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Walburgis, Countess of Rietberg

Rietberg, 1555 – Esens, 26 May 1586

9 facts2 sources

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 1555

    Born in Rietberg

  2. 26 May 1586

    Dies in Esens

Family

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Parents

Partner

During her lifetime

She lived through 4 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Rietberg.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1550s · Walburgis, is born in Rietberg

In the news1555

Peace of Augsburg enacted (1555)

The 1555 Peace of Augsburg established the legal principle that local princes could determine the religion of their subjects as either Lutheran or Catholic. If subjects disagreed with their ruler's choice, they were granted the right to emigrate with their property and families.

At the table

Rare Festive Pastries

For ordinary families, sweet pastries fried in fat, known as Nonnenfürzle, were rare festive delicacies served on special occasions like church festivals. They were made from choux pastry and, according to local tradition, were named for the hissing sound they made as steam escaped in the hot fat.

What people wore

Class-based clothing regulations and currency limits

Strict regulations controlled social class appearance; for example, commoners were forbidden from wearing gold, silver, pearls, or silk. A wife of a commoner could wear a simple gold ring worth no more than five or six guilders, without gemstones.

Getting around

Walking as the primary mode of transport

Most ordinary people traveled on foot, often covering 20 to 30 kilometers in a day.

What it cost

Grain price surge during early 1570s famine

During the severe food crisis of the early 1570s, grain prices in Augsburg and Nuremberg soared to five to ten times their usual level.

Music

Wedding musician pay based on social status

City councils regulated the musicians employed for weddings based on social status, with pay for brass and wind players reaching two guilders, while bagpipers and fiddlers received half a guilder.

Daily life

Beer was safer than water

Drinking water was often unhygienic and contaminated, so beer was frequently consumed instead because brewing made it safer and provided essential calories.