United Duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg

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Coat of arms of the Duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg (1538–1543) - above: coat of arms fields of Jülich , Geldern , Kleve and Berg - below: coat of arms fields of Mark , Zutphen and Ravensberg

The duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg were an amalgamation of the duchies of Jülich , Kleve and Berg , the rule of Ravenstein and the Westphalian counties of Mark and Ravensberg . Between 1538 and 1543 the Duchy of Geldern and the County of Zutphen also belonged to this territorial association for a few years. With the beginning of the Brandenburg rule in the territories, the Schwanenburg castle in Kleve and later Düsseldorf served as a joint residence. The area was part of the Holy Roman Empire .

The territory was ruled from 1521 to 1609 by dukes from the House of the Counts of the Mark , an early split off sideline of the Counts of Berg .

The duchies of Jülich, Kleve and Berg and the counties of Mark and Ravensberg

The name Jülich-Kleve-Berg also bore a Prussian province formed on April 30, 1815 with its seat in Cologne, which was already united on January 1, 1822 with the province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine, also formed in 1815, with its seat in Koblenz to form the Rhine province .

prehistory

In 1521 the states of Kleve-Mark ( Duchy of Kleve with Ravenstein and the County of Mark ) and Jülich-Berg-Ravensberg (Duchies of Jülich and Berg and County of Ravensberg ) were united.

Ruler

Wilhelm V von Jülich-Kleve-Berg surrenders to Emperor Karl V in Venlo - a historical allegory on the Treaty of Venlo , which ended the Third War of the Geldrian Succession in 1543

From 1521 to 1539, Duke Johann III ruled . He married one of his daughters, Sibylle von Jülich-Kleve-Berg , to Saxony . His daughter Anna von Kleve became the wife of Henry VIII Tudor for six months, from January to July 1540, and thus Queen of England.

In 1539 Wilhelm V followed him to the ducal chair. Wilhelm, also called the Rich , also ruled the Duchy of Geldern and the County of Zutphen until 1543, which he had to give up in the Treaty of Venlo in favor of the Habsburg Charles V after the Third War of the Geldr Succession in 1543 . His reign, which as a result of the Reformation was characterized by sectarian disputes, ended with his death in 1592. In 1575, Hereditary Prince Karl Friedrich died of the Blattern on a grand tour in Rome at the age of 19 . Therefore, the second-born son, Johann Wilhelm , who was less able to rule, had to formally take over rule after Wilhelm's death. The government was initially taken over by his first wife Jakobe von Baden and the court councilors; Jakobe remained hapless and ultimately fell victim to a murder. The subsequent interregnum of the ducal councils ended when Johann Wilhelm's second wife, Antonie von Lothringen , took over the government. When Johann Wilhelm, finally lost in mental derangement, died childless in 1609, he left the United Duchies without having made any inheritance regulation. His numerous brothers-in-law from German princely houses and the emperor as well as the king of France tried to enforce their interests and claims; it came to the Jülich-Klevischen succession dispute (1609–1614). This conflict between the powers almost broke out the tensions that had already been expressed in the Truchsessian War (1583–1588) and which then became even more vehement in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

House Mark (1521–1609)

Denominational history

There was no strict religious denomination as in other territories in the duchies. Duke Wilhelm V sought a middle path (via media) between the Christian blocs, obviously inspired by the humanism of Erasmus of Rotterdam . The Rhenish areas of Jülich and Kleve were predominantly Catholic, Berg mixed with a high proportion of Reformed people, and the Westphalian areas of Mark and Ravensberg were predominantly Lutheran. But there were significant minorities of each other's denominations. With regard to the Jews , under Wilhelm V the police ordinance of 1554 led to an anti-Judaistic tightening by the Jews who were under Johann III. were still tolerated if they wore a " gelen rink " and were to be expelled from the country from now on.

Development after 1609

After the denominationally charged Jülich-Klevischen succession dispute , in which even King Heinrich of France initially intended to intervene by force of arms, Kleve, Mark and Ravensberg fell to the former Lutheran Margrave of Brandenburg and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , who had converted to Calvinism , Johann Sigismund from the House of Hohenzollern . The Duchies of Jülich-Berg came to the Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg from the House of Wittelsbach, who had converted to Catholicism . A final division of the estate did not take place until 1666 in the Treaty of Kleve .

humanism

See: Konrad Heresbach , Johann Weyer , Gerhard Mercator , Johannes Corputius , Stephanus Winandus Pighius , Johann Ghogreff , Johann von Vlatten , Reiner Solenander , Galenus Weyer

literature

  • Guido de Werd (Red.): Land at the center of powers. The duchies of Jülich, Kleve and Berg. 3rd revised edition. Boss, Kleve 1985, ISBN 3-922384-46-3 (exhibition catalog).
  • Christian Schulte: Attempted denominational neutrality in the age of the Reformation. The duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg under Johann III. and Wilhelm V and the Duchy of Münster under Wilhelm von Ketteler. Lit Verlag, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-8258-2684-8 ( History, Vol. 9; also: Diss., Univ. Münster (Westphalia), 1995).
  • Kurtzer founded and summary report / From the succession to the Gülischen Clevischen and Bergischen / also other belonging lands / principality / Graff: und rulers / [et] c. 1610 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ).
  • Heribert Smolinsky : Jülich-Kleve-Berg . PDF file, reprints from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg; Original article published in: Anton Schindling (Ed.): The Territories of the Reich in the Age of Reformation and Confessionalization: Land and Confession 1500–1600 , Volume 3: The North West . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1991, pp. 86-106.

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