Adam Wenceslaus, Duke of Cieszyn
Adam Wenzel von Teschen (* December 12, 1574; † July 13, 1617 ) was from 1579 to 1617 Duke of Teschen. He came from the Teschen branch of the Silesian Piast dynasty. A few months before his death, he was appointed by the Czech king Matthias to the Regional Captain of Silesia. To underline its claim to the lost duchy of Glogau, he also introduced the title of Duke of large - Glogau.
Origin and family
Adam Wenzel's parents were Duke Wenceslas III. Adam and his second wife Sidonie Catherine, daughter of Saxony- Lauenburg Duke Francis I. About His paternal grandmother was Adam Wenzel related to the Hohenzollern and the maternal grandmother of the house of Wettin.
On September 17, 1595 Adam Wenzel married to Elisabeth ( † 1601), a daughter of the Duke of Courland Gotthard Kettler. The couple had children:
- Adam Gotthard (1596-1597)
- Anna Sidonia (1598-1619), ∞ November 2, 1616 Jakob Hannibal von Hohenems († 1646),
- Elizabeth Lucretia (1599-1653), ∞ 1618 Gundaker von Liechtenstein ( 1580-1658 )
- Christian Adam (1600-1602)
- Friedrich Wilhelm ( 1601-1625 ).
Life
Adam Wenzel was five years old when his father died. That's why he was initially under the tutelage of his mother, who had assumed the regency of the duchy and the guardianship of Adam Wenzel. It participated originating from Hirschberg jurists Eleazar Tilisch ( Tilesius ) on the education of Adam Wenceslaus. Tilisch later became the Duke's secretary and wrote a history of Teschen Princely House. Since the Bohemian ruler, King Rudolf II, probably was not happy with Sidonie Catherine's guardianship, he ordered in 1584 the Dukes George II of Brieg and Charles II of Münsterberg and Oels and Hans von Vrbno to Mitvormündern. Although Sidonie Catherine married in 1586 in second marriage with the Hungarian nobles Emmerich Forgách, the prefect of Trenčín and the king's council and captain of Hungary was, she still retained the regency of the duchy.
In January 1587 Adam Wenzel was sent to the Dresden court of the Elector Christian I, who was a cousin of his mother. There he received a basic education, which included military affairs. After his mother's death in late December 1594, he returned to Teschen and took over the independent government of his duchy. In the same year he married. Through his Lutheran embossed training he decreed in 1596 for the city Jablunkau that there only the Protestant doctrine be tolerated. Two years later, he issued a privilege with which he guaranteed for all times of the town of Teschen, inter alia, the exercise of the Protestant faith.
Although Emperor Rudolf II with the decision issued on August 20, 1609 Letter of Majesty wanted to meet the Silesian stalls and thereby a strengthening of the Protestant church was possible Adam Wenzel converted at Christmas 1609 as the first Silesian prince to Catholicism. The conversion to the Catholic Church was publicly known until the spring of 1610. Adam Wenzel was now next to the Breslau Bishop Karl of Austria the only Catholic in the Silesian princes and strained to the Counter-Reformation. Persons appointed by him evangelical pastors were expelled, the evangelical educator of his children replaced by Catholics. Senior tutor to the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm was a native of Hirschberg Hofmeister Balthasar Exner.
Through the conversion Adam Wenzel also gained political influence. 1611 gave him the New Bohemian King Matthias the command of the Silesian troops. Since Adam Wenzel sought a political turn to the Duchy of Bavaria and the Habsburg Spain, in 1614 he sent his son and successor, Friedrich Wilhelm at the Munich court, where he was given the Jesuits to education. The cost of training took over the Spanish King Philip III. The end of 1614 took Adam Wenzel a trip to Italy and spent the Christmas holidays in Rome. On January 13, 1616 was in the matriculation of the German nation in Siena, on 18 May 1616, the matriculation of Padua. In November of this year he married his daughter Anna Sidonia with Jakob Hannibal von Hohenems, who was a nephew of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Markus Sittikus IV of Hohenems. With the imperial appointment as Governor of Silesia after the death of Charles II, Duke of Münsterberg he managed a significant rise. A few months later he died at the age of only 43 years.
Illegitimate offspring
In addition to his legitimate descendants of Adam Wenzel also left the illegitimate son Wenceslas Gottfried, who was born about 1612. His mother was Margaret diet laughter of Krems ( * 1580/85 ), who came from a wealthy Protestant middle class family in Brno and was after her divorce 1609 governess of the Duke. Your transferred the Duke a house in the city, the chamber villages of Upper and Marklowitz Brzezuwka as well as land. Margaret, who probably went over well to Catholicism, died on January 3, 1617 and was buried in the Dominican church of Teschen, which served as a grave Put Teschen dukes. Gottfried Wenzel 1640 legitimized and raised as to and from Hohenstein in a baron. With his grandson, Ferdinand II of Hohenstein this branch of the family became extinct 1706.