Philipp von Hutten

Hutten was born in Königshofen, Lower Franconia.[1] He passed some of his early years at the court of the Roman emperor Charles V. Charles granted the province of Venezuela (or Venosala as Hutten calls it), to the Welser family of Augsburg.

Capture and execution

Inspection of the Welser army by Georg von Speyer (right) and von Hutten (center) at Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

In autumn 1544, weakened by hunger and fever, he and his followers who survived returned to Coro. About 100 miles away from the city, he was captured and killed just before Easter, 1546 by the Spaniard Juan de Carvajal. Carvajal had in 1545 been appointed Captain-General of Venezuela by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo and feared the loss of his position upon Hutten's return.[2]

As the years had gone by with no news of Hutten and his followers, Carvajal had begun to feel secure in his position, and the return of the adventurers was not welcome to him. When he saw how few they were, he thought to force from them an acknowledgment of his authority. He was unsuccessful, and a subsequent attempt to seize them proved disastrous, for he was wounded by a traveling companion of Hutten's, Bartholomeus VI. Welser (the younger).

Carvajal was forced to pledge the Germans safe passage. In their journey to the coast, the adventurers took no precautions against attack, and were easily captured by Carvajal in April 1546, who, after keeping Hutten and Welser in chains for a time, had them beheaded. Eight years after Hutten's death, the Welsers' grant was taken from them, and German rule in Venezuela ceased.

Hutten left some letters, and also a narrative of the earlier part (1535 to 1546) of his adventures. The manuscript was brought to Germany, and lay so long in a library that it became almost illegible. It was finally published in the first volume of a collection entitled Literary and Historical Magazine by Meusel (Bayreuth and Leipzig, 1785). It bears the title "News from the Indies from Junker Philipp Hutten" (German: Zeitung aus India Junkher Philipps von Hutten) and contains information on the events in which the author took part while giving graphic descriptions of the countries through which he passed.

He was a relative of Ulrich von Hutten.

In 1983, Venezuelan author Francisco Herrera-Luque (1927–1991) published the novel La Luna de Fausto (Faust's Moon) narrating the adventures of von Hutten (called Felipe de Utre in old Spanish accounts) in a journey from Europe to wild American territories in the 16th century, until beheaded by Juan de Carvajal over a power dispute. According to the legend, his death was prophesied by Dr. Faust himself, who foretold he was going to die under a "red moon".

• Von Hutten, Philipp Zeitung aus India Junkher Philipps von Hutten 1785.
• Chapman, Walker The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis 1967.
• Herrera Luque, Francisco La Luna de Fausto 1983.
• Richter, Erich Die Welser landen in Venezuela W. Goldmann 1938.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hutten, Philipp von" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Hutten, Philipp von" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Hutten, Philip von" . Encyclopedia Americana.

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1892). "Hutten, Philip von" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.