Philipp Ludwig (Leiningen-Rixingen)

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Count Philipp Ludwig as imperial general

Philipp Ludwig von Leiningen-Westerburg-Rixingen (* February 1652 at Rixingen Castle , Lorraine (today Réchicourt-le-Château ); † August 16, 1705 in the Battle of Cassano ) was Count von Leiningen , Imperial General and the last male ancestor of the lines Leiningen-Rixingen and Leiningen-Leiningen of the noble house Leiningen-Westerburg , which in turn descends from the house of Runkel .

Life

He was the eldest son of Ludwig Eberhard (* 1624; † 1688), Count of Leiningen-Rixingen, and his wife, Charlotte von Nassau-Saarbrücken (* 1619; † 1687).

Count Philipp Ludwig grew up at Rixingen Castle, which his parents lived in as a residence. In 1665 the father became president of the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer , in 1669 he sold the County of Rixingen (fiefdom of the diocese of Metz) to Count Friedrich von Ahlefeldt . The young Leininger came to Paris early, where he met his future wife, Louise Gabrielle de Rueil Marquise de Rouze. Through her father, Henri de Rueil Marquise de Rouze, Unterlandvogt in Alsace, he joined the French army as an officer. In 1671 Philipp Ludwig converted - like his father before - to the Catholic faith in Paris , and on December 26, 1673 the young couple married in the French capital. Their father, Count Ludwig Eberhardt, initially assigned them Chatillon Castle near Cirey-sur-Vezouze, then Oberbronn Castle in Oberbronn (Alsace) as their residence.

In 1686 his father handed him the government of the County of Leiningen, which was partly on French and partly on German territory as a free float. When the Palatinate War of Succession broke out in 1688, the Emperor decreed that all Germans should quit their service in the hostile French army. Count Philipp Ludwig followed this instruction only hesitantly, as he feared for his possessions when changing sides. Nevertheless, he gave up his French military service in the same year and retired to Altleiningen Castle , in the German part of the county. Its main town was the nearby town of Grünstadt , which he saved from complete destruction in 1689. When the French approached, the sovereign ordered the roofs to be thrown off the houses in order to simulate destruction that had already taken place. The French did not fall for the ruse, but the fire they started in the city caused far less damage than in the surrounding communities, as there was less food because of the lack of roof beams.

In 1690 the French burned or blew up Altleiningen Castle and devastated the entire county. Philipp Ludwig was imprisoned for a short time, but was freed by Austrian hussars. The sovereign was financially impoverished by the looting and, moreover, had to pay for the national defense. For this purpose he borrowed money several times on favorable terms from the Kurmainzer Oberfeld war commissioner, knight Franz Georg von Blumencron, who was friendly to him . For this purpose, the Count of Leiningen pledged the village of Wattenheim to the Lords of Blumencron, which in 1698 was sold to the creditor as a pledge and became the dominion of Wattenheim ; the pawn loan later fell through inheritance to the Lords of Vogelius (wrongly also Vopelius ).

Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz appointed Count Philipp Ludwig to the Privy Council of the Electoral Palatinate and Governor of Heidelberg . He also promoted him to lieutenant general in the Palatinate. He later joined the Imperial Army, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal and General of the Cavalry.

The residence, Unterhof Palace in Grünstadt , built for himself by Count Philipp Ludwig in 1698

As the family castle Altleiningen was uninhabitable, Philipp Ludwig had the old Lungenfeld monastery courtyard in Grünstadt expanded into a residence as Unterhof Castle . He was a great supporter of all Catholic endeavors in his predominantly Lutheran county and particularly supported the Capuchins , for whom he had a monastery built in Grünstadt, the buildings of which still exist today; the associated church is the current Catholic parish church of the city. To this end, he and Baron Merz , as the owners of the property in question, personally took part in the laying of the foundation stone and the erection of a mission cross on the Corpus Christi festival in 1699. In 1698, Philipp Ludwig also carried out the overdue reform of the Gregorian calendar in the county of Leiningen , which had previously been boycotted for religious reasons, as it was based on Pope Gregor XIII. decreased.

Count Leiningen participated as an Austrian officer with distinction in the campaigns under Prince Eugene of Savoy against the Turks. When Emperor Leopold I promoted him to general in the War of the Spanish Succession at the end of 1704 and entrusted him with the army department of the late Field Marshal Charles Thomas de Lorraine-Vaudémont in Italy, he judged him as follows: In view of the serious war situation, he did not have the necessary military dexterity as Troop leader, but he offers personal qualities as a man "on whose loyalty, vigilance and bravery one can rely ... and [who] do not ignore [the] strange, sensible advice." In 1705, at the Battle of Cassano , Leiningen commanded two infantry brigades and was fatally gunshot when attacking a strategically important bridge. Prince Eugene immediately took his place and led the Liningian troops to attack again. Philipp Ludwig von Leiningen was buried at Cassano, in the Capuchin Church of S. Antonio, in front of the Nicholas altar.

When Count Philipp Ludwig died, his only son, his brothers and close male relatives were already dead. Therefore, the lineage of Leiningen-Rixingen and Leiningen-Leiningen in the male line died out with him. His inheritance fell equally to distant relatives, the brothers Christoph Christian (1656–1728) and Georg II. Carl Ludwig (1666–1726) from the Leiningen-Westerburg-Schaumburg family line.

Marriages and offspring

Since December 26, 1673 he was married to the French noblewoman Louise Gabrielle de Rueil Marquise de Rouze († December 24, 1698 in Oberbronn ), with whom he had five children:

  1. Johann Karl (* 1674; † 1700); Officer in the French Army
  2. Luise († young);
  3. Sophie († young);
  4. Charlotte Amalie (* 1679; † 1734), ⚭ 1701 Count Ferdinand Andreas von Wiser (1677–1751)
  5. Maria Anna.

After his first wife died in 1698, he married the Austrian noblewoman Freiin Sidonie Therese von Eibiswald († April 1720 in Vienna) in 1699.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Illustrated website for Rixingen Castle (French)
  2. ↑ On the name of the wife and her father
  3. ↑ Genealogical page of the Rueil de Ruze family, mentioning Count Philipp Ludwig and his family environment
  4. ^ To the office of the father-in-law as Unterlandvogt
  5. ↑ See Conversations Lexicon of the latest time and literature. Volume 1, FA Brockhaus, 1832, p. 521 f.
  6. ↑ Website on Cirey-sur-Vezouze with an old view of Chatillon Castle
  7. ↑ Website on Oberbronn / Alsace with a photo of the castle
  8. ↑ On the rescue of Grünstadt by Count Philipp Ludwig, from: Johann Georg Lehmann, Historical Paintings from the Rhine District of Bavaria , Volume 1, Page 167, 1832
  9. ↑ Friedrich Bilardone: Beamtenverzeichniß and statistics of the royal Bavarian governmental district of the Palatinate , Kranzbühler, Speyer 1870, pp 228 - Google Books
  10. ↑ On the conversion of the Unterhof Grünstadt as a palace, by Count Ludwig Philipp
  11. ^ To the foundation of the Capuchin monastery in Grünstadt
  12. ↑ Source on the laying of the foundation stone of the Capuchin Church by the Count, from: Franz Xaver Remling, Documentary History of the Former Abbeys and Monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria , Volume 1, page 278, 1836
  13. ↑ On assessment by the emperor
  14. ↑ On the use of Count Leiningen as infantry commander in the Battle of Cassano, from: Franz Georg Friedrich von Kausler, Das Leben des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen , Volume 1, page 407, 1838
  15. ^ Digital scan on the death of Philipp Ludwig Graf von Leiningen, from: CA Schweigerd, Oesterreichs Helden und Heerführer , Volume 2, page 767, 1853
  16. ↑ Count Leiningen in the battle of Cassano, from: Alfred Ritter von Arneth, Prinz Eugen von Savoyen , Vienna, 1858, pages 322 and 323
  17. ↑ Source on the place of burial
  18. ↑ Historical website about the Capuchin Church of S. Antonio zu Cassano, with mention of the grave of Count Philipp Ludwig von Leiningen (Italian)
  19. ^ Illustrated website for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Count Philipp Ludwig in Cassano
  20. ↑ On the death of the second wife
predecessor Office successor
Ludwig Eberhard Count of Leiningen-Rixingen
1688–1705 		Johann Friedrich Wilhelm
personal data
SURNAME Philipp Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Philipp Ludwig zu Leiningen-Westerburg; Philipp Ludwig zu Leiningen-Grünstadt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count of Leiningen-Rixingen, governor of the Electoral Palatinate in Heidelberg
DATE OF BIRTH February 1652
PLACE OF BIRTH at Rixingen Castle , Lorraine (today Réchicourt-le-Château )
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1705
Place of death at Cassano d'Adda