Otto IV. (Schaumburg)

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Tomb of Otto IV in the St. Martini Church (Stadthagen)
Otto as the 48th Bishop of Hildesheim on a painting with medallions depicting all Hildesheim bishops up to the end of the 18th century; Latin inscription: "Having grown up, he wisely left the episcopate."

Otto IV. Von Holstein-Schaumburg (* 1517 , † December 21, 1576 in Bückeburg ) was the ruling Count of Schaumburg and Holstein-Pinneberg .

Live and act

Youth and family

Otto was a younger son of Count Jobst I von Holstein-Schauenburg (1483–1531) and his wife Marie, born. Countess of Nassau-Dillenburg (1491–1547). He received spiritual training at the University of Leuven . As a child he already received positions as canon in Hildesheim and Cologne. In 1531 he was named Otto III. postulated as Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim . However, he was never ordained a priest . In 1532 Protestant citizens in Hildesheim tried to appoint Lutheran preachers. This upheaval was ended in favor of the old faith.

Since the death of Jobst I, Otto's older brothers Adolf von Schaumburg (~ 1511–1556) and Johann V (~ 1512–1560) led the government in Schauenburg and Holstein-Pinneberg. In 1537 Otto rejected the postulation as bishop and entered the imperial service as a military, while Adolf tried to consolidate the state budget. Otto took part in the campaign against the Ottomans in Hungary in the service of Joachim von Brandenburg . However , he did not renounce his benefice in the Hildesheim cathedral chapter until 1541 in favor of his younger brother Anton , when his engagement to Maria, the eldest daughter of Duke Barnim IX. was decided by Pomerania-Stettin .

In 1544 Otto took office after Adolf had transferred the primary school to him. Otto had to compensate his brothers so that the dominion would not be reduced. The lawsuits over the severance payment dragged on for most of his reign. Jobst II received the rule of Gemen in 1557 , which, however, was burdened with high debts. Adolf, Anton and Wilhelm were adequately supplied with the benefices they held as clergymen. Erich, who was also a canon, entered Otto's service as Rittmeister and was compensated with the income from the County of Sternberg . The older brother Johann V, who had already been involved in the government, was dissatisfied with this arrangement, which was decided by Adolf alone, and refused to agree. He received the office of Bückeburg , which should revert to the parent company when his line died out. But when his wife, the sister of Enno II. Von Ostfriesland , died childless in 1558 , he signed an inheritance contract with the youngest brother Ernst, who should exclude Otto from his inheritance. Ernst, who had moved with his mother to Dillenburg after the death of his father , grew up there in the family of Wilhelm von Nassau as a Protestant. He demanded the division of the county in order to be able to marry appropriately, but received only two offices for usufruct, which, like the rule of Gemen, were far away from Schaumburg. After Johann's death in 1560, Bückeburg fell to Otto.

government

Otto's reign was a time of confessional polarization, military confrontation and political upheaval. He continued his brother's efforts to consolidate the state budget and modernized the administration and cultivated close relations with the emperor and empire.

After the death of his first wife, Otto entered the service of Maria of Hungary , the governor of the Netherlands, as Rittmeister in 1555 , but neither from her nor from the Spanish King Philip II , from whom he was mercenary leader for the war six months later was contracted against France, he did not get anywhere near the agreed wages, so that he had to indebt himself and his country for the equipment and remuneration of the recruited troops. In 1557 Otto took part in the battle of Saint-Quentin .

When he got married for the first time, Otto had already made a promise to hire a court preacher for his evangelical wife, but not kept it out of consideration for his brothers Adolf and Anton, who were both staunch opponents of the Reformation. But now Adolf († 1556), Elector Archbishop of Cologne , died and Anton, his successor, was seriously ill and died shortly after Otto's marriage to his second wife Elisabeth Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg on May 23, 1558. As promised in the marriage contract, Otto had his Countess Landdrost Christoph von Münchhausen introduce the Reformation in the county of Schaumburg on May 5, 1559 , appointed Jakob Dammann as city and court preacher in Stadthagen and declared the Mecklenburg Church Regulations of 1552 to be solely valid. The Reformation did nothing to change Otto's loyalty to the emperor; that it corresponded to his personal attitude is rather unlikely. So the further progress was delayed. In Holstein-Pinneberg the Reformation did not take place until 1561 and two more years passed before the first visitation , while Otto (unsuccessfully) managed to accept his sons Hermann and Anton from their first marriage into the Cologne cathedral chapter. Later both sons studied with the Jesuits in Ingolstadt . The eldest Hermann became Prince-Bishop of Minden at the age of 18 . Otto influenced the pen through him. The third son, Adolf, who was chosen as his successor, was sent to study at the Evangelical Lutheran University of Wittenberg in 1559 .

In 1551 Otto bought the office of Lauenau from Duke Erich II of Calenberg , which was converted into an inheritance in 1565. In 1565 he gave Obernkirchen the right to stain the town. In 1571 he pledged the moated castle Sachsenhagen to Hermann von Mengersen .

In the succession, house and regimental order , Otto stipulated the indivisibility of the county in 1570 and determined the “most capable” of his sons as his successor. Otto died in 1576, presumably of the plague with which he was infected on his return from the campaign against the Netherlands . After his death, his sons from his first marriage fought against his second wife and her son Ernst for the succession. However, since he left a heavily indebted country, the estates took over the government.

Otto was buried next to his first wife Maria von Pommern-Stettin († 1554) in the St. Martini Church in Stadthagen; later his second wife Elisabeth Ursula († 1586) found her final resting place there, and the elaborate tomb in the church, which shows all three, was created. Otto's youngest son Ernst had the bones of his parents - but not those of Otto's first wife Maria - transferred to his new princely mausoleum at the apex of the church.

Construction activity

Otto had Schloss Stadthagen rebuilt by the master builder Jörg Unkair between 1534 and 1544 . He had the ramparts at Rodenberg Castle repaired in 1556. After Bückeburg fell to Otto in 1560, he had Bückeburg Castle converted into a four-winged palace complex by 1564 , to which he moved his residence.

Marriages and children

In his first marriage he was married to Maria (* 1527, † 1554), daughter of Barnim IX. , Duke of Pomerania-Szczecin. From this marriage the four sons were born:

  • Hermann (November 1, 1545 - March 5, 1592), Prince-Bishop of Minden 1566–1581
  • Otto (December 11, 1546 - April 4, 1572), mentally ill
  • Adolf XI. (* 1547; † 1601), Governing Count of Holstein-Schaumburg
  • Anton (* 1549; † 1599), Prince-Bishop of Minden from 1587

In 1558 he married Elisabeth Ursula (* 1539; † 1586), a daughter of Ernst I the Confessor , Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg. He had the following children with her:

  • Maria (* 1559; † 1616) ⚭ 1591 Count Jobst of Limburg-Styrum (* 1560; † 1621)
  • Elisabeth (August 3, 1566 - September 7, 1638) ⚭ Simon zur Lippe (April 15, 1554 - December 7, 1613)
  • Ernst (* 1569; † 1622), (from 1601 ruling Count of Holstein-Schaumburg, 1619 Prince).

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto IV of Schauenburg-Holstein (-Pinneberg)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Husmeier: Count Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg (1517-1576). , Page 124.
  2. ↑ Husmeier: Count Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg (1517-1576). , P 134ff.
  3. ↑ Werner Führer: Schaumburg-Lippe . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE), Vol. 30, pp. 80–83, here pp. 80–81.
  4. ↑ Werner Führer: Schaumburg-Lippe . In: TRE, Vol. 30, pp. 80-83, here p. 80.
  5. ↑ Husmeier: Count Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg (1517-1576). , S. 193f.
  6. ↑ Husmeier: Count Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg (1517-1576). , P 166ff.

See also

predecessor Office successor
Balthasar Merklin Bishop of Hildesheim 1531–1537
Coat of arms of the Diocese of Hildesheim.png
Valentin of Teutleben
Adolf X.
Johann V.		 Count of Schauenburg and Holstein
1544–1576 		Adolf XI.
personal data
SURNAME Otto IV.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Holstein-Pinneberg
DATE OF BIRTH 1517
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1576
Place of death Buckeburg