Lucas Watzenrode the Elder

Lucas Watzenrode the Elder (also Lukas in German; Polish Łukasz) (1400–1462) was a merchant in the Hanseatic Prussian city of Thorn (Toruń), father of Bishop Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, and grandfather of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Life

Watzenrode the Elder was born 1400 at Thorn, in the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, to a German merchant family, who had come there from Weizenrodau (earlier Wazygenrode) near Schweidnitz (Świdnica). Lucas fought against the Teutonic Knights and was wounded.[1] In the Thorn citizen registry, Watzenrode the Elder was registered as a landowner, businessmen, judge, councilman, etc., as living on Seglergasse (Sailor Lane). In 1436 he married Katharina von Rüdiger. In 1448 he and other burghers of Thorn are recorded as having been summoned to court at Limburg. He died at his birthplace in 1462.

Offspring

In addition to their son Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, who became bishop of Warmia and strongly supported the independence of Warmia from the Teutonic state, Lucas and his wife Katharina had two daughters who both married in Thorn — Barbara to Nicolaus Copernicus,[2] Christina to Tideman von Allen.

After Barbara Koppernigk and her husband died, Lucas the Younger cared for their four children, Katharina, Barbara, Andreas and Niklas, who would become known as the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Christina and Tideman's daughter Cordula von Allen married Reinhold Feldstedt, who was born 1468 in Danzig (Gdańsk) and died 1529 in Danzig. Their daughter Katharina Feldstedt married Herman Giese, born 1523 in Danzig. A descendant was Tiedemann Giese, a famous bishop of Culm and bishop of Warmia.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Patrick Moore, "The Great Astronomical Revolution", Horwood Publishing, 1994, pg. 47 [The Great Astronomical Revolution]
  2. ↑ Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe , Regesta Copernicana

Sources