Theodor von Neuhoff

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Theodor von Neuhoff (copper engraving from the biography of Andries van Buysen, 1737)

Baron Theodor Stephan von Neuhoff (born August 25, 1694 in Cologne , † December 11, 1756 in London ) was a German political adventurer who managed to temporarily lead the Corsican independence movement against Genoa in the mid-18th century . He went down in history as the first and only freely elected King of Corsica (Theodor I) .

Life

family

Theodor von Neuhoff was born in 1694 as the son of the officer Leopold von Neuhoff, who died in 1695, and his wife Amélie. The Neuhoff family , well-known in the Westphalian region as politicians and military personnel , which went out "in the tribe" as early as the 18th century, provided the Drosten of the Altena office in the county of Mark (today Märkischer Kreis ) in the 17th and 18th centuries, for example . which was then part of Kurbrandenburg. Leopold von Neuhoff was an officer in the guard of the Bishop of Munster , but switched to French services after his marriage and commanded one of the forts of the fortress Metz . The mother Amélie was the daughter of an army supplier from Visé in the Liège monastery , a middle-class mesalliance in the eyes of Neuhoff's relatives .

His close relatives also included his uncle Franz Bernhard Johann von Neuhoff (1664–1747) at the now demolished Pungelscheid Castle (named after the present-day district of Werdohl ), who worked as the castle commander, Kurbrandenburg government councilor and Drost in Altena and Iserlohn , as well as Johann Heinrich von Neuhoff , the castle captain in Siegen and Siegen-Nassau ambassador to Prussia. The ancestral seat of Theodor's line was Pungelscheid Castle, and that of the entire family was the Neuenhof Castle in the Elspetal near Lüdenscheid, which is still inhabited today .

Theodor's sister Elisabeth married the Count of Trévoux , the nephew of the confessor of the Duke of Orléans, who fell as a colonel in 1719. They had a son, Friedrich, who later followed his uncle to Corsica and took the name Neuhoff, and a daughter who married a Marquis von Noyer. After her time at the court of the Duchess of Orléans, the widowed mother married a commoner, the tax farmer Marneau (when the astonished Duchess asked, she only replied that she had had enough of aristocratic pride).

Theodor von Neuhoff married Lady Mary Sarsfield in Spain, a lady-in-waiting to the Spanish Queen and daughter of Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan , who after the siege of Limerick (1690/1691) went into exile with many Irish in France (“Flucht der Wild geese ”) and in 1693 fell as a French major general near Landen . The marriage was unhappy and Theodor left Madrid for Paris in 1720 with the jewels of his pregnant wife. His wife followed him, but died that same year, and the daughter also seems to have died early.

There was also an alleged son known in London as Colonel Frederick as an eccentric figure in coffee shops. At times he was an agent of the Duke of Württemberg, for whom he was to sell soldiers to the English. He wrote knowledgeable Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Corse (1768) and Description of Corsica (London 1768) and shot himself completely in debt in Westminster Abbey in 1797, but had offspring in England with his German wife.

Education and early years

After his father's death, his mother sent him to live with relatives in Westphalia. He went to the Jesuit colleges of Munster and Cologne. In Cologne he had relatives (a cousin Baron Droste, Grand Commander of the Teutonic Order ), they are said to have had a farm in today's Kettengasse. According to a dubious pamphlet from 1736, a jealous duel broke out between him and a Spanish count's son, in which the latter was killed and Theodor had to flee.

Liselotte von der Pfalz (painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud )

In 1709 he was a page with Liselotte von der Pfalz , the Duchess of Orléans and mother of the future regent, in Paris and Versailles. His mother was there too - as the lover of the Count of Mortagne. At the easy-going court of the Duke of Orléans, Theodor made friends with the Marquis of Courcillon and served in his regiment for some time. Because of his debts, Liselotte von der Pfalz thought it advisable to remove him from Paris for a while and recommended him to Elector Max II Emanuel of Bavaria . In 1714 von Neuhoff joined the Bavarian Army as a cavalry officer . He also came to Munich at the court of the Electress and resumed his lavish lifestyle. As in Paris, he lost large amounts in gambling and ran into debt. According to the Bavarian military archives, he escaped arrest in Munich in 1716, but was imprisoned in Kehl fortress in 1717/18. Liselotte von der Pfalz also turned away from him when one day she received a visit from Theodor's creditors whom he had referred to her.

Life as an agent

In Paris, Theodor von Neuhoff met the Holstein Minister Freiherr Georg Heinrich von Görtz (1668–1719). The latter enjoyed the full confidence of the Swedish King Charles XII. and, as its unofficial foreign minister, was always involved in spinning new intrigues to give the hard-pressed Swedes in the Northern War freedom. In 1716 von Görtz tried to instigate a Jacobite conspiracy in England with the support of Spain. Neuhoff was employed by Görtz as secretary and courier in The Hague and Paris, among other things to the court of the mother of the Scottish-English pretender to the throne James Francis Edward Stuart in St. Germain. The pretender himself had to leave France for good in 1717 (he had been expelled from St. Germain in 1716 and was still in Avignon, which belonged to the Pope) because the regent and his minister Dubois had made peace with England. The Swedish diplomatic mail was read in London, and in February 1717 the whole conspiracy was blown up with a big bang. The Swedish ambassador in London, Carl Gyllenborg , was arrested, as was Görtz in Holland, but both were released in the same year due to diplomatic pressure from the Swedes. Shortly before his fall after the death of Charles XII. In December 1718 Görtz sent Theodor to Spain for negotiations, where the similarly bustling Cardinal Giulio Alberoni (1664–1725) was the almighty minister of Philip V and his wife Elisabetta Farnese .

Cardinal Alberoni (Portrait of Giovanni Maria Delle Piane)

Theodor won his trust and was used by him, among other things, in a conspiracy instigated by the French high nobility (Duchess of Maine) to overthrow the regent (" Conspiracy of Cellamare "). It was discovered just like that of Görtz against England and led to the war of the Quadruple Alliance against Spain. Alberoni was overthrown in 1719 and went to Rome. Theodore was also used by his successor, the Dutch adventurer Riperda (1680–1737), but then left for Paris in 1720, just in time to make short-term wealth in John Law's "Mississippi Speculation". After that bubble burst, he fled on to London from his creditors. In the following years he led an unsteady wandering life, but was able to win the trust of the ministers in Vienna, who employed him as an agent in Florence in 1732. Here he came into contact with the Corsican independence movement against Genoa for the first time . The Emperor was half-heartedly helping the Genoese to subdue the island with troops, and the leaders of the Corsicans had been arrested by the Genoese, breaking their promise of safe conduct, and taken to Genoa. Theodore managed to get their release through his reports to Vienna, which raised his reputation with the exiled Corsicans in Tuscany so much that they offered him the title of king if he could organize enough support.

The Corsican liberation struggles and the time as Theodor I.

Theodor von Neuhoff ( mezzotint by Johann Jacob Haid around 1740)

In the years that followed, he traveled across Europe and the Mediterranean to fulfill his promises. At the Bey of Tunis he was finally able to equip a British ship that took him to Corsica with plenty of arms and money. On March 12, 1736, he landed in Aléria in the east of the island, fantastically dressed in a semi-oriental uniform.

On April 15 In 1736 he was by a Convention of the Corsican population in the monastery Alesani to I. King Theodore of Corsica selected. Theodore I issued a constitution: he was hereditary king himself, but in government he had to rely on the consent of 24 freely elected Corsicans. He resided in the former bishop's palace in Cervione .

In order to secure his power, Theodor I expanded the infrastructure, had coins minted (already coveted collectors' items at that time), ensured regular salaries and founded a new knightly order "De la Liberazione", which was also open to foreigners. He also issued proclamations to the rulers of Europe and invited his many relatives in Westphalia to support him on the island. He returned the goods confiscated from the Genoese, re-occupied the uppermost clergy with Corsicans and allowed activities that were previously forbidden, such as salt extraction and coral collecting. He pushed the Genoese back to their fortified coastal cities and had them besieged there by his generals.

The Corsicans quickly fell out with one another, as family honor had absolute priority for them. Hyacinth Paoli - the father of Pascal Paoli  , who later became the Corsican hero of freedom - broke off the siege of Bastia simply because his father had died, and Theodor also made an unpleasant acquaintance with the Vendetta when he had one of his generals shot, who sent him to the Wanted to betray the Genoese and delivered them back to Porto-Vecchio , which had already been conquered . His most capable general, Fabiani, was then shot from ambush, and his life was constantly threatened. Theodore therefore decided to relocate his field of activity to the continent and left the island on November 11, 1736 in order to gain new supporters. Since the Genoese had put a bounty on him and everywhere demanded his arrest, he had to move with extreme caution. Assassinations were carried out on him in Rome and Paris. A propaganda campaign against him was also started in Genoa, so that the traditional news from his past should be viewed with caution.

In 1737 he was able to win over merchants in Amsterdam to buy him out of the guilty prison and to equip him with funds for a new expedition (weapons against local products such as olive oil). As he approached Corsica by sea, however, he got cold feet and left his captains unloading their cargo alone (one of them fell into the hands of the Genoese and was hanged). In another attempt in 1738 he avoided leaving his ship for a long time and got into a dispute with the Dutch captains, who finally dropped him off in Naples. In Corsica, too, people were now suspicious - he had too often disappointed hopes. In the meantime the French had also intervened, who did not want to tolerate an independent Corsica off their coast. They landed in support of Genoa in 1738 and subjugated the island in the following two years. Theodor's nephew Friedrich offered resistance in the mountains until 1740, but then also had to surrender to General Maillebois . A new opportunity arose for Theodor only after the French had withdrawn in 1741 and with the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession . In 1743 he was able to organize a new expedition in secret agreement with the British Foreign Minister Carteret . The English, however, were not prepared to intervene officially, and when he pressed the British ambassador and the government in Florence too much, he was expelled to Cologne.

Decline

Epitaph at St Anne's Church, with text by Horace Walpole

In the summer of 1748 he was back in the Netherlands as a guest of various high-ranking, politically influential personalities, including in the moated castle Huis' t Velde near Zutphen as a guest of Jan Adolph Hendrik Sigmund van Dorth. There he again made plans to return to Corsica. He tried several times to enforce his claims and saw his last chance in 1749 in London, where he still had many sympathizers. There, however, the Genoese were able to obtain his arrest in December by luring Theodor out of his accommodation under a pretext - one could only be arrested on the street - and presenting promissory notes worth 15,000 pounds. Theodore ended up in custody at King's Bench Prison in Southwark and stayed there until 1755 when he was released on a general act of grace.

In London it was fashionable to visit the fallen "King" during his imprisonment. The writer Horace Walpole and the actor David Garrick raised money for him. For unknown reasons, Theodor was imprisoned again in 1756 and was only released at the end of the year. He died three days later, on December 11th. His tombstone is in St. Anne's Church in London, Soho , with an obituary composed by Walpole.

Others

Flag of Corsica

The Moorish head adorned with a headband in the flag of Corsica originally came from the kings of Aragon , who fought with Genoa over Corsica in the 15th century, but was first made famous by Theodor. His ship, on which he arrived in Corsica as king, was flagged with it.

At Ruurlo Castle in the Netherlands (Gelderland province) on the German border there is a room that is named after Theodor in memory of his stay in 1736.

In 1742 he stayed for about a year at Röthgen Castle (and hid there), which was owned by Baron Max von Bourscheidt in his youth with Neuhoff in France.

In 2011 an exhibition on Theodor von Neuhoff took place in the Neuenhof moated castle.

Reception in literature

The story of Theodor von Neuhoff was processed in literature and music in the period that followed. In Voltaire's satirical novel Candide , Neuhoff is one of the six ex-kings with whom Candide has dinner in Venice. Based on this episode of the novel, Giovanni Paisiello made him the main character of his opera Il re Teodoro in Venezia , which premiered in Vienna in 1784. The text for this opera was written by his compatriot Giambattista Casti , who mainly worked out the exhilarating passages from Neuhoff's life. The opera is said to have been one of Goethe's favorite operas, but Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) is just as unflattering about the librettist (“He had all vices and no virtues”) as he was about his work. Around 1792, Casti also wrote a libretto about the prehistory with Teodoro in Corsica , which was originally also intended to be set to music by Paisiello, but which in the end was not set to music.

Georg Philipp Telemann's Concerto in F major (TWV 51 / F4) has a second movement called “Corsicana”, which alludes to Theodor I and Paisiello's opera and thus amused the Viennese audience.

Johann Nestroy's first play Prince Friedrich of Corsica from 1826 has Theodor and his nephew Friedrich as protagonists.

The Shakespeare researcher Levin Schücking published the narrative poem Der Sommerkönig in Göttingen in 1898 .

Johannes Tralow used the material in his historical novel König Neuhoff (1929), as did Peter Maria Becker The Cartesian Devil 1989 and Michael Kleeberg The King of Corsica 2001, to name just a few of the novel adaptations.

Even Napoleon , whose father Carlo had fought the end of the 1760s for the independence of Corsica and contributed to a constitution of Corsica, trying literature at Neuhoff (Masson, Biagi ed. Manuscripts inedits 1907, p 33 (an imaginary correspondence with Walpole)).

literature

  • Alexander Freiherr von Engelhardt: The King of Corsica and the Corsicans' struggle for freedom . Munich 1925
  • Andries van Buysen: Het leeven en daden van den alom notorious Theodorus Antonius, Baron van Nieuwhof, verkoore koning van Corsica , Zacharias Romberg, Amsterdam 1737
  • Percy Fitzgerald: The Story of Theodore of Corsica , in: Kings and Queens for an Hour , Vol. 1. Tinsley Brothers, London 1883, pp. 1–174 ( digitized version )
  • Percy Fitzgerald: King Theodore of Corse . London 1890
  • Julia Gasper: Theodore von Neuhoff, King of Corsica. The man behind the legend , University of Delaware Press, Newark 2013, ISBN 978-1-61149-440-2 .
  • André Le Glay: Théodore de Neuhoff. Roi de Corse . Picard & Fils, Paris 1907 ( digitized version )
  • Antoine-Marie Graziani: Le Roi Théodore . Tallandier, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-84734-203-6 .
  • Ferdinand Gregorovius : Corsica . 1854 ( digitized version of the 1869 edition )
  • Theodor Heuss : The King of Corsica , in: Ders .: Shadow conjuring. Figures on the margins of history. Wunderlich, Stuttgart / Tübingen 1947; Klöpfer and Meyer, Tübingen 1999, ISBN 3-931402-52-5
  • Hans Dietrich Mittorp: Theodor von Neuhoff, King of Corsica - A brilliant tactician without fortune , publications of the Heimatbund Märkischer Kreis Volume 10, Altena 1990. ISBN 3-89053-034-6
  • Jean-Baptiste Nicolai: Vive le roi de corse. Notes et documents sur le regne de Théodore de Neuhoff suivi de son testament politique , Ajaccio 1981
  • Valerie Pirie: His Majesty of Corsica - The true story of the adventurous life of Theodore, 1st . Collins, London 1939
  • Aylmer Vallance: The summer king - variations on an adventurer by an 18th century air , London 1956
  • Karl August Varnhagen von Ense : Biographical Monuments , Vol. 1, 1824, new in the Collected Works, Vol. 4, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1990 ( digitized version of the 1845 edition )
  • Martin Vogt:  Neuhof (f), Theodor Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 129 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • AW:  Neuhoff, Theodor Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 848-851.

Web links

Commons : Theodor von Neuhoff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The information comes from a handwritten document by Theodor in the Genoa archive, see Engelhardt, p. B. 1686 or 1692.
  2. ↑ Kneschke Adelslexikon 1858
  3. ↑ For the relatives of Theodor see: Theodor Baron von Neuhofen. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 43, Leipzig 1745, Col. 702-725., Neuhof, Trevoux. A genealogy can also be found in v. Steinen "Westphalian History", Lemgo 1755–1760. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: homepages.compuserve.de ) @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / homepages.compuserve.de
  4. ^ Letter from the Duchess of Orléans to the councilor of Harling, quoted in Engelhardt, p. 34. In a letter to the same of April 16, 1721 it is mentioned that his mother was already dead at that time.
  5. ↑ See indigo.ie
  6. ↑ Engelhardt, p. 51. In the letter from the Duchess of Orléans to the Raugräfin of October 12, 1720, it says that Theodor is leaving Paris under the pretext that he has received a letter from his wife from Spain in which she announces her visit, and he will drive towards her. The information about Theodor's flight from Spain can also be defamations of the Genoese.
  7. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 ff., Reprint Oxford 1966, article Colonel Frederick
  8. ^ Letter from the Duchess of Orléans to the Raugräfin Luise dated July 13, 1709
  9. ^ Letter from the Duchess of Orléans of October 12, 1720 to the Raugräfin Luise. There it is also mentioned that he cheated on his stepfather and sister by speculating out of large sums of money.
  10. ↑ Nothing is known about this, there is only a reference to it in Colonel Frederick Description of Corsica 1768.
  11. ^ Letter from the Duchess of Orléans to v. Harling of April 16, 1721, quoted in Engelhardt p. 39
  12. ^ Letter from the Duchess of Orléans of October 12, 1720 to the Raugräfin Luise. In France, through his connection with Alberoni, he had blocked all prospects.
  13. ^ Text of the constitution: Theodor. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 43, Leipzig 1745, Col. 702-725 (here: Column 707 f).
  14. ^ Julia Gasper, Theodore von Neuhoff, University of Delaware Press 2013, p. 240
  15. ↑ The best source for Theodor's final years in London is Walpole's letters, online at gutenberg.org , supplemented by material from Percy Fitzgerald. The information in Boswell Account of Corsica 1768 essentially follows what he had learned from Walpole.
  16. ↑ Friedhelm Ebbecke-Bückendorf, A King Seeks Refuge in Eschweiler, Aachener Zeitung, July 5, 2016
  17. ↑ Alhard Graf von dem Bussche-Kessell , Gevinon Freifrau von dem Bussche-Kessel: A king returns: Theodor von Neuhoff, King of Corsica; Adventurer or visionary? Lüdenscheid: Seltmann 2011
  18. ↑ Program of the Wiener Konzerthaus , January 15, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Neuhoff, Theodor von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neuhoff, Theodor Stephan Freiherr von; Neuhoff, Teodoro there; Theodor I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION political adventurer and King of Corsica
BIRTH DATE August 25, 1694
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH December 11, 1756
PLACE OF DEATH London