John Charles, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld at Gelnhausen
(17 October 1638 – 21 February 1704), was a German prince and ancestor of the
cadet branch
of the
royal family of Bavaria
known, from the early 19th century, as
Dukes in Bavaria
. He took Gelnhausen as the name of his branch of the family after acquiring that estate in 1669.
Early life
[
edit
]
John Charles was the younger of two sons of
Christian I, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
and his wife,
Magdalene Catherine, Countess Palatine of Zweibrucken
(1606?1648), daughter of
Count Palatine John II of Zweibrucken
.
[1]
Education and career
[
edit
]
Together with his older brother
Christian II of Birkenfeld
, he was educated by
Philip Jacob Spener
and later studied at the University of Strasbourg. Thereafter, the brothers took a
grand tour
lasting five years, which took them to, among other places, France, Holland, England, Sweden and Switzerland.
He participated as a cavalry commander in the army of a
Palatine
cousin who in 1654 had become king of Sweden as
Charles X
and waged war against Denmark. Later he fought against the Turks in Hungary. He then entered
Dutch
service. He participated in 1674 in the battle of
Seneffe
and was promoted to the rank of First Army Leader. He then left the military and retired to Gelnhausen.
Founder of Gelnhausen branch
[
edit
]
In 1669 John Charles bought the
Furstenhof
("Princely court") of
Gelnhausen
, which included the
Residenz
, gardens and parcels of land that had first been granted by the
Holy Roman Emperor
to an earlier Wittelsbach, the
Elector Palatine Louis III
in 1435.
[1]
In 1671 John Charles and his brother jointly inherited the
county palatine of Birkenfeld
.
[2]
In 1673 they agreed that although Christian would keep Birkenfeld as well as another inheritance,
Bischweiler
, John Charles would receive the
Neuburg
appanage
, a
civil list
of 6,000
florins
constituting one-third of the revenues from yet another family estate, the
county-palatine of Neuburg
– plus annual delivery of four cart-loads of
Moselle wine
from the cellars of Trarbach.
[1]
[2]
[3]
In
compacts
with his brother Christian II signed in 1681 and 1683, John Charles was deputised with the administration of Gelnhausen.
[4]
First marriage
[
edit
]
John Charles married his first wife, Princess Sophie Amalie of
Zweibrucken
(1646?1695), in 1685 in
Weikersheim
. She was a daughter of Prince
Frederick, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
and Countess Anna Juliane von
Nassau-Saarbrucken
(1617?1667)], the widow of Count Siegfried of
Hohenlohe-Weikersheim
.
[1]
Second marriage
[
edit
]
Although Sophie Amalie died 30 November 1695 without having borne him a male heir, John Charles wrote Christian on 25 July 1696 declaring that if, feeling unable to continue living alone and heeding his heart's desire, he were to remarry it would only be a
marriage of affection
, since he was in no position to maintain a lady of rank.
[1]
Three days later, he wed his late wife's
lady-in-waiting
, Esther Maria von
Witzleben-Elgersburg
(1666?1725), the 30-year-old widow of Johann Friedrich von
Brombsen
. Although her family belonged to the ancient
Thuringian
nobility they lacked the status of
Imperial immediacy
enjoyed by the
Counts Palatine
. Esther Maria was daughter of Georg Friedrich von Witzleben-Elgersburg (d. 1689), Chief ranger (
Oberforstmeister
) at the court of the
Duchy of Saxe-Romhild
and his wife Maria Magdalena von
Hanstein
whose grandmother Sibylla (d. 1625) was also a member of
Witzleben family
.
[1]
[2]
Within weeks John Charles found himself trying to conciliate his disapproving brother, disclosing the marriage but assuring him that it was a strictly private arrangement, and that should any children be born thereof he "would claim no more for them than to be taken as nobles, so that there is nothing to fear with regard to the succession."
[1]
By August Johann Carl had entered into an agreement (
Vertrag
) to this effect with his older brother, but later changed his mind. He petitioned the Emperor to make his wife an
Imperial countess
, while Christian II refused to recognise the children born to his brother's marriage subsequently (three sons and two daughters) as
agnates
of the dynasty.
[2]
Dynasts
[
edit
]
John Charles died in 1704 and his widow filed a lawsuit against his brother in the
Aulic Council
of the Empire on 3 September 1708.
[2]
She obtained, on 11 April 1715, full recognition for herself and her children as princely
dynasts
.
[1]
[2]
Her brother-in-law Christian II acquiesced in an agreement of 29 October 1716, recognising her children's Palatine titles and succession rights, and increasing their allowance from 6,000 to 50,000
gulden
.
[1]
[2]
Nonetheless, other branches of the House of Wittelsbach continued to treat John Charles's children as morganatic, declining to acknowledge their eligibility to inherit the dynasty's patrimonies. In the Wittelsbach family
compact
of 1771 establishing reciprocal inheritance rights between the Palatine and
Bavarian
branches, heirs to their realms were restricted to agnates who were legitimate and "not born of unequal marriage" (
nicht ex dispari matrimonio
).
[2]
However the
Peace of Teschen
which concluded the
War of the Bavarian Succession
in 1779 finally recognised, in Article 8, the dynastic rights of the descendants of John Charles and Esther Marie von Witzleben, whose grandson,
Wilhelm
(1752-1837), received in 1803 the
Duchy of Berg
as an appanage from the Elector of Bavaria in compensation for the cession of his territories on the left bank of the Rhine to Napoleon.
[1]
[2]
Berg was summarily re-allocated to Napoleon's brother-in-law,
Joachim Murat
, by Bavaria in 1806 in exchange for the
Margraviate of Ansbach
,
[3]
but the title of
Duke in Bavaria
, granted by the Holy Roman Emperor to Count Palatine Wilhelm on 16 February 1799
[1]
continued to be borne by their
direct descendants
and recognised until abolition of the
German Empire
in 1918, and remains in use by their
adopted descendants
in the 21st century.
[1]
[2]
John Charles and Sophie Amalie of Zweibrucken had one daughter:
- Juliane Magdalene (1686?1720)
- married in 1704 Duke
Joachim Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plon
(1668-1722)
John Charles and Esther Maria von Witzleben had five children:
- married in 1737 Princess Ernestine Louise of
Waldeck
(1705-1782)
- married
Wild- and Rhinegravine
Sophie Charlotte of
Salm
-
Dhaun
(1719-1770)
- Wilhelm
(1701?1760), field marshal in the Hungarian army and later general of the cavalry in the Dutch army
- Charlotte Catherine (1699?1785)
- married in 1745 Prince
Frederick William, Prince of Solms-Braunfels
(1696-1761)
- married in 1722 Count Heinrich XXV
Reuss von Schleiz zu Kostritz
(1681-1748)
Ancestors of John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen
|
---|
| | | | | | | | | 16.
Louis II, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
| | | | | | | 8.
Wolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
| | | | | | | | | | 17.
Landgravine Elisabeth of Hesse
| | | | | | | 4.
Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken-Birkenfeld
| | | | | | | | | | | | 18.
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
| | | | | | | 9.
Landgravine Anna of Hesse
| | | | | | | | | | 19.
Duchess Christine of Saxony
| | | | | | | 2.
Christian I, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 20.
Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg
| | | | | | | 10.
William, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg
| | | | | | | | | | 21. Duchess Sophia of
Mecklenburg
| | | | | | | 5.
Duchess Dorothea of Brunswick-Luneburg
| | | | | | | | | | | | 22.
Christian III of Denmark
| | | | | | | 11.
Princess Dorothea of Denmark
| | | | | | | | | | 23.
Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg
| | | | | | | 1.
John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 24.
Wolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
(= 8)
| | | | | | | 12.
John I, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
| | | | | | | | | | 25.
Landgravine Anna of Hesse
(= 9)
| | | | | | | 6.
John II, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken
| | | | | | | | | | | | 26.
William, Duke of Julich-Cleves-Berg
| | | | | | | 13.
Duchess Magdalene of Julich-Cleves-Berg
| | | | | | | | | | 27.
Archduchess Maria of Austria
| | | | | | | 3.
Countess Palatine Magdalene Catherine of Zweibrucken
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | 28.
Rene I, Viscount of Rohan
| | | | | | | 14.
Rene II, Viscount of Rohan
| | | | | | | | | | 29.
Infanta Isabella of Navarre
| | | | | | | 7. Catherine de
Rohan
| | | | | | | | | | | | 30.
Jean V de Parthenay
| | | | | | | 15.
Catherine de Parthenay
| | | | | | | | | | 31.
Antoinette d'Aubeterre
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
Titulature
[
edit
]
As a member of the
House of Wittelsbach
, he held the titles of
Count Palatine of the Rhine
, Duke in Bavaria, Count of
Veldenz
,
Sponheim
,
Rappoltstein and Hohenack
. As head of his own cadet branch of the dynasty, he was known as the
Count Palatine of Birkenfeld
at
Gelnhausen
.
[1]
All of his dynastic male-line descendants have borne since 1799, as their primary title, "
Duke or Duchess
in
Bavaria
",
[1]
embellished since 1845 with the style of
Royal Highness
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Nathanael von Schlichtegroll:
Genealogische lebens-skizzen der vorfahren des bayerischen konigs-hauses bis auf Otto den Grossen von Wittelsbach
, J. Rosl, 1842, p. 57
- Johann Samuel Ersch:
Allgemeine Encyklopadie der Wissenschaften und Kunste: in alphabetischer Folge
, Section 2: H - N, vol. 21,
Johann (Infant von Castilien) - Johann-Boniten
, part 2, vol. 21, Gleditsch, 1842, p. 189
- Maximilian V. Sattler:
Lehrbuch der bayerischen Geschichte
, Lindauer, 1868, p. 412
Online
References and notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
Huberty, Michel; Giraud, Alain; Magdelaine, F.; B. (1985).
L'Allemagne Dynastique Tome IV Wittelsbach
. France: Laballery. pp. 73, 147, 180?182, 208, 277, 326, 489, 494.
ISBN
2-901138-04-7
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
"Unequal and Morganatic Marriages in German Law"
.
Heraldica
. Velde, Francois. 2007
. Retrieved
March 24,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Succession Laws of the Wittelsbach (Palatinate, Bavaria)"
.
Heraldica
. Velde, Francois. 2008
. Retrieved
March 24,
2013
.
- ^
Michael Masson:
Das Konigshaus Bayern
, self-published, 1854, p. 168
External links
[
edit
]
John Charles, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen
Born:
17 October 1638
Died:
21 February 1704
|
Preceded by
as Count Palatine of
Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
|
Count Palatine of Gelnhausen
1654-1704
|
Succeeded by
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|