John VII, Count of Nassau-Siegen

Biography

John was born at Siegen Castle on 7 June 1561 as the second son of Count John VI the Elder of Nassau-Siegen and his first wife Landgravine Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg.

John first attended the Counts' School in Siegen and then – in 1576 – went to the Heidelberg University together with his three oldest brothers William Louis, George and Philip and his cousin Maurice of Nassau, but left the university the following year at his father's request. He did not regret his departure at all, because he found "das Studieren nicht anmutig" ("studying not graceful"). John got involved early in the administration, finances and military affairs of his father's county.

John the Elder had plans to reorganise the finances of the county of Nassau-Siegen through a rich marriage of his son, but when John the Middle declared that he had already given his heart, the father did not make the slightest attempt to let political reason prevail over the son's wish. This speaks for the characters of father and son, who always got along very well and complemented each other in the best way. By his marriage in 1581 to Countess Magdalene of Waldeck-Wildungen (like his grandmother Countess Juliane of Stolberg-Wernigerode, widow of a count of Hanau-Münzenberg), John the Middle strengthened the relations within the Wetterauer Grafenverein and thus contributed – even without a substantial financial contribution – to the strengthening of the House of Nassau.

Military career

John experienced his first military campaign under Count Palatine John Casimir in 1583, for which troops were assembled in the area of Siegen. At that time, John became acquainted with the practice of mercenary armies, whose disadvantages his father had described in numerous conversations.

From 1584 onwards, John was engaged in reinforcing the fortifications of Nassau Castle and Dillenburg Castle. During the military reform of John the Elder, especially his introduction of general conscription, John the Middle ensured better training. Realising that conscripted subjects should not be led helplessly to the slaughter, he ensured that the men were properly trained. He ordered standardised rifles of the same caliber for them, so that one could help the other with bullets. And he created uniform clothing, clearly aware that the men would feel like soldiers in that uniform. Uniforms and standardised armaments were something entirely new for that time. The Siegerländer Landesausschluß wore a brown hat with a feather and a blue lining, a yellow leather or linen gambeson, a red overcoat with a blue lining and a white collar. Trousers and socks were blue. This uniform corresponded with the costume which had already been acquired in 1481/82 in the Netherlands for the men of the Siegen marksmen's guild.

For weapons training, John invented the foot drill. The men were favourably inclined towards this measure, because they saw for themselves how they could gain a huge amount of time by continuous practice in handling weapons and thus had a great advantage over their opponents. In Nassau, and especially in the Siegerland where it was introduced first, there was never any protest against the general conscription, because the population considered the Counts' struggle for the freedom of the Netherlands as their own. They shared with the territorial lord the biblically founded conviction of the right of this Dutch Revolt against the rape of body and soul.

Relatively late, in 1592, John entered the Dutch Revolt. There he participated in the sieges of Steenwijk and Coevorden. With Prince Maurice, he was more like a brother than as a cousin, because they had spent their youth together in Dillenburg and Siegen. When John showed him and his brother William Louis his notes containing his thoughts on military training, it was "nun wol im anfang ein solches veracht und für Superfluum gehalten" ("despised in the beginning and thought to be superfluous"). But soon Maurice had to realise that the Ausschußmänner from the county of Nassau-Siegen and the equally trained peasants from the Westerwald were better than the Dutch soldiers. Immediately, John's approach was introduced into all garrisons of the United Provinces. A new type of mortar invented by John, together with the corresponding incendiary bullets, both of which he had made cast in Siegen, was tested at the Siege of Groenlo in 1597 and had a devastating effect.

Advocate of Protestant Unity

John was a champion of Protestant political unity against the forces of the Counter-Reformation. However, he rarely achieved greater political influence. Therefore, he lacked the necessary perseverance, despite high intelligence, diligence and agility. The extent of John's ambitious political plans and the power of a Protestant Union, as he imagined it, is best shown by the fact that in 1598 he seriously wanted to promote the idea of electing his cousin Maurice of Nassau as German king.

One of the leading Protestant figures of that time was Fürst Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg, who, like John, aspired to a great Protestant alliance against the Habsburgs. But Emperor Rudolf II tried to lure Christian with promises. The fact that Christian did not succumb to this, but remained in the Protestant camp, was regarded by both as John's merit. Christian and John became good friends. Their common goal was to win over Elector Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg to the Protestant cause, and to this end they wanted to help him acquire the disputed duchy of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel joined them, and in 1603 the latter married Juliane, the 16-year-old daughter of John.

On 25 March 1609, Duke John William of Jülich-Cleves-Berg died childless. His inheritance was claimed by Palatine Neuburg, Brandenburg, Saxony and Palatine Zweibrücken. The first two candidates were Protestants, the other two Catholics. John, who always wanted the unity of the Protestant camp, wanted to avoid a war between Brandenburg and Palatine Neuburg at all costs, and during preparatory negotiations in Siegen and on 10 June 1609 in Dortmund, he managed to get Count Palatine Wolfgang William of Neuburg and Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg to agree on a common approach. Both asked John to take over the supreme command of their troops, in case the inheritance dispute could not be solved without force of arms. The Landesrettungsverein of the Wetterau appointed him colonel, because all trained young nobles were in foreign service. As a mediator, John successfully continued the example set by his grandfather William the Rich.

In September 1610, as an envoy of the Protestant Imperial Estates of the realm, John negotiated with the leader of the Catholic League, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, where they reached a mutually satisfactory agreement. In 1615, he mediated an agreement between the city Brunswick and Duke Frederick Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Count of Nassau-Siegen

When his father died on 8 October 1606, John succeeded his father together with his brothers William Louis, George, Ernest Casimir and John Louis. On 30 March 1607 the brothers divided their possessions. John acquired Siegen, Freudenberg, Netphen, Hilchenbach, Ferndorf and the Haingericht. The brothers then also signed a succession treaty. By this agreement the heirs of the brothers were explicitly forbidden to convert to a religion other than the Reformed confession. Since the partition, John has had his Residenz in Siegen Castle, which he had renovated around that time.

The sons of his first marriage caused John much and great concern. Both John Ernest and Adolf in The Hague and John the Younger in Kassel had the reputation of being gamblers and of showing a completely unseemly splendour in their clothes and appearance. John wrote letters to these young counts, full of fatherly admonitions, exhorting them to be thrifty, because he did not know what to do with his worries and debts. In a letter of 8 December 1608 he even considered the death of his son Adolf as a punishment from God and he exhorted the two others, who with "einem ärgerlichen Leben mit Verschwendung fast allem, was ich in der Welt habe, durch Ehebrechen und Hurerei, Plünderung und Beraubung armer, unschuldiger Leute hoch und niederen Standen" ("an annoying life of squandering almost everything I have in the world, through adultery and fornication, plundering and robbing poor, innocent people of high and low rank") ruined the county of Nassau-Siegen, to lead a different, better life, worthy of the name Nassau.

In 1610 John took part in the Princes' Day in Schwäbisch Hall as the representative of the entire House of Nassau and the Wetterauer Grafenverein. In 1612 he travelled to Frankfurt, with his brother George and his two sons John Ernest and John the Younger, for the coronation of Roman King Matthias, whom he congratulated as spokesman of the House of Nassau and many other counts. It was up to him to be the first to cut off a piece of the roast beef in front of the Römer and bring it to the royal table.

With his brothers he signed new succession treaties in 1611 and 1613. Noteworthy is the House Treaty with his brother George in 1618 about his not claiming the part of the county of Nassau-Dillenburg that was rightfully his. In 1619 he also signed a treaty with his brothers about the advances that had previously been paid to William the Silent. Finally, the brothers signed a treaty on the division of the lands that had become vacant after the death of William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg and the debts attached to them.

Death, burial and reburial

John the Middle died at Siegen Castle on 27 September 1623. None of the three sons mentioned in the will were present at the death of their father. On 13 October William and John Maurice arrived in Siegen, and on 26 October John the Younger.

John the Middle had planned a dignified burial vault for the dynasty he founded, in the St. Nicholas Church in Siegen. For this, there are remarkable notes in Latin, partly in elegiac couplets, for a projected memorial and burial place of the sovereign family, from the time around 1620, with the names of all 25 children from his two marriages, also with details of birth, marriage and death of his relatives. Since the project was not carried out, the burials of the members of the sovereign family between 1607 and 1658 took place in the inadequate burial vault under the choir of the mentioned parish church. John the Middle was buried on 5/15 November 1623 in the St. Nicholas Church in Siegen. Georgius Remus wrote a Leichenpredigt for him, which was published in Herborn in 1624.

John the Middle was reburied on 29 April 1690 with his two wives in the Fürstengruft in Siegen.

Succession dispute

Everyone knew that there would be a dispute at the reading of the will on 11 December 1623. John the Younger had the imperial decree read out, and when his brothers were not very impressed by it, he said as he stood up: "Der Kaiser wird uns scheiden!" ("The Emperor will part us!"). He had taken the precaution of obtaining a further imperial decree on 20 November 1623 against Countess Dowager Margaret and her sons, in which the Emperor strictly forbade impeding John's assumption of government, his taking possession of the land and his inauguration. On 12 January 1624, John the Younger was able to accept the homage from the city of Siegen, but only because he beforehand had secretly let a squadron of selected horsemen into the town through the castle gate (that is, not through a city gate) in a heavy snowstorm, so that they could not be seen or heard by the town guards.

John the Younger thus received the entire inheritance, and the provisions of the will made in favour of William and John Maurice remained a dead letter. However, on 13/23 January 1624, John the Younger voluntarily ceded the sovereignty over the Hilchenbach district with Ginsburg Castle and some villages belonging to the Ferndorf and Netphen districts, to William. With the exception of John Maurice and George Frederick, the younger brothers accepted only modest appanages. Henceforth, until 1645, the county of Nassau-Siegen had two governments, one in Siegen, the other in Hilchenbach. However, for a short period (1632–1635) this situation underwent a temporary change: during the Thirty Years' War, his brothers, who were fighting on the Protestant side, rebelled against John the Younger.

Count Louis Henry of Nassau-Dillenburg entered the service of King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden on 1 December 1631, who had landed in Germany on 24 June 1630 to intervene in favour of the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War. Countess Dowager Margaret, through the mediation of Louis Henry, turned to Gustavus Adolphus and asked for help against the machinations of her stepson John the Younger. Consequently, on 14 February 1632 the Swedish king sent an order from Frankfurt to Louis Henry to provide military support for his first cousin John Maurice. Louis Henry then occupied the city of Siegen with his regiment of Dutch and Swedish soldiers. One day later, on 29 February, John Maurice and his brother Henry arrived in Siegen. Just as John the Younger had kept his cavalry in reserve eight years earlier, now John Maurice and Henry, supported by the presence of the Swedish regiment, negotiated with the citizens, who felt bound by the oath they had sworn to John the Younger. On 4 March, after long and difficult negotiations, the citizens paid homage to John Maurice and Henry. John Maurice obtained for himself not only the Freudenberg district, which his father had intended for him in the will of 1621, but also Netphen, which had been intended for John the Younger in the same will. William was not only confirmed in the possession of Hilchenbach, but also received Ferndorf and Krombach, as stipulated in his father's will. The city of Siegen paid homage only to William and John Maurice, who only in 1635 admitted their elder brother John the Younger back into co-sovereignty. However, the latter soon restored the old order: in 1636, he again became the sole owner of his father's property, with the exception of Hilchenbach, which he left to William, and he again governed the city of Siegen alone. John Maurice was again excluded from the county's sovereignty. However, in 1642 he inherited the territory from his brother William in accordance with his father's will.

Explanation of the nickname the Middle

In the time that John the Middle lived, it was not yet customary for reigning counts to be numbered, as was the case with kings. When father and son had the same given name and the son came of age, it was necessary to distinguish both. In this case, the father was referred to as Johann der Ältere and the son as Johann der Jüngere. This is similar to the still-used custom that, when father and son bear the same given name and surname, they are distinguished by the addition of the respective abbreviations Sr. (senior) and Jr. (junior) after the surname. That John the Middle was originally called the Younger is shown in the documents found in the 1990s in the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv in Wiesbaden (HHStA 171 D 1161), in which an attempt was made to record, at least from time to time, who was buried where and when in the burial vault in Dillenburg. In these documents John's first wife is mentioned as Graf Johan des Jüngern gemahlin frau Magdalena gebohrne von Waldeck and his son, who died in 1600, as Graf Johans des Jungern söhnlein Friderich Ludwig.

But this Johann der Jüngere also had a son named John. When this son came of age, the distinction was no longer sufficient, since there were now three men from three successive generations with the same given name. The youngest was now referred to as Johann der Jüngere, and the middle one was called Johann der Mittlere. It was not until the nineteenth century that historians started to give the reigning counts a regal number. Johann der Ältere became John VI, Johann der Mittlere became John VII, and Johann der Jüngere became John VIII.

Marriages and issue

First marriage

John the Middle married firstly at Dillenburg Castle on 9 December 1581 to Countess Magdalene of Waldeck-Wildungen (1558 – Idstein Castle, 9 September 1599), the youngest daughter of Count Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen and his third wife Countess Jutta of Isenburg-Grenzau. Magdalene was the widow of Count Philip Louis I of Hanau-Münzenberg.

From the marriage of John and Magdalene the following children were born:

John Ernest (Siegen Castle, 21 October 1582Jul. – Udine, 16/17 September 1617Jul.), was, among other things, a general in the Venetian army, involved in the Uskok War.

Count John VIII the Younger (Dillenburg Castle, 29 September 1583Jul. – Ronse Castle near Oudenaarde, 27 July 1638), succeeded his father as Count of Nassau-Siegen in 1623. Married in Brussels on 13 August 1618 to Princess Ernestine Yolande de Ligne (2 November 1594 – Brussels, 4 January 1663).

Elisabeth (Dillenburg Castle, 8 November 1584 – Landau, 26 July 1661), married in Wildungen in November 1604 to Count Christian of Waldeck-Wildungen (Eisenberg Castle, 24/25 December 1585 – Waldeck Castle, 31 December 1637).

Adolf (Dillenburg Castle, 8 August 1586 – Xanten, 7 November 1608), was a captain in the Dutch States Army.

Juliane (Dillenburg Castle, 3 September 1587 – Eschwege, 15 February 1643), married at Dillenburg Castle on 21 May 1603Jul. (Beilager) and in Kassel on 4 June 1603Jul. (Heimführung) to Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel (Kassel, 25 May 1572 – Eschwege, 15 March 1632).

Anne Mary (Dillenburg Castle, 3 March 1589 – 22 February 1620), married in Dillenburg on 3 February 1611Jul. to Count John Adolf of Daun-Falkenstein-Broich (c. 1581 – 13 March 1653), Count of Falkenstein and Broich.

John Albert (Dillenburg, 8 February 1590 – Dillenburg, 1590).

Second marriage

John the Middle remarried at Rotenburg Castle on 27 August 1603 to Duchess Margaret of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (Haus Sandberg am Alsensund near Sonderburg, 24 February 1583 – Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 10/20 April 1658), the youngest daughter of Duke John II the Younger of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg and his first wife Duchess Elisabeth of Brunswick-Grubenhagen.

From the marriage of John and Margaret the following children were born:

Fürst John Maurice (Dillenburg Castle, 18 June 1604 – Berg und Tal near Cleves, 10/20 December 1679), was among others governor-captain-admiral-general of Dutch Brazil 1636–1644, stadtholder of Cleves, Mark, Ravensberg and Minden since 1647, Grand Master of the Order of Saint John since 1652 and First Field Marshal of the Dutch States Army 1668–1674. Became count in two-thirds of the County of Nassau-Siegen in 1645 and was elevated to Reichsfürst in 1652.

George Frederick Louis (Dillenburg Castle, 23 February 1606 – Bergen op Zoom, 2 October 1674), was among others commander of Rheinberg and governor of Bergen op Zoom. In 1664 he was elevated to the rank and title of prince. Married in The Hague on 4 June 1647 to Mauritia Eleonora of Portugal (baptised Delft, 10 May 1609 – Bergen op Zoom, 15 June 1674).

William Otto (Dillenburg Castle, 23 June 1607 – near Wolfenbüttel, 14 August 1641), was an officer in the Swedish army.

Louise Christine (Siegen Castle, 8 October 1608 – Château-Vilain near Sirod (Jura), 29 December 1678Greg.), married in Nozeroy on 4 July 1627 to Philippe François de Joux dit de Watteville (c. 1605 – Bletterans, 1636), Marquis de Conflans, Comte de Bussolin.

Sophie Margaret (Siegen Castle, 16 April 1610 – Wisch Castle, Terborg, 8/18 May 1665), married at Wisch Castle in Terborg on 13 January 1656 to George Ernest of Limburg-Stirum (Botmurde, 29 August 1593 – September 1661), Count of Bronckhorst, Lord of Wisch, Lichtenvoorde and Wildenborch.

Henry (Siegen Castle, 9 August 1611 – Hulst, 27 October/7 November 1652), was among others colonel in the Dutch States Army, governor of Hulst and envoy on behalf of the States-General of the Netherlands. Married at Wisch Castle in Terborg on 19/29 April 1646 to Countess Mary Magdalene of Limburg-Stirum (1632 – Nassauischer Hof, Siegen, 27 December 1707).

Known descendants

Although the House of Nassau-Siegen became extinct in male lineage in 1743, John the Middle has many known descendants in female lineage. Not only all reigning European monarchs are descendants of John, but also the heads of the no longer reigning royal houses of Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Greece, Lippe, Prussia, Romania and Waldeck and Pyrmont. Other known descendants are:

the Prussian Field Marshal Fürst Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau (der Alte Dessauer),

the French Field Marshal Maurice of Saxony,

the Austrian chancellor Klemens von Metternich,

the French writer George Sand,

the Romanian writer Carmen Sylva,

the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen,

the German chancellor Max von Baden, and

the German fighter pilot from World War I Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron).