Sophie Eleonore of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck

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Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (born July 22, 1658 at Gut Beck , Ulenburg , † May 3, 1744 in Rastede ) was a princess of the Sonderburg line of the House of Oldenburg .

Life

Sophie Eleonore was born as the daughter of Duke August Philipp of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and his third wife Marie Sibylle of Nassau-Saarbrücken on Gut Beck , then Ulenburg , now the city of Löhne . The princess spent her youth at the court of Friedrich II , the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (known from the battle of Fehrbellin and the drama by Heinrich von Kleist ).

Your great-grandfather, Johann d. Younger (1545–1622), son of King Christian III. of Denmark (1503–1559, ruled from 1534), founded the line of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg with the residence Schloss Sonderburg on the island of Alsen in 1564 . Sophie Eleonore came as a descendant of the Danish kings from the House of Oldenburg of the royal line ( list of the dukes of Schleswig ); the royal line had inheritance rights when older lines became extinct.

Due to the large offspring of Duke Johann d. J. divided the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg line into several subsidiary lines. Sophie Eleonores grandfather, Duke Alexander (1573–1627), son Johann the Elder. J., founded the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck line with the acquisition of the Beck estate (Ulenburg district, now the city of Löhne, North Rhine-Westphalia) . This branch line existed until 1825, then Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg .

The Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck line had already intensified contact with the Count's Oldenburg parent company under Sophie Eleonore's grandfather, Duke Alexander, and his wife, grandmother Sophie Eleonores, Dorothea von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1579–1639) was also through family relationships connected to the Oldenburg Count House. Duke Alexander met his future wife at the court of Oldenburg and the two married there on November 26th, 1604. It is not unlikely that already in this generation stays at Rastede Castle , the later residence of Sophie Eleonore, and the aristocratic residence in was known to the ducal family.

The father Sophie Eleonores, Duke August Philipp, also found his first two wives at the Oldenburg court, both daughters of Count Anton II of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (1550–1619). He had seven children with his third wife, Marie Sibylle von Nassau-Saarbrücken (1628–1699). This line has represented the Danish and Norwegian monarchs since 1863. Duke August Philipp can therefore be described as the progenitor of the royal houses of Denmark and Norway.

The daughter Sophie Eleonore was probably born on July 22, 1658 at Gut Beck. She did not get married. Stays with her relatives, the Landgraves of Hessen-Homburg, around 1683 are documented. Her uncle, Duke Philipp Ludwig (1620–1689), had been married to Anna Margarethe (1629–1686), daughter of Friedrich I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, from 1650. Heinrich von Kleist created a literary monument to Anna Margarethes' brother, Friedrich II , with the drama Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin .

The county Oldenburg was after the death of the last, leave ended without legitimate heirs, Count Anton Günther (1583-1667, reg. From 1603), died in the inheritance of the Danish royal house ( "Danes time," ending in 1773 with the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo ) . The palace in Rastede served Danish administrative officials as the official residence of the time.

From 1701 until her death 43 years later, Sophie Eleonore lived at Rastede Castle. In a letter to the Danish court in November 1701, she expressly thanked her for the royal grace that her Rastede Castle had been allocated to a free apartment and 200 Reichstaler annual maintenance. This letter, as well as a later thank you letter to the successor to King Friedrich IV. (1671–1730, ruled from 1699), King Christian VI. (1699–1746, ruled from 1730) are evidence that the princess was not “banished” to Rastede because of so-called disagreements, but that she was given her aristocratic residence as an appropriate accommodation. The annual maintenance payment was later increased to 300 Reichstaler.

In the course of her life, the princess tried again and again to improve the structural condition of the “pleasure and hunting palace” in Rastede, built in 1643, and submitted numerous petitions to the court in Copenhagen for financial support. In 1717, after a lengthy correspondence with the Danish authorities, she managed to transfer the rights of use to the Rastede Vorwerk for life. The farm had already served the former Rastede monastery as an economic basis and was intended to serve as a usufruct for the princess . The 300 Reichstaler pension ceased to exist when this regulation came into force.

In her mid-60s, Princess Sophie Eleonore was planning her burial place. She sent the Danish king a request to be buried in the crypt of the St. Ulrichs church not far from the castle. In her will she bequeathed a gift of 100 thalers to the church. In return, she was assigned a place in the eastern part of the crypt, where her baroque sandstone sarcophagus with the coat of arms of the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck still stands today. The sarcophagus is provided with two inscriptions in cartouches :

"Here rest the Serene Princesse Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig Holstein Beke from the royal line born in 1658 on July 22nd died in 1744 on May 3rd."
"Your Hochfurstlichen Highnesses have lived here at the Rastede house for 43 years."

The baroque sarcophagus was restored in 2001 and 2002 and can be visited. The church book of the St. Ulrichs Church records the age of Princess Sophie Eleonore of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck as 85 years, 9 months and 11 days.

literature

  • Margarethe Pauly: Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck - the princess in the Rasteder crypt . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Volume 111, Isensee, Oldenburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89995-817-1 .
  • The princes of the country. Dukes and Counts of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg , Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen a. a. (Ed.) on behalf of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, ISBN 978-3-529-02606-5 .
  • Margarethe Pauly: Family tables of the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg and related princely houses in Europe . Isensee, Oldenburg 2004, ISBN 3-89995-146-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margarethe Pauly: Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Volume 111, Oldenburg 2011, p. 25.
  2. ^ Margarethe Pauly: Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Volume 111, Oldenburg 2011, p. 34ff.
  3. ^ Margarethe Pauly: Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Volume 111, Oldenburg 2011, p. 50.
  4. ^ Margarethe Pauly: Sophie Eleonore von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Volume 111, Oldenburg 2011, p. 47.
personal data
SURNAME Sophie Eleonore of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of the gottorpschen line of the House of Oldenburg
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1658
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen , Denmark
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1744
Place of death Rastede