Louise Juliane von Erbach

Louise Juliane Countess zu Erbach (* 1603 at Fürstenau Castle near Michelstadt ; † September 28, 1670 in Friedewald ) was Countess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn by marriage , which she also ruled temporarily as a guardian. She was remembered through the local novel Die Gräfin von Sayn by Karl Ramseger-Mühle .

Life

Countess Louise Juliane zu Erbach was born in 1603 as the daughter of Count Georg III. von Erbach and his wife Maria von Barby-Mühlingen . Count Ernst von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn , who had just entered government, married her in January 1624. This was the son of Wilhelm III. von Sayn-Wittgenstein , who, through his marriage to Anna Elisabeth von Sayn, reunited the Sayner family and founded the new line Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn. From Wilhelm III. second marriage to Anna-Ottilie von Nassau-Weilburg came from three other sons who wanted to dispute her inheritance after the death of Julian's son, Hereditary Count Ludwig.

The young couple of counts chose Hachenburg with their castle as their residence and had seven children there, including the Hereditary Count Ludwig. Four of her daughters died at an early age. During the Thirty Years' War , when Count Ernst was in military service, Louise Juliane ran the business of government. Count Ernst died at the age of 32 at the Reichstag in Frankfurt am Main in 1632 , where the couple sought help from the Swedish king Gustav Adolf for their troubled country. In his will he gave Louise Juliane the reign of his underage son Ludwig and also decreed that in the event of the hereditary count's premature death, his two daughters should inherit the county. This will caused Louise Juliane to remain celibate. She ruled with skill, but Hereditary Count Ludwig died in 1636, not yet seven years old. With him the male line of the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn line became extinct. In disregard of the will, Count Ernst's stepbrother, Ludwig Casimir von Sayn-Wittgenstein, forced his mother to hand over the county to her husband's stepbrothers. After two months, Louise Juliane revoked her consent; Altenkirchen was occupied by the youngest stepbrother, Count Christian; Hachenburg was besieged by Kurköln and forced to surrender by starvation. The Countess fled to Freusburg where her Kurtrier prepared the same fate, until they finally Schloss Friedewald found a safe residence. From there she fought Louise Juliane for the rights of her daughters at the Wetzlar Imperial Court of Justice and with the emperor himself. Only during the peace negotiations in 1648 in Münster and Osnabrück , where she sent her councilors, her rights were confirmed again, especially with the help of the Swedes she then got back part of her land after another. In 1652 she put the regency in the hands of her daughters, who now divided the land into the County of Sayn-Altenkirchen and the County of Sayn-Hachenburg in three partition agreements . On September 16, 1670 she died in Friedewald and was buried next to her husband and son in the crypt of the Hachenburg Castle Church.

progeny

The following children were born from his marriage to Ernst von Sayn-Wittgenstein (* August 26, 1594 - † May 22, 1632):

• Ludwig, (1628–1636)
• Ernestine (April 23, 1626 - October 13, 1661)

⚭ Salentin Ernst von Manderscheid -Blankenheim (1630–1705)

• Charlotte, († 1629)
• Luise, (* 1629. †?)
• Maria Elisabeth, (1630–1631)
• Johannette (Johanna) (1632–1701)

⚭ 1647 Landgrave Johann von Hessen-Braubach (1609–1651)

⚭ 1661 Duke Johann Georg of Saxony-Eisenach (1634–1686)

The division

The Hachenburg part, the County of Sayn-Hachenburg , came to the Counts of Manderscheid through Louise Julian's daughter Ernestine, who was married to Count Salentin Ernst von Manderscheid-Blankenheim , then through her daughter to the Burgraves of Kirchberg and in 1799 to Nassau- Weilburg .

The Altenkirchen part, the county of Sayn-Altenkirchen , came through the marriage of her daughter Johannette (or Johanne ) to Duke Johann Georg von Sachsen-Eisenach , with whom she was married for the second time. After his tribe died out in 1741, ownership went to Brandenburg-Ansbach , in 1791 to Prussia and in 1803 to Nassau-Usingen .

literature

• Brockhaus´ conversation lexicon. Leipzig, 14th edition, 1908.
• Hildegard Sayn: Louise Juliane von Sayn . In: Pictures of life from the Altenkirchen district . Altenkirchen, 1975
• Karl Ramseger-Mühle: The Countess of Sayn: Roman from the Westerwald from the time of the Thirty Years War , Hachenburg: Westerwald-Verl. 1950

Web links

• History of the Sayner Princely House
• Family tree of the Sayner Princely House
• The "Hunger Countess"