Lupold von Wedel

Lupold von Wedel (25 January 1544 – 13 June 1612/1615) was a German travel writer, mercenary leader and landowner.

He was the son of Kurt (Curdt) von Wedel (died 1552) and his second wife Anna von Borcke (died 1573). After the death of his father, he attended school for a short while in Stargard, but soon became a squire to the mercenary leader Vollrad von Mansfeld (1520-1578) and traveled and fought at his side all over Germany. This was to shape the rest of his life.

In the years from 1561 to 1606 he traveled the world as a soldier, later as a mercenary leader, a war reporter and travel writer. In 1566 he took part in the campaign against the Turks in Hungary. He also fought on the side of the Protestants in 1575 and 1591 in the Huguenot Wars in France, the Cologne War 1583-1584 and the Strasbourg Bishops' War 1592-1593. He traveled to the Holy Land, to Egypt (1578-1579), Italy, Spain and Portugal (1580-1581) and from August 1584 to May 1585 to England and Scotland. His notes about his stays in Franconia (1593) and Karlsbad are also historically valuable.

Wedel was only married at the age of 54, on 13 September 1598, to Anna von Eickstedt (1560-1629), the daughter of the Pomeranian chancellor Valentin von Eickstedt (1527-1579), lord at Klempenow, and Anna von Jasmund (1539-1607).

Publications

• Max Bär (ed.): Lupold von Wedel’s Beschreibung seiner Reisen und Kriegserlebnisse, nach der Urhandschrift herausgegeben und bearbeitet, Stettin 1895. Link
• G. von Bülow (transl.): Journey Through England and Scotland Made by Lupold von Wedel in the Years 1584 and 1585, in: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, London 1895

Further reading

• Max Bär: "Wedel, Lupold" von. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Vol. 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 413 f.
• Albert Emil Brachvogel: Ritter Lupold von Wedels Abenteuer, 3 volumes, Verlag Otto Janke, Berlin 1874