Stephan I. Illésházy

Palatine Stephan Illesházy

Stephan I. Illésházy de Illésháza (born September 5, 1540, † May 5, 1609 in Vienna ) was a Hungarian nobleman and palatine of Hungary .

Life

Descent and origin

The Illésházys family goes back to the time of the Hungarian conquest . The ancestor of the family is to be found in a family of the Salamon von Estoras , who lived on the Great Schüttinsel , had large estates there and lived at the beginning of the 13th century. In 1238 two sons Peter and Elias shared their father's property. And the two lines Zerház and Illésházy descend from them. In 1596 the Lords of Zerház changed the family name to Esterház ( Esterházy ).

biography

Stephan I was a son of Thomas I Illésházy (* 1520, † 1559) from his second (?) Marriage to Sophie Földes (* ~ 1528, † July 7, 1547 in Pressburg ). Stephan received his education at a Pressburg school. After completing his studies, he joined the army of Nicholas II Pálffy and took part in the fight against the Turks . In 1572 he married Anna Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló (* ~ 1551, † 1577), through this marriage he came into possession of huge goods and also made a steep political career. In 1573 he became vice-chaplain of the Preßburg county , in 1582 the chief chaplain of the Liptov county , from where he moved to the Trenčín county in 1594 as chief chaplain . After the death of his first wife (the marriage remained childless) in 1577, he married Katharina Pálffy (* 1542, † 1616) in 1580. In 1587 Stephan Illesházy was raised to the rank of count .

Illesházy's rise to wealth and dignity aroused envy in many of his contemporaries. In addition, the imperial court urgently needed money. Nikolaus Migazzi, Auxiliary Bishop of Oradea and Martin Pethe, Archbishop of Kalocsa were among the most ready-to-serve pillars of the Prague court of Emperor Rudolph II. In the interests of the Catholic clergy, they initiated proceedings against Protestant magnate families for "high treason" in order to raise money for the treasury . The real purpose of these trials, however, was to confiscate their goods.

The greatest adversary of Illesházy was the imperial chamber president Wolfgang Unverzagt , he conspired against Illésházy and also influenced Emperor Rudolph against him. At Unverzagt's instigation, Emperor Rudolf found him guilty of high treason , which in 1603 resulted in the loss of all his property. Illesházy was warned by influential friends and managed to flee to Poland before he was arrested .

Coat of arms of Stephan Illésházy and Katharina Pálffy

When riots broke out under Stephan Bocskai in 1604 , Stephan Illésházy stood at the side of Bocskai, whose trusted advisor he became. Illesházy was one of Bocskai's plenipotentiaries who negotiated the Peace of Vienna on June 23, 1606 . He was also the mediator of the peace negotiations between Bocskai and Rudolf. He was head of the Hungarian delegation to the peace negotiations. According to the first point of the Vienna peace treaty, the estates of Hungary were allowed freedom of belief in such a way that the Catholic faith would not suffer as a result.

In the spirit of the Peace of Vienna, the Hungarian estates now drafted articles of law which were supposed to further secure the freedom of religion of Lutherans and Reformed people .

At the beginning of the 1600s there was a fraternal dispute between Emperor Rudolph and his younger brother Matthias , who opposed the Emperor to the side of the Hungarian estates (fraternal dispute in the House of Habsburg). The dispute was settled in the 1608 Peace Treaty of Lieben . In it Matthias received (among other things) rule over the Kingdom of Hungary.

Under the impression of this peace, the Hungarian estates met in the house of the Franciscan order in Pressburg and discussed the further procedure with regard to the election of a new king. Under the impression of a fiery speech by Stephan Illesházy, they unanimously elected Matthias Apostolic King of Hungary on November 16, 1608 . On the following day Stephan Illesházy was proclaimed Palatine of Hungary. He was the first Protestant palatine in Hungarian history. Matthias' coronation took place on November 19, 1608 in St. Martin's Cathedral in Preßburg. The coronation was performed by the Archbishop of Gran and Primate of Hungary, Ferenc Forgách . During the coronation ceremony Illesházy held the St. Stephen's crown over the head of the king to be crowned. Siegfried von Kollonitsch , the imperial military leader, handed the sword to Stephen the Holy during the coronation mass, so that he would perform the usual three cross cuts over the heads of the clergy.

Illésházy was - as a multi-faceted humanist - also active in literature. Several of his works have also appeared in print in Latin . His diary entries on the Fifteen Years' War , which appeared in print in Pest in 1863 , and his correspondence with István Bocskai are still an important source of historical research.

llesházy got all his possessions back and was highly revered in the country. He died at the age of 69, after having previously adopted the son of his half-brother Franz II, Kaspar , as a child , childless from two marriages, and made him inherit his large fortune.

literature

• CE Schmidt , S. Markusovßky, G. Ebner: History of the evangelical church community AB zu Preßburg. 2 volumes, Pozsony 1906
• Magyar Életrajzi Lexicon. Budapest 1981, Volume 1, p. 771, ISBN 963-05-2498-8 (Hungarian)

Web links

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Illésházy, Stephan (I.) . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 10th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1863, p. 196 ( digital copy ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to other information, he was only born in 1541. His place of birth has not yet been determined.
2. ↑ After the name of Elias ( Hungarian Illés ), one of Solomon's son, the present-day village of Illesháza on the Great Schüttinsel was also named. The nearby second town of Zerháza (or Szerháza), which Salamon's other son, Peter inherited, no longer exists today.
3. ↑ Thomas Illésházy entered into a second marriage with Anna Pogány de Cséb . Several children were born from this marriage. However, there is no life data on the individual persons.
4. ↑ Stephan had two siblings: Zsófia Katalin (* 1547 in Preßburg, † March 12, 1599 in Galánta ) She was married to Ferenc Esterházy (* 1432, † 1604). There is also said to have been a brother Georg (György) , information on this is missing.
5. ↑ Anna was the daughter of Peter II Erdődy (* ~ between 1500 and 1504, † June 1567) who was the Banus of Croatia .
6. ↑ Katharina Pálffy was the sister of Nikolaus II. Pálffy and widow of János Krusich de Lepoglava (* 1525, † July 9, 1580 in Vienna)
7. ↑ Nikolaus Migazzi († after 1613) was auxiliary bishop of Großwardein. However, his appointment was not recognized by the Pope . Migazzi was also politically active, he was a staunch opponent of Protestantism . He was captured in Košice by Bocskai and detained in a castle in Somogy County (Kerek Castle). After the Peace of Vienna he regained his freedom and was pardoned in 1609.
8. ↑ Martin Pethe (* 1552, † 1605), was a Catholic priest with a steep political career. He was first Archbishop of Kalocsa and from 1598 Archbishop of Gran and Primate of Hungary. Had an essential part in the persecution of Protestants in Hungary. Pethe died on October 3, 1605 in Vienna and was buried in St. Martin's Cathedral in Pressburg.
9. ↑ In 1583, Rudolf II moved the imperial residence to Prague Castle on the Hradschin in Prague .
10. ↑ The seat of the Palatine had been vacant for 46 years after Thomas Nádasdy's death.
11. ↑ Kaspar Illésházy (* 1593, † April 11, 1648) was the son of Franz II. Illésházy († 1556) and his wife Susanna Pataky.