Melchior Rantzau

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Melchior Rantzau (* around 1496; † between August 21 and September 17, 1539 in Copenhagen ) was a Holstein knight and important politician in the service of two Schleswig-Holstein dukes and Danish kings.

family

Melchior Rantzau came from the Holstein noble family Rantzau . His parents were the bailiff Hans Rantzau (1452–1522) on Gut Neuhaus and Schmoel in today's Plön district and Margarethe Brockdorff (1477–1547). He was probably the oldest son. He had (at least) six brothers who were also given important offices in the course of his ascent: Balthasar became Bishop of Lübeck in 1536 and Otto († 1585) provost of Uetersen Monastery .

Life

In 1514 he enrolled with Balthasar at the University of Rostock . After graduating, he entered the service of Duke Friedrich and made a career in connection with his conflict with his nephew, the Danish King Christian II. When Friedrich became king, Rantzau's influence in Denmark also grew. As early as 1523, Rantzau was bailiff of Hadersleben , which Friedrich had given his son Duke Christian . In 1524 he traveled with Johann Rantzau to Hamburg and Lüneburg and was his successor as marshal and most important statesman for foreign and financial policy in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . From 1526 to 1530 he administered Gotland for Lübeck , because the income from the island had been granted to the Hanseatic city as a reward for its military cooperation in the capture of the deposed King Christian II. In 1529 Rantzau became a bailiff of Flensburg. In addition, he received Fehmarn and Sonderburg as a pledge for financial support provided.

When King Friedrich was dying in April 1533, Rantzau probably traveled to the Netherlands on his own initiative to negotiate with Emperor Charles V in the interests of Duke Christian. Christian II had been deposed and had been in prison at Sønderborg Castle since 1532 , but still had a claim to the throne and was also married to Isabella of Austria , a sister of the emperor. Rantzau managed to achieve an alliance between the emperor and Denmark, which was signed on May 10, 1533 and paved the way for Duke Christian to the royal throne. However, at the Lord's Day in Copenhagen in June 1533, the Imperial Council initially rejected Duke Christian. In this context, Lübeck's mayor Jürgen Wullenwever offered the duke his support in return for an assurance of new trade privileges, but was turned down by Melchior Rantzau. The Lübeckers therefore considered him their worst enemy. For this reason, the Lübeck captain Marx Meyer began the so-called count feud in 1534 with raids on the property of the Rantzau family. During the count's feud, Rantzau negotiated several times with Wullenwever and Meyer. In 1535 he conducted negotiations with the Schmalkaldic League . In 1536 he was present at Wullenwever's interrogation in Rotenburg and pressed exaggerated confessions from him. With this, and with the embarrassing interrogation of Marx Meyer, he succeeded in obtaining further leverage against Lübeck.

In 1536 he closed on behalf of King Christian III. an alliance directed against the emperor and the Spanish Netherlands with Karl von Egmond , Duke of Geldern . The campaign, in which his younger brother Breide Rantzau was also involved, failed, however. In 1537, Melchior Rantzau negotiated a peace treaty with the Dutch in Brussels that freed Breide and other Danish nobles from captivity.

Melchior Rantzau was mentioned for the last time on August 21, 1539 during negotiations about the distribution of debts between the kingdom and the duchies. He had already passed away on September 18.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier : The "Rantzau" age of Schleswig-Holstein history (pdf, accessed on June 14, 2014), p. 10f.
  3. ↑ Venge: Rantzau, Melchior , p. 177
  4. ↑ Mikael Venge: Melchior Rantzau at denstoredanske.dk (Danish)
personal data
SURNAME Rantzau, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Holstein knight and politician in the service of two Schleswig-Holstein dukes and Danish kings
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH between August 21, 1539 and September 17, 1539
Place of death Copenhagen