Wygand Brack's Mystery Patron
Brack taught fencing to...someone with a fancy title
Fencing masters would sometimes get rich people to pay them to do fancy fencing things. For example, Meyer’s treatises are dedicated to different lords, using flowery language such as “my most illustrious prince.”
It is easy to find who paid Meyer for his services due to those services being largely the writing down of fencing things in big books, living on in private libraries and collections long after his death, and the dedications within them simply naming names. Even Meyer’s contract with Duke Johann Albrecht of Mecklenburg, the job that led to his death, is mainly known due to the letters sent after he croaked, outlining the conditions of his employment and the return of his goods. These are special writings down, fencing treatises and letters concerning death, not day-to-day communications between Meyer and some folks he taught.
Meyer’s star pupil Wygand Brack, too, had a high-class patron, but finding out who exactly it was has been a little more difficult.
Wygand’s Patron…Doesn’t Match the Records
On June 19, 1579 Wygand Brack and 5 other fencing masters (including our boy, Gorg Kelerle) petitioned the Strasbourg council of XXI to hold fencing schools. Out of all the requests, Wygand’s is by far the longest and most interesting:
Wygand Brack p. d. Grysen, er hab Ims gleichwul furgenommen keyn Fechtschul mehr zu halten, Wan er aber durch Pfaltzgraf Jacoben angesprochen wurden, imszu gefallen eyn fechtschul zuhalten daweil er jenen[?] inn[?] ettlichen Wehren gelertt, hab er dassßelbig jen R. g. nicht abschlag[en] künnen, bitt Ime daruff eyne zugönnen.
Erkhant[.] dem Fürsten zuehren zugelass[en]. vnnd wel er bitt Ims selbichs biß mittwoch zuzulass[en], dasselbig vergönnt.
_
Wygand Brack through Doctor Grys, although he has been planning to no longer hold fechtschule, he has been approached by Count Palatine Jacob to hold a fechtschule to his pleasure. As he taught him in many manners of fighting, he has been unable to deny it to the Rhine Count, he thereupon requests to allow him one.
Recognized. Allowed in honor of the prince. And because he asks to allow him the same until Wednesday, the same [shall be] granted.
Transcription and Translation by Platy
This note mentions his hesitation to hold a fechtschule (he is likely very sick at this point, only holding 4 more and dying 4 years later in 1583), but more importantly name drops a Count Palatine Jacob as a previous student of his, and is obligated to hold a schule in his honor. So, Brack taught someone with the same title as Meyer’s 1570 book is dedicated to! Badass! He musta been a pretty bigshot fencing master, to have pulled such a fancy student!
But there’s a problem. There is no Count Palatine Jacob. After digging through countless Wittelsbach family trees, genealogy sites, books of family history, and more, there was no Pfalzgraf Jacob alive during that time. So, what now?
Hypothesis 1: His name is misspelled
The spelling of names in this era was a bit more loosey goosey than in modern times, and this request was made by Brack and not by the Count Palatine in question. It is possible that the name was mis-scribed, with the writer of the note mishearing or accidentally jotting down the wrong name in the note. So, who could it have been? What other “J” names fit the bill?
Suspect 1: Pfalzgraf Johann I of Zweibrucken
Johann 1, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken was in town and very active during this year for his wedding to Magdalene of Julich-Cleves-Berg. There are notes of his in the XXI record both before and after Wygand’s June fechtschule request, and such a large number of Fechtmeisters requesting fechtschule at the same time could track with a big festivity like the Count’s wedding coming up.
The Pfalz-Zweibrucken family also shows up frequently in the Strasbourg records from the 1550s onwards, often taking out loans from the council, so there could have been ample opportunity for one of them to contract Wygand for teaching fencing. However, even digging through out-of-Strasbourg records, I could find no references to Wygand or fencing in relation to Johann or his direct family…
Suspect 2: Pfalzgraf Johann Casimir of Simmern
This is Meyer’s dude. The 1570 is dedicated to him. He also appears in the XXI records in a near annual basis for over 30 years. He has money and likes fencing. Why would Meyer not send his chief pupil over to teach him fencing, if Meyer himself was too occupied at home? There is even less evidence here, however, and is simply a Pfalzgraf close to the Meyer fencing circle with a “J” name. He does show up really close to Brack fechtschule requests, including Brack’s final request in 1581, but again, no hard evidence or connection within this note.
Hypothesis 2: His title is written incorrectly
There are many different “-graf” ending titles during this time in Germany. From Rheingraf to Pfalzgraf to Markgraf, it would be easy enough for a sleepy scribe to go “wait, what kinda -graf did Brack say” during his fechtschule request and write it down wrong. I could find no other obvious examples of his happening, such as in a Casimir note labeling him as Marggraf by accident in the text, but hey, we’re throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Suspect 3: Markgraf Jacob zu Baden
A year later in 1580, there is a Fechtschule requested by Wygand Brack just 2 entries after a petition from a Markgraf Jacob, possibly this Margrave James III of Baden-Hachberg. Brack’s request does not include any names besides his own, and the only basis for this hypothesis is the name Jacob somethingGraf appearing close to Brack’s own name in the record.
This person would have been quite young at this time, around 18 years of age, so it is less likely that Brack would have taught him years before due to his youth. It’s not a strong connection, but it’s the only Count Jacob I could find in a few years worth of searching.
Brack’s Gap Year and Next Steps
My biggest bet is that it is Johann I of Zweibrucken, with the name simply mis-scribed. He was in town for the wedding, had a super involved family at the council, and likely had the money to pay for a private fencing master.
Additionally, in 1569/70 there is a gap in Wygand Brack’s city council records, concluding in Brack needing to re-purchase citizenship to Strasbourg on June 18th, 1570. During these gap years Johann I would have been around 19 years old, a perfect time for his father Wolfgang to hire a fencing master to teach his son to be a true noble, skilled in arms and the ways of manly combat. As an even bigger stretch, Johann I was known to have a limp and thus nicknamed “the Lame,” so perhaps a fencing master such as Wygand who had lameness in his hands would have been a good example for young Johann on what he could still achieve…
Next Steps:
Track down any reference to a fencing master, or even better, Wygand himself, in the records of the Wittelsbach-Zweibrucken family. This is very difficult, even with the Zweibrucken family being very well documented, and is built already around a shaky premise.
Do you have any ideas? Any sources for the Pfalzgraf family like archives that I may have missed? Share them in the comments, and remember that all of my research is open source through this and the connected Google Docs!
Thank Yous
Thank you to Platy for even more cool history insights and transcription help. Your ability to find connections in the Count families and have tons of resources whenever a name popped up was so helpful and cool to see. Also thanks to Chris, for putting up with me throwing tons of links and ideas into Discord and sharing his own insights back. And finally, thanks to everyone in the HEMA Discord for letting me bounce ideas off of you and pushing me to find more things!
Why do you think that R.g. means Rheingraf? Rheingraf is a unique title held by one family.
Another option is that the Pfalzgraf was not a Pfalzgraf von Rhein, but granted a personal title by the Kaiser.