Martin Mair (statesman)

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Gravestone (around 1480) of the ducal councilor Dr. Martin Mair in St. Martins Church in Landshut

Dr. Martin Mair , also Meyer (* around 1420 in Wimpfen ; † November 17, 1480 in Landshut ) was a Bavarian humanist and statesman.

Career

Martin Mair was probably born around 1420 in the imperial city of Wimpfen . It only becomes tangible when he began his studies at Heidelberg University in 1438 , first in theology, then in law. He finished his studies in 1448 with the degree of Licentiatus decretorum . A friendship with Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II , connected him from his student days . In 1449 he joined the imperial city of Nuremberg as a town clerk and lawyer and carried out various diplomatic missions on their behalf. His first attempt at a doctorate to obtain a doctorate in 1452 failed, only the second attempt on January 6, 1465 in Heidelberg succeeded.

Political activity

Plans for an imperial reform

Mair stood in the course of his career z. T. at the same time in the service of various princes and imperial cities, B. Emperor Friedrich III. and King Georg Podiebrad of Bohemia . On August 1, 1455 he was appointed Chancellor of the Archbishop of Mainz , Dietrich Schenk von Erbach . In this capacity he led negotiations on a radical reform of the empire, which in his opinion was not possible with the ruling Kaiser Friedrich. Mair tried to bring various princes into play as candidates for election to the Roman king , u. a. Philipp v. Burgundy and Count Palatine Friedrich , but had no success.

Bavarian Council

In July 1459, Mair accepted Duke Ludwig IX's offer . (of the rich) from Bavaria-Landshut to step into his service as a councilor , a position which he was awarded for life on December 21 of the same year. Mair moved with his family to Landshut and had a stately home built there, today's " House of the Crown Prince ". He succeeded in mediating an alliance between Ludwig and Georg Podiebrad, through which the former promised the Bohemian king support for the Roman-German royal election. Although Mair was able to win over other German princes for this plan, the implementation did not succeed, mainly due to the excommunication of Georg Podiebrad by Pope Paul II and the growing threat from the Turks . As a result, Mair played a significant role in the rapprochement between Ludwig the Rich and Count Palatine Friedrich and Emperor Friedrich III.

Intellectual creation

Written works

When his childhood friend Piccolomini was promoted to cardinal in 1457 , Mair wrote a letter in which he put the accumulated complaints of the Germans about the greed of the Roman Curia in words. The letter that has not been preserved became famous through Piccolomini's answer, the treatise "Germania".

Furthermore, a treatise has come down to us from Mair, which he wrote in 1464 to present his proposals for imperial reform.

University foundation

Duke Louis IX. had already in April 1459 had Pope Pius II grant him the privilege of founding a Bavarian state university. In close cooperation with the learned Mair, he finally founded the University of Ingolstadt on June 26, 1472 . Dr. Mair gave the opening speech in Latin.

Marriage and offspring

In 1452 Mair married Katharina († 1480), the daughter of Michael Imhof from Donauwörth . The marriage had two daughters and three sons.

Trivia

literature

  • Rainer Hansen: Martin Mair. A learned councilor in princely and urban service in the second half of the 15th century . Kiel 1992.
  • Claudia Märtl: Duke Ludwig the Rich, Dr. Martin Mair and Eneas Silvius Piccolomini , in: Franz Niehoff (Hrsg.): The golden century of the rich dukes. Landshut 2014, 41–54.
  • Wolfgang Voss: Dietrich von Erbach, Archbishop of Mainz (1434-1459). Studies on imperial, church and state politics as well as on the archbishop's councils . Mainz 2004, on Martin Mair: pp. 347-349.
  • Beatrix Ettelt-Schönewald: Chancellery, council and government of Duke Ludwig the Rich of Bavaria-Landshut (1450–1479) (=  series of publications on Bavarian regional history . Volume 97 ). CH Beck, Munich (2 volumes, 1996/99).
  • Irmgard Lackner: Duke Ludwig IX. the empire of Bavaria-Landshut (1450–1479). Princely policy towards emperors and imperial estates . University, Regensburg 2010 ( uni-regensburg.de [PDF] dissertation).
  • Johannes Laschinger:  Mair, Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , pp. 712-714 ( digitized version ).
  • Sigmund Ritter von Riezler:  Mair, Martin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 113-120.

Web links

  • Mair, Martin in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The earlier mentioned, erroneous year of death 1481 is corrected in: Märtl 2014.
  2. ^ Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Germania, Der Brieftraktat an Martin Mayer, translated by A. Schmidt, 1962.
  3. ↑ C. Höfler: concerns about the treatises at a Reichstag that are to be held at Eger had to be brought about, about the political reform movement in Germany in the 15th century. Centuries and Bavaria's share in it. Munich 1850, pp. 37-43
  4. ↑ The LMU turns 540 . Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  5. ↑ Theo Herzog, Landshut House Chronicle, 1957, Hs.no. 12
  6. ↑ Georg Spitzlberger, The Duchy of Bavaria-Landshut and its residential town 1392–1503, Landshut 1993, p. 107
  7. ↑ Beatrix Ettelt-Schönewald: office, council and government of Duke Ludwig the Rich of Bavaria-Landshut . tape 2 . CH Beck, Munich 1999, p. 805 .
  8. ↑ Small messages . In: Communications from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research . tape 113 , JG, 2005, ISSN  2307-2903 , doi : 10.7767 / miog.2005.113.jg.135 .
personal data
SURNAME Mair, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian humanist and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1420
PLACE OF BIRTH Wimpfen
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1481
Place of death Landshut , Duchy of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire