Johann Frederick, Duke of Württemberg
Encyclopedia
Montbéliard
Montbéliard is a city in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department.-History:...
– 18 July, 1628) was the 7th Duke of Württemberg from 4 February 1608 until his death on 18 July 1628 whilst en route to Heidenheim.
Life
John Frederick of Württemberg was the eldest son of Frederick IFrederick I, Duke of Württemberg
Friedrich I of Württemberg was the son of Georg of Mömpelgard and his wife Barbara of Hesse, daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse....
and Sibylla of Anhalt. He was born in Mömpelgard castle
Montbéliard
Montbéliard is a city in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department.-History:...
which he left at the age of four when his family moved its residence to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
.
John Frederick married Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg
Barbara Sophie of Brandenburg
Barbara Sophia of Brandenburg was the daughter of the Catherine of Küstrin and Elector of Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg...
(November 16, 1584 – February 13, 1636), daughter of prince-elector Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg
Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg
Joachim III Frederick , of the House of Hohenzollern, was Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1598 until his death.-Biography:...
. To mark his marriage on 5 November 1609, he had Castle Urach
Bad Urach
Bad Urach is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian Alb, and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath.-History:...
converted, turning the Golden Room into one of the finest surviving examples of renaissance banqueting halls in Germany.
John Frederick’s marriage resulted in the birth of the following children:
- Henriette of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 12 December 1610 - 18 February 1623
- Frederick of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 15 March 1612 - 12 June 1612
- Antonia of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 24 March 1613 - 1 October 1679
- Eberhard III, Duke of WürttembergEberhard III, Duke of WürttembergEberhard III, Duke of Württemberg ruled as Duke of Württemberg from 1628 until his death in 1674....
, 16 December 1614 - 2 July 1674 - Frederick of Württemberg-NeuenstadtFrederick, Duke of Württemberg-NeuenstadtFrederick of Württemberg-Neuenstadt was Duke of Württemberg and founder of the second branch line Duchy of Württemberg-Neuenstadt.- Life :...
, 19 December 1615 – 24 March 1682 - Ulrich of Württemberg-Neuenbürg, 15 May 1617 - 5 December 1671
- Anna Johanna of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 13 March 1619 - 5 March 1679
- Sibylle of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 4 December 1620 - 21 May 1707
- Eberthal of Württemberg-Stuttgart, 4 September 1623 - 9 January 1624
John Frederick was a well-meaning, peace-loving ruler but he displayed a number of personal weaknesses and was often ill equipped to deal with the challenges of the era. Despite this he restored the constitution (which had been suspended by his father, Frederick I
Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg
Friedrich I of Württemberg was the son of Georg of Mömpelgard and his wife Barbara of Hesse, daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse....
, subject to changes that were never implemented). He also restored the power of the councils of Duke Louis (which had been abolished by Frederick I). Most importantly, he had Frederick’s powerful chancellor Matthäus Enzlin condemned to a fortress for life for embezzlement and extortion, subjecting him later to an embarrassing trial on a count of high treason for which he was executed on the market place in Urach
Bad Urach
Bad Urach is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian Alb, and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath.-History:...
in 1613. He achieved little improvement in the state of affairs within the ducal household, however. In fact the duchy ran into further debt leading to unruly debate within the family and even the ranks of servants and eventually problems with the mint.
John Frederick continued the long-standing negotiations held by his father with other evangelical princes, resulting in talks in Auhausen
Auhausen
Auhausen is a municipality in the Swabian district Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany. The municipality is within the Oettingen central administrative body. Auhausen was the site of the 1608 meeting that formed the Protestant Union, also known as the Union of Auhausen....
near Nördlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
in May 1608 and the subsequent signing of the Union of Auhausen
Protestant Union
The Protestant Union or Evangelical Union was a coalition of Protestant German states that was formed in 1608 to defend the rights, lands and person of each member....
. In 1621 he moved with a Unionist army into the Palatinate region, although the alliance crumbled in the same year with little to show for its efforts.
Duke John Frederick continued to swear allegiance to the union. At the battle of Wimpfen
Battle of Wimpfen
The Battle of Wimpfen was a battle in the Bohemian Revolt period of the Thirty Years' War on 6 May 1622 near Wimpfen. The forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Catholic League under Marshal Tilly and Gonzalo de Córdoba defeated the Protestant forces of General Ernst von Mansfeld and Georg Friedrich,...
(26 April 1622), Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach
George Frederick of Baden-Durlach was Margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1604 until his abdication in 1622. He also ruled Baden-Baden....
, was defeated by Marshall Tilly
Tilly
Tilly may refer to:People* James Tilly Matthews, the first fully documented case of paranoid schizophrenia* Charles Tilly, sociologist* Jacques Louis François Delaistre de Tilly, French general in the Napoleonic Wars* Jennifer Tilly, actress, poker player...
and the duke’s youngest brother fell in battle. Despite a neutrality accord, the victors of this battle went on to sack the north western areas of the Duke's region and in the years that followed it suffered repeatedly under harmful raids and settlement.
On 28 May 1617, John Frederick entered into an agreement with a number of his many brothers; his eldest brother, Louis Frederick was given the countship of Mömpelgard - still not totally inseparable from the Duchy of Württemberg; the next brother down, Julius Frederick inherited the recently acquired sovereignty over Brenz and Weiltingen, leading to two new branch lines in the Duchy: Württemberg-Mömpelgard
County of Montbéliard
The County of Montbéliard , also known as County of Mömpelgard , was a feudal county of the Holy Roman Empire based around the city of Montbéliard in the present-day Franche-Comté region of France...
(which disappeared in 1723) and Württemberg-Weiltingen (which disappeared in 1792). His other brothers, Frederick Achilles and Magnus inherited the castles of Neuenstadt
Neuenstadt am Kocher
Neuenstadt, usually known as Neuenstadt am Kocher is a town in Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany with 9,600 inhabitants...
and Neuenbürg
Neuenbürg
Neuenbürg is a town in the Enz district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Enz, 10 km southwest of Pforzheim.The town has three stops, Neuenbürg, Neuenbürg Süd and Neuenbürg Freibad, on route S6 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, which operates over the Enztalbahn railway....
respectively. As both of the latter brothers were unmarried when they died their possessions were subsequently brought back into the main line of the Duchy.
See also: German family tree of the Duchy of Württemberg
External links
- German archives: page from ADB http://mdz.bib-bvb.de/digbib/lexika/adb/images/adb008/@ebt-link?target=idmatch(entityref,adb0080047)