Edward Fortunatus
Eduard Fortunatus of Baden- Rodemachern ( born September 17, 1565 in London, † June 18 1600 in the Burg Kastellaun / Hunsrück) was from 1575 to 1588, Margrave of the Margraviate of Baden - Rodemachern. 1588 to 1594 he ruled the Margraviate of Baden -Baden. He was probably the zwielichtigste personality of the house of Baden.
Life
Eduard Fortunat was the son of Margrave Christopher II and the Swedish Princess Cecilia Vasa. Queen Elizabeth I had lifted him out of the baptism, gave him the name Edward and accepted him as a child. From his mother Cecilia Vasa he was used to a lifestyle in pomp and circumstance.
As 1575 Christopher II died, Eduard Fortunat took over at first only the Margraviate of Baden - Rodemachern. It was not until 1588 after the death of his cousin Philip, he took over the already heavily indebted Margraviate of Baden -Baden; the Margraviate of Baden -Roden makers, he handed his brother Philip III. His lifestyle aggravated the situation further, so he hired considerations to lease the Margraviate of the Fuggers or sell.
The debt and not befitting relationship with the bourgeois Maria von Eicken, whom he had married on 13 March 1591 in Brussels, led 1594 Ernst Friedrich of Baden -Durlach and his brother Georg Friedrich, to occupy the Margraviate of Baden -Baden, Eduard Fortunat had to flee. The children, who emerged from his marriage to Maria von Eicken, he went behind again and again, his cousin Ernst Friedrich realized never to.
After losing his Margraviate Eduard Fortunat tried in 1594 on the Yburg its assets to increase by counterfeiting and through the operation of an alchemist 's workshop in the basement vaults and presented to the alchemist Francesco Muskatelli and his assistant Paul Pestalozzi. After his cousin exerted more and more pressure on him, he commissioned in the same year, the two Italians to poison the Margrave. The plan failed and the two were quartered in Durlach. Eduard Fortunat escaped and took refuge in the castle Kastellaun in his remaining County of Sponheim. He then entered the military service against the Swedes in the Netherlands and Poland.
Unconventional as his life was his abrupt death. Only 35 -year-old crashed Eduard Fortunat on June 18, 1600 - presumably due to copious alcohol consumption - by a staircase in the Burg Kastellaun to death. He was with his wife and the only daughter of this marriage, Anna Maria Lucretia, in Engelport monastery near the Moselle his final resting.
Marriage and issue
Eduard Fortunat married on 13 March 1591 in Brussels quietly in a private home Maria von Eicken († April 21, 1636 ), the daughter of Jobst von Eicken. Eduard Maria wanted initially fooled with a sham marriage that should make a man dressed as a priest, a soldier, but the fraud attempt flew on. The secrecy of the wedding and the fact that no legal regulations on the status of Mary and later descendants have been taken to suggest that Edward wanted to keep open to interpret marriage as morganatic marriage later. Edward married on May 14, 1593 Maria von Eicken in a second public ceremony at Castle Hohenbaden to indirectly provide the Zweifelhaftikeit the first marriage took their confirmation. The low esteem that Edward was brought to his wife twice documented by the fact that he appeared at the wedding ceremony in slippers. On July 30 this year, the crown prince was born, who was born with at least as a legitimate child, if his right to the throne of further remained controversial.
Descendants Eduard Fortunats are:
- Anna Maria Lucretia (* 1592 in Murano, † 1654 in Kastellaun )
- Wilhelm ( born July 30, 1593 in Baden -Baden, † May 22 1677 in Baden- Baden), Margrave
- Hermann Fortunat (* January 23, 1595 in Rastatt, † January 4, 1665 in Kastellaun )
- Karl Albrecht ( born August 17, 1598 Kastellaun, † June 23, 1626 on the dog castle, shot himself through carelessness itself)