Seyfried von Promnitz

Seyfried the Elder Ä. Baron von Promnitz , also Seifried or Siegfried , (* 1534 ; † 1597 ) was a Silesian nobleman who served the emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II in various offices.

Life

He was the son of Anselm von Promnitz from the Weichau line of the family . Seyfried went through a university education (mainly law) and worked as an assessor at the imperial court in Speyer at a young age . He later rose to serve on the imperial council. His abilities, the relationship with Bishop Balthasar von Promnitz and the unconditional loyalty to the Habsburgs were the foundation for a steep career. His Protestant denomination was no obstacle. Maximilian appointed him President of the Silesian Chamber in 1567. From 1571 to 1579 he was the imperial commissioner at the Silesian Princely Days . He held both offices to the satisfaction not only of the sovereign, but also of the Silesian estates . The fact that the Bohemian estates awarded Seyfried von Promnitz the Inkolat shows what an important political position he had in the entire Bohemian Crown during the 1670s . In 1570/71 Seyfried was also a member of the central court chamber in Vienna .

In 1561, Prince-Bishop Balthasar von Promnitz appointed his great-nephew captain of the Lords of Sorau and Triebel in Lower Lusatia . He inherited these large estates a year later, as well as the pledge in the Principality of Sagan . Two decades later, Seyfried d. Ä. von Promnitz also acquired the rule of Hoyerswerda in Upper Lusatia in 1581 , for which he ceded some small goods in Silesia to the previous owners and paid a value adjustment of 33,000 thalers.

Seyfried the Elder Ä. von Promnitz took great care to increase the income from his possessions, although he did not burden the peasant subjects particularly hard. Instead, he invested in the self-management of his goods. He built a malt house in Sorau , laid out iron hammers, vineyards and orchards. In Neudorf on the Silesian-Lower Lusatian border, he set up a customs post with imperial approval.

As a pawnbroker, he proceeded more strictly against the citizens of Sagan and Priebus . He took away their free choice of councils and restricted the urban freedoms through various orders, with which, however, he successfully promoted the economic upswing of the two municipalities. Seyfried protected the Protestant citizens of Sagan against the first approaches of the Counter Reformation , which originated from the local monastery. He had protracted legal disputes with the monastery, which were settled in 1580 after almost 15 years.

In his reign of Sorau-Triebel he issued a Protestant church order in 1578 , probably the first in Lower Lusatia. In 1593 he inaugurated the newly built castle church in his residence town of Sorau. He also opened a printing house in Sorau.

Both Maximilian II. And Rudolf II. Visited Seyfried the Elder on their homage trips to Niederlausitz. Ä. from Promnitz in Sorau. Emperor Rudolf even stayed for a week in 1578 and had the State Parliament of Homage held in Sorau. In 1593 Seyfried d. Ä. Leader of the imperial embassy sent to Poland.

Seyfried was married to Ursula von Schaffgotsch († 1587) from 1558 , who bore him 20 children. In 1590 he married again with Benigna von Lobkowitz , with whom he had a daughter. Of his children, the sons Heinrich Anselm (d. 1622), Weighart d. Ä. (died 1618), Seyfried d. J. (d. 1623) and George (d. 1637) and seven daughters. George's descendants can still be found in Germany, America and Australia today.

literature

• Johann Gottlob Worbs : History of the Lords Sorau and Triebel. Sorau 1826. pp. 104-110 ( online ).
• Johann Sinapius: Silesian Curiosities , Leipzig 1728