Louis VI. (Palatinate)

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Elector Ludwig VI. from the Palatinate

Louis VI. Palatine (* 4. July 1539 in Simmern ; † 22. October 1583 in Heidelberg ) from the family of Wittelsbach was Palatine of Simmern and Elector of the Palatinate from 1576 to 1583.

Life

Ludwig was a son of Elector Friedrich III. (1515–1576) from his marriage to Marie (1519–1567), daughter of Margrave Casimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach . Ludwig was instructed in Lutheran teaching by his mother and at the court of Margrave Philibert of Baden . To learn the French language, Ludwig attended the Burgundian University of Dole in 1554 . As the presumptive heir to the electoral dignity in the Palatinate, he already took part in government affairs at the court of Elector Ottheinrich . From 1563 until the death of his father he was electoral governor of the Upper Palatinate .

In contrast to his father Friedrich III. he did not follow Calvinist Protestantism, but preferred Lutheran. Ludwig signed the concord formula of 1577 and the concord book of 1580 in his own name and as co-guardian for the margraves Ernst Friedrich (1560–1604) and Jakob III. (1562–1590) from Baden. He was influenced by his wife, the Lutheran Elisabeth von Hessen . This increasingly led him to contradict his father, who began to favor Ludwig's younger brother Johann Kasimir . The dispute between the brothers reached a climax after the father's death in the dispute over the interpretation of his will, which could only be resolved in 1578.

In the spring of 1577 he came to Heidelberg without visiting his father again. Ludwig also enforced Lutheranism at the University of Heidelberg , among other things (against the will of his late father) by persecuting all Calvinists. The Calvinist theologians found shelter from Prince Johann Kasimir in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and built the Collegium Casimirianum . During the Truchsessian War , Ludwig was the only Lutheran prince who was on the side of the Cologne elector and archbishop Gebhard von Waldburg . During the Lutheran reorganization of the country, which Elector Ottheinrich had already prepared from 1556 to 1559, Ludwig issued new court regulations, police regulations and, in 1582, large state regulations.

Louis VI. belonged to the guardianship government of the margraviate of Baden- Durlach from 1577 until his death , which was appointed until the heir Ernst Friedrich was of legal age. Ludwig, who had been suffering from breasts since he was 21 and whose personal physician Georg Marius was, died in Heidelberg in 1583 at the age of 44 and was buried in the Heiliggeistkirche there.

After Ludwig's death, Johann Kasimir was the spa administrator of the Palatinate until 1592.

Marriages and offspring

Elector Ludwig VI. married on July 8, 1560 in Marburg Princess Elisabeth (1539–1582), daughter of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse . The marriage had twelve children:

⚭ 1579 (later) King Karl IX. of Sweden (1550-1611)
  • Elisabeth (* / † 1562)
  • Dorothea Elisabeth (* / † 1565)
  • Dorothea (1566-1568)
  • Friedrich Philipp (* / † 1567)
  • Johann Friedrich (* / † 1569)
  • Ludwig (1570–1571)
  • Catherine (1572–1586)
  • Christine (1573-1619)
  • Friedrich IV. (1574–1610), Elector Palatinate
⚭ 1593 Princess Louise Juliane of Nassau-Orange (1576–1644)
  • Philipp (* / † 1575)
  • Elisabeth (1576–1577)

In his second marriage, he married Anna (1562–1621), daughter of Prince Edzard II of East Friesland on July 12, 1583 in Heidelberg . The marriage, which lasted only a few months, remained childless.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ludwig VI. (Pfalz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. See BSLK , p. 15f and p. 763f.
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich III. Elector Palatinate
1576–1583
Friedrich IV.