Ludwig I. (Liegnitz)

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Ludwig I of Liegnitz. Engraving by Bartholomäus Strachowsky, 1733

Ludwig I of Liegnitz (also Ludwig I of Brieg ; * between 1313 and 1321; † 1398) was 1342-1345 together with his brother Wenzel I Duke of Liegnitz , 1348-1381 Duke of Lüben , 1348-1398 Ohlau and 1368 –1398 Duke of Brieg .

Origin and family

Ludwig came from the Silesian Piast family . His parents were Duke Boleslaw III. von Breslau , Liegnitz and Brieg and Margarethe / Marketa, daughter of the Bohemian King Wenceslaus II.

Between 1341 and 1345 Ludwig married Agnes († 1362), a daughter of Duke Heinrich IV. “The Faithful” († 1342) of Glogau and Sagan . Children came from marriage

Life

Tympanum of the castle chapel in Lüben with the depiction of Duke Ludwig and his wife as donor figures

During his lifetime, Duke Boleslaw III. In 1342 the indebted Duchy of Liegnitz gave his sons, the first-born Wenzel I and the second-born Ludwig I, while he himself continued to own Brieg. Both duchies were already in 1329 by Duke Boleslaw III. handed over as a fiefdom to the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg . The dukes Wenceslaus I and Ludwig I, who initially ruled the Duchy of Liegnitz together, also paid homage to him in 1342. In 1344 they founded a mint in Liegnitz and a short time later they granted Nikolstadt city ​​rights and mountain freedom based on the model of Goldberg . In 1345 they divided the Duchy of Liegnitz, Ludwig got the smaller, eastern part and Wenzel got the remaining part with Haynau , Goldberg and Lüben . However, Wenzel managed to get Ludwig's share in the same year, while he granted Lüben and an annual cash payment. From 1348 Ludwig resided in Lüben.

According to Boleslaws III. Death in 1352 the Duchy of Brieg was ruled by his widow Katharina Šubić . In 1356 she came to an agreement with her step-sons Ludwig and Wenzel in such a way that, as Wittum , they left the cities of Ohlau and Namslau to her for her lifetime , which after her death two years later fell to Ludwig's brother Wenzel. He sold half Ohlau and half Brieg to the Schweidnitzer Duke Bolko II with the stipulation that both had to revert to the Dukes of Liegnitz-Brieg if Bolko died without heirs.

After another division in 1359, the older brother Wenzel kept Liegnitz with Goldberg, while Ludwig continued to own Lüben and additionally received Haynau and half of Ohlau and Brieg.

After the death of his brother Wenzel in 1364, Ludwig took over the guardianship of his sons Ruprecht I , Wenzel II , Boleslaw IV and Heinrich VII . The guardianship ended in 1368 when Ludwig's nephew Ruprecht came of age and in turn took over the guardianship of his younger brothers. After Bolkos II von Schweidnitz's death in the same year, Ludwig received the pledged halves of Ohlau and Brieg back, so that from 1368 on all of Ohlau and all of Brieg were in his possession. Thanks to his clever and economical administration, he was also able to redeem the pledged cities of Kreuzburg , Pitschen and Konstadt .

Ludwig I was a great patron of art and literature. He had great veneration for his ancestress , St. Hedwig von Andechs , who was the ancestral mother of all Lower Silesian Piasts and became the patroness of Silesia. In 1353 he had a copy of the legend of the saints made at his castle in Lüben, which later became known as the "Schlackenwerther Hedwig legend" after it was later kept. It contains rich color illustrations influenced by Bohemian book illumination. At his instigation, the canon of Brieger Peter von Pitschen wrote the Chronica principum Poloniae ("Chronicle of the Princes of Poland") in 1385 , the first part of which describes the history of the Piasts , the second that of the Diocese of Breslau . In his first residence city of Lüben, Ludwig expanded the palace and built the palace chapel, on the tympanum of which he and his wife Agnes are depicted as donor figures. In Brieg he built the Hedwig Church with the Hedwigsstift and the parish church of St. Nikolai, which was only completed after his death.

Ludwig I died in old age in 1398. Heir was his only son, Henry VIII , to whom Ludwig had transferred Lüben in 1381. He only outlived his father by a year. Henry VIII's sons Ludwig II and Heinrich IX. shared the property acquired from their grandfather through thrift. Ludwig's extensive book collection inherited the Brieger Kollegiatstift .

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personal data
SURNAME Ludwig I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ludwig I of Brieg; Ludwig I of Lüben and Ohlau
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Liegnitz, Brieg, Lüben and Ohlau
DATE OF BIRTH between 1313 and 1321
DATE OF DEATH 1398