Francis of Waldeck

Count Franz von Waldeck (1491 – 15 July 1553) was Prince-Bishop of Münster, Osnabrück, and Minden in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. He suppressed the Münster Rebellion, a millenarian Anabaptist theocratic insurrection which occupied the fortified city of Münster. Biography Franz was the son of Count Philip II of Waldeck-Eisenberg (1453–1524), who while being originally destined for the ministry, took a greater interest in his family's more worldly duties and thus became governor of the County of Ravensberg. His mother was the Countess Catherine von Solms-Lich (1467–1492), daughter of Count Kuno von Solms-Lich and Countess Walpurgis von Dhaun. Franz was the third and last son of six children of Count Phillip and Countess Catherine. A year after Franz's birth, his mother died. Franz von Waldeck was early on destined to fulfill his father's original ambition for a place in the aristocratic cathedral chapter. Because chapter members were required to obtain a secular law degree, Franz began studying in Erfurt in 1506 and moved to Leipzig in 1510. Without having received sacred orders, he did receive numerous "Kanonikerpräbenden". Franz was, among other things, a canon in Cologne, Trier, Mainz and Paderborn, as well as dean of St. Alexander's Foundation in Einbeck. Franz von Waldeck's attitude towards the Reformation was ambiguous. In the early 1530s, the city of Münster embraced the Reformation, but soon fell under the control of the radical Bernhard Rothmann. Von Waldeck took action against the city, including the confiscation of goods owned by city merchants. In February 1533, both sides settled their differences with the Treaty of Dülmen. Von Waldeck conceded full religious freedom to the city.