Philipp II, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg

Philipp II of Hanau-Lichtenberg (born 31 May 1462 in Hanau; died: 22 August 1504 in Babenhausen) ruled the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg from 1480 until his death.

Youth

Philipp II was born on 31 May 1462 between 21:00 and 22:00, as the second son of the Count Philipp I, the Elder of Hanau-Babenhausen^[1] and his wife, Anna of Lichtenberg. He was baptized three days after the birth, in the St. Mary's Church in Hanau. His godparents were Konrad Brelle, abbot of Selbold Abbey, Wenceslaus of Cleves and Meze of Gemmingen, the widow of Eber-hard Waißen.

His older brother, Johann, died young, so that Philipp succeeded his father as Count of Hanau-Babenhausen.

Family

Marriage and issue

He married on 9 September 1480 with Anna of Isenburg-Büdingen (d. 1522). A papal dispensation had been necessary for this marriage because they were related to each other in the fourth degree. They had the following children:

1. Philipp III (18 October 1482 – 15 May 1538).
2. Anna (1485 – 11 October 1559), a nun in the Marienborn Abbey
3. Margaret (1486 – 6 August 1560 in Babenhausen), also nun in the Marienborn Abbey, interned for life at Babenhausen Castle,^[2] because of a "slip".^[3] She was buried in the St. Nikolaus church in Babenhausen.
4. Ludwig (born: 5 October 1487 in Buchsweiler; died: 3 December 1553 in Willstätt; buried in the St. Adelphi church in Neuweiler), unmarried clergyman
5. Maria (born: c. 1487;^[4] died: probably 1526), abbess of Klarenthal Abbey from 1512 to 1525
6. Amalia (born: 7 June 1490 in Buchsweiler; died 11 March 1552 in Pfaffenhoffen; buried in the St. Adelphi church in Neuweiler), a nun
7. Reinhard (born: 19 February 1494 in Klingenberg am Main; died in Buchsweiler; buried in the St. Adelphi in Neuweiler), joined the clergy

Ancestors

References

• M. Goltzené: Aus der Geschichte des Amtes Buchsweiler, in: Pay d’Alsace, vol. 111/112, p. 64 ff
• Hatstein, hand-written chronicle in the archives of the Hanauer Geschichtsverein
• E. Haug: Groß-Arnsburg bei Baerental, in: Wasgaublick, vol. 19, issue 10, 1991, p. 364-419.
• Bernhard Herzog: Chronicon Alsatiae. Elsasser Chronick unnd außführliche beschreibung des unteren Elsasses am Rheinstrom, Strasbourg, 1592
• J. G. Lehmann: Urkundliche Geschichte der Grafschaft Hanau-Lichtenberg im unteren Elsasse, two vols., 1862, reprinted: Pirmasens, 1970
• Eckhard Meise: Bernhard Hundeshagen - kein Denkmalschutz im Hanau des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts, in: Neues Magazin für Hanauische Geschichte, 2006, p. 3-62.
• Wilhelm Morhardt: Hanau alt's - in Ehren b'halt's - Die Grafen von Hanau-Lichtenberg in Geschichte und Geschichten = Babenhausen einst und jetzt, vol. 10, Babenhausen, 1984
• Reinhold Röhricht and Heinrich Meisner: Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach dem Heiligen Lande, Berlin, 1880
• Sebastian Scholz: Die Inschriften der Stadt Darmstadt und des Landkreises Darmstadt-Dieburg und Groß-Gerau = Die deutschen Inschriften vol. 49, series Mainze, vol. 6. ed. by Akademie der Wissenschaften Mainz, Wiesbaden, 1999
• Reinhard Suchier: Genealogie des Hanauer Grafenhauses, in: Festschrift des Hanauer Geschichtsvereins zu seiner fünfzigjährigen Jubelfeier am 27. August 1894, Hanau, 1894
• Georg Wittenberger: Stadtlexikon Babenhausen, Babenhausen, 1995
• Ernst J. Zimmermann: Hanau Stadt und Land, 3rd ed., Hanau 1919, reprinted: 1978

Footnotes

1. ↑ He is often called Philipp I of Hanau-Lichtenberg, but this is an anachronism, as his part of the county was not called Hanau-Lichtenberg until after his death
2. ↑ Morhardt, p. 34
3. ↑ Only Wittenberg, p. 92, explicitly calls it a pregnancy
4. ↑ Estimate based on the age on which she entered into the monastery and on her siblings