Rudolf IV of Sulz

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Rottweiler Court Disc 1573, Rottweil City Museum

Rudolf IV von Sulz (called "the debt maker"; * February 13, 1559 in Nagold ; † May 5, 1620 in Tiengen ) was 1583-1602 Landgrave in Klettgau , Lord of Vaduz and Blumenegg as well as court judge in Rottweil .

Life

When the father, Alwig von Sulz, died (1572), the sons were still minors, so that a guardianship government with Count Heinrich von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg and Count von Helfenstein took over the government until 1583.

The inheritance

In 1583 the brothers Rudolf and Karl Ludwig shared the Sulzischen possessions. While Rudolf received the Klettgau and the rule of Blumenegg , Vaduz and Schellenberg fell to Karl Ludwig.

The financial crisis

Rudolf already took over a significant amount of debt from his father, which he increased through his own extravagance. Its total debts are put at 315,000 guilders , while the income from the Klettgau is only estimated at around 15,000 guilders per year, so that an extraordinarily high debt ratio was achieved. The imperial and district taxes, which increased significantly as a result of the Turkish wars, brought Rudolf into enormous difficulties. In addition, creditors initiated proceedings before the Reich Chamber of Commerce . In this situation Rudolf tried in 1595 to burden his subjects with the debt.

The power crisis

The subjects resisted the attempt to charge them with the debt. 16 municipalities went on a tax strike in 1595. In 1597 the dispute between subjects and the landgrave escalated. The subjects sent a delegation to the federal city of Zurich with whom the Counts of Sulz had concluded a castle right in 1478 . Zurich - also an important believer in Sulzer - tried to mediate, which Rudolf, however, regarded as undesirable interference. On September 15, he obtained a mandate from the Reich Chamber of Commerce, which called on the rebels to obey - without success.

In view of a feared intervention by Zurich, Emperor Rudolf II set up a commission and finally also administrators (Rudolf von Helfenstein and Friedrich von Fürstenberg) for the Landgraviate. In 1601 the emperor warned the city of Zurich not to interfere any further. Due to the completely broken relationship between Rudolf and his subjects and his still precarious financial situation, he handed over the office of Landgrave in Klettgau to his brother Karl Ludwig in 1602. The subjects refused the oath of homage to the new landgrave until the spring of 1603 .

Further development - appreciation

Sulz's house never recovered from the financial crisis caused by Rudolf. Ultimately, his wastefulness led to the sale of large parts of the Landgraviate, the Rafzerfeld and the Upper Klettgau by Johann Ludwig II to Schaffhausen and Zurich in 1651 and 1656, which were then also transferred from the Reich to the Confederation.

However, the acquisition in a peaceful way had already been pushed forward bit by bit, the strategically important city of Eglisau had been in the possession of Zurich since 1462 and Rüdlingen was bought by Schaffhausen in 1520 from the property of the Rheinau monastery .

Origins, marriages and descendants

Tiengen Castle, archway with the coats of arms of Count Rudolf von Sulz (middle) and his wives, Barbara von Staufen (left) and Agnes von Limpurg (right)

Rudolf IV was a son of Alwig II von Sulz († 1572) and Barbara von Helfenstein . He came from the old Swabian noble family of the Counts of Sulz .

Rudolf was married to Barbara von Staufen for the first time and to Agnes Schenkin Freiin von Limpurg for the second time .

A daughter is known from his first marriage:

From second marriage reached adulthood:

  • Maria Elisabeth (* 1587; † 1651) ∞ Georg Ludwig von Schwarzenberg
  • Johannes (* 1590; † 1617)

literature

Web links

Individual references / comments

  1. ↑ The numbering in the Sulz house is quite confusing, so Rudolf IV. (Numbering in the Klettgau branch) is sometimes also listed as Rudolf VII. (Numbering in the entire Sulz house).
  2. ↑ The year of birth and death in Baumann and Geneall.net are the same.
  3. ↑ JB Kolb: Historical-statistical-toporaphic lexicon of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Zweyter Volume, Karlsruhe 1814, p. 161.
  4. ↑ a b s. Baumann p. 184.
  5. ↑ s. Baumann.
  6. ↑ a courageous step after the uprising of her grandfathers had been bloodily suppressed 70 years earlier (in the Peasants' War in 1525).
  7. ↑ partly also called Agathe; here according to Baumann p. 184.
predecessor Office successor
Alwig II of Sulz Landgrave in Klettgau
1583 - 1602 		Karl Ludwig von Sulz
personal data
SURNAME Rudolf IV of Sulz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Landgrave in Klettgau
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1559
PLACE OF BIRTH Nagold
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1620
Place of death Tiengen (Upper Rhine)