Ludwig II (Wittgenstein)

Ludwig II. (The younger) Count zu Sayn-Wittgenstein zu Wittgenstein (born March 15, 1571 at Wittgenstein Castle ; † December 14, 1634 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German nobleman and, as heir to the southern county, founder of the Sayn-Wittgenstein line. Wittgenstein , which a generation later called itself Sayn-Wittgenstein- Hohenstein .

Live and act

origin

Ludwig II. Was born on March 15, 1571, the second son of Count Louis I . ( the elder ) of Sayn zu Wittgenstein (1532–1605) and his second wife, Elisabeth Countess von Solms-Laubach (1549–1599).

heritage

Ludwig's father, Count Ludwig the Elder, had already drawn up a will on May 19, 1593, according to which his sons, Georg from his first marriage and Wilhelm from his second marriage, were to receive his lands. The inheritance of the eldest son Georg in relation to the northern county with Berleburg Castle and the Homburg rule was undisputed . But because the future testator already had an entitlement to the County of Sayn , Ludwig the Elder decreed anew on February 5, 1601: His son Wilhelm was to become the heir of the County of Sayn, the third son, Ludwig, was to have the ancestral seat in the southern part of the County of Wittgenstein Wittgenstein Castle preserved, in addition to which he owned the Vallendar rule . Further partitions of the county were prohibited. With the resignation of Count Ludwig the Elder, the division of his property came into effect in 1603. Nevertheless, on August 17, 1603, his three now reigning sons drew up a contract that the father should remain the head of the family. With the death of Count Ludwig in 1605, the tripartite division of power was finally sealed.

Act

With his two older brothers George (1565-1631) and Wilhelm (1569-1623), he attended the University in Marburg . Influenced by his father, who had introduced the Reformed faith in the county, he visited the well-known Reformed theologian Theodor von Beza in Geneva.

Since his father twice (1574–1577 and 1592–1594) held the office of Grand Court Master at the Electoral Palatinate Court in Heidelberg , Ludwig the Younger tried to establish similar contacts there. In 1592 he came to the Palatinate as a colonel , later he spent some time in France at the court of the Duke of Bouillon . Then he returned to the Palatinate and was in 1600 during the reign of Friedrich IV of the Palatinate (1574-1610) and that of his son Friedrich V of the Palatinate (1596-1632), the so-called Winter King , Oberamtmann in Simmern . In 1620 Count Ludwig left Simmern for good and returned to Wittgenstein.

During his reign a part of the Thirty Years' War fell , in which the southern county of Wittgenstein also suffered from war taxes, billeting of marching troops, extorted taxes and tension services, but also devastation and looting.

family

Ludwig II married on October 17, 1598 in Berleburg Juliane, Countess zu Solms-Braunfels (1578-1630), daughter of Count Konrad zu Solms-Braunfels and his wife Elisabeth, a born Countess zu Nassau-Dillenburg . The marriage resulted in a total of 14 children:

• Ludwig (born July 26, 1599; † 1624)
• John VIII . (* October 14, 1601; † April 2, 1657) (according to family tree: Johannes)
• Philipp (* 1609)
• Wilhelm (* 1610)
• Johann (* 1611)
• Otto († 1630)
• Friedrich Magnus
• Elisabeth († 1641)
• Anna Katharina (born July 2, 1610 in Simmern; December 1, 1690 in Kleinern) ∞26. October 1634 in Frankfurt with Philip VI. von Waldeck-Wildungen (1613–1645)
• Maria Juliane
• Dorothea
• Agnes
• Louise
• Christian

Count Ludwig the Younger died at the age of 63 on September 14, 1634 in Frankfurt, where his son, Count Johann VIII , was staying as a member of the Swedish war council, the Consilium formatum . Count Ludwig's eldest son, who had received the same first name from his father, was killed in a duel in Holland in 1624 at the age of 25. Therefore, the second eldest son, Johann VIII, who later took part in the peace negotiations to Munster and Osnabrück as the Brandenburg envoy , succeeded him as regent of the county of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein.

literature

• Günther Wrede : Territorial history of the county of Wittgenstein. NG Elwertsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Marburg 1927.
• Eitel Klein: Studies on the economic and social history of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century. NG Elwertsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Marburg 1935.
• Ulf Lückel, Andreas Kroh: The Princely House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. German Princely Houses, Issue 11, Börde Verlag, Werl 2004.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Günter Wrede: Territorial history of the County of Wittgenstein. Marburg 1927, p. 78
2. ↑ WA: Acta F 18, II.
3. ^ Eitel Klein: Studies on the economic and social history of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century. Marburg 1935, p. 17
4. ↑ Ulf Lückel, Andreas Kroh: The Princely House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein. Börde Verlag, Werl 2004, p. 7.
5. ↑ Princely Archives Wittgenstein: WA Acta F 18, I.
6. ↑ z. BP Bauer, Laasphe: The attack on Feudingen . In: Das Schöne Wittgenstein , born 1927, No. 4, p. 146: Swedish troops attacked the parishioners in the church in June 1646 and plundered them. After that all houses were robbed, 114 cows, 69 cattle, 20 horses, 472 sheep and 28 pigs were driven away.
7. ↑ Family table of the mediatized house Sayn-Wittgenstein 1907. Plate 10. Unchanged reprint of the edition from 1907, Heimat-Verlag und Antiquariat Angelika Wied, Bad Laasphe 2009, No. 9/100. However, only nine children are listed here.
8. ↑ Ulf Lückel and Andreas Kroh: The Princely House of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, Börde-Verlag, Werl 2004, p. 7: Here 17 children are mentioned without listing their names.
9. ^ The House of Sponheim 12. Retrieved November 1, 2018 .