000 people in the entourage (women and children) towards Upper Austria. After looting the entire Hausruck and the Lambach monastery , they stood in front of Wels on Christmas Eve . From there they were on the Kremstal in the Steiermark break. However, they were repulsed in the tight quarters of Klaus by a state contingent of farmers led by Ludwig and Christoph Storch on December 30th. Thereupon Ramée turned north and was able to enclose the city of Linz on January 10, 1611 . Despite long efforts, the city was not ready for defense. Therefore, a delegation of the citizens and the estates approached the colonel and invited him to take quarters in the noble seat of Lustenfelden . The troops were housed in the surrounding villages and supplied from Linz. Surprisingly, Ramée was persuaded to move on to Bohemia , with a large sum of money presumably preventing his troops from marching into Linz. When the train withdrew, an obstacle had arisen: three yokes of the wooden bridge over the Danube had collapsed due to an ice rush and the ferrymen initially refused to cross the train when the water was high. However, since the area around Linz had already been plundered, it was finally possible that the crossings were made on January 13th and 14th and the army could move on to Bohemia via the Mühlviertel .

On their way, the Passau war people lived extremely cruelly in Budweis , which was conquered by a ruse . From there, Ramée and his troops moved on to Prague, pretending to have come to the aid of Emperor Rudolf; however, the citizens of Prague defended themselves because they feared for their freedoms. The Passau war people invaded the city and devastated the Lesser Town of Prague . But it withdrew when King Matthias marched up at the request of the Prague population. This was able to occupy Prague together with the Bohemian estates on March 11, 1611 and drive Ramée out.

Ramée withdrew to Budweis and holed up there with his troops. Here he conducted a court martial against nine of his officers whom he had invited to a supper at the Budweiser Rathaus. They were called into the colonel's room one after the other and charged with high treason. Allegedly they made common cause with the Bohemian estates and Count Heinrich Matthias von Thurn during the siege of the Lesser Town in Prague . The messenger waited in an adjoining room and beheaded all but one who had resisted violently. The blood stains in the town hall of Budweis are said to have been visible in 1659. Ramée had the corpses displayed on Budweiser town square with an attached description of the offense. The execution is said to have taken place with the knowledge and consent of Leopold V. Ramée himself escaped with all the spoils of war via the Goldener Steig and Passau to the bishopric of Strasbourg. After Leopold V. Matthias submitted, the Passau war people were dissolved. Matthias had not forgotten Ramées activity in Bohemia and asked him to take the oath of allegiance in Vienna. Ramée, who was staying with his children in Liège, did not comply with this request. As late as 1611, Ramée represented Leopold V in a diplomatic mission in Munich. On this occasion, the copperplate portrait of Ramées in the cuirass by Lucas Kilian was created. In May 1612 Ramée was appointed governor (gubernator) of the bishopric of Strasbourg by Leopold V. In June 1612 he was also bailiff of Benfeld .

The unsuspecting gubernator was arrested at night by a group of horsemen in Benfeld in mid-April 1613 and taken to the fortress of the bishopric of Strasbourg, the Hohbarr castle. There he was told that he had been sentenced to death by an improvised secret court for high treason. According to Johann Peter Crescentius, he was accused of trying to get Alsatian cities in league with the Margrave of Baden and other Protestants. On April 23, 1613, Ramée was beheaded in Hohbarr Castle.

The so-called Passau war people had a bad reputation in Austria because of their looting and cruel devastation. By swallowing an enchanted piece of paper, the war people believed themselves to be immune to blows, stabs and gunshots for a few hours. "Devil help me, I give you body and soul," is said to have been written on these pieces of paper. However, anyone who died another death, whose soul, it was believed, was hopelessly addicted to the devil.

literature

• Franz Mayrhofer; Willibald Katzinger : History of the City of Linz. Volume I: From the beginnings to the baroque. J. Wimmer Verlag: Linz, 1990. ISBN 3-85358-100-5 .
• Franz Xaver Pritz : Description and history of the city of Steyer and its immediate surroundings: together with several additional documents, concerning the history of the iron trade union and the monasteries Garsten and Gleink: with a view of the city of Steyer . Haslinger, 1837 (Ennsthaler: Steyr, 1965, reprint).
• Colonel Laurentius von Ramée and his officers. In Egon Boshof; Max Brunner; Elisabeth Vavra (Ed.), Boundless - History of the people on the Inn. Catalog for the first Bavarian-Upper Austrian regional exhibition 2004, Asbach - Passau - Reichersberg - Schärding, April 23 to November 2, 2004. Pustet: Regensburg: 2004. ISBN 3791718762 .
• The will of Colonel Laurentius von Ramée in: Mittheilungen des Institut für Oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung, Volume 11, Swets & Zeitlinger NV, 1979, pp. 591ff., Reprint.
• Ulrich Zangenfeind: Ramee, Laurentius. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 612 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Laurentius Ramee on Regiowiki

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Name variants
2. ^ Carl Günther Ludovici: Zedler - Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts, Volume 30, keyword Ramäus, 1741, p. 726f.
3. ↑ Mittheilungen of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Volume 11, Swets & Zeitlinger NV, 1979, p. 596
4. ↑ Ferdinand B. Mikovec: Picturesque-historical sketches from Böhmen, Hölzel, 1860, p. 268.
5. ↑ Mittheilungen of the Institute for Austrian Historical Research, Volume 11, Swets & Zeitlinger NV, 1979, p. 598
6. ↑ Franz Christoph Khevenhüller: "'Conterfet Kupfferstich: as much as you can get them to handle ...", Volume 2, keyword Laurentius Ramäus, p. 404
7. ↑ Reigns. In: Veni, Domine Iesu! June 1, 2004, accessed January 11, 2014 .