Philip Maurice, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg

Philip Maurice, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Philip Maurice, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Spouse(s) Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau
Noble family House of Hanau
Father Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Mother Countess Catharina Belgica of Nassau
Born 25 August 1605(1605-08-25)
Died 3 August 1638(1638-08-03) (aged 32)
Hanau
Burial Church of St. Mary in Hanau

Philip Maurice of Hanau-Münzenberg (25 August 1605 – 3 August 1638 in Hanau) succeeded his father as Count of Hanau-Münzenberg in 1612.

Contents

Life

Philipp Moritz was the son of Count Philip Louis II of Hanau-Münzenberg and his wife, Princess Catharina Belgica (1578-1648), a daughter of William the Silent.

Youth

Philip Maurice was seven years old when his father died and he inherited Hanau-Münzenberg. His father's will stipulated that his mother, Princess Catharina Belgica of Nassau, should be the sole regent and guardian, and the Imperial Supreme Court confirmed this.

At the age of eight, he was sent to the school that had been established after the Reformation in the buildings of the former monastery at Schlüchtern, which is today the Ulrich von Hutten-Gymnasium. In 1613, he continued his education at University of Basel (where his grandfather had also studied), in Geneva and Sedan.

Reign

End of the regency

Count Philip Maurice's rule began with an altercation between himself and his mother, Princess Catharina Belgica, about the termination of the regency and nature and the size of her widow seat. She wanted to act as co-regent, even after his 25th birthday, the age of consent under the common law, despite an agreement closed in 1628 and an opinion from the Law Faculty of the University of Marburg. Philip Maurice, tried to remove his mother from the government. They took their case to the Imperial Supreme Court and treated each other rudely; Philip Maurice even removed his mother from the countly palace in Hanau. However, he compensated her for this in 1629. They never managed to properly wind up the regency. On the other hand, Philip Maurice did mange to settle with his cousin John Ernest the fierce dispute which his father had had with John Ernest's father, his uncle Albert of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels, about the primogeniture and Albert's apanage.

The Thirty Years' War and Exile

One reason the regency was never properly wound up, was the Thirty Years' War, which approached Hanau around 1630. When the Imperial troops reached Hanau, Philip Maurice chose their side, inorder to retain the military command of his capital. He was appointed Colonel and was expected to provied three companies. In November 1631, Swedish troops occupied Hanau and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entered the city. Philip Maurice decided to change sides. He was a Calvinist and for him choosing between the Catholic Emperor and the Lutheran Swedish king may have been like a choice between Scylla and Charybdis. Gustavus Adolphus appointed him to colonel and gave him a Swedish regiment. As a reward for his changing side, he gave him the district of Orb and the shares Mainz had held in the former County of Rieneck and the districts of Partenstein, Lohrhaupten, Bieber and Alzenau. He gave Philip Maurice's brothers, Henry Louis (1609-1632) and James John (1612-1636) the town and district of Steinheim, which was also a former possession of Mainz. These possessions were lost when the Catholic side gained the upper hand after the Battle of Nördlingen in September 1634. Changing sides again would make Philip Maurice seem untrustworthy, so he decided to flee. He fled to Metz and from there via Chalon, Rouen and Amsterdam to his Orange-Nassau relatives in the Hague and Delft. He left his youngest brother, James John, as regent in Hanau, because James John was considered politically neutral.

Hanau was a well-developed fortress town and remained occupied until 1638 by Swedish troops under General Jakob von Ramsay, who controlled the surrounding countryside from Hanau. James John was excluded from any influence and left the city.

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen used the occupation as background in his picaresque novel Simplicius Simplicissimus.

Return from exile

From September 1635 to June 1636, Hanau was unsuccessfully besieged by imperial troops under General Guillaume de Lamboy. This siege proved the value of the modern defensive system, which had been constructed only a few years before. Thousands of refugees fled from the surrounding villages into the city. After a nine-month siege, the city was relieved by an army under Landgrave William V of Hesse-Kassel. He was Philip Maurice's brother-in-law, as he had married Philip Maurice's sister, Amalie Elisabeth. A church service is held annually to commemorate the relief. After 1800, this developed into an annual Lamboy festival.

In 1637, Philip Maurice reconciled with the new Emperor, Ferdinand III and changed sides again, back to the Catholic side. He returned to Hanau on 17 December 1637. General Ramsay and interned Philip Maurice in the City Castle. He was obviously hoping to receive Hanau as a fief.

However, on 11 February [O.S. 2 February] 1638, Johann Winter von Güldenborn, a major in the Hanau army, supported by members of the Wetterau Association of Imperial Counts, staged a coup against the Swedes. He drove them out of Hanau and restored Philip Maurice to power[1]. General Ramsay was arrested and taken to Dillenburg, where he died action months later from injureis he sustained during this action.

Trivium

Philip Maurice was a member of the Fruitbearing Society, under the nickname der Faselnde.

Death

Philip Maurice died on 3 August 1638 and was buried in the family crypt his father had established in the Church of St. Mary in Hanau.

Marriage and Issue

Philip Maurice returned to Hanau in 1626 and married Princess Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau. They had the following children:

  1. Sibylle Mauritania (2 November 1630 – 24 March 1631). She was buried in the family vault in the St. Mary's Church in Hanau. The remains were reburied in 1879 in a new coffin, as the old one had rotted[2].
  2. Adolphine (31 October 1631 – 22 December 1631). Baptized on 4 Dezember 1631. Her Godfather was King Gustaf II Adolf of Sweden, with Count Reinhard of Solms acting on his behalf[3].
  3. Philip Louis III (1632-1641), who succeeded his father as ruler of the county of Hanau-Münzenberg.
  4. John Henry (3 May 1634[4] – 28 October 1634[5] in Metz). John Henry died while his relatives had fled from Hanau to the Netherlands. Because of the war, he was initially buried in Zweibrücken in 1635. His mother had his body transported to Hanau as soon as it was possible again, and on 30 November 1638, he was buried in a metal coffin in the family vault in the Church of St. Mary in Hanau.
  5. Louise Eleanor Belgica (born: 3 March 1636 in Metz; died later that year in the Hague, where she was buried)[6].

Ancestors

References

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Dietrich, Im Handstreich
  2. ^ Suchier, grave monuments, p. 25 ff
  3. ^ Suchier, grave monuments. p. 26
  4. ^ According to Zimmermann, p. 681. Other sources say that he was born on 1 May 1634, but this appears to be incorrect
  5. ^ According to Bernhardt, p. 360, he died on 10 November 1634
  6. ^ Dek, p. 29
Philip Maurice, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
House of Hanau
Born: 25 August 1605 Died: 3 August 1638
Preceded by
Philip Louis II		 Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
1612-1638		 Succeeded by
Philip Louis III