Reichard (Pfalz-Simmern-Sponheim)
Duke Reichard von Pfalz-Simmern (* July 25, 1521 in Simmern ; † January 13 or 14, 1598 in Ravengiersburg , buried in St. Stephen's Church in Simmern) was a younger brother of Elector Friedrich III. (* 1515; † 1576) from the Palatinate and ruled in the second half of his life his own small territory, the Duchy of Simmern , an Electoral Palatinate secondary school .
His name exists in different spellings: Reichard (t), Richard (t) etc. The one chosen here is the most common in today's historiography.
origin
His parents were Count Palatine Johann II von Simmern (* 1492; † 1557) and Beatrix von Baden (* 1492; † 1535), a daughter of Margrave Christoph I of Baden (* 1453; † 1527).
| Descent of Duke Reichard von Pfalz-Simmern | ||||||
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| Great grandparents |
Count Palatine Friedrich I of Simmern (* 1417; † 1480) |
Count Johann II of Nassau-Saarbrücken (* 1423; † 1472) |
Margrave Karl I of Baden (*; † 1475) |
Count Philipp the Younger von Katzenelnbogen (* 1427; † 1453) |
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| Grandparents |
Count Palatine Johann I von Simmern (* 1459; † 1509) |
Margrave Christoph I of Baden- Hachberg (* 1453; † 1527) |
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| parents |
Count Palatine Johann II of Simmern (* 1492; † 1557) |
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Duke Reichard of Pfalz-Simmern |
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Spiritual dignity
Reichard was initially intended for a spiritual career. Already in 1528, at the age of seven - which was not unusual at the time - he was together with his brothers Friedrich III. and George at the Old University Cologne ( Universitas Studii Coloniensis ) enrolled . This is followed by study visits to the Universities of Orléans and Leuven . In the course of his spiritual career he held numerous benefices :
- 1528–1558 canons at Cologne Cathedral
- 1528–1568 canonical, from 1552 position of provost , at the Strasbourg cathedral
- 1540–1562 canonical, from 1559 position of provost at Mainz Cathedral
- 1540–1545 canons at Bamberg Cathedral
- 1545–1555 canonical to St. Gereon (Cologne)
- 1551–1553 and again in 1560 canonicals to St. Victor (Mainz) , 1560 also the provost office there
- 1560–1571 administrator of Waldsassen Abbey , successor to Heinrich Rudolf von Weeze
During this time Reichard ran three times as bishop:
- 1553 in the diocese of Speyer
- 1555 in the diocese of Mainz
- 1569 in the diocese of Strasbourg
He failed in all three cases: on the one hand he was not catholic enough for the Catholics , on the other hand he did not have the financial potential to buy such a position. After the defeat in Strasbourg, he gave up his ecclesiastical career in exasperation and became secular, which was all the easier for him when he had inherited the Duchy of Palatinate-Simmern around the same time . Ultimately, his personal development led to advocating Lutheranism , both against the Roman Catholic side and against the Reformed side . As administrator of Waldsassen, he succeeded to a large extent against his older brother, Elector Friedrich III. But he was defeated in Waldsassen when he gave up the monastery - mainly for economic reasons - and his older brother secularized the monastery in 1571.
Regent in Simmern
politics
In 1569 Reichard inherited the Duchy of Simmern, which until then had been ruled by his deceased older brother, Georg, as a secondary school of the Electoral Palatinate family. The territory he took over was comparatively tiny. In its size it corresponded to a middle office in the Electoral Palatinate. This put Duke Reichard under considerable economic pressure, so that he was now more indulgent to his older brother, Elector Friedrich III - even if not on the question of religion. The takeover of the Duchy of Simmern turned out to be relatively unproblematic, despite the previous disputes about the administration of the Waldsassen Abbey. The denominational differences faded into the background and by 1571 the mutual claims were balanced: Duke Reichard gave up the administration of the Waldsassen monastery in favor of the elector, who supported him with an annual sum and took over his accumulated debts. But as early as 1578, the Duke had to be excused from the Electoral Palatinate again in the run-up to his second wedding because of the newly accrued debts. Religiously, Reichard remained Lutheran, albeit in a moderated form - also with regard to his main source of money, the reformed Electoral Palatinate.
The reign of the small duchy of Simmern was characterized overall by its economic weakness and the excessive court keeping and a policy of Reichard that did not control the precarious situation. The result was a decline in the economy, finance and coinage, and only the periodic assumption of the duke's debts by the Electoral Palatinate prevented bankruptcy . At the end of his life Reichard was practically under the tutelage of the Electoral Palatinate, which also wanted to prevent Reichard's creditors from having uncontrolled access to the donations that the Electoral Palatinate paid to Reichard.
family
Duke Reichard married three times:
- On July 30, 1569, Countess Juliana zu Wied (* 1545; † April 30, 1575, buried in St. Stephen's Church in Simmern). From this marriage there were four children, but none of them reached adulthood. Juliana died giving birth to their fourth child.
- On May 29, 1578, Duchess Emilie von Württemberg (born August 19, 1550 in Mömpelgard ; † April 4, 1589 in Simmern, buried there in St. Stephen's Church). There were no children from this marriage.
- On December 14, 1589, the 18-year-old Countess Palatine Anna Margaretha von Pfalz-Veldenz (* January 17, 1571; † November 1, 1621). There were no more children from this marriage either.
Attempts to exert political influence
Under Ludwig VI.
The death of the reformed elector Friedrich III. also meant a change of denomination for the Electoral Palatinate: His successor, Ludwig VI. who ruled until 1583 was Lutheran. Duke Reichard thus achieved an outstanding position as advisor to the new elector, which he used to help Lutheranism regain its breakthrough in the Electoral Palatinate. In doing so, however, he massively alienated the Reformed Count Palatine Johann Kasimir , a younger brother of Ludwig VI.
Johann Casimir
However, in 1583 Johann Kasimir became regent for Friedrich IV. The still minor son of his deceased brother. With this, Reichard was again robbed of his political influence. He behaved calmly towards the new reign, which forced her ward back into the Reformed denomination, because he was financially dependent on her. And that even against the intervention of the Lutheran co-guardians, Friedrich III. Johann Casimir had been assigned to Duke Ludwig von Württemberg , Margrave Georg Friedrich I of Ansbach and Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg . Also Reichard had no interest to strengthen the influence of foreign powers in the Palatinate, as the next, appointed by John Casimir for guardianship Agnat he was himself.
Hanau guardianship dispute
Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg succeeded his deceased father in 1580, as he was still a minor, albeit under a tutelage that was initially provided by the Reformed Count Johann VI, the elder, of Nassau-Dillenburg (* 1536; † 1606), Count Ludwig I of Sayn-Wittgenstein (* 1568; † 1607) and the Lutheran Count Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1514; † 1590). Philip IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg - very old for the time - was replaced in 1585 as guardian by his son, Count Philipp V of Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1541; † 1599).
As early as 1581, the mother of the ward, Countess Magdalena von Waldeck (* 1558; † 1599), married Count Johann VII, the Middle, of Nassau-Siegen (* 1561; † 1623), the son of one of the guardians. This brought Count Philipp Ludwig II and his younger brother, Count Albrecht , to the Nassau-Dillenburger Hof. This was a center of the Reformed faith in Germany and closely connected with the also Reformed Electoral Palatinate court.
The (Lutheran) co-guardian Philip IV, later his son Philip V von Hanau-Lichtenberg, vehemently opposed this reformed influence, albeit ultimately in vain. Philip V tried to launch the Lutheran Duke Reichard into the guardianship in order to strengthen the weight of the Lutherans there and to create an opportunity to withdraw the two young Hanau counts from the Reformed influence. Despite a corresponding mandate from the Reich Chamber Court, this did not succeed: The reformed majority of the guardianship prevented the Hanau subjects from paying homage to Reichard with the threat of violence - contrary to the mandate of the Reich Chamber Court . On the contrary, the Reformed party succeeded in installing the Reformed Count Palatine and Kuradministrator, Johann Kasimir, as "Obervormund" - a purely honorary position - and thus further strengthening the Reformed position within the guardianship.
Also in other respects Reichard acted more in the circle of the counts. That was due to the tiny size of his duchy. He was probably also very close to the Lutheran Count Philipp IV of Hanau-Lichtenberg and mediated the delicate matter of the property dispute between him and the ex-husband of his divorced daughter, Johanna von Hanau-Lichtenberg .
On the other hand, Reichard was also from 1585–1595 - alongside the Bishop of Worms - Kondirektor of the Upper Rhine Empire .
Palatinate administration dispute
Johann Kasimir died in 1592, a few weeks before his ward's 18th birthday. The government of Elector Friedrich IV. Was controlled and determined by strictly reformed court councilors well beyond the end of his adulthood, who were in close contact with the predominantly Calvinist noble families organized in the Wetterau Imperial Counts College . Immediately a violent dispute arose over the continuation of the guardianship between the reformed Heidelberg court and the Lutheran Duke Reichard, the Palatinate administration dispute . In the end, Reichard was defeated in the two years of conflict, because on the one hand he was economically dependent on the payments from Heidelberg, on the other hand he suffered the first of a series of strokes in 1594 , could hardly speak and was only able to act to a very limited extent. At the end of the dispute he was able to get the Electoral Palatinate to take over his debts again, but on the other hand his expenses were now controlled by the Heidelberger Hof, so he was practically incapacitated, which was very humiliating for him.
The End
Duke Reichard died on the night of January 13th to 14th, 1598. His attempt to establish the Lutheran creed in the Duchy of Simmern beyond his death failed due to the refusal of the Electorate of Palatinate, which he inherited, to accept.
Reichard was buried on February 7, 1598. While still alive, Reichard had a monumental tomb erected in St. Stephen's Church in Simmern , which shows him together with his first wife, Juliane. The sculptor Johann von Trarbach , mayor of the city of Simmern, was at least involved, if not its creator.
literature
- Peter Fuchs: Reichard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 293 ( digitized version ).
- Theodor Julius Ney: Reichard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 418-420.
- Gerhard Raff : Hie good Wirtemberg all the way. Volume 1: The House of Württemberg from Count Ulrich the Founder to Duke Ludwig. 6th edition. Landhege, Schwaigern 2014, ISBN 978-3-943066-34-0 , pp. 567-569 (on Emilie von Württemberg).
- Detlev Schwennicke: European family tables: Family tables for the history of European states . Vol. I.1, plate 94.
- Hans-Georg Sturm: Count Palatine Reichard von Simmern 1521 - 1598 . Diss. Mainz. Trier 1968.
Individual evidence
- ^ After storm: August 30, 1569.
- ↑ Raff, p. 567 mentions May 26th; For the transmission of the date, see Raff Note 5 on p. 568.
- ^ After Sturm: June 4, 1589; also Raff p. 567 with note 7 on p. 568.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Reichard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Reichardt; Richard; Richardt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Duke of Palatinate-Simmern |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 25, 1521 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Simmer |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 13, 1598 or January 14, 1598 |