Polyxena of Lobkowicz

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Polyxena of Lobkowicz

Polyxena von Lobkowicz (also Polyxena Popel von Lobkowitz ; born as Polyxena von Pernstein ; first marriage Polyxena von Rosenberg ; Czech Polyxena Lobkovická z Pernštejna ; previously Polyxena Rožmberská z Pernštejna ; * 1566 ; † 24 May 1642 ) was a Bohemian aristocracy. She came from the Moravian-Bohemian noble family of the Lords of Pernstein . With the birth of her son Wenzel Eusebius von Lobkowicz , she became the ancestor of all Lobkowitzers after further branches of the family had died out . Like her parents, she was a staunch Catholic and therefore supported the Jesuits and the re-Catholicization in Bohemia .

Life

Her parents were the Bohemian Chancellor Vratislav von Pernstein (1530–1582) and his wife Maria Manrique de Lara (1538–1608), who came from Castile and was a lady in waiting for the Empress Maria . On January 11, 1587, Polyxena married the three times widowed South Bohemian magnate Wilhelm von Rosenberg , who died in 1592 without leaving any descendants. Through the Raudnitz rule , which she inherited together with Raudnitz Castle, she was one of the richest widows in Bohemia. In 1603 she took over the guardianship of the half-orphans of her brother Johann von Pernstein (1561–1597), who died in 1597 . Together with the wards and their mother Anna Maria Manrique de Lara d. J., who was also Polyxena's cousin, lived until 1606 mainly in Prague's Pernstein Palace at Prague Castle .

On November 23, 1603, Polyxena married the second chancellor of Bohemia, Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel von Lobkowitz . This marriage had the only son Wenzel Eusebius von Lobkowicz , whom she gave birth to in 1609 at the age of 42. On the occasion of her birth, she received the Vysoký Chlumec lordship in Central Bohemia from her husband . While he devoted himself to imperial politics and state administration, she also took on the administration of the property in addition to her social tasks. After the death of her mother Marie Manrique de Lara d. Ä. In 1608 she took over the management of the Pernstein family. Like her mother, she maintained good contacts in her Prague salon with the Spanish envoy, who is said to have valued her political assessments and knowledge. Because of her social position she was an important link between the influential noble families in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia and the Spanish party at the imperial court in Vienna. Her wards, whose mother had married Bruno von Mansfeld that year, had also lived there since 1606 .

Together with her husband, Polyxena stood on the side of the Catholics and thus the Habsburg rulers during the Bohemian uprising in 1618. After the lintel in Prague , she granted the surviving governors Wilhelm Slavata and Jaroslav Borsita Graf von Martinic refuge in her palace. Because of her religious and political stance she was one of the winners after the Battle of White Mountain in 1622. This enabled them to acquire lands to the value of allegedly 350,000 Rhenish guilders from confiscations that had been confiscated from the rebels by the emperor by way of expropriation. As a result, the lords of Mühlhausen , Encovany ( Enzowan ), Odolenswasser and Unter Berschkowitz came into their possession.

As the guardian of her nephew Vratislav Eusebius von Pernstein , who was the last male descendant of the Pernstein family, Polyxena u. a. Leitomischl castle and rule , which was a fiefdom of the sovereign. In 1623 she bought the Pernstein Palace at Prague Castle from her nephew Vratislav Eusebius for 30,000 ducats , which then passed to the Lobkowitz family. It was not until 1627 that Vratislav Eusebius took over the independent administration of his property, and shortly afterwards Emperor Ferdinand II transferred to him the rule of Litomysl as hereditary property in his capacity as King of Bohemia. Vratislav Eusebius, who fought in the Thirty Years' War , could not enjoy his secure possession for long. He died in 1631 after a war wound near Tangermünde . Since with him the Pernstein family died out in the male line, Polyxena presented a family picture of grace with the depiction of the baby Jesus, which her mother had brought from Spain to Bohemia for their wedding in 1555 and which was guarded as a family treasure, to the Lesser Town Carmelites of the Church of Mary of victory . There the miraculous image is venerated as the Infant Jesus of Prague to this day.

Polyxena rendered great services to the collection and preservation of works of art and archive materials from the Pernstein and Lobkowitz families.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke : Regionalism and State Integration in Controversy. The lands of the Bohemian Crown in the first century of Habsburg rule (1526–1619) (= writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History 3). Oldenbourg, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-486-56046-8 , p. 173.
personal data
SURNAME Lobkowicz, Polyxena von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Polyxena Boopel von Lobkowitz; Polyxena von Pernstein; Polyxena von Rosenberg; Polyxena Rožmberská z Pernštejna; Polyxena Lobkovická z Pernštejna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION bohemian nobles
DATE OF BIRTH 1566
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1642