Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems

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Coat of arms of the Lords of Ems in Scheibler's book of arms from 1450
Alt-Ems castle ruins. Wolf Dietrich was born here in 1507 and died here in 1538.

Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems (* 1508 in Hohenems ; † 1538 ibid) was a count from the noble family Hohenems and a military leader under Emperor Karl V. Through his marriage to Clara Medici , the sister of Gian Giacomo Medici , the Lords of Ems achieved the rise in the high nobility.

Life

Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems was the fourth and youngest son of Baron Marx Sittich von Ems , one of the most famous Landsknechtsführer of the 16th century, successful war entrepreneur and notorious general against the rebellious population of southern Germany in the peasant wars on behalf of the Swabian Federation . At the age of 18, Wolf Dietrich fought alongside his father in the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and played a decisive role in the victory of the imperial troops.

In 1528 he married Clara Medici, a daughter from the northern Italian aristocracy. The marriage had been arranged by his father and was politically motivated. The Medici needed an ally north of the Alps to fight the Reformation in what is now Switzerland and especially in the Republic of the Three Leagues , today's Canton of Graubünden . The Old Confederation also conquered parts of the Duchy of Milan in the course of the Ennetbirgischen campaigns , in today's Canton of Ticino . The Drei Bünde, however, had conquered today's Valtellina and Chiavenna from the Milanese in 1512 . On the other hand, the Emser needed a strong ally after the Confederates had extended their border to the Rhine in the Swabian War in 1499 and posed a threat to the small rulers. The marriage resulted in two well-known children, his heir Jakob Hannibal I von Hohenems and Cardinal Markus Sittikus von Hohenems .

In the late autumn of 1528 the bride and groom set out with a large retinue from Italy to Hohenems . On the way from Lake Como to Splügen , the tour company was held up by the early snowfall. The way over the Splügenpass was denied them. Locals were recruited to convey messages over the pass to Chur and Hohenems. But they contacted the Graubünden authorities, who forced the travel company to return to Italy. Among the tour company was the new Bishop of Chur , who was supposed to replace the incumbent Bishop Paul Ziegler , who had fled the country due to the Reformation. He was to be replaced by Giovanni Angelo Medici, who later became Pope Pius IV . Giovanni Angelo was a brother of Gian Giacomo Medici, Wolf Dietrich's father-in-law. The plan to bring the new bishop secretly and safely across the Alps through areas held by Graubünden was certainly one of the reasons for the marriage. But the plan didn't work out. In Chur, the abbot of the St. Lucius monastery was sentenced to death by the Graubünden who had converted to the Reformation on January 23, 1529 after cruel torture and beheaded after the real plans for the newlywed couple's honeymoon became known. The Graubünden had long since enforced that the office of bishop could only be occupied by one of their own. The appointment of Giovanni Angelo Medici would have been a violation of the existing rights of the Grisons.

It was not until February 1529 that the young bride and groom could make a second attempt to get to Hohenems. This time they chose the Gotthard Pass and passed through the cantons of Uri , Schwyz , the Pragel Pass and the Canton of Glarus to Sargans, also held by the Confederates, and then to Werdenberg, held by Glarus . With this detour they bypassed the area of ​​the Drei Bünde and were able to successfully cross the Rhine . The cantons of central Switzerland that remained Catholic had made peace with the Medici at the time of the First Kappel War and offered the travel company their protection. Hohenems could be reached via the friendly Feldkirch .

That same year, Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems was Ferdinand I to the Vogt of Bludenz appointed. In 1531 another armed conflict broke out between the Medici and the Bündner. The Lords of Ems, under the leadership of Wolf Dietrich, assembled an army to intervene in the fighting via Tyrol and to rush to the aid of the Medici, who were related to them. But Ferdinand I prevented the Emser from intervening by not granting permission.

In 1536 he participated with his own troops in the battles of Emperor Charles V in Italy and France ( war against Franz I ). In 1538 he negotiated with the Confederates and Graubünden for a long-term peace agreement. But he died during the negotiations.

Under Marx Parakeet von Ems and his son Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems, the Lords of Ems had risen to become a serious power in the Alpine Rhine Valley . They contributed to the fact that the expansion of the Confederates and the Three Leagues on the Rhine could be stopped.

literature

Individual evidence and declarations

  1. ^ Liechtenstein Collection Portrait of the son of Wolf Dietrich von Hohenems Jakob Hannibal
  2. ↑ Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein 2000, page 19
  3. ↑ The specialist literature differentiates between the Old Confederation and the Three Leagues. In this context, the old Swiss Confederation refers to the original German-speaking Swiss towns that have come together in alliances. The Three Leagues were not part of the Old Confederation, but only allied with it through individual contracts. In technical jargon, a member of such a contractual partnership is referred to as a "facing place". The three leagues were largely in Romansh and were called "Republica da las trais lias" in Romansh.
personal data
SURNAME Hohenems, Wolf Dietrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ems, Wolf Dietrich von; Hohenems, Wolfgang Dietrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count from the Hohenems family
DATE OF BIRTH 1508
PLACE OF BIRTH Hohenems
DATE OF DEATH 1538
Place of death Hohenems