Wolfgang Julius, Count of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein


Wolfgang Julius of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein was a German Field Marshal and the last Count of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein. He was the son of Kraft III of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein and Sophie of Birkenfeld, a daughter of Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld.

Life

During the Thirty Years' War the Hohenlohe Family had fled to Ohrdruf. In 1637, when he was 15 years old, Wolfgang Julius was stopped by a patrol and wounded in the face through a glancing shot. In 1643 he went on his Grand Tour to France. To earn money, he entered the regiment of the Imperial Marshal Josias Rantzau, where he was involved in a cabal, which earned him seven months imprisonment.
He returned home in 1657. There he became lieutenant-general of the troops of the League of the Rhine, which were set up to defend against the Turks in the Balkans. Wolfgang Julius was stationed in Styria. From 1664, he fought in Hungary and Croatia. He distinguished himself at the sieges of Pécs and Novi Zrin Castle which failed because the army was not unanimous. After the successful Battle of Mogersdorf he became field marshal, and returned to Hohenlohe with 800 men from the original 6500.
He bought the lordship of Wilhermsdorf, near Nuremberg, and retired there.
Since both his marriages were childless, his inheritance passed to his brother, John Frederick I of Hohenlohe-Oehringen.

Marriage

He married twice. On 25 August 1666 he married Sophie Eleanor of Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, daughter of Joachim Ernest, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön.
After her death he married on 4 September 1689 in Wilhermsdorf Countess Barbara Franziska of Welz-Wilmersdorf.