Reinhard Scheffer the Elder

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Reinhard Scheffer the Elder (born February 2, 1529 in Homberg (Efze) , † May 10, 1587 in Kassel ) was a German lawyer and statesman .

Life

Origin and education

Scheffer was the son of the Homberg master tailor Johannes Scheffer and his wife Margarethe Weitzel, who came from a family of court secretaries. His parents first sent him to school in Homberg, then to Kassel for further education. From 1545 he studied in Marburg . There he initially pursued philosophical and theological studies, but then concentrated on the study of law , which he completed in October 1550 with a doctorate . With the help of a landgrave scholarship, Scheffer was able to study for another three years at the famous law faculties in Padua and Ferrara . Before returning to Germany, he met Jakob Lersner , the law professor and brother of the landgrave chancellor Heinrich Lersner , in Venice , who discussed legal problems with Italian colleagues on behalf of the landgrave. Lersner was impressed by Scheffer and, on his recommendation, Landgrave Philipp appointed the lawyer, who was only 24 years old, on August 10, 1553 as a councilor and “servant from home”.

Landgrave Hessian State Service

As a result of the defeat in the Schmalkaldic War of 1546–1547, the Landgraviate of Hesse had considerable difficulties with the emperor, empire and various neighbors, with whom the Hessian lawyers and officials had been busy for years. Scheffer distinguished himself through careful negotiations in the disputes with the Nassau House because of the Katzenelnbogen inheritance and in the renewal of the fiefdom of some Westphalian counts. On November 26, 1557, Landgrave Philipp, whose trust he had won, appointed him Vice Chancellor. In 1559 he was, together with Burkhard von Cramm, the Landgrave's envoy to the Reichstag in Augsburg .

After Philip's death in March 1567, Scheffer was confirmed in office by his son Wilhelm IV , who received the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel when his father's inheritance was divided . In the inheritance disputes between Philip's sons, which were finally ended on May 28, 1568 with the Ziegenhain agreement , Scheffer negotiated so carefully that Wilhelm IV appointed him his chancellor in 1570 as the successor to Heinrich Lersner . One of the outstanding achievements of his administration was the preparation of the Merlau Treaty of 1583 with Kurmainz , with which almost all remaining Mainz possessions in northern Hesse finally fell to the Landgraviate, but Hesse-Kassel gave up its claims in Eichsfeld .

Scheffer, who was given high credit for not using his position for personal gain, resigned from his office on March 10, 1583 and was henceforth “old chancellor” and “secret councilor from home”. He died on May 10, 1587 and was buried in the Martinskirche in Kassel.

family

Scheffer married Christine Feige on November 21, 1559 (* March 1537 in Marburg; † April 5, 1608 ibid), daughter of Johann Feige , who died in 1543 , from 1514 to 1542 chancellor of the Landgraviate of Hesse , and his wife Katharina Nusspicker. The couple lived with Scheffer's mother-in-law for the first eight years of their marriage; only then did it live in its own household at its own expense. The marriage produced eleven children.

Of these, Reinhard Scheffer the Younger (1561–1623) was Vice Chancellor and Chancellor under Landgrave Moritz von Hessen-Kassel. Heinrich Ludwig Scheffer became Hessian councilor, chamber master in Kassel and headmaster of the Hessian high hospitals . Christina Scheffer (1576–1638) married on October 15, 1604 in Marburg Heinrich Lersner (1573–1636), chancellor of the nominal principality of Hersfeld administered by the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel and son of Hermann Lersner .

Count Johann von Nassau-Dillenburg sold in 1576 to the Hessian Chancellor Reinhard Scheffer (named his wife Christina nee Feige), to Ludwig Feige and his brothers Johann and Heinrich 447 guilders 7 1/2 Albus annual rent, 26 Malter grain and 50 Malter oats Valid from the income of the Driedorf office and winery for 12,000 guilders. The repayment could take place every autumn (with eight months' notice). In 1583 Feige's children and heirs closed the following trade: Reinhard Scheffer, Hessian Chancellor, on behalf of his wife, as well as the brothers Ludwig, Johann and Heinrich Feige transferred their income from a prescription from the Driedorf von Nassau office to Count Günther von Waldeck .

literature

  • Franz Gundlach: The Hessian central authorities from 1247 to 1604, servant book. Elwerth, Marburg, 1930, p. 222

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Also: Wetzel.
  2. ↑ "Servant by default" = civil servant without residence obligation, who only has to perform service on special request. Servant . In: Prussian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 2 , issue 6 (edited by Eberhard von Künßberg ). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de - publication date between 1933 and 1935).
  3. ↑ Burkhard VI. von Cramm († October 5, 1559), Landgrave Hessian governor of Upper Hesse in Marburg.
  4. ↑ She was a daughter of the landgrave chamberlain Georg Nusspicker the Elder. Ä.
  5. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg , holdings Urk. 49 No. 3654
  6. ↑ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv , inventory 170 I No. U 4892

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personal data
SURNAME Scheffer, Reinhard the Elder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1529
PLACE OF BIRTH Homberg (Efze)
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1587
Place of death kassel