Veit Welzer

Veit Welzer (* 1452 ; † 24 May 1540 ) was provincial administrator from 1494 to 1520 and governor of Carinthia from 1520 to 1537 .

Life

origin

Veit Welzer came from a family in Upper Styria. Their Carinthian branch was founded by his father Moritz Welzer († 1462). His second wife was Elisabeth von Herberstein, who belonged to the Carinthian noble family of Ebersteiner. After this noble family died out in the male line in 1457, Welzer came into possession of the rule and coat of arms as well as the ancestral castle of the Ebersteiners in the Görtschitztal . Members of this branch of the Welzer then bore the predicate of Eberstein .

Career advancement

Veit Welzer, one of Moritz Welzer's five sons, began his official career at the age of 27 as the caretaker of Mannsberg Castle via Pölling am Krappfeld , which at that time was owned by the Counts of Montfort . He carried out this activity at least until 1488.

From 1490 he was Imperial Councilor at the court of Frederick III. or from 1493 Maximilian I , who called him from 1494 as administrator of the main team of Carinthia. From the middle of the 15th century to 1520, Carinthia was under direct sovereign administration, Welzer was the highest representative of the sovereign in Carinthia and became the dominant man in Carinthian politics for four decades. In addition to his work for the sovereign, he was also in the service of the Salzburg archbishop, who in 1497 gave him the office of Althofen and the district court of Krappfeld for life. However, Veit Welzer only carried out these tasks until 1503 and then handed them over to his nephew Christoph Welzer .

From 1501 Veit repeatedly carried the title "Imperial Council". In addition to his work as provincial administrator of Carinthia, he was also magistrate of Kraig from 1501 to 1506 , after which Maximilian pledged this office with all bailiffs and the regional court to him. From 1506 to 1520 he also held the office of captain of the Gurk monastery in Strasbourg , before 1509 Welzer was caretaker of Osterwitz together with the bishop of Gurk and in 1511 he is again mentioned as caretaker of Mannsberg.

From September 1511, Veit Welzer served the imperial councilors in Villach and in the Kanaltal on Maximilian's orders , but returned in June 1512 after being ill, now at the age of 60. The effects of the war with Venice were barely survived when a peasant uprising broke out in the Carniola in the spring of 1515 , which soon also posed a threat to Carinthia: Hüttenberg miners and farmers from the region had chosen the Althofen market as their base. With the support of imperial troops, the caretaker Christoph Welzer succeeded in retaking Althofen, and Veit threw down the Graubünden farmers in the Lavant valley and the Völkermarkt area, which ended the so-called Windische Peasant War in Carinthia.

Welzer as governor

In the following years, Veit Welzer traveled again and again to represent the interests of the state of Carinthia, for example at the regional committee meetings in Innsbruck in 1518 and in Bruck an der Mur in 1519 . In 1520 Welzer stayed in Aachen on the occasion of Charles V's coronation celebrations . There he had Karl and Archduke Ferdinand assure him of state freedoms for Carinthia. On November 10, 1520, Emperor Karl entrusted him with the office of governor.

Around 1525 peasant revolts broke out in large parts of the empire , and in the spring of 1525 rebellious miners from Rauris and Gastein tried to cross the Tauern, Katschberg and Murtal to Carinthia. Veit Welzer tried, together with those ordained by the estates, to prevent an escalation of the uprisings through confessions and concessions. His tactics worked, so that Carinthia was spared major unrest and the nobility was able to send its troops to support in Styria and Pinzgau. The uprisings finally broke down for good in June 1526.

However, the now 74-year-old Veit Welzer was not granted a peaceful retirement. In the meantime Protestantism had found its way into Carinthia and Veit was faced with the delicate task of obeying the instructions of King Ferdinand on the one hand, for example that printers and bookshops were to be monitored for compliance with the regulations, and on the other hand with that of the new movement open-minded nobility and the population not to overthrow.

In 1532, Carinthia faced another threat from the Turks. When that after the unsuccessful siege of Güns its vanguard in and overthrow the Vienna Woods to Graz past took their way home, it was feared in Carinthia a recent incident, so Veit Welzer passports at Unterdrauburg and Gutenstein and at Radl and along the Lavant Valley was secure. This defense plan proved its worth, attacks by the Turks in the Unterdrauburg Enge and divisions that had penetrated via the Pack to St. Leonhard in Lavanttal and Hüttenberg could be repulsed. Veit had evidently not expected to survive the attacks: Shortly before the attacks, he expanded his will, which he had already written in 1531.

Withdrawal and death

Its last major public appearance took place in 1536. Veit Welzer, who remained unmarried and had no children, died on May 24, 1540 at the age of 88. He was buried in the collegiate church of St. Nicholas in Strasbourg . His simple tombstone was on the north side of the nave, but was walled in in 1966 at the request of the Federal Monuments Office in the arcade of Strasbourg Castle .

literature

• Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld : History of Carinthia. Volume 2: The class epoch . Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 1994, ISBN 3-85366-685-X
• Monika Stumberger: The Welzer. Genealogy and ownership history of a Styrian noble family. dbv-Verlag for Graz University of Technology (dissertations from the University of Graz, 48), Graz 1980, ISBN 3-7041-9008-X , pp. 108–117

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fräss-Ehrfeld 1994, p. 38
2. ↑ Stumberger 1980, pp. 110f.
3. ↑ Stumberger 1980, p. 115
4. ↑ Stumberger 1980, p. 116