Charles I, Landgrave Of Hesse-Kassel
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Charles of Hesse-Kassel (; 3 August 1654 – 23 March 1730), member of the
House of Hesse The House of Hesse is a European dynasty, directly descended from the House of Reginar, House of Brabant. They ruled the region of Hesse, one branch as prince-electors until 1866, and another branch as grand dukes until 1918.Burke's Peerage, Bur ...
, was the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel from 1670 to 1730.


Childhood

Charles was the second son of
William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (23 May 1629 – 16 July 1663), known as William the Just, was Landgrave of Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Kassel from 1637 to 1663. Through two of his surviving children, he is the ancestor of all the ...
, and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg (1623–1683). Until 1675 his mother ruled as his guardian and regent before Charles was old enough to take over the administration for the next five years. His older brother, William VII, had died in 1670 shortly after reaching adulthood, even before he had had the chance to make any changes with the administration.


Policies

Under the reign of Charles, the consequences of the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
in the agricultural county could be overcome more quickly than they were in the more industrialized regions of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. He pushed for the recreation of a large army and put it in the service of other countries in the
War of Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish ...
. His soldiers, he gave, as well as other princes of his time, to foreign service for the ''Subsidiengelder'' subsidies This policy remained controversial for its dealings with the mercenaries, according to the 1908 '' Brockhaus'' (Volume 9, page 96) :
"''Dieses System verbesserte die Finanzen, aber nicht den Wohlstand des Landes,
und brachte den glänzenden Hof selbst in ausländische Familienverbindungen.''"
This system improved the finances but not the prosperity of the country,
and brought to the brilliant court itself foreign familial connections.
/blockquote> Charles left in 1685 to his younger brother Philipp as the latter's '' Paragium'' a small part of the Landgraviate of Hesse, the so-called Landgraviate of Hesse–Philippsthal, named after Philippsthal "Philipp's Valley" (formerly Kreuzberg, a place near Vacha on the
Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the to ...
River).


Economy

Even before the
Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to prac ...
(October 1685), Charles adopted on 18 April 1685 the
Freiheits-Concession
' "Freedom Concession" Klaus Kühnel, "
Ein Beitrag für den freien Glauben
' : ''Vor 325 Jahren wurde die "Freiheits-Concession" für französische Glaubensflüchtlinge erlassen'' A Contribution to the Freedom of Religion : 325 years ago, the "Freedom Concession" for French Religious Refugees was Adopted , ''Deutschlandfunk'', retrieved 30 December 2013.
promising the exiles from
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, the
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
and
Waldensians The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the l ...
, free settlement and their own churches and schools. In the following years, about 4000 the Protestants fled persecution in their homelands for Northern Hesse and, for example, about 1700 of them settled in Oberneustadt, the newly created borough of
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
. Following the ideas of
mercantilism Mercantilism is a economic nationalism, nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources ...
, Charles founded in 1679 the Messinghof, one of the first metal-processing plants in Hesse, in Bettenhausen, east of Kassel. In 1699 Charles founded Sieburg (since 1717 Karlshafen) and also moved some of the Huguenots and Waldensians there. With the construction of the Landgrave-Carl-Canal from the
Diemel The Diemel () is a river in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a western and orographically left tributary of the Weser. It is the first, and therefore southernmost, of the larger Weser tributaries after its formation by the confluen ...
River to Kassel (and beyond), he tried to circumvent the existing customs borders but, after only a few
kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the preferred mea ...
s, the construction was discontinued.


Culture

Landgrave Charles continued the design of the hillside park, Wilhelmshöhe ("William's Peak") in the Habichtswald ("Hawk Forest"), now a nature preserve west of Kassel. In particular, it was the construction of the Hercules monument that brought the Italian-inspired cascades and other water features to the park. Under his rule, the ''Moritzaue'' ("Maurice's Meadow") park near the town was extended over a large area to another park, the '' Karlsaue'' ("Charles's Meadow"), which still exists today, and the ''Schloss'' '' Orangerie'' was built. With the participation of the Landgrave, who was interested in history, the first archaeological excavations began in 1709 on the Mader Heide.


Family

Charles married his first cousin, Maria Amalia of Courland (1653–1711), the daughter of
Jacob Kettler Jacob Kettler (; ; 28 October 1610 – 1 January 1682) was Duke of Courland and Semigallia from 1642 to 1682. Under his rule, Courland and Semigallia became more independent of its Polish suzerain, reached its peak in wealth, and even engage ...
, Duke of Courland, and had with her fourteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Their eldest surviving son, Frederick I succeeded his father as Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, while also becoming King of Sweden; their second-eldest surviving son William VIII also became landgrave after his brother's death. * William (29 March 1674 – 25 July 1676), died in childhood * Charles (24 February 1675 – 7 December 1677), died in childhood * Friedrich (28 April 1676 – 5 April 1751), who succeeded his father as Frederick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and became, in 1720, the
King of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the #IOG, Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional monarchy, constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parl ...
. :∞ 1stly 1700 Princess Louisa Dorothea of Brandenburg (1680–1705) :∞ 2ndly 1715 Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden (1688–1741) * Christian (2 July 1677 – 18 September 1677), died in infancy * Sophie Charlotte (16 July 1678 – 30 May 1749) :∞ 1704 Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1675–1713) * Charles (12 June 1680 – 13 November 1702) *
William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
(10 March 1682 – 1 February 1760), ''who succeeded his brother Frederick as'' William VIII, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel :∞ 1717 Dorothea Wilhelmina of Saxe-Zeitz (1691–1743) * Leopold (30 December 1684 – 10 September 1704) * Louis (5 September 1686 – 23 May 1706) *
Marie Louise Marie Louise or Marie-Louise is a French feminine given name, compound given name. In other languages, it may take one of several alternate forms: * Maria Luiza (Bulgarian, Portuguese) * Maria Luisa (Italian, Spanish) * Maria Luise (German) * Mari ...
(7 February 1688 – 9 April 1765) :∞ 1709 Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange (1687–1711) * Maximilian (28 May 1689 – 8 May 1753) :∞ 1720 Friederike Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt (1698–1777) * George Charles (8 January 1691 – 5 March 1755) * Eleonore Antoine (11 January 1694 – 17 December 1694) * Wilhelmine Charlotte (8 July 1695 – 27 November 1722) Maria Amalia also suffered many miscarriages: * A miscarried daughter (12 June 1679) * A miscarried daughter (12 April 1681) * A miscarried daughter (12 June 1683) * A miscarried son (12 November 1685) * A miscarriage (12 February 1687) * A miscarried daughter (12 January 1690) * A miscarried son (12 March 1693) * A miscarried son (12 July 1697) * A miscarried daughter (12 May 1698) * A miscarried son (12 June 1699) * A miscarried daughter (12 January 1701) * A miscarriage (12 November 1703)


Other Relationships

After the death of his wife in 1713, Charles had a relationship with Jeanne Marguerite de Frere, Marquise de Langallerie (b. 1685), with whom he had a son, Charles Frederic Philippe de Gentil, Marquis de Langallerie, who died early. Charles secured in the same way the financial security of children who had come with his mistress. After the Marquise de Langallerie, the next mistress and confidante was Barbara Christine von Bernhold (1690–1756), who rose to '' Großhofmeisterin'' ("Senior Mistress of the Court") under Charles's son William VIII and was raised to the rank of ''Reichsgräfin'' ("
Imperial Count Imperial Count (, ) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. During the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from a prince wh ...
ess") in 1742 by the
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
Charles VII. She was housed in the Bellevue Palace.


Ancestry


References


Bibliography

* heodorIlgen,
Karl
, "''
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...
'' ''General German Biography'' (ADB), ''Band 15'' ''Volume 15'' (
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
: Duncker & Humblot, 1882), pages 292–296 * Hans Philippi, ''Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel. Ein deutscher Fürst der Barockzeit'' ''Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel: A German Prince of the Baroque Times'' (''Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen, Number 34'' ''Publications of the Historical Commission of Hesse, Number 34'' (
Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...
: Elwert, 1976), * Hans Philippi,
Karl
, ''
Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...
'' ''New German Biography'' (NDB), ''Band 11'' ''Volume 11'' (
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
: Duncker & Humblot, 1977), , pages 227-229
digitized
* Pauline Puppel, ''Die Regentin. Vormundschaftliche Herrschaft in Hessen 1500–1700'' ''The Lady Regents: Reigning Guardianship in Hesse 1500-1700'' (
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
am Main: Campus, 2004), , pages 236–277 , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Charles 01, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel People from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel 1654 births 1730 deaths German Calvinist and Reformed Christians Landgraves of Hesse 17th-century German people 18th-century German people