Weigand von Redwitz
Weigand von Redwitz (1476–1556) was the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg from 1522 to 1556.
Biography
Weigand von Redwitz was born in Tüschnitz, which is today a district of Küps, in 1476, the son of Heinrich von Redwitz zu Theisenort und Tüschnitz and his wife Agatha von Bibra. He was from a family originating in Redwitz an der Rodach.
He was a canon of Bamberg Cathedral by 1490.[1] As of 1520, he was the senior priest of Kronach. There, his assistant parish priest was Johannes Grau, who in 1522 married a local woman and fled to Wittenberg.
He was elected Prince-Bishop of Bamberg on 18 June 1522, with Pope Adrian VI confirming his appointment on 7 January 1523.[2] He was consecrated as a bishop by Andreas Henlein, auxiliary bishop of Bamberg, on 30 August 1523.[2]
The Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg was decimated during the German Peasants' War of 1525, with 70 houses and several monasteries being destroyed. When diplomacy failed to resolve the dispute, von Redwitz asked the Swabian League to intervene in the Prince-Bishopric. Swabian League forces under the command of Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg helped to crush the peasants' revolt in Bamberg.
The Second Margrave War (1552–55) occurred at the end of von Redwitz's reign, with the forces of Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach invading the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg to enforce Albert Alcibiades' claims to Bamberg and Forchheim. Albert Alcibiades conquered those two cities on 19 June 1552.
Von Redwitz died in Kronach on 20 May 1556.[2]