Ludwig of Brandenburg

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Ludwig of Brandenburg

Ludwig von Brandenburg (born July 8, 1666 in Kleve , † April 7, 1687 in Potsdam ) was Prince and Margrave of Brandenburg .

Life

Ludwig was a son of Prince Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg (1620–1688) from his first marriage to Louise Henriette (1627–1667), daughter of Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Orange . After Karl Emil and Friedrich , Ludwig was the third son of the Great Elector to reach adulthood.

Ludwig married on January 7, 1681 in Königsberg Princess Luise Charlotte Radziwill (1667–1695), only daughter and sole heir of the Prince-Governor of Prussia Boguslaw Radziwill . After the wedding, Ludwig stayed in the Dutch university city of Utrecht for a long time .

On April 7, 1687, Ludwig died suddenly the morning after a court ball in Potsdam Palace . A commission set up by the elector because of the inexplicable death considered poisoning probable, but could not agree on who should have taught the prince what poison and when. The immediate result was the order of the elector that the cupbearer would in future have to taste the dishes for his family . At the Brandenburg court , the second presumed poisoning after the equally enigmatic death of Prince Elector Emil caused unrest. A niece of the Electress Dorothea was suspected of having poisoned Ludwig with a large orange . The background was the rumor that Dorothea was striving to get her step-sons from the elector's first marriage aside in favor of her own sons' succession to the throne.

Ludwig's death finally poisoned the relationship between the prince-elector and prince-elector Friedrich, which was already burdened by intentions to divide the estate. Friedrich fled to his in-laws in Hanover with the Elector Princess . His move and the electoral prince's income lock imposed by his father in return embarrassed the House of Hohenzollern at the courts of Europe and overshadowed the last year of the great elector's life despite the later official “reconciliation”.

Ludwig was buried in the Hohenzollern crypt of the Berlin Cathedral . As a result of the marriage, after lengthy trials in 1691 , the Hohenzollern lords Tauroggen and Serrey in Poland, which Luise Charlotte had initially given to her husband as a dowry .

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert: Handbuch der Allgemeine Staatskunde von Europa , Bornträger, 1846, p. 58 f.
  • Eduard Vehse: Prussian court stories. Re-edited by Heinrich Conrad. First volume , Georg Müller, Munich 1913, quoted here as "Vehse"

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vehse (see literature), p. 209 (stay in Utrecht after the wedding), p. 219. (again in Potsdam in 1683)
  2. ^ Vehse, p. 226.
  3. ↑ Hans Prutz : From the last few years of the Great Elector. On the history of his house and court, his government and politics , Reimer, Berlin 1897 pp. 210–213.
  4. ^ Vehse p. 176.
  5. ↑ In summary: Gerd Heinrich: Geschichte Preußens. State and Dynasty , Ullstein, Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Vienna 1984, pp. 125/126.
personal data
SURNAME Ludwig of Brandenburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Margrave of Brandenburg
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1666
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleve
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1687
Place of death Potsdam