Philip the Magnanimous

FILIPPO il MAGNANIMO. — Landgrave of Hesse, born on 13 November 1504, died on 31 March 1567. He succeeded his father Guglielmo II in 1509 and, after several years of regency, assumed power in 1518, excluding the nobles from any interference in the government. With great energy he suppressed the peasants’ revolt. At first hesitant before the « reform », in 1524 a conversation with Melanchthon convinced him to adhere to II.
From this moment F. devoted himself to creating a union of all the Evangelicals. To this end, in 1526 he convened the assembly of Homberg, where the Reformatio Hassiae was adopted, establishing a presbyterial order and the autonomy of the communities, but it was not implemented. Persisting tenaciously in his programme of unity, F. arranged for Luther and Zwingli to meet at Marburg in 1529, but the attempt was unsuccessful. F.’s attitude brought him into increasingly bitter conflict with the Emperor and the Catholic princes. After the Diet of Augsburg, Hesse and Saxony led the Schmalkaldic League. A serious blow to the interests of the Evangelicals was dealt by F.’s scandalous private life: in 1540 he separated from his wife Cristina di Sassonia and, with her consent, married a lady-in-waiting. The fact came to light and caused a stir; since the laws of the Empire punished bigamy with the death penalty, F. purchased Carlo V’s pardon by undertaking to prevent the Schmalkaldic League from allying itself with France and England. In the Schmalkaldic War F. acted feebly and gave no assistance to Saxony, which had been attacked by the Imperial forces. After the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), F. submitted to the Emperor, who had him deported to the Netherlands, where he was released only in 1552 by the princes’ revolt.

Roberto Palmarecchi