Maria Aurora mirror

“Fatime. (Frau von Spiegel) “- copper engraving by Johann Lindner 1860

Maria Aurora Spiegel (born before 1685; died after 1725), called Fatima , by her own account "born from Kahrimann", was one of the so-called booty Turks who were captured by warriors of the Christian military coalition in the conquered areas of the Ottoman Empire during the Great Turkish War were picked up and abducted. She initially lived as a foster daughter with Countess Aurora von Königsmarck and with this she came to the court of Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony in 1694 (from 1697 as August II also King of Poland-Lithuania). At least between 1701 and 1706 the elector-king had a secret affair with her, during which she gave birth to two children, whom August later recognized as his own and raised to the rank of count. The son Friedrich August Rutowski embarked on a military career and advanced to field marshal and commander in chief of the Saxon army. At the beginning of the 21st century, the extraordinary fate of the Maria Aurora Spiegel served as a template for two historical novels.

Biographical sources

The curriculum vitae of Maria Aurora m. Spiegel can only be partially verified by contemporary documents, and even these have so far only been made available in extracts or in the context of other topics, for example by Friedrich August Freiherr ô Byrn (Chamberlain at the Saxon Court) 1876, Count Adam Lewenhaupt (historian, archivist at the Swedish Imperial Archives) 1898/99, Walter von Boetticher (historian) 1912 to 1923 and Holger Schuckelt (research associate at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden ) 2014. Some incidental mentions can also be found in the correspondence between Countess Amalie Wilhelmine von Königsmarck and her, published by Friedrich Matthias Gottfried Cramer in 1836 Husband Carl Gustav von Löwenhaupt and her sister Aurora von Königsmarck.

For a long time, the tradition was based mainly on the factual novel La Saxe galante (1734) by the court man and adventurer Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz and the anonymously produced German translations under the title Das Galante Sachsen , as well as the original French-language memoirs of Georg Ludwig von Haxthausen (son of Christian August von Haxthausen ). Although as early as the 19th century various authors expressed doubts about the credibility of many passages in Pöllnitz's story, it was still used as a source, including by Theodor Fontane in “Walks through the Mark Brandenburg”. Haxthausen's manuscript also comes up with a wealth of non-verifiable details. However, it never went to print and has only come down to us in the form of quotations from Eduard Vehse (1854); the original is considered lost.

The following results from the synopsis of these sources

Compiled biography

Origin and name

According to Pöllnitz, “Fatima” was “made a slave” at the age of about five to six years during the conquest of the city of Ofen (September 1686), whereupon she became the “Herr von Schöning” (= Hans Adam von Schöning ), “to whom she was assigned Theil was ”, took him to Berlin and was baptized there. She kept her Turkish name Fatima. The name Maria Aurora does not appear in Pöllnitz. Later the “Fräulein von Flemming” (= Margareta Elisabeth von Flemming) received her as a present and “when she was married to the Palatine Brebentau [= Jan Jerzy Przebendowski ]”, took her to Poland. In the vicinity of the Przebendowski family, Fatima then met King August II.

Vehse (1854) denies this and instead cites Haxthausen: Count Philipp von Königsmarck picked up the girl in Buda (= oven) and gave it to his sister Aurora von Königsmarck, who raised her and later carried her with her as a kind of maid when she went to the Saxon court in Dresden. The name Fatima does not appear in any of the quotations quoted by Vehse . Haxthausen calls her "La Spiegel" throughout and mentions only once in passing that she was named Marie Aurore after her godmother, Countess Königsmarck .

Towards the end of the 19th century, Adam Lewenhaupt published documents that at least partially support Haxthausen's statements from the baptismal register of the German Church in Stockholm . There you can find the following note dated November 7, 1686:

“Four Turkish women people, so in d. Recently captured by Baron Eschen and brought to anhero, whose name was Roozia and his husband was a Turkish officer who, according to their presumption, remained in the storm; the other Eysia , indeed born to Christian parents, as she pretends to be, ao certainly knows whether she has been baptized, since she served under Turkish rule. The third fattime , which was the wife of a Turkish priest, but which husband died on the bed before the conquest; the fourth Emini , who was also married at a corner of the door, who also perished in the siege. "

According to Lewenhaupt, the godfathers of the "Fattime" were: the then four-year-old Crown Prince of Sweden (later King Karl XII ), Reichsmarschall Graf Steenbock, Field Marshal Count Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck, "grefvarne" (?) Erik Steenbock, Philipp Königsmarck, Baron Alexander Erskin, Countess Beata Elisabeth De la Gardie b. Königsmarck, Lisa De la Gardie b. Oxenstierna, Marie Lillie b. Steenbock, Hedvig Oxenstierna born De la Gardie, Görel Lewenhaupt b. Sparre, Ebba Banér b. Lewenhaupt and Miss Aurora Königsmarck.

According to this, the Turkish women in question fell to the "Baron Eschen", whom Lewenhaupt identified as Alexander Erskin (probably a son of the better-known Alexander Erskein ), not in September 1686, but in 1685 during the conquest of Neuhäusel Fortress (today Nové Zámky in Slovakia ) in the hands and were probably no longer in toddler age. They were baptized with the names Ulrica Beata , Hedewig Johanna , Scharlotta Maria and Maria Aurora . Lewenhaupt explains that the baptismal name Maria Aurora is actually not assigned to Fattime, but to Emini in the baptismal register, on the grounds that it is known that Ms. von Spiegel's original name was Fatima, that she was named after her godmother Aurora von Königsmarck, and that the latter was only godmother to a single Turkish woman.

Life at the Saxon and Polish courts

In the years 1694 to 1701 Maria Aurora was apparently in the service of Aurora von Königsmarck, but also dealt with a "matter" or a "company" in its own right. What it was all about can be seen from the relevant remarks in the correspondence of Countess Amalie von Löwenhaupt née. However, Königsmarck did not stand out. Another brief mention is the biography of Moritz von Sachsen , written by Michael Ranft in 1751 , who was an illegitimate son of the Elector with Aurora von Königsmarck. According to this, August had the boy, who was about three years old at the time, "[...] come to Warsaw in 1699 with his waiting wife in the company of the Turkish woman, who later married Accisrath Spiegel [...]". The Löwenhaupt correspondence also localized Maria Aurora in 1699 in Warsaw. In May or June 1702 she gave birth to a son, called Friedrich August, whom the king recognized two decades later as his “natural” son.

In the course of 1703 there was a falling out between Maria Aurora and her godmother, the cause of which is not apparent. Amalie von Löwenhaupt (who called herself Königsmarck again after the death of her husband) replies to a letter from her sister: “What you write me about the visitor is horrible. That might be called bassesse inutile. I think the ungrateful Turkish woman will have to confuse her court life with the royal stone again. It also deserves it: the humorous animal. We might say we raised snakes in our bosom. ”Apparently, the“ Turkish woman ”was not harmed by this animosity. She stayed at the court and in the favor of the king, as well as his next mistress Countess Esterle , Princess von Teschen and Countess Cosel . In 1706 she gave birth to a daughter, also named Maria Aurora.

Haxthausen reports that the king married his mistress to his valet, Spiegel, in order to more effectively disguise their liaison. Pöllnitz also writes of a marriage at the king's instigation, but he describes Spiegel as a "Lieutenant Colonel". Both authors claim that it was just a sham marriage. Both do not give the time of the marriage, it is still unknown today.

Cramer 1836 without a source: "Soon entangled in other love relationships, Fatime was married to a lieutenant colonel von Spiegel, where she endeavored to atone for her earlier aberrations through a decent way of life."

Haxthausen: When the king moved his court back to Dresden (after the temporary renunciation of the throne in 1706) he left “la Spiegel” in Warsaw and forgot her there.

Vehse 1854 without citing the source: After she had spent a few years there and had wasted a lot of the 100,000 thalers the king gave her, she made friends with the wife of Przebendowski, nee. Flemming and finally came back to Dresden with her.

With this, the narrative sources about Maria Aurora alias Fatima dry up, but evidence appears in various correspondence and official documents.

Marriage and civil existence

Maria Aurora's husband Johann George Spiegel was verifiably valet at Friedrich August, even before he took office as elector. In 1694 he was confirmed again in the same position, then he moved to the finance department. On October 1, 1697 he was hired as "Accispachter" of the Accisamt Leipzig. He then appears as "Accisrath", later "Generalaccisrath". A title of nobility cannot be proven. Ô Byrn: "From Courtoisie, some letter writers gave both spouses the" von "a few times, and you the predicate" Your Grace ", but it is certain that Spiegel was not ennobled."

With the marriage, Maria Aurora had finally received what had been missed at the baptism in Stockholm: a full name, under which she was legally competent and which soon appeared. On July 3, 1705, she bought the Särchen estate and Vorwerk from the Hoyerswerda estate , whose owner was the Princess of Teschen at the time, for 20,000 thalers . In the deed of purchase she added the addition “Born von Kahrimann” to her signature.

Around 1709, Johann George Spiegel was transferred to Lemberg (now Lviv in the Ukraine) as the superintendent of the king's Polish domains . Maria Aurora and her (i.e., the king's) children, whom Spiegel treated as his own, moved with him. In addition to his official position, Spiegel served the king there as a reconnaissance and informant at an advanced post in the border region and gradually became entangled in the difficult diplomatic contacts between Poland, Russia, the khanate of Crimea and the Ottoman Empire. Maria Aurora Spiegel has demonstrably acted as an interpreter several times. In the meantime, she was also involved in a lawsuit with the Princess of Teschen.

Johann George Spiegel, who was apparently not up to the diplomatic game of intrigues, became increasingly suspicious of and ultimately disgraced the king from 1713 onwards. In May 1715, the king ordered a prison room for Spiegel to be prepared at the Sonnenstein Fortress , but the mirror died before he was admitted there. In a memo dated July 30, 1715, his death is mentioned in passing.

Further life and care for the children

After the death of her husband, Maria Aurora Spiegel had to get by as a single mother with the two royal children. As the correspondence that has survived shows, she sought and found a certain amount of support from the powerful Minister Jacob Heinrich von Flemming , who stayed with her throughout her life. On September 19, 1715, she received the inheritance letter for her property in Särchen , an extraordinary privilege that was only granted in exceptional cases and for valid reasons on application. The property was thus separated from the feudal association and transferred to the owner for all time as freely available and inheritable property. On February 25, 1717, she sold the estate to the Princess of Teschen for 15,000 thalers. In the same year she bought a house in Dresden ( house Rampische Straße 33 ). The daughter Maria Aurora probably lived with her, the son Friedrich August was in Paris for training until 1722, both children carried the family name of their stepfather Spiegel up to this time. Then the king brought them to Warsaw near him and added the name Rutowski or Rutowska to them. On September 19, 1724, her legitimacy and elevation to the count's status was recorded. A few days later, Maria Aurora Rutowska married the crown thigh Count Michael Bielinski, Starost von Stumm. Friedrich August Rutowski was placed in the military service of the Kingdom of Sardinia as the commander of a regiment .

About the living conditions of the mother during this time, Byrn writes: "The situation of the Spiegel may not have been shiny, that is evident from a correspondence between Count Flemming and the Spiegel from 1723." He also assumes that Johann Georg Spiegel was still alive in 1723: "[...] as a letter from Spiegel from that time, dated April 7th from Oloschitz, to Count Flemming, in which she says she herself, her daughter and her husband often soak for the good of their protector. The Count's answer, written in the most rosy mood, suggests a gallant relationship that existed between him and the Spiegel in earlier times. "

Last mentions

Conrad Ludwig Sulze, managing director of Countess Aurora von Königsmarck in Dresden, discussed in a letter dated October 17, 1724 the rise of the Rutowska's rank and marriage and added: “The mother, because she became Catholic, has completely canceled the world and is busy to the monastery with the merciful brothers. "

Ô Byrn: “A short time later, she was mentioned for the very last time in a letter from Count Flemming in 1725, in which, since it was a matter of procuring silver dishes for Count Rutowski, it reads: car pour Mad. Spiegel je ne crois pas qu'on la puisse persuader à se defaire de celuy qu'elle a. "

swell

• Anonymous: The gallant Saxony. Franckfurth on Mayn 1734, after Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz: La Saxe galante. Amsterdam 1734 ( digitized at digital.bibliothek.uni-halle.de)
• Eduard Vehse: History of the German Courts since the Reformation. 32nd volume. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1854 ( digital copy at the Bavarian State Library digital)
• Friedrich Cramer: Memories of Countess Maria Aurora Königsmark and the Königsmark family. First volume. , FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1836 ( digitized at digital.slub-dresden.de)
• Friedrich Cramer: Memories of Countess Maria Aurora Königsmark and the Königsmark family. Second volume. , FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1836 ( digitized at digital.slub-dresden.de)
• Friedrich August Freiherr ô Byrn: On the life story of Count Friedrich August Rutowski. in: Karl von Weber (Ed.): Archives for the Saxon history. New episode - second volume. Verlag Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1876 ( digitized at digital.slub-dresden.de)
• Adam Lewenhaupt: Maria Aurora von Spiegel. in: FU Wrangel (Ed.): Personhistorisk tidskrift. Första årgången 1898-99. Holds 4. Kungl. Boktryckeriet, Stockholm 1899 ( digitized version of the article at runeberg.org, entire issues of the journal can be downloaded from personhistoriskasamfundet.org)
• Holger Schuckelt: Historical background. in: Ralf Günther: The Turkish mistress. Ullstein Buchverlage / List Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-548-61211-9 , pp. 539 to 555
• Walter von Boetticher: History of the Upper Lusatian nobility and their estates 1635-1815. Volume 2 Self-published by the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences, Görlitz 1913 ( complete table of contents as well as digitized version of the section "v. Spiegel" at digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pöllnitz 1734, pp. 162 to 165
2. ^ Extract (typescript from 1936) from the baptismal register of the German Church in Stockholm, p. 367 ( digitized version, PDF, at digitalastadsarkivet.stockholm.se)
3. ↑ Michael Ranfft: Life and deeds of the world-famous Count Moritz of Saxony, who died recently, etc. Verlag Johann Samuel Heinsii Erben, Leipzig 1751, p. 6 ( digitized version of the page at digital.slub-dresden.de)
4. ↑ Cramer 1836, Volume 1, p. 300
5. ↑ Boetticher 1913, p. 899 ( digitized version )
6. ↑ Schuckelt 2014, p. 554
7. ↑ Archive note at archiv.sachsen.de
8. ↑ Cramer 1836, Volume 2, p. 125

Remarks

1. ↑ The baptismal register of the German Church in Stockholm lists seven baptized Turks in 1686, six of them from Baron Eschen's “Neuheusslichen Eroberung”.
2. ↑ The quoted passage can only be found in this improved edition from 1751.
3. ↑ The Königstein Fortress served as an internment place for state prisoners for centuries and has become proverbial for it. Among other things, the aforementioned "Beuchlingen" (= Wolf Dietrich von Beichlingen ) sat there from 1703 to 1709.
4. ↑ Ô Byrn cites several official documents that prove the name Maria Aurora of the future Countess Rutowska. Other first names such as Maria Anna or Katharina are found in other authors .
5. ↑ The previous owner of the Särchen property was the retired Croatian colonel Johann von Schadowitz , who later became known as the role model for the Sorbian legendary figure Krabat .
6. ↑ Similar to the better-known Königstein Fortress, the small Sonnenstein Fortress near Pirna also occasionally served as a prison for state prisoners.