Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg

Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg
Noble family	House of Hanau
Father	Reinhard IV, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
Mother	Catherine of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg
Born	(1508-06-29)29 June 1508
Died	Hanau
Buried	Church of St. Mary in Hanau

Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg (29 June 1508 – 9 December 1534, in Hanau) was a posthumous son of Count Reinhard IV of Hanau-Münzenberg (1473 - 1512) and his wife Countess Catherine of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (d. 1514).

Life

From 1529, he acted as co-regent for his nephew, Count Philip III, whose father had died young. He continued the construction of fortifications around Hanau, which his brother Philip II had begun. He supplemented the fortresses with a defensive ring according to the latest technical standard of the Renaissance.

Balthasar never married. Like most male members of the Hanau-Münzenberg line, he died young, in 1534, at the age of 26. He was buried in the church of St. Mary in Hanau.

One of Hanau's city gates was decorated with a bust of Balthasar, until the gate was demolished in the 18th century. The bust fell into the hands of the Historical Society of Hanau. It was destroyed when the city was bombed on 19 March 1945. Only drawings of it remain.

Ancestors

Family of Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg

8. Reinhard III, Count of Hanau (1412-1452)                       4. Philip I, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (1449-1500)                             9. Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach (1432-1457)                       2. Reinhard IV, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (1473-1512)                                   10. John IV, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (1410-1475)                       5. Adriana of Nassau-Dillenburg (1449-1477)                             11. Maria of Loon-Heinsberg (1424-1502)                       1. Philip II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg                                         12. Henry XXVI of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (1418-1488)                       6. Günther XXXVIII of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (1450-1484)                             13. Elisabeth of Cleves (1420-1488)                       3. Catherine of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg (1470-1514)                                   14. Bruno VIII of Querfurt (1426-1496)                       7. Catherine of Querfurt (d. 1521)                             15. Elisabeth of Mansfeld (d. 1482)

References

• Reinhard Dietrich: Die Landes-Verfaßung in dem Hanauischen. Die Stellung der Herren und Grafen in Hanau-Münzenberg aufgrund der archivalischen Quellen, in the series Hanauer Geschichtsblätter, vol. 34, Hanauer Geschichtsverein, Hanau, 1996, ISBN 3-9801933-6-5
• Eckhard Meise: Bernhard Hundeshagen — kein Denkmalschutz im Hanau des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts, in: Neues Magazin für hanauische Geschichte, 2006, ISSN 535233-2, p. 3–61.
• Reinhard Suchier: Genealogie des Hanauer Grafenhauses, in: Reinhard Suchier (ed.): Festschrift des Hanauer Geschichtsvereins zu seiner fünfzigjährigen Jubelfeier am 27. August 1894, Heydt, Hanau, 1894, p. 7–23.
• Ernst J. Zimmermann: Hanau Stadt und Land. Kulturgeschichte und Chronik einer fränkisch-wetterauischen Stadt und ehemaligen Grafschaft. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der älteren Zeit, 3rd extended edition, self-published, Hanau, 1919, reprinted: Peters, Hanau, 1978, ISBN 3-87627-243-2