Enno Ludwig

Born in Aurich on October 29, 1632. He was the eldest son in the family of Ulrich II, Count of Ostfriesland and Julianne of Hesse-Darmstadt, a princess from the House of Hesse . On the paternal side was the grandson of Enno III, Count of Ostfriesland and Anna Holstein-Gottorp, the princess from the house of Holstein-Gottorp . On the maternal side, he was the grandson of Ludwig V, the landgraf of Hesse-Darmstadt and Magdalena of Brandenburg, the princess from the house of the Hohenzollern .

The prince received his education in the best educational institutions of the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. In 1641 he received the title of imperial court adviser at the court of Emperor Ferdinand III . Thus, the emperor recognized his right to independently manage the county until he came of age. Enno Ludwig stripped his mother of regency and expelled all her advisers from the government. In 1651, having reached adulthood, officially proceeded to independent management of the county of Ostfriesland.

Soon after, he ordered the arrest and trial of Johann von Marengolts, the mother’s lover and secret adviser . He was found guilty of treason and executed in Wittmund on July 21, 1651. His wife, the maid of honor of the Dowager Countess, Elizabeth Ungnad von Weissenwolf was sent into exile. She was the mother of , the illegitimate son of Anton Gunther , Earl of Oldenburg, and through her influential brother David, Earl Ungnad von Weissenwolff at the court in Vienna, asked the emperor to consider her case and return her confiscated property.

Enno Ludwig tried to compensate for significant shortcomings in the administration and financial policies within the county by obtaining the dignity of the imperial prince. In 1654, with the help of the Ostfriesland scholar Herman Conring, he acquired the title of imperial prince for fifteen thousand guilders, but without the right to inherit it and without a seat on the prince's bench in the Reichstag. The hereditary title of the imperial prince was obtained by his brother George Christian in 1662.

He died in Aurich on April 4, 1660 as a result of a hunting accident. Since he only had daughters, he was succeeded by his middle brother George Christian, becoming a count, and since 1662, Prince of Ostfriesland.

Marriage and offspring

Enno Ludwig was engaged to Henrietta Katarina Nassau of Orange , with the princess from Nassau's house , but the engagement broke up. November 7, 1656, he married with Julian Sophia Justina Barbie-Müllingen, an aristocrat from the house of Barbie, Counts Barbie. In this marriage two daughters were born ^[1] :

• (11/16/1657 - 10/30/1715), Princess of Ostfriesland, secretly married in 1700 with pastor Joachim Morgenvek, a preacher in the church of Mary Magdalene at a shelter in Hamburg;
• Sophia Wilhelmina (10.17.1659 - 02.02.1698), Princess of Ostfriesland, was married on 4 February 1695 in Hamburg to Christian Ulrich I (04.04.1652 - 04.04.1704), Duke of Württemberg-Els.

• Walter Deeters. Enno Ludwig (neopr.) . Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. - The article "Enno Ludwig" on the site Biographical Dictionary of Ostfriesland. Date of treatment December 28, 2017. (German)