Fugger

Infobox Former Country
native_name = "Grafschaft Kirchberg und Weißenhorn"
conventional_long_name = County of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn
common_name = Fugger
continent = Europe
region = Central Europe
country = Germany
era = Middle Ages
status = Vassal
empire = Holy Roman Empire
government_type = Principality
year_start = 1507
year_end = 1806
event_start = Pledged non-immediate
spaces|4County of Kirchberg and
spaces|4Lordship of Weißenhorn
date_start =

1507
event1 = Raised to Imperial noblility
date_event1 = 1511
event2 = Gained immediate
spaces|4Lordship of Glött
date_event2 =
1536
event3 = Fugger lands' immediacy
date_event3 = 1541
event4 = Joined Swabian Circle
date_event4 = 1563
event_end = Mediatised to Bavaria
spaces|4and Württemberg
date_end =
1806
p1 = Duchy of Bavaria
image_p1 =
p2 = Duchy of Württemberg
image_p2 =
p3 = Augsburg
image_p3 =
p4 =
image_p4 =
p5 =
image_p5 =
s1 = Kingdom of Bavaria
flag_s1 = Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg
s2 = Kingdom of Württemberg
flag_s2 = Flagge Königreich Württemberg.svg






image_map_caption = Map of Württemberg before the French Revolutionary Wars, showing the County of Fugger, with the Danube shown running through the centre of the image and the Iller forming the border between Württemberger lands (coloured) and Bavarian lands (non-coloured)
capital = Weißenhorn (nominally)
Imp. City Augsburg ("de facto")
footnotes = The Fugger (IPA2|ˈfʊgɐ) family was a historically prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and venture capitalists like the Welser and the Höchstetter families.

History

The first reference to the Fugger family in the Swabian Free City of Augsburg is the arrival of Hans Fugger recorded in the tax register of 1357. He married Klara Widolf and became an Augsburg citizen. After Klara's death, he married Elizabeth Gfattermann. He joined the Weaver's Guild, and by 1396 he was ranked high in the list of taxpayers.

His eldest son, Andreas Fugger, was a merchant in the weaving trade, and was nicknamed 'the rich Fugger', buying land and other properties.

Andreas's son, Lucas Fugger, was granted arms by the Emperor Frederick III, a golden deer on a blue background, and he was soon nicknamed 'the Fugger of the Deer'. However, he was too ambitious and went bankrupt.

Hans Fugger's younger son, Jakob the Elder, founded another branch of the family, This branch progressed more steadily and they became known as the 'Fuggers of the Lily' after their chosen arms of a flowering lily on a gold and blue background. Jakob was a master weaver, a merchant, and an alderman, and married Barbara Basinger, the daughter of a goldsmith. His fortune progressed, and by 1461, he was the 12th richest man in Augsburg. He died in 1469.

Jakob's eldest son, Ulrich, took over the business on his father's death, and in 1473 he provided new suits of clothes to Frederick, his son Maximilian I, and his suite on their journey to Trier to meet Charles the Bold of Burgundy and the betrothal of the young prince to Charles's daughter Maria. This started the very profitable relationship between the Fugger family and the Habsburgs. Ulrich died in 1510.

Ulrich's youngest brother Jakob Fugger ("illustration, below") was born in 1459, and was to become the most famous member of the dynasty. He married Sibylla Artzt in 1498, but they had no children. He was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511, and in 1519, led a consortium of German and Italian businessmen that loaned Charles V 850,000 florins (about 3000 kg of gold) to procure his election as Holy Roman Emperor over Francis I of France [cite book |author=Brechin, Gray A. |title=Imperial San Francisco: urban power, earthly ruin |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |year=1999 |pages= |isbn=0-520-22902-9 |oclc= |doi=] . The Fugger's contribution was 543,000 florins. Jakob died in 1525. He is considered to be one of the richest persons of all time and today, he is well known as Jakob Fugger 'the rich'.

Jakob's successor was his nephew Anton Fugger, son of his elder brother Georg. Anton was born in 1493, married Anna Rehlinger, and died in 1560.

In 1511, Jakob deposited the large sum of 15,000 florins as an endowment for some almshouses. In 1514, he bought up part of Augsburg and in 1516 he came to agreement with the city that he would build and provide a number of almshouses for needy citizens. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and the Fuggerei had come into existence. It is still used today.

Acquisitions

* Gablingen (1527)
* Mickhausen (1528)
* Burgwalden (1529; de icon Burgwalden, in "Landkreis" Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg)
* Oberndorf an der Donau (1533)
* Lands in Hungary (1535)
* Pflege Donauwörth (1536)
* Glött (1537)
* Babenhausen und Brandenburg (1539)
* Pleß (1546)
* Rettenbach (1547)
* Lands in Alsace (1551)
* Kirchheim (1551)
* Duttenstein Castle, near Dischingen (1551; de icon Schloß Duttenstein, in "Landkreis" Heidenheim, Baden-Württemberg)
* Eppishausen (1551)
* Niederalfingen (1551)
* Stettenfels (1551; de icon Burg Stettenfels, in "Landkreis" Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg)
* Reichau, near Boos (1551)
* Kettershausen und Bebenhausen (1558)

Popular Culture References

* In Joseph Heller's book "Something Happened," Bob Slocum remarks, "The Fuggers where all right as long as they stayed in Germany: then they sent their mothers here."

Gallery

ee also

* German colonization of the Americas
* Fuggerei

References

External links

* [http://www.fugger.de Fugger family website] (multilingual)