Skip to content

Bare and Jernberg Tree

Some history revealing why the Palatines left Germany

Media file
Title: Some history revealing why the Palatines left Germany
Media type: story
Format: htm
Record ID number
bf4bea83-63c2-4fd9-9d38-0f12e4866ef9

OBJE:DATE
1700&#39 S

OBJE:PLAC
Palatine, Germany

OBJE:_DSCR
http://www.kennamer.com/kenimer.htm

OBJE:_META
<metadataxml><content><line>&lt;!-- SN:TREESUI09 --&gt;&lt;p&gt;HISTORY&lt;/p&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt;Earliest Germans&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt; &lt;p&gt;In 113 BC the Cimbri and Teuton tribes began a migration southward from their northern homeland, now Denmark and Sweden, probably because of the encroachment on their land by the sea. About 300,000 strong, they came southward into Yugoslavia and defeated a Roman army sent to intercept them. They then went into France where they defeated two more Roman armies and in 102 BC, a Roman army led by Marius defeated the invaders and pushed them back across the Rhine River.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Caesar described them as barbarians and early Roman writings portray them as fierce and uncouth. They were huge, tall men with powerful limbs, blue eyes, and reddish or blond hair. They were fearless and of great strength in the first onrush of battle but their staying power was limited due to inadequate battle discipline and training.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Rhine River was the boundary between Gaul and Germany and was Rome&amp;rsquo;s northern frontier in Western Europe. The Rhine border held for many years until from 12 BC to 9 AD when Emperor Augustus mounted a series of campaigns to extend the Rhine boundary eastward to the Elbe River. The Germans defeated three Roman legions under Publius Varus in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and the Romans pulled back to the Rhine which halted Roman plans to conquer Germany.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the border towns and areas of the Rhine and Danube Rivers, the Germans became rather Romanized and vice versa and many Germans served in Roman armies and there were many German generals and other important officers in the Roman army that received lands and titles for such service.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;Christianity&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Franks defeated the last great Roman army in Gaul in 486 AD and by 507 AD their King Clovis ruled over most of Gaul and the Western part of Germany and was the political organizer of both France and Germany. He converted to orthodox Catholic Christianity instead of the Arian Christianity that other German tribes embraced. He won the support of the Catholic clergy and opened the door of Germany for the Roman Catholic Religion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 718, Pope Gregory II called on the English missionary St. Boniface to preach the word of God to the German tribes. He established many abbeys and in 723 became bishop, primate of Germany and representative of the Pope.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Charlemagne, who ruled from 768 o 814, advanced the Frankish border to the Elbe River. He defeated the warlike Saxons after 30 years of war and forced them to accept Christianity. His defeat paved the way for the religious conversion and civilization of Germany. A grateful Pope Leo III made Charlemagne the Emperor on Christmas Day, 800. Under Charlemagne, churchmen were depended upon to carry out political duties. Large and wealthy feifs were granted to bishops and abbots and the institution of ecclesiastical principalities was founded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In about 1200, all of Germany had become the Holy Roman Empire. In 1220 Frederick II granted almost complete independence to the German Catholic Church. The clergy was exempt from taxation and from lay jurisdiction and the ecclesiastical princes were almost independent monarchs. From 1198 to 1216 under Pope Innocent III, nearly every European ruler submitted to the power and authority of the Catholic Church.&lt;/p&gt;In 1231 Frederick II granted great latitude to the German princes giving them control over local justice and other royal prerogatives. The land along the Rhine River was so divided up that it became either ecclesiastical principalities or belonged to small princelings. Most of the land and all of the power was in the hands of the church, the electoral princes, the lesser princes and some middle-class burghers of the prosperous German towns. The majority of the population, the peasantry, was burdened beyond endurance by dues and various levies by both state and church. Most peasants were practically slaves and were forced to stay on their landlord&amp;rsquo;s estates as serfs.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt;Religious Changes&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt; &lt;p&gt;Religious changes had been brewing for many years and now centered around the careers of Martin Luther (1483 &amp;ndash; 1546) and John Calvin (1509 &amp;ndash; 1564). The teachings of martin Luther helped spark the Peasant&amp;rsquo;s War of 1524 &amp;ndash; 1525, the greatest uprising in Germany&amp;rsquo;s history and all of Germany felt the impact of the revolt. The peasants stormed the castles and forced the nobles to grant their demands. Martin Luther failed to support their campaign and the revolt was put down with such great brutalities that the peasantry was eliminated as a political force for the next 300 years or so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lutheranism and Calvinism did however spread to the educated classes, especially the local rulers which resulted in the formation of several Lutheran states with some areas switching back and forth between Catholic and Protestant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Thirty Years War, which began as a civil war between the Catholics and Protestants, was waged from 1618 &amp;ndash; 1648. Before the end, most of the nations of Europe were involved. This war devastated Germany and killed more than half of the people. It took about 200 years for the nation to recover causing many people to leave for a new life in America. The Palatinate area was very hard hit and soldiers were not content to plunder but committed terrible acts of mayhem on the people. After devastation by advancing soldiers, retreating soldiers renewed the misery. The period of 1625 and 1636, especially miserable, was followed by a famine in 1625 &amp;ndash; 1638 adding to the suffering, even reducing the starving people to cannibalism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With the Peace of Westphalia in 1649, the upper Palatinate was given to the Duke of Bavaria and renamed Bavaria. The new electoral title of Palatinate was created for Karl Ludwig. This Palatinate area again became a battlefield in the war between France and Holland in 1674 &amp;ndash; 1675. The French general Turenne devastated it to keep it useless to his enemies. Again in 1685, France laid claim to a large part of the area and continued the devastation started by Turenne, even plowing up the fields and cutting down the orchards.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recatholization of the Palatinate&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;The French hostilities ended about 1693 and, as the French has supported the Catholics in the Thirty Years War, all of the Reformed and Lutheran churches, parsonages and schoolhouses had been put in the hands of the Catholic order. The Treaty of Ryswick in 1679 ended the war but the Protestants were compelled to accept the status quo of these Catholic usurpations. In effect, the Palatinate had again fallen into Catholic hands. The Protestant pastors and schoolmasters were driven away or thrown into prison. Hundreds of persecutions on persons and property were made and acts of corruption, tyranny, extravagance and heartlessness on the part of the Palatinate rulers were heaped upon the Protestants. While the country was on the verge of ruin, costly palaces were built and enormous retinues were maintained. While pastors and teachers were starving, hundreds of court officers lived in luxury and idleness. The burden of feudalism still lay heavy upon the peasants and the chasm between them and the upper classes became more and more widened.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the proverbial &amp;quot;straw that broke the camel&amp;rsquo;s back&amp;quot; was the severe winter of 1708 &amp;ndash; 1709 in this area &amp;ndash; probably the worse winter storm in history as recorded at that time. The precise temperature is not known, as Gabriel Fahrenheit did not invent the mercury thermometer until 1714.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This bitter cold caused animals to freeze in their tracks and birds to freeze while in flight. Even portions of the ocean were frozen. The cutting and gathering of firewood was impossible and many people froze to death. This disaster was perhaps one of the most pressing reasons that England began accepting refugees from this area, as will be discussed in the following pages.&lt;/p&gt;The movement of the Palatines to America and other countries due to religious oppression has perhaps been overworked. There were several reasons: (1) War, (2) The recatholization of the Palatinate, (3) The great poverty and (4) The severe winter of 1708 &amp;ndash; 1709.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face="Arial"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;p&gt;THE 1709 EMIGRATION&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt;In sympathy with the German peasants, England passed the Naturalization Act of March 23, 1709. Thirteen thousand Protestant peasants, about one-half from the Palatinate area, immigrated to London before the end of 1709. They had no money and were in rags. They were housed in empty warehouses and army tents while the hard-pressed authorities sought a solution for their settlement.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font size="3"&gt; &lt;p&gt;Some were sent to Ireland to strengthen the Protestant cause there but many of these returned to England because of unkind treatment and the lack of opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 1709, 3,000 were sent in ten ships to New York. They were closely packed, had poor food and suffered and epidemic of typhus. One sixth, or about 500, died on this long, hard trip.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They were located on land in the area of Mohawk, New York, by a scheme to produce naval stores for the British Navy with the profits from the venture going toward repaying the government for their transportation, subsistence and other costs. When expenses exceeded profits the result was perpetual serfdom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead of the forty acres that each family expected, small lots were given to build huts and establish gardens. The people could not leave the land and had to engage in the production of naval stores. They rebelled at this unsatisfactory situation and soldiers were sent in to establish control.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The land was not productive as the trees would not produce rosin and the project was closed down about 1712. The settlers were left to shift for themselves. Some of them moved to Schoharie, New York, and were victims of faulty titles and land disputes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 1722, Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania, learning of the distressed conditions of the people while visiting Albany, offered them asylum in Pennsylvania. In 1723, some of them went overland to the upper waters of the Susquehanna River following the river southwards into Pennsylvania near Lancaster turning into the Swatara River, following its upward course into Berks Country and founding their first settlement which they named Heidelberg.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here they were happy and prosperous and drew thousands of their fellow Palatines from Germany. For the next twenty years, about 50,000 settlers emigrated to York, Lebanon, Berks and Lehigh Counties in Pennsylvania. So many of these settlers were from the Palatinate area that the name Palatine was used as a general term for all German emigrants and in Philadelphia from 1727 to 1734 all emigrants were listed as Palatines.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An examination of present day Pennsylvania maps shows numerous German-sounding names of towns and cities in this and adjoining areas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;</line></content></metadataxml>

OBJE:_CREA
2020-01-11 20:15:44.000

OBJE:_CLON

_TID: 2262762
_PID: 380040845742
_OID: 6598e312-7835-4483-b0e1-00caae4179dc
OBJE:_ORIG
u

Unique identifier
7FA4344760C3438BBDC447D756A2ACC496DC

Given names Surname Sosa Birth Place Death Age Place Last change
Jagley Jack Jacob Bär Bear
Jacob (Bar) Bear
Jagely Jacob Baer
December 30, 1683
340 Zurich, Bezirk Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
6 1749
275 65 Elkton, Rockingham County, Virginia, United States of America
Never
Given names Surname Age Given names Surname Age Marriage Place Last change
Sources
Title Event data? Abbreviation Author Publication Individuals Families Media objects Shared notes Last change
Sources
Title Individuals Families Media objects Sources Last change
Shared places
Shared place Type Place Latitude Longitude Individuals Families