Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg

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Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg, painting by Anthony van Dyck , ca.1629

Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg (born November 4, 1578 in Neuburg an der Donau , † March 20, 1653 in Düsseldorf ) was a German imperial prince from the House of Wittelsbach . He was the eldest son of the Count Palatine and Duke of Neuburg Philipp Ludwig (1547–1614) and his wife Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg (1552–1632).

Life

Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg on an engraving by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder. Ä.
Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg by Johannes Spilberg

Against the will of his father, a staunch Lutheran , Wolfgang Wilhelm secretly converted to Catholicism on June 19, 1613 and married (officially as a Lutheran) Magdalene of Bavaria . He solemnly announced the conversion on May 15, 1614 in the Church of St. Lambertus in Düsseldorf , where he and his wife took Holy Communion after making the Catholic creed in front of Vicar General Wilhelm Bont in the palace chapel .

The change of denomination, which reminds of the conversion of Henry IV of France and the saying Paris is worth a fair , made it possible for the Count Palatine to change the political camp, from the Protestant Union to the Catholic League . With the marriage and the transition to the side of the Catholic powers, Wolfgang Wilhelm wanted to assert the Palatinate-Neuburgian inheritance claims in the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute. Because two of his competitors for the succession in the duchies of Jülich-Kleve-Berg , the counties of Mark and Ravensberg as well as the rule of Ravenstein were members of the Protestant Union, including his main opponent Johann Sigismund , the elector of Brandenburg . The marriage with Magdalene of Bavaria and the conversion followed the Treaty of Xanten of November 12, 1614, which suspended the Dortmund Recess of 1609 and led to the division of the inheritance of Jülich-Kleve-Berg between Pfalz-Neuburg and Brandenburg. This made Wolfgang Wilhelm the first ruler of the Palatinate-Neuburg family in Jülich - Berg .

He only partially enforced his inheritance claims in the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute; Brandenburg kept the Duchy of Kleve and continued to raise claims to the Counties of Mark and Ravensberg, which it was finally awarded after the final division in 1666.

He stayed away from his father's funeral on September 22, 1614 in Lauingen. Presumably his father wanted to disinherit him, whose death on August 22nd prevented the state parliament, which had already been appointed for August 28, from making a resolution. He entered Neuburg in 1615 accompanied by 50 riflemen.

Before the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, Jülich-Berg had around 275,000 inhabitants. According to estimates of the number of Protestants for 1650, around 131,380 people lived in Berg (61,900 of them Protestants, half of them Reformed) and 124,700 people (8,160 of them Reformed) in Jülich. The Duchy of Jülich was administratively divided into 34 offices, nine cities and comprised 43 tax districts, the Duchy of Berg into 19 offices, ten cities, eight freedoms and comprised 37 tax districts. The capitals (four each: Jülich, Düren, Münstereifel, Euskirchen; Düsseldorf, Ratingen, Lennep, Wipperfürth) owned the state estate .

After the three state parliaments (which always met in Düsseldorf) in 1609, 1610 and 1611, no state parliaments were held in Jülich-Berg until 1624. Wolfgang Wilhelm tried again and again to ignore the state estates (which mostly met in Cologne) in order to decree new taxes or to increase them. The estates therefore called the emperor, who placed them under the imperial protectorate on April 24, 1628 (confirmed again in 1635). The conflict reached its peak during the so-called Bauernlandtag in April 1639. Wolfgang had taxes approved by the bailiffs and mayors present . The decision was subsequently cashed in by the emperor. In 1636 and 1647 the estates renewed the hereditary union with Kleve, which had existed since 1496, in order to strengthen their own position vis-à-vis the Count Palatine. The conflict was settled on September 25, 1649 after mutual concessions. According to a list from 1637/38, the tax income amounted to 87,938 Reichstaler, the expenditure 164,648 Reichstaler and the additional expenditure 76,710 Reichstaler. Every year the Duke had to take out loans amounting to between 3,000 and 36,000 Reichstaler or pledge country estates. The year 1651 is an exception with borrowing of 123,000 thaler, of which around 100,000 thalers were borrowed for the cow war .

Wolfgang Wilhelm

However, its finances need to be examined in the broad context of the era. Thirty years of his 44-year reign in Jülich-Berg (1609–1653, in Neuburg since 1614) filled the war. In the period from 1625 to 1640, expenditure on national defense accounted for between 40 and 92% (1639/40) of total expenditure. For example, the income from the Duchy of Berg in the years 1628 to 1630 totaled 168,000 Reichstaler (expenditure 171,000 Rt.), Of which 67,000 Rt. (40%) was spent on Landesdefension, bond repayment 26,000 Rt. (21%), Pfalzgraf 13,000 Rt. (8%), salaries 5,500 Rt. (3%), other expenses 49,500 Rt. (28%). Of the expenses for Landesdefension (67,000 Rt.), 43,000 Rt. (64%) were spent on maintenance of imperial and other troops, service money 8,000 Rt. (12%), maintenance of own troops 7,000 Rt. (10%), convoy costs 5,000 Rt. (8%), Landschützen 4,000 Rt. (6%). Accordingly, 8% was determined for the keeping of the court and 4.2% for the maintenance of own troops. In 1629, the income from the domain estate in Jülich-Berg amounted to around Rt. 68,000 compared to the tax income of Rt. 90,000. According to a list of 1637/38, the income from the domain was around Rt. 87,938, but the expenses were Rt 164,648 and the additional expenses 76,710 Rt., The tax income for 1637/38 is unknown (this was always higher than income from domains, therefore more than 100,000 Rt.). Wolfgang Wilhelm had to take out loans to balance the budget. Bills from 1649 still contain references to the Swedish and Hesse-Kassel satisfaction funds. Wolfgang Wilhelm from the Duchy of Neuburg also owed the Bavarian Elector Maximilian around 80,000 florins for war expenses. Wolfgang Wilhelm was apparently unable to pay the amount and pledged it to him on 18/22. December 1649 City and Office of Hemau near Regensburg.

From around the end of the 1630s, Wolfgang campaigned for the reintroduction of the Palatinate cure, which divided him with the imperial family. During the Thirty Years War, both Catholic and Protestant troops looted Jülich-Berg. From about December 1639 the imperial troops held Gladbach , Dülken , Sittard , Mühlheim and Siegburg , and the imperial general field master Lamboy recruited mercenaries in Jülichschen, despite protests from Düsseldorf. As a result, Wolfgang Wilhelm canceled his participation in the Prince's Day in July – August 1640. In March 1641 he approved the payment of contributions to Hessen-Darmstadt in the amount of 36,000 Reichstalers annually from the Duchy of Jülich and 24,000 Rt. From the Duchy of Berg. After the defeats of the imperial troops, he sought in vain a rapprochement with Hessen-Darmstadt (January – March). Allegedly in Düsseldorf, according to the Elector of Cologne from Kaiserswerth, the spoils of war were sold by the Hessians. The blacksmiths from Solingen also supplied weapons to Hessen. The war in the Lower Rhine ended around the beginning of 1651. The last time the Hessian garrison left Neuss was on July 2, 1651.

After the Brandenburg attack on Jülich-Berg in the summer of 1651, the cow warfare, the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Leopold , refused military aid. The Lorraine Duke Karl , however, had the relief of his mercenaries more than generously rewarded with 100,000 Reichstalers. During the Brandenburg attack in 1646 and 1651, Jülich-Berg could not offer any resistance worth mentioning. The Düsseldorf garrison was also not prepared for an attack or was not equipped for this.

Recatholization

Bust of Wolfgang Wilhelm in the oculus above the church entrance of the Andreaskirche Düsseldorf

In Jülich-Berg, Wolfgang Wilhelm carried out the re-catholicization from around the 1620s . However, his attempt to found a Catholic diocese in Düsseldorf failed. Since 1630, only Catholics have been allowed to become members of the Düsseldorf magistrate. After that, the Calvinist (1631) and Lutheran Church (1641) in Düsseldorf were closed. Due to his rather skilful neutrality policy, he was able to partially successfully protect his territory from major destruction during the Thirty Years War (1636–1641). The imperial estates abolished the neutrality of Jülich-Berg by law on September 15, 1641. In the years that followed, Jülich-Berg was hit by the heaviest contributions. Parts of the country were occupied by imperial, Spanish (Jülich), Dutch and Hessian troops. Under political pressure he had to revoke his restrictions on Protestants (1643–1644) and allow Protestant services again.

Wolfgang also promoted recatholicization in his home country, the Duchy of Neuburg. He did not keep his promises regarding the preservation of the Lutheran confession of the population. First he introduced a Simultaneum (equal use of the churches for Catholic masses). With a jump from December 13th to December 24th, 1615, he introduced the Gregorian calendar in the Duchy of Neuburg . In 1618 he handed over the Neuburger Hofkirche (model for the new Düsseldorf Hofkirche St. Andreas ) to the Jesuits and had it consecrated in the presence of four Catholic bishops in what was now a catholic church. Catholicism became the obligatory national religion. This was followed by the emigration of numerous Protestants from Neuburg. Officials had to convert or leave the country. The Jesuit church there received the “Last Judgment” and other paintings by Rubens from the Duke.

After the electoral prince Friedrich V was deposed by the emperor in 1623, Wolfgang Wilhelm received the Upper Palatinate offices of Parkstein , Pleystein and Weiden . Until 1631 Wolfgang Wilhelm resided alternately in Düsseldorf and in Neuburg. After the acts of war in 1632–1634 - during the period occupied by Swedish troops in Neuburg - he only visited Neuburg in 1635 and 1636 and did so during the trip to Vienna and on the return journey. After that he resided exclusively in Düsseldorf. The last time Wolfgang Wilhelm visited Neuburg in March 1650, after he had attended the wedding of Count Palatine Karl Ludwig (son of the elector who was deposed in 1623) on February 22, 1650 in Heidelberg.

to travel

Wolfgang Wilhelm made many trips, especially until around 1636. Many of these trips were of a political nature, for example to win supporters in the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute or in the dispute over the Palatinate electoral dignity . He made three cavalier tours , in 1596 through northern Germany and Denmark, where he attended Christian's coronation as King of Denmark, and in 1597 through Italy. The Grand Tour of the years 1600–1601 took him to the Rhineland, the Netherlands, England, again to the Netherlands and France (Neuburg, Dillingen, Göppingen, Augsburg, Stuttgart, Durlach, Heidelberg, Mainz, Koblenz, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Wesel, Kleve, Goch, Kalkar, Brüggen, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Metz, Nancy, Paris, London, Oxford, Vlissingen, Leiden, Haarlem, Dordrecht, Delft, Amsterdam, The Hague, Hertogenbosch, Breda, Brussels , Paris, Nancy, Strasbourg, Rastatt, Neuburg). The journey lasted over eight months (August 10, 1600 to April 22, 1601; according to the Julian calendar August 1 or April 12). During the trip he got to know numerous German and foreign rulers. In the Netherlands, England and France he was received by the heads of state. He recorded the Grand Tour of the years in his diary. In Dusseldorf he spent around 19 days in September 1600 (September 6-25) with his uncle Duke Johann Wilhelm I and his aunt Princess Sybille. From Düsseldorf he made trips to Neuss and Gerresheim. On the last day Sybille accompanied him to Kaiserswerth and gave him a ring. Then he traveled to Jülich-Kleve as if he suspected that one day he would inherit this land. 1624 he undertook a journey to the court of Philip IV. , Who gave him after the successful already in 1615 awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece still the grandees appointed. During his stay in Spain he is said to have taken the painter Peter Paul Rubens , at that time envoy of the Spanish Netherlands , into his coach during a popular uprising that was dangerous for him.

On the return trip in 1625, Wolfgang Wilhelm Ludwig XIII. make a round. In 1630 he was still visiting northern Italy. He traveled several times to Brussels and Vienna.

Private

Düsseldorf owes him the Jesuit St. Andreas Church, which dominates the city with its silhouette, and a riding hall on Mühlenstrasse. With his collection of paintings he laid the foundations for the later famous painting gallery . His court painter Johannes Spilberg came from a wealthy Calvinist family from Düsseldorf. His court, which devoured huge sums of money, at times numbered around 300 people. The conductor Giacomo Negri, a student of Palestrina , was rewarded more than generously. Court music, including eight musicians and 20 singers, cost around 5,000 thalers in 1638. Sophie von der Pfalz noted in her memoirs about Wolfgang's court when she visited Düsseldorf in 1650 that the servants at the Düsseldorf court were wearing worn-out clothes and that the tapestries, beds and chairs were old. The Brandenburg envoy Georg Ehrentreich von Burgsdorff maliciously attested to his weakness for wine by stating that his two-liter wine goblet had once served as a baptismal font for Wolfgang's mother and grandmother. Hunting was a passion of Wolfgang, already at the age of 14 he reported several times in his diary about hares, starlings and foxes that were shot. Hunting occupied more than half of his youth. Later he bred hunting dogs and mastiffs . He was portrayed by the painter Anthonis van Dyck with one of his mastiffs .

His private life was less happy. The marriage with Magdalene von Bayern has not been harmonious in recent years. The second wife, Katharina, was sickly, suffered from headaches, rheumatism and probably also from depression. She first expressed thoughts about her death in 1632 (shortly after the wedding) at the age of 17. He had fallen out with his only child, Philipp, since the late 1630s. Wolfgang's unwanted marriage between Philip and Anna of Poland-Lithuania only deepened the rift. Perhaps these blows of fate caused his outbursts of anger and instability. "It was said that his mood was not always the same and that he alternately had a good and a bad day," wrote Sophie von der Pfalz in her memoir .

title

His title was: Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine near the Rhine, Duke in Bavaria and to Jülich, Kleve and Berg, Count to Veldenz, Sponheim, Mark, Ravensberg and Moers, Lord in Ravenstein .

funeral

His funeral took place on May 14, 1653. The court preacher Georg Pistorius gave the funeral sermon. According to the decree in the will of December 31, 1642, the grave was located in the newly laid out crypt behind the main altar in St. Andrew's Church in Düsseldorf. In 1717 the sarcophagi were moved from the crypt to the mausoleum. His heart rests in the court church in Neuburg an der Donau .

progeny

Wolfgang Wilhelm was married three times:

1 . Magdalene von Bayern (born July 4, 1587 in Munich, † September 25, 1628 in Neuburg an der Donau), daughter of Wilhelm V of Bavaria . The wedding took place on November 11, 1613 in Munich.

2 . Katharina Charlotte von Pfalz-Zweibrücken (January 11, 1615 - March 21, 1651 in Düsseldorf), daughter of Johann II. , Engagement on January 11, 1631, marriage on November 11, 1631 in Blieskastel . Katharina was buried on April 4th in the princely crypt of the collegiate church of St. Lambertus because the Jesuits and the Archbishop of Cologne refused to bury the Calvinist in the newly built St. Andrew's Church.

  • Ferdinand Philipp (7 May 1633 † 21 September 1633)
  • Eleonore Franziska (April 9, 1634 † November 23, 1634)

3 . Maria Franziska von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (* May 18, 1633 in Konstanz; † March 7, 1702 in Lobositz), marriage on June 3, 1651 (according to other sources on May 10, uncertain), childless

literature

  • Decree of the Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm to the cities of Jülich and Berg]: [actum Düsseldorf, April 14th, anno 1639 . Düsseldorf, 1639 ( digitized version )
  • Ronny Baier:  Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1163-1168.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Josef Breitenbach: files on the history of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm von Neuburg. At the same time a contribution to the Palatinate New Burgess Union policy and the history of the right of birthright in the German princely houses , Munich, Buchholz, 1896.
  • Josef Breitenbach:  Wolfgang Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 87-116.
  • Jörg Engelbrecht: Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm and his residence city Düsseldorf , Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch. Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine 75 (2004/2005), Düsseldorf 2005, pp. 65–80.
  • Barbara Fries-Kurz: Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm von Neuburg (1578–1653) , Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben 8 (1961), pp. 198–227.
  • Robert Geerdts (ed.): The mother of the kings of Prussia and England. Memoirs and letters of Electress Sophie von Hannover , life documents of past centuries 8, Munich 1913.
  • Michael Hemker: How the Count Palatine from Neuburg came to Düsseldorf ... , in: Elias H. Füllenbach / Antonin Walter (Red.): St. Andreas in Düsseldorf. The court church and its treasures. On the 350th birthday of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz , ed. from Dominican Monastery Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 2008, pp. 15–23.
  • Anke Hufschmidt (Red.): The first Count Palatine in Düsseldorf. Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg (1578–1653). Exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf from September 14 to November 16, 2003 , Düsseldorf 2003.
  • Oskar Krebs: Contributions to the history of the politics of the Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm and Philipp Wilhelm in the years 1630 to 1660 , Journal of the Historical Association for Swabia and Neuburg 13 (1886), pp. 49–88.
  • Friedrich Küch: The politics of the Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm 1632 to 1636 , contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine. Yearbook of the Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein 12 (1897), pp. 1–220.
  • Friedrich Küch: Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm in Brussels 1632 , Contributions to the History of the Lower Rhine 10 (1895), pp. 190–224.
  • Hermine Kühn-Steinhausen: The correspondence of Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg with the Roman Curia , Schroeder, Cologne 1937.
  • Renate Leffers: The neutrality policy of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm as Duke Jülich-Berg in the period from 1636–1643 , Neustadt an der Aisch 1971.
  • Eric-Oliver Mader: Reason of State and Conversion: Political Theory and Practical Politics as Decision-Making Backgrounds for Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg's conversion to Catholicism , in: Heidrun Kugeler / Christian Sepp / Georg Wolf (eds.): International Relations in the Early Modern Age. Approaches and Perspectives (= Reality and Perception in the Early Modern Age, Vol. 3), Hamburg 2006, pp. 120–150.
  • Gustav Marseille: Studies on the ecclesiastical politics of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm von Neuburg , Düsseldorf 1898 (135 pp. As separate print); Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine. Yearbook of the Düsseldorfer Geschichtsverein 13 (1898), pp. 1–111.
  • Ulrike Tornow: The administration of the Jülich-Bergische land taxes during the reign of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm (1609-1653) , Bonn 1974.
  • Documents and files on the history of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg , Vol. 4, Political Negotiations Vol. 2, Berlin 1867, ed. by Bernhard Erdmannsdörfer (pp. 145–339, Pfalz-Neuburg).
  • Friedrich Zoepfl : (1) A diary of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm from 1592 , 37 (1924), pp. 136–147; (2) A diary of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm from 1600 , 38 (1925), pp. 73-99; (3) A diary of Count Palatine Wolfgang Wilhelm from 1601 , 39/40 (1926/1927), pp. 173–209, yearbook of the historical association Dillingen an der Donau.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ JF Wilhelmi: Panorama of Düsseldorf and its surroundings. JHC Schreiner'sche Buchhandlung, Düsseldorf 1828, p. 45
  2. ↑ Michael Hemker: How the Count Palatine from Neuburg came to Düsseldorf ... , in: Elias H. Füllenbach / Antonin Walter (Red.): St. Andreas in Düsseldorf. The court church and its treasures. On the 350th birthday of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz , ed. from Dominican Monastery Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 2008, pp. 15–23.
  3. ↑ List Tornow, pp. 50–51, 118–119
  4. ↑ The information is always incomplete; Tornow, pp. 27-28, 30, 71, 132-134
  5. ^ Karl Leopold Strauven : About artistic life and work in Düsseldorf to the Düsseldorf painter school under director Schadow . Hofbuchdruckerei von H. Voss, Düsseldorf 1862, p. 6
  6. ^ Memoirs of Sophie von der Pfalz , pp. 28–29
  7. ↑ Erdmannsdörfer, p. 263
  8. ↑ Jürgen Rainer Wolf: The mausoleum of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz to St. Andreas in Düsseldorf - an unknown work by Simon Sarto 1716-1717 , in: Elias H. Füllenbach / Antonin Walter (Red.): St. Andreas in Düsseldorf. The court church and its treasures. On the 350th birthday of Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz , ed. from Dominican monastery Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 2008, pp. 65–83.

See also

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Wilhelm  - Collection of Images
predecessor Office successor
Philipp Ludwig Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg
1614–1653 		Philipp Wilhelm
Johann Wilhelm I. Duke of Jülich-Berg
1614–1653 		Philipp Wilhelm
personal data
SURNAME Pfalz-Neuburg, Wolfgang Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfalz-Neuburg, Wolfgang Wilhelm von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Count Palatine of Pfalz-Neuburg, Duke of Jülich and Berg
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1578
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuburg on the Danube
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1653
Place of death Dusseldorf