Johann Georg of Saxony arms and armor

 Salvete Omnes,

 

10 days ago I posted about a Scottish pistols for Duke of Courland, one of them held at MET (NYC, USA)and that in 1616AD or so  this pair of pistols was given by Duke Fredrich Ketler to Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg I (1585-1656) of the Wettin House.

Johann Georg I and His Wife Magdalene Sibylle

During the reign of Johann Georg Dresden Schloss aka Dresden Castle (in Saxony, Fed.Republic of Germany) was the capitol of then quite powerful Saxony (Prussia and her wars on Saxony and Congress of Vienna 1815 reduced Saxony to a shadow of her former glory and importance within the Germanies - more than 270 German states & statelets prior to the Napoleonic Wars).

 

Johann Georg was reining during some of the most momentous and tragic periods of the European history, namely the Thirty Years
War(1618-1648).

 

We happily have some interesting iconography related to this prince and chivalry, his wars and reign etc.

our prince in the 30 Years War high fashion - buff coat.

 

Johann Georg I wearing a riding cassock alias casaque

Back to his Courland connection - dr Mariusz Balcerek,  mentioned in my previous post Polish researcher, wrote an article titled Murder in Jegalva [Mitau/Mitawa] in 1615  - published in 2008AD- can be read from his academia page.
From the article we learn that during the summer of 1615AD duke Wilhelm Ketler, who jointly ruled the duchy with his brother Friedrich, had his henchmen murder  two noble opposition leaders - brothers Nolde. His brother duke Friedrich was somewhat implicated
Upon learning about this crime in Mitau our  Polish suzerain, Sigismund III Vasa, and Polish Diet acted on this Courland high crime and misdemeanor. During the investigation undertaken in January -February 1616AD the royal commission concluded that duke Wilhelm was guilty of these crimes. 
In May 1616AD Sejm aka Polish Parliament extinguished Wilhelm's claims to Courland's throne.   ruled to have duke Wilhelm deposed,  banned from the duchy of Courland. In June our Sejm ruled that since then only duke Friedrich Ketler would remain the ruler of the duchy of Courland. Wilhelm went to live and eventually die in  Kukulow (Kucklow), town belonging  in the realm of West Pomeranian duke Boguslaw XIV.
During the period of late summer 1615 and early spring 1616 duke Wilhelm and his brother Friedrich wanted to preserve the status quo of their duchy as its joint rulers, and even  started hiring soldiers and shouldering support of various lords (like prince Lew Sapieha) and kings of Europe, hence James I of Scotland and England, and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and Johann Georg I of Saxony. Perhaps - says dr Balcerek in a private exchange - the Scottish pair of pistols was part of a larger gift presented by the Kelter brothers to prince elector Johann Georg to ask him to intervene on their behalf at the Polish court.
Pistols stayed in Dresden but Wilhelm had to be gone from Courland for ever.
Fortuna audaces juvat.

Valete

A Scottish pistol gift for Polish Vassal duke of Courland Frederic Kettler

 Salvete Omnes,

 

back to the XVII century - our northern European part of the Eurasian continent. 

 So Courland & Semigallia, a westerly region within today's Latvia, was a duchy and fiefdom of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569AD.  

In the early XVII century the duchy was ruled by two dukes Friedrich (Frederic)(1567- )  and his brother Wilhelm (1574-  ), sons of the former Grand Master of the Latvian Order Gotthard Ketler, the first ruler of this post-Livonian Order & Livonian Confederation statelet.  

Gotthard Ketler and his wife Anna (she was from the medieval pagan prince Niklot and his descendants Slavic Obodrite dynasts, then of Holy Roman Empire duchy of Mecklenburg, that survived there until 1918AD)

Dukes Friedrich and Wilhelm ruled during the time when Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into the more than 60 year period of wars against the Swedish Kingdom for the southern and south eastern Baltic provinces of Polish realm. You can, if you read Polish or by using translator, read Polish researcher  Mariusz Balcerek's work Ksiestwo Kurlandii i Semigalii w wojnie Rzeczypospolitej ze Szwecja w latach 1600-1629 (The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in the War between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden in years 1600-16290 published in 2012 - available for reading or download on Academia. There are good maps in this book, so it has many uses for any researcher. (I will point to pages in this book, writing Balcerek, Ksiestwo.. p..)

Duke Friedrich commanded a sizeable contingent of Courland's levy in the summer of 1605, when the  Swedish army landed in Courland. Duke had initiated action before our grand hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz with his Commonwealth army appeared on the front. During the Kircholm campaign duke Friedrich joined Chodkiewicz' army with a number of cavalrymen - pistoliers aka reiters. Duke himself wrote about three banners/companies(300-400?) that he took to Kircholm. Also a number of noblemen horsemen (a 100?) from Plityn/Piltene, separate from duke's reiters, took part in the battle, before having crossed the difficult ford across Western Dvina River. Their participation was important and significant, and they gave examples of bravery, sacrifice and heroism, losing brave commanders and horsemen like Sacken,Meden and brothers Dietrich and Ernst Brunnawen  (Balcerek, Ksiestwo,p.102-121 ).

The Pistol armed cavalry was a norm during the last 60 years in the German-speaking theaters of war in Europe. It quite agreed among the researcher that the German reiters made this short firearm the weapon for cavalryman of the period and of the future. And this rather  short-range effective firearms served well when in close-quarters combat.  Reiters aka Pistoliers used wheel-lock weapons, and also other types available then like snaphance  pistols and carbine.

It is believed that duke Friedrich received a gift, a pair or brace of snaphance pistols, from king James I, king of England, Wales and Scotland in 1615. And that in 1616 duke of Courland gifted these pistols to elector of Saxony, prince Johan Georg.

One of the surviving pistols is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts  (NY, USA) arms and armor collection. And the other pistol is at Dresden, Federal Republic of German. From the MET from there we got some nice photos of this splendid pistol

 

another Scottish snaphance pistol from Chicago museum.

Valete