Wilhelm Slavata

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Engraving by Wolfgang Kilian

Wilhelm Slavata von Chlum and Koschumberg (also Wilhelm Slawata von Chlum and Koschumberg ; Czech Vilém Slavata z Chlumu a Košumberka ; * December 1, 1572 in Čestín near Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg); † January 19, 1652 in Jindřichův Hradec (Neuhaus)) was 1623–1625 Chief Chamberlain, then Chief Chamberlain of Bohemia and 1628–1652 Chief Chancellor of Bohemia. In 1621 he was raised to the rank of imperial count and in 1643 accepted into the order of the Golden Fleece . He became known in history as one of the victims of the Second Prague Fall .

Life

Wilhelm Slavata came from the Bohemian noble family Slavata . His parents were Adam Slavata von Chlum and Koschumburg († 1616) and Dorothea Kurzbach von Trachenberg († 1586). He was brought up in the spirit of the Bohemian Brothers and studied with the financial support of his relative Adam II von Neuhaus in Italy. He then traveled through Germany and the Netherlands and converted to Catholicism in 1597 , of which he became a staunch advocate. He then entered the service of Emperor Rudolf II. As his favorite, he held the office of the Bohemian Colonel Marshal from 1600 to 1604, after which he was district judge and burgrave of Karlstein . From 1611 to 1617 he was court judge and from 1612 to 1618 at the same time president of the Bohemian Chamber . As early as 1617, after Ferdinand II's coronation as King of Bohemia , Slavata was appointed governor in Bohemia.

On May 23, 1618, the uprising of the estates led to the Second Lintel in Prague , in which armed men from the Bohemian estates broke into the Wladislaw Hall of Prague Castle , including Wilhelm's brother Heinrich Slavata. They threw Wilhelm Slavata out of the window together with the imperial governor Count von Martinitz and the scribe Magister Philipp Fabrizius . Despite falling substantial, they got away with their lives. Slavata and Martinitz were able to flee under fire into the nearby house of High Chancellor Lobkowitz . Slavata had injured his head so that no further escape was possible.

After extensive concessions to the insurgents, Slavata was released on May 28, 1618. After a year of house arrest, he used a spa stay in Teplice to leave for Saxony . The residence permit in the city of Meissen was confirmed for his family, but Elector Johann Georg did not seek a dispute with the Bohemian estates, so that Slavata had to travel on to Passau .

After the Battle of the White Mountain , Wilhelm Slavata returned to Bohemia in 1621 and pursued the re-Catholicization of the population in his domain . Also in 1621 he was raised to the rank of imperial count and entrusted by Emperor Ferdinand II with the execution of numerous missions. From 1623 to 1625 he held the office of chief land treasurer. Subsequently he was chief chamberlain and from 1628 until his death in 1652 he was chief chancellor of Bohemia. As early as 1643 he was accepted into the order of the Golden Fleece. At the Habsburg court in Vienna and Prague he was one of the long-standing opponents and critics of his cousin Wallenstein , against whom he wrote a 42-point indictment as early as 1624, which made his acquisition of extensive large estates by means of credit transactions, currency manipulation and coin deterioration (with the help of the financier Hans de Witte ).

To commemorate the happy outcome of the Prague lintel, Slavata had a memorial stone in the form of an obelisk erected on the eastern side of the Hradschins .

Family and possessions

Jindřichův Hradec Castle (Neuhaus)
Telsch Castle
Stráž Castle

Wilhelm Slavata was married to Lucie Otilie von Neuhaus since 1602 . Since Wilhelm's grandmother Elisabeth was a sister of Lucie Otilie's grandfather Joachim von Neuhaus , they needed a marriage permit from the Pope. After the death of Joachim Ulrichs in 1604, who was the last male descendant of the von Neuhaus family, his sister Lucie Otilie inherited the estates he had left behind. It was the great lordship of Neuhaus and Teltsch who passed to Wilhelm Slavata after Lucie Otilie's death in 1633. As early as 1602 Wilhelm Slavata received the rule of Stráž from his brother-in-law Joachim Ulrich von Neuhaus and his wife Maria Maximiliane von Hohenzollern and bought the Prague palace of the Lords of Neuhaus from them. From 1616 he was allowed to call himself regent of the house of Neuhaus . In 1641 he expanded his possessions with the purchase of the neighboring Červená Lhota estate .

The children came from the marriage of Wilhelm Slavata to Lucie Otilie von Neuhaus:

  • Adam Paul / Adam Pavel, (born January 25, 1603), died early
  • Adam Paul / Adam Pavel (1604–1657), was a student at the Munich Jesuit College, ∞ 1626 Maria Margarete Theresia von Eggenberg (1617–1657). The marriage was annulled in 1632.
  • Franz Veit / František Vít (born July 15, 1605), died early
  • Franz Veit / František Vít (1608–1645)
  • Joachim Ulrich / Jáchym Oldřich (1606–1645), like his brother, was a student at the Munich Jesuit College; ∞ 1627 Maria Franziska Theresia von Meggau (1609–1676). Their son
    • Johann Karl Joachim / Jan Karel Jáchym (1641–1712) was a general of the Carmelite Order and the last male descendant of the Slavata.

Wilhelm's wife Lucie Otilie died January 11, 1633 in Vienna. Since she had been an important benefactor of the Gnadenkapelle in Altötting and had expressed the wish to be buried in the chapel during her lifetime, Stiftsdekan Scheitenberger and the collegiate monastery approved the funeral, which took place in silence on the evening of May 18, 1633. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian I feared that this precedent could be imitated and that the exhalations from the corpses would have harmful effects on the health of the chapel visitors. In his response to the electoral protest letter, the dean pointed out, among other things, that health damage could not occur because the corpse was first placed in two wooden coffins and finally in a tin coffin and sunk deep into the ground. The elector finally decided that neither the memorial stone nor the grave slab should be placed on or above the burial site in the Chapel of Mercy, which was not done.

literature

  • Joachim Bahlcke , Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of historical places . Volume: Bohemia and Moravia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 329). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-32901-8 , pp. 94, 400, 528, 603 and 867.
  • Václav Bůžek, Josef Hrdlička: Poslední velmoži erbu růže. In: Václav Bůžek, Josef Hrdlička: Dvory velmožů s erbem růže. Všední a sváteční dny posledních Rožmberků a pánů z Hradce. Mladá fronta, Prague 1997, ISBN 80-204-0651-4 , pp. 10-11.
  • Václav Ledvinka: Adam II for Hradce a poslední páni for Hradce v ekonomice, culture a politice 16. století. In: Václav Bůžek (ed.): Poslední páni z Hradce (= Opera Historica. Volume 6). Jihočeská Univerzita, České Budějovice 1998, ISBN 80-7040-267-9 , pp. 7–32, here p. 26.
  • Robert Luft:  Slawata, Wilhelm Graf von Chlum and Koschumberg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , pp. 496-499 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedel Pick (Ed.): The Prague window lintel i. Year 1618. Leaflets and illustrations (= Pragensia. Volume 1 = Publications of the Society of German Book Friends in Böhmen. No. 1, ZDB -ID 291908-4 ). Society of German Book Friends in Bohemia, Prague 1918.
  • Hans Sturmberger : Uprising in Bohemia. The beginning of the Thirty Years War (= Janus books. Volume 13, ISSN  0447-3485 ). Oldenbourg, Munich et al. 1959.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Slavata  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Golo Mann : Wallenstein. His Life , Frankfurt am Main 2016 (first 1971), p. 204
  2. ↑ Golo Mann: Wallenstein, p. 240f u. a.
  3. ↑ Norbert Conrads : The politics of recatholization in Teschen and the ambitions of the last Duke of Teschen. In: Norbert Conrads: Silesia in early modernity. On the political and intellectual culture of a Habsburg country (= New Research on Silesian History. Volume 16). Edited by Joachim Bahlcke. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20350-4 , pp. 21-38, here pp. 27 f.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Leeb: The Altöttinger Gnadenkapelle as the final resting place. In: East Bavarian border marks . Volume 4, 1960, pp. 20-25.
  5. ↑ According to Herbert Wurster , in Armin Berger: Altötting and the 125th anniversary of Ludwig II's death , 2011, it was not the body of Countess Slavata who was buried in the chapel of grace, only her heart.
personal data
SURNAME Slavata, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Slawata von Chlum and Koschumberg, Wilhelm; Slavata z Chlumu a Košumberka, Vilém
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Oberstlandkämmerer and colonel chancellor as well as governor of Bohemia
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1572
PLACE OF BIRTH Čestín near Kutná Hora
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1652
Place of death Jindřichův Hradec