John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes
Note 856
FREUDENBERG">
William of Orange and John the Elder were brothers, sons of William the Rich, and his wife Juliane. Both sons embraced the Reformed religion. William was assassinated in 1584, but the cause of Dutch independence was won, and with it the Reformed Church gained full recognition in the Netherlands. John established, also in the year 1584, a university at Herborn and immediately recruited an outstanding faculty.
John's dedication to schools led him to establish Latin schools in several towns, including Freudenberg. His motto was, "In every village a public school, in every city a Latin school, in every land a university." He included schools for girls also.
When John the Elder died, Nassau County was divided into five small counties to be ruled by his five sons. The new counties were Nassau-Dillenburg, Nassau-Hadamar, Nassau-Beilstein, Nassau-Dietz, and Nassau-Siegen. This was in 1606, so we can date the beginning of Nassau-Siegen from that year. At this time Siegen became the seat of a ruling court. John the Middle, who had inherited Nassau-Siegen, was a zealous Reformed Church member.
However, the oldest of his three sons, John the Younger, fell in love with a Roman Catholic princess. He converted to Catholicism, not entirely because of love. He had to wait six years to get his father's approval in 1618 for the marriage, which coincidentally was the start of the Thirty Years' War. John the Middle, sensing the intentions of John the Younger, made a will in which he further divided Nassau-Siegen into three small districts, leaving John the Younger only one third of the original Nassau-Siegen, the eastern part. He also extracted a promise from John the Younger that he would not force Catholicism on the inhabitants. The northern third of Nassau-Siegen went to John Maurice, and the western part (including Freudenberg) went to William. The city of Siegen belonged to the three young counts together.
During the early years of the war, the Catholics were victorious and, when John the Younger came into his inheritance in 1623, he broke his promise to his father, seized the whole of Nassau-Siegen, brought in the Jesuits, whom he put into the churches. In 1626, he deprived all of the Protestant ministers and school teachers of their positions. In 1632, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entered the war on the side of the Protestants and the war turned favorably for them. The Swedes occupied Siegen, and the churches were restored to the Protestants. Gustavus Adolphus was killed in 1635 and the fortunes of the war turned in favor of the Catholics. John the Younger seized all of Nassau-Siegen again and restored the Catholics to the churches and schools.
[Who says that history has to be dull? Some of your ancestors were probably involved.]