Gottfried Lehmann
Gottfried Lehmann von Lehensfeld (10 January 1664 – 24 December 1701) was a prussian officer, who served as chief of the prison of Wiener Neustadt. Him and his younger brother, Jakob Cristoph Lehmann, (1682? – ?) were key figures in the escape of Francis II Rákóczi, the leader of Rákóczi's War of Independence, which prompted his execution.
Life
He was a descendant of a Lutheran noble family from Pomerania. In 1689, he entered imperial service and rose to the rank of captain in the Castelli Dragoon Regiment. Around 1698/99, under the influence of the Jesuits of Wiener Neustadt, he converted to Catholicism, and soon afterward he married. One child was born from his marriage.
In the spring of 1701, he was serving at Laxenburg in Lower Austria, where he gained the trust of the heir to the throne, the future Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. It was probably thanks to this connection that in May of that year he was appointed commander of the troops assigned to guard Rákóczi and the political prisoners arrested together with him.
On the orders of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Rákóczi, who had been arrested on 18 April 1701 at his castle in Nagysáros, arrived at the fortress of Wiener Neustadt on 29 May. Commander Lehmann initially guarded the prince with great strictness. For example at meals, he personally cut up the meat and bread into small pieces to prevent any concealed object from being smuggled to the prisoner. However, this treatment was fundamentally determined by instructions from the imperial court.
Meanwhile, after learning of the charges brought against him, Rákóczi became convinced that he (in modern terms) was the victim of a show trial that would end either in a death sentence or life imprisonment. Rákóczi believed his only hope was to escape. His view of the matter was further influenced by the fate of his grandfather, Péter Zrínyi, and other family members. His wife, Princess Charlotte Amalie of Hessen-Wanfried, reached the same conclusion. Having unsuccessfully sought assistance by letter from several European rulers, she began to prepare for her husband's escape.
Lehmann’s views and conduct gradually began to change after he read letters from the envoys of the King of Prussia[1] and the King of England. Rákóczi’s wife had interceded with these monarchs, and as a result their envoys informed Rákóczi that they had received instructions from their sovereigns to promote his release. The letters were forwarded to the prison by the princess. Although the Prussian king’s intention to assist was not serious, his interest in the matter was not without effect. On the one hand, it influenced Lehmann, who considered himself to be a Prussian subject first and foremost[2] and his imperial service to Austria as temporary, therefore he believed that Rákóczi’s release was also in his own ruler’s interest. On the other hand, the letters aroused the attention of jesuit priest Friedrich Wolf, the confidential adviser of the easily influenced Emperor Leopold, who became convinced that condemning Rákóczi would be disadvantageous from a grand political perspective, whereas a favorable turn in his case would also help improve Austrian–Prussian relations. Wolf’s position likewise affected Lehmann’s outlook.
Princess Charlotte Amalie established contact with the captain through his younger brother, Ensign Jakob Christoph Lehmann. As events unfolded, Lehmann’s severe discipline steadily began diminishing. He facilitated correspondence between the prince and his wife and allowed Rákóczi to speak through the window with his wife’s agent. He himself began conversing with Rákóczi. The prince, an engaging and skilled conversationalist, soon won his sympathy, and after some time Lehmann became convinced of Rákóczi’s innocence. In the end, he himself offered to assist in the escape.
Rákóczi’s escape took place on the evening of 7 of November. Prior to this, on 24 October, Princess Charlotte Amalie, through the mediation of Captain Lehmann’s younger brother (evidently with the captain’s consent) visited the prince in prison to discuss the details of the plan. The escape was carried out under adventurous circumstances with the active cooperation of Lehmann and his brother. Rákóczi changed into a dragoon officer’s uniform in the captain’s room, left the prison in disguise, and, mounting a horse kept ready at a nearby house, made his way out of the city.
Captain Gottfried Lehmann was arrested the following day. He received severe punishment for assisting in the escape: he was first subjected to torture, then beheaded, and his body was quartered. In 1705, he was reburied by the Kurucs[3] in the cemetery of Kőszeg.[4]
The younger Lehmann, Ensign Jakob Christoph, successfully fled to Poland. After Captain Lehmann’s execution, Rákóczi later granted a life annuity to the captain’s widow and to Jakob Christoph Lehmann.
Notes
- ↑ Klaus-Jürgen Matz: Wer regierte wann? (Springer-Verlag, 1994) ISBN 963-7775-43-9 Search this book on
. (Hungarian translation)
- ↑ The usage of word "Prussian" is ambivalent. It could either mean that one is a Prussian national, or that one serves Prussia.
- ↑ Bariska, István; Németh, Adél (1983). Kőszeg. Magyar városok. Budapest: Panoráma. ISBN 978-963-243-183-3. Search this book on
- ↑ "Vas megyei temetők". Nemzeti Emlékhely és Kegyeleti Bizottság – Cemeteries of Vas county. Archived from the original on 2012-05-05. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
References
- Béla Köpeczi – R. Várkonyi Ágnes: II. Rákóczi Ferenc. 3. javított kiadás (Osiris Kiadó, Budapest, 2004) ISBN 963-389-508-1 Search this book on .
- II. Rákóczi Ferenc felségárulási perének története és okirattára. Közzétette, történeti bevezető tanulmánnyal és jegyzetekkel ellátta: Lukinich Imre. I–II. köt. Budapest, 1935. (Archivum Rákóczianum. I. osztály XI–XII. köt.)
Category:1701 deaths Category:1664 births Category:Military personnel of Prussia Category:People from Pomerania Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Executed military personnel Category:18th-century German military personnel Category:17th-century German military personnel
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