Ernst Magnus von Dönhoff (; 1581–1642) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

who served the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

and the Polish fief of

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (, , ) or Ducal Prussia (; ) was a duchy in the region of Prussia established as a result of secularization of the Monastic Prussia, the territory that remained under the control of the State of the Teutonic Order until t ...

. He was born a member of the

Dönhoff The House of Dönhoff (Polish: Denhoff, sometimes also Doenhoff) was an old and influential German noble family, which later also became part of the Polish nobility. History It was first mentioned in 1282, in the County of Mark in Westphalia. ...

family, a noble family of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n origin (the German family name is Dönhoff). Always referred to as Magnus Ernst by Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, who wrote an extensive genealogy and history study of all the family branches, Magnus Ernst Dönhoff was the founder of the eastern Prussian line of the Dönhoff family. He came from Livonia and for services to

George William, Elector of Brandenburg George William (; 13 November 1595 – 1 December 1640), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia from 1619 until his death. His reign was marked by ineffective governance during the Thirty Years' ...

, he established his residence in Waldau near

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

. He was the brother of Gerhard Dönhoff and Kaspar von Dönhoff. He was married to Countess Katharina zu Dohna; they had four children. Three of their sons were born at Waldau. Dönhoff was castellan of Pärnu (Parnawa) from 1635, voivode of Parnawa from 1640,

starost Starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', ) is a community elder in some Slavic lands. The Slavic root of "starost" translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has designated an official in a leadersh ...

of Tartu (Derpsk), Telšiai (Telszew) and of Waldau in the Pregolya River valley in

. Dönhoff belonged to the commission which from 1625 worked for a peace agreement between Sweden and Poland. He was also instrumental in the negotiations at the peace of Altmark and at Sztumska Wieś. Dönhoff became Count (

Reichsgraf 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 (Imperial immediacy, immediately) from the emperor, rather th ...

) 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 ...

since 1633. His son Friedrich Graf Dönhoff, born in Waldau in 1639, took up service for the Brandenburg electoral court.

Bibliography

*Kilian Heck/Christian Thielemann (Hrsg.): ''Friedrichstein. Das Schloß der Grafen von Dönhoff in Ostpreußen''.

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and bu ...

, München/Berlin 2006, *''Genealogisches Handbuch der baltischen Ritterschaften'', vol 2, 1: Estland, Görlitz, 1930
p. 41
*Kamila Wróblewska, Franciszek Sokołowski, ''Ikonografia rodziny Doenhoffów w zbiorach muzeów polskich'', Rocznik Olsztyński vol. XVI, Olsztyn 1989, p. 301, 325-326, rev. 23 SSN 0080-3537 Secular senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1581 births 1642 deaths Counts in Germany 17th-century Polish nobility People from Livonia People from the Duchy of Prussia Ernst Magnus Dönhoff {{Poland-noble-stub