Wilhelm Schenk of Limpurg

Wilhelm Schenk von Limpurg (born June 10, 1568 , † February 14, 1633 ) was the Württemberg governor in Göppingen and the builder of the widows' castle in Michelbach an der Bilz .

origin

He was a son of Friedrich VII Schenk von Limpurg from his second marriage to Agnes von Limpurg-Gaildorf-Schmiedelfeld. The father was in the service of the Palatinate Elector in Heidelberg, while the young Wilhelm was brought up by Heinrich I. Schenk von Limpurg , his mother's brother who remained childless, in Schmiedelfeld .

Life

Around 1580 he came to the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar as a noble boy . In 1588 he began studying together with the two younger brothers Conrad and Heinrich in Marburg and Tübingen .

After completing his studies in 1592 he came to the court of Count Palatine Philipp Ludwig in Neuburg an der Donau . Because of his studies and his ancestry, he would have been guaranteed a high career there. However, he left Neuburg in 1596 after the death of his father and initially lived with his mother in Obersontheim . Together with his six brothers, he managed the paternal legacy of the Limpurg taverns as a condominium . However, his closeness to his mother gave him the reputation of striving for sole management of the property. From 1598 to 1601 he took a long trip to Italy with his brother Conrad. He then continued to live with his mother, which his brothers received suspiciously. Wilhelm's eldest brother Eberhard, who had been court master of the Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart since 1596, tried unsuccessfully to place Wilhelm in a cathedral chapter in Strasbourg . In 1605, Eberhard quit his job in Stuttgart and also moved to Obersontheim, possibly to secure his leadership claims within the condominium as the oldest of the brothers. He issued there u. a. a new court order that charged longer stays in Obersontheim with costs, which was probably only aimed at pushing Wilhelm out of Obersontheim.

In 1606, Wilhelm married Dorothea von Reuss-Plauen (1570–1631), the widow of Georg Friedrich I von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg, who died young in 1600 . In her first marriage, she had given birth to six children, including three sons who were the progenitors of the Hohenlohe lines of Waldenburg, Pfedelbach and Schillingsfürst . From her marriage to Georg Friedrich I she was entitled to a rich Wittum , and she also brought other assets into the marriage, so that the marriage was accompanied by extensive negotiations and contracts between the Hohenlohe and Schenk von Limpurg houses. The Schenk condominate had Dorothea u. a. To pay 6000 guilders as an abutment for the marriage tax she brought with her and to prescribe a Wittum that corresponded to her wealth. The Wittum posed special challenges for the taverns. Wilhelm's father had already prescribed his wives Michelbach an der Bilz as a Wittum without a widow's house there. A widow's building planned by Wilhelm's brother Georg for his wife had already been under construction for ten years. Wilhelm's brother Heinrich had also married shortly before and had also taken care of a widow's estate. The widow's insurance was a heavy burden on the taverns' fund. Wilhelm's mother Agnes finally renounced her Wittum in Michelbach and gave it to Wilhelm to secure his marriage. Instead, she stayed in Obersontheim and died shortly before the wedding.

At the family day of the taverns in 1608, Wilhelm was able to get the widow's seat in Michelbach to be the first of the pending buildings to be built, in a simple form due to the tight financial situation. In Graubünden master Nicolas Androi, Wilhelm found a capable planner and site manager for the palace construction, which began in 1609. Most of the work was done by local craftsmen. Construction manager Androi lived with his entourage in Michelbach during the summer months. Construction was closed in winter. While the building was being prepared, Wilhelm Schenk von Limpurg surprisingly moved with his family to Göppingen , where he accepted a position as chief bailiff in the service of Duke Johann Friedrich . Most of the construction work on the castle took place without his intervention. When Wilhelm quit his job in Göppingen in 1618 and returned to Obersontheim, the completion of the annex was just beginning. According to the invoices received, construction work on Michelbach Castle an der Bilz dragged on until at least 1628. At the same time, there was no need to rush, since none of Wilhelm's brothers claimed the Obersontheim Castle and Wilhelm stayed in it with his family and from there managed the Schenk condominium, which the brothers had now graciously accepted. In 1628, after the death of his older brothers, he became the senior of the Schenk von Limpurg family.

Wilhelm's wife died on December 2, 1631. She is shown on the epitaph for her first husband Georg Friedrich I von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg in the collegiate church in Öhringen , which was renewed by him , but was buried in Obersontheim, where her tombstone was in the Evangelical Choir Parish church is preserved. She never used the widow's castle in Michelbach that was built for her. Wilhelm died on February 14, 1633 and was probably also buried in Obersontheim without a tombstone having been preserved. He, too, never used the Michelbacher Castle he built.

literature

• Karl-Werner Hahn: From the development of the community Michelbach an der Bilz and its sub-communities . In: Michelbach an der Bilz. Contributions to the past and present , Michelbach an der Bilz 1980, pp. 61–137.