Frederick II of Legnica
Frederick II ( Czech Fridrich II Břežsko - Lehnický; Polish Fryderyk II Legnicki; * February 12, 1480 in Legnica, † September 17, 1547 ibid ) was Duke of Legnica and Brzeg and 1516-1526 Oberland captain of the duchies in Lower Silesia.
Origin and family
Friedrich was born into the family of the Silesian Piast dynasty. His parents were the Liegnitzer Duke Friedrich I († 1488 ) and Ludmilla († 1503), daughter of the Bohemian King George of Podiebrad. Frederick's brother was George I of Brieg.
On November 26, 1515, Friedrich married to Elizabeth, a daughter of the Polish king Casimir IV, who gave birth to a daughter ( Hedwig, * / † 1517). After Elizabeth's death in 1517, Friedrich married on November 24, 1518 Sophie ( † 1537 ), daughter of Margrave Friedrich II of Brandenburg -Ansbach and sister of the Margrave George the Pious. This couple had children:
- Friedrich III. († 1570), Duke of Legnica
- George II († 1586), Duke of Brieg, married to Barbara of Brandenburg ( 1527-1595 )
- Sophie ( † 1546), married to Elector John George of Brandenburg
Life
After the early death of his father Frederick grew up under the tutelage of his mother and stayed for some time at the Prague court of King Vladislav on. Together with his younger brother George I, he joined in 1499 to the government of his duchy. After George became the age of majority, he reigned from 1505 to Brieger share independently. 1507 Friedrich undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he was beaten .. 1516 to 1526 he was chief governor of the duchies in Lower Silesia as the Knights of the Holy grave.
After George's death in 1521, the Duchy of Brieg reverted to Liegnitz, Friedrich 1523 which expanded through the purchase of the Principality Wohlau. In the same year he mediated between the Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg and to the Polish King Sigismund I, with whom he was related to. Thorner ceasefire in 1525 the Cracow contract by which the religious state of Prussia a secular duchy was, which was under Polish suzerainty After the death of the Bohemian- Hungarian king Louis, who fell at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Friedrich was suggested by the non-Catholic Bohemian nobility as his possible successor. The candidate who was supported by the Bohemian Estates, was justified, that Frederick was a grandson of the late King George of 1471 Podiebrad about his mother.
Since 1523 Frederick was a supporter of the Reformation and founded in 1526 in Legnica, the first Protestant university, however, because of the religious turmoil triggered by Kaspar Schwenckfeld, only to 1530 could exist. In 1535 he decreed a Discipline of the Sacraments, and in 1542 a church order which was based on the Wittenberg specifications. The on October 19, 1537 closed with his cousins Erbverbrüderung Berlin, which was founded with a privilege of King Vladislav in 1511, did not last. It was rejected by the Bohemian Estates and King Ferdinand of Bohemia and canceled in 1546 on the Wroclaw Princes.
From 1540 to 1544 Friedrich owned the principality of Glogau as a deposit. Because of indebtedness to him the sons of Frederick's cousin Charles I of Podiebrad transferred the Duchy of Münsterberg, which remained with his descendants until 1550