Simon Philip, Count of Lippe

Simon Philip, Count of Lippe (6 April 1632 in Detmold – 19 June 1650 in Florence) was a German nobleman. He was the nominal ruling Count of Lippe from 1636 until his death. However, as he was still a minor, his grandfather and later his mother acted as regent.

Life

He was the eldest son of Count Simon Louis and his wife Catherine of Waldeck-Wildungen.

Simon Philip and his younger brothers were still minors when their father died of smallpox in 1636. Their mother Catherine tried to become their guardian and regent. However, at the age of 24, she was still a minor herself,^[1] so she tried to have her father, Count Christian of Waldeck-Wildungen appointed as guardian and regent. However, her brother-in-law, John Bernard also claimed the regency and guardianship of his nephews.

Catherine was afraid that John Bernard might want to kill his nephews and inherit Lippe himself. She contacted the troops of Hesse-Darmstadt, who happened to be quartered in Lemgo and Rinteln. In 1638, a captain from Darmstadt kidnapped the children and brought them to Lemgo and Hamelin. Later they were brought to Marburg, where Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt took them in his care. George II was their first cousin once remove, as his paternal grandmother was the sister of the princes' great-grandfather.

In 1645, George II brought them to Giessen, to protect them against the ravages of the Thirty Years' War. However, in Giessen, they contracted smallpox, and Simon Philip's two younger brothers died there in 1646. In the meantime, their mother had remarried to Duke Philip Louis of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg, so she was now a Duchess. In 1647, she had her son kidnapped again, and he rerturned to Delmold via a detour. In Detmold, he was engaged to the seven years old Countess Elisabeth Charlotte of Holzappel.

In 1649, Simon Philip began his Grand Tour. It took him to Paris, Grenoble, Rome, Milan, and Florence. In Florence, he contracted smallpox. He died there in 1650. Since he had no male heir, his uncle John Bernard inherited the county.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Back then, people came of age in their 25th birthday