William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
Encyclopedia
William IV of Hesse-Kassel (24 June 1532 – 25 August 1592), also called William the Wise, was the first Landgrave
Landgrave
Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...

 of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). He was the founder of the oldest line, which survives to this day.

Life

William was born at Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

, the eldest son of Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
Philip I of Hesse, , nicknamed der Großmütige was a leading champion of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany....

 and Christine of Saxony
Christine of Saxony
Christine of Saxony was a German noble, landgravine of Hesse. She was the regent of Hesse in 1547-1549....

. After his father's death in 1567, the territory of Hesse
Landgraviate of Hesse
The Landgraviate of Hesse was a Landgraviate of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a unity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided between the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.-History:...

 was divided between the four sons out of the late landgrave's first marriage and William received the portion around the capital Kassel.

William took a leading part in safeguarding the Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 and was indefatigable in his endeavours to unite the different sections of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 against Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

. However, he was reluctant to use military force in this conflict.

As an administrator he displayed rare energy, issuing numerous ordinances, appointing expert officials, and in particular ordering his slender finanances. By a law of primogeniture he secured his land against such testamentary divisions as had diminished his father's estate.

Astronomical work

William is most notable for his patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

 of the arts and sciences. As a youth he had cultivated close connections with scholars and as a ruler he kept up this connection. William was a pioneer in astronomical
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 research and perhaps owes his most lasting fame to his discoveries in this branch of study. Most of the mechanical contrivances which made Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations...

's instruments so superior to those of his contemporaries were adopted at Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 about 1584, and from that time the observations made there seem to have been about as accurate as Tycho's; but the resulting longitudes were 6' too great in consequence of the adopted solar parallax of 3'.

The principal fruit of the observations was a catalogue of about a thousand stars, the places of which were determined by the methods usually employed in the 16th century, connecting a fundamental star by means of Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

 with the sun, and thus finding its longitude and latitude, while other stars could at any time be referred to the fundamental star. It should be noticed that clocks, on which Tycho depended very little, were used at Kassel for finding the difference of right ascension
Right ascension
Right ascension is the astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system. The other coordinate is the declination.-Explanation:...

 between Venus and the sun before sunset; Tycho preferred observing the angular distance between the sun and Venus when the latter was visible in the daytime.

The Hessian star catalogue was published in Lucius Barettus's Historia coelestis (Augsburg, 1668), and a number of other observations are to be found in Coeli et siderum in eo errantium observationes Hassiacae (Leiden, 1618), edited by Willebrord Snell. R. Wolf, in his Astronomische Mittheilungen, No. 45 (Vierteljahrsschrift der naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zurich, 1878), has given a resume of the manuscripts still preserved at Kassel, which throw much light on the methods adopted in the observations and reductions.

Family and children

William was married to Sabine of Württemberg, daughter of Christoph, Duke of Württemberg
Christoph, Duke of Württemberg
Christoph of Württemberg, Duke of Württemberg ruled as Duke of Württemberg from 1550 until his death in 1568....

. They had the following children:
  1. Anna Marie (27 January 1567 – 21 November 1626), married on 8 June 1589 to Count Louis II of Nassau-Saarbrücken
  2. Hedwig
    Hedwig of Hesse-Kassel
    Hedwig of Hesse-Kassel was a princess of Hesse-Kassel by birth and by marriage a Countess of Schaumburg.- Life :...

     (30 June 1569 – 7 July 1644), married on 11 September 1597 to Count Ernst of Schaumburg
    Ernst of Schaumburg
    Ernst of Schaumburg was the first of the Counts of Schauenburg-Pinneberg to earn the title of Prince, in 1619. However he died in 1622 without an heir. Schauenburg-Pinneberg had been a Protestant region since his grandfather Otto IV of Schaumburg had been won over to Martin Luther's teachings...

  3. Agnes (30 June 1569 – 5 September 1569)
  4. Sofie (10 June 1571 – 18 January 1616)
  5. Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
    Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
    -External links:...

     (25 May 1572 – 15 March 1632), succeeded as landgrave on William IV's death in 1592.
  6. Sabine (12 May 1573 – 29 November 1573)
  7. Sidonie (29 June 1574 – 4 April 1575)
  8. Christian (14 October 1575 – 9 November 1578)
  9. Elisabeth (11 May 1577 – 25 November 1578)
  10. Christine (19 October 1578 – 19 August 1658), married on 14 May 1598 to Duke John Ernst of Saxe-Eisenach
  11. Juliane, born and died 9 February 1581


In addition William had a few illegitimate children. Most significant and favored among these was Philipp von Cornberg (1553–1616), William's son by Elisabeth Wallenstein. Philipp was ennobled by his father and became the ancestor of the current Barons von Cornberg.

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