Post by notie91 on Jul 23, 2010 1:04:26 GMT 1
Joachim II Hector (German: Joachim II. Hector or Hektor) (13 January 1505 – 3 January 1571) was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1535–1571). A member of the House of Hohenzollern, Joachim II was the son of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg and his wife Elizabeth of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. He was nicknamed after the Hector of Greek mythology.
Joachim II was born in Cölln. His first marriage was to Magdalena of Saxony, from the ducal Albertine line of the House of Wettin.
His father, Joachim I 'Nestor,' made Joachim 'Hector' sign an inheritance contract in which he promised to remain Roman Catholic. This was intended in part to assist Joachim Nestor's younger brother, the Archbishop-Elector Albert of Mainz, who had incurred debts with the banking house of Fugger in order to pay the Holy See for his elevation to the episcopal see of Halberstadt and for a dispensation permitting him to accumulate the sees of Magdeburg and Mainz.
Joachim Nestor, who had co-financed this accumulation of offices, agreed to recover these costs from the people of his electorate by permitting the selling of indulgences. In the neighbouring Electorate of Saxony Elector John Frederick I forbade the sale of indulgences, not because he disagreed with them in principle, but because his candidate for the see of Mainz had been outbid for the position by Albert of Mainz. However, John Frederick's subject Martin Luther persuaded the Elector to reject indulgences. Thus the financing of the investment and fulfillment of the credit contracts with Fugger, depended on the sale of indulgences to Catholic believers in Brandenburg. However, had Joachim Hector not signed this pact, he would likely have been passed over in the line of inheritance.
Joachim Hector's first wife Magdalena died in 1534, and in 1535 he married Hedwig of Poland, daughter of Sigismund I the Old of the Poland-Lithuania. As the Jagiellon dynasty was Catholic, Joachim II promised Sigismund that he would not make Hedwig change her religious affiliation.
With the deaths of his father Joachim Nestor (1535) and father-in-law Sigismund (1548), Joachim turned gradually to the Protestant Reformation. On 1 November 1539, he received Communion under both kinds in Spandau's St. Nicholas' Church, an act that indicated a degree of sympathy with the new religious ideas. However, Joachim did not explicitly adopt Lutheranism until 1555, so as not to force an open confrontation with his ally Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Prior to this, Joachim promulgated a conservative church order which was Lutheran in doctrine, but retained many traditional religious institutions and observances such as the episcopate, much of the Mass in Latin, religious plays and feast days.
In early 1539, at the diet of princes of imperial immediacy (Fürstentag) of the Holy Roman Empire in Frankfurt upon Main the Lutheran Philipp Melanchthon revealed to the gathered princes (among them Joachim) that the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1510 in the Margraviate of Brandenburg had been based on a feigned host desecration. This pogrom had resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Jewish advocate Josel von Rosheim, who was also in attendance, pleaded privately with Joachim to allow the Jews to settle in the Margraviate again. Joachim acceded to this request on 25 June 1539.[1]
In 1542 Joachim assisted Ferdinand I Archduke of Austria in the fight against the Ottomans at Buda. He commanded an army of Austrian, Hungarian, German, Bohemian, Italian and Dalmatian troops, but the Elector was not a seasoned warrior and eventually beat a retreat.[2]
In 1545 Joachim held a gala double wedding celebration for his two children, John George and Barbara. They were married to Sophie and George, both children of the Silesian Piasta Duke of Liegnitz, Frederick II.
In 1569 Joachim gained King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland as brother-in-law. Joachim then paid Sigismund for a deed of enfeoffment so that the prince-elector and his issue would inherit Ducal Prussia in the case of the extinction of the Prussian Hohenzollern line.
Joachim died in Köpenick in the palace which he had built there in 1558.
Joachim II was born in Cölln. His first marriage was to Magdalena of Saxony, from the ducal Albertine line of the House of Wettin.
His father, Joachim I 'Nestor,' made Joachim 'Hector' sign an inheritance contract in which he promised to remain Roman Catholic. This was intended in part to assist Joachim Nestor's younger brother, the Archbishop-Elector Albert of Mainz, who had incurred debts with the banking house of Fugger in order to pay the Holy See for his elevation to the episcopal see of Halberstadt and for a dispensation permitting him to accumulate the sees of Magdeburg and Mainz.
Joachim Nestor, who had co-financed this accumulation of offices, agreed to recover these costs from the people of his electorate by permitting the selling of indulgences. In the neighbouring Electorate of Saxony Elector John Frederick I forbade the sale of indulgences, not because he disagreed with them in principle, but because his candidate for the see of Mainz had been outbid for the position by Albert of Mainz. However, John Frederick's subject Martin Luther persuaded the Elector to reject indulgences. Thus the financing of the investment and fulfillment of the credit contracts with Fugger, depended on the sale of indulgences to Catholic believers in Brandenburg. However, had Joachim Hector not signed this pact, he would likely have been passed over in the line of inheritance.
Joachim Hector's first wife Magdalena died in 1534, and in 1535 he married Hedwig of Poland, daughter of Sigismund I the Old of the Poland-Lithuania. As the Jagiellon dynasty was Catholic, Joachim II promised Sigismund that he would not make Hedwig change her religious affiliation.
With the deaths of his father Joachim Nestor (1535) and father-in-law Sigismund (1548), Joachim turned gradually to the Protestant Reformation. On 1 November 1539, he received Communion under both kinds in Spandau's St. Nicholas' Church, an act that indicated a degree of sympathy with the new religious ideas. However, Joachim did not explicitly adopt Lutheranism until 1555, so as not to force an open confrontation with his ally Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Prior to this, Joachim promulgated a conservative church order which was Lutheran in doctrine, but retained many traditional religious institutions and observances such as the episcopate, much of the Mass in Latin, religious plays and feast days.
In early 1539, at the diet of princes of imperial immediacy (Fürstentag) of the Holy Roman Empire in Frankfurt upon Main the Lutheran Philipp Melanchthon revealed to the gathered princes (among them Joachim) that the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1510 in the Margraviate of Brandenburg had been based on a feigned host desecration. This pogrom had resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The Jewish advocate Josel von Rosheim, who was also in attendance, pleaded privately with Joachim to allow the Jews to settle in the Margraviate again. Joachim acceded to this request on 25 June 1539.[1]
In 1542 Joachim assisted Ferdinand I Archduke of Austria in the fight against the Ottomans at Buda. He commanded an army of Austrian, Hungarian, German, Bohemian, Italian and Dalmatian troops, but the Elector was not a seasoned warrior and eventually beat a retreat.[2]
In 1545 Joachim held a gala double wedding celebration for his two children, John George and Barbara. They were married to Sophie and George, both children of the Silesian Piasta Duke of Liegnitz, Frederick II.
In 1569 Joachim gained King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland as brother-in-law. Joachim then paid Sigismund for a deed of enfeoffment so that the prince-elector and his issue would inherit Ducal Prussia in the case of the extinction of the Prussian Hohenzollern line.
Joachim died in Köpenick in the palace which he had built there in 1558.