Count Christian of Waldeck-Wildungen (24/25 December 1585 – 31 December 1637), German: Christian Graf von Waldeck-Wildungen, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, was since 1588 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg and after the division with his brother in 1607 Count of Waldeck-Wildungen. He founded the new cadet branch of Waldeck-Wildungen and is the progenitor of the princes of Waldeck and Pyrmont.
Never before was the independence of the County of Waldeck more threatened by Hesse than during the reign of Count Christian. Together with his younger brother Wolrad IV, however, he later successfully continued the sovereignty-oriented territorial policy of their father Josias I. They made use of the legal possibilities and chose during the for Waldeck disastrous Thirty Years' War the for them favourable side of Sweden. However, neither count lived to see the end of the war and with it the conflict with Hesse.
Christian was born at Eisenberg Castle on 24/25 December 1585, the eldest son of Count Josias I of Waldeck-Eisenberg and Countess Mary of Barby and Mühlingen. When Josias I died suddenly and unexpectedly at Eisenberg Castle on 6 August 1588, where the guests for the baptism of his fourth child Wolrad were still staying, Christian and Wolrad were still minors. The reforms started by their father were not continued, to the advantage of the estates of the realm, which had come under pressure. The two young counts were under the custody and regency of their mother and Count Francis III of Waldeck-Landau. The other cadet branches of the House of Waldeck became extinct shortly after each other. Count William Ernest of Waldeck-Wildungen died young on 16 September 1598 of dysentery. With Count Francis III of Waldeck-Landau, who had opposed Hesse like no other before him, the cadet branch Waldeck-Landau also became extinct on 12 March 1597. As he had no descendants, Francis III bequeathed his share of the County of Waldeck by will and testament to the children of Count Josias I.
At a young age Christian and Wolrad witnessed how the hitherto dormant conflict over the sovereignty over the County of Waldeck developed from 1604 – the year in which Christian took over the government – into an open and later belligerent dispute which was dramatic for Waldeck. After the death of Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg, his cousin Maurice of Hesse-Kassel inherited part of the land. Although a change of religion was excluded by the will and testament and the Peace of Augsburg did not allow it, territorial lord Maurice, who converted to Calvinism in 1605, introduced the Reformed confession and exerted both political and religious pressure on Waldeck. Christian and Wolrad responded by making Lutheranism the religion for the entire county.
Wolrad came of age in 1607. In that same year the County of Waldeck was divided up again. For although Christian and Wolrad clearly acted jointly in government, they are said to have quarrelled regularly. Christian obtained Wildungen, Waldeck, Landau and Wetterburg together with the corresponding territories. His brother Wolrad IV got the northern part, with the cities of Arolsen and Rhoden. They jointly owned the city of Korbach.
From the beginning of their reigns in 1604 and 1607 respectively, Christian and Wolrad followed their father's policy entirely. After the long years of regency and thus the lack of an active policy adapted to the needs of the time, this would turn out to be very unpleasant for the young counts. Due to the long period of political stagnation, the now revived attempts to reorganise the country internally and at the same time the limitation of the feudal rights externally acted as a sharp caesura for the County of Waldeck.
Both counts had their imperial immediacy confirmed shortly after Matthias' coronation as Emperor on 20 January 1612, at which Christian was present. But this did not secure the county's sovereignty. The long absence of a strong territorial policy in the whole country led after 1607, when Christian and Wolrad tried to bring the County of Waldeck back in line with 'modern' developments, to such a large number of serious conflicts, that from 1614 onwards one can clearly speak of a deep governmental crisis. The number of sessions of the Landtag since then alone is proof of the tensions that existed in the county. But even more worrying was the external pressure that had been exerted on the county and its rulers by the completely unpredictable Landgrave Maurice, since the attack on the border town Freienhagen in 1615. From the increasing dangers from outside Christian and Wolrad drew the consequence that in the same year they sought to join the Wetterauer Grafenverein, in which smaller states united against Hesse and to which the Counts of Waldeck had already sought support during the time of Count Phillip II of Waldeck-Eisenberg. Furthermore, they did everything possible to introduce the defence measures, that had been implemented in the neighbouring counties, in Waldeck too. In view of Waldeck's feudal links with Hesse, Landgrave Maurice considered joining to be impossible. But Christian, through his marriage to Elisabeth, daughter of Count John VII 'the Middle' of Nassau-Siegen, had the counts of the Wetterauer Grafenverein on his side, even though Maurice was a son-in-law of John VII 'the Middle' too. But it was not until the attempts of Christian and Wolrad IV to gain dominion over the city of Korbach that provoked Landgrave Maurice to such an extent that he invaded and occupied the country.
Apart from the landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Christian and Wolrad also had disputes with the city of Korbach, the main domestic opposition. From 1610 onwards Christian and Wolrad had continued their father's efforts to control the largest and most influential city in the county. The controversial question of the highest jurisdiction in Waldeck, which the counts had answered in their favour, led initially to the Reichskammergericht. The judicial mills grinded slowly. A deduction drafted and published in 1619 by chancellor Zacharias Viëtor, which once again emphasised Waldeck's imperial immediacy, shows how dangerous the situation was for the independence of the County of Waldeck. In the summer of 1620 the situation had become so intense that Landgrave Maurice occupied the county – with the exception of Waldeck Castle and Arolsen. The county was to be annexed by Hesse. Waldeck was in danger of losing its independence more than ever before. The two Counts of Waldeck did not give up. The Wetterauer Grafenverein had sent soldiers to Waldeck, who were trapped in the castle together with Count John VII 'the Middle'. While Wolrad IV won Prince Maurice of Orange, one of the most successful military commanders of the time, as an ally and thus dragged the Dutch Republic into the conflict, Christian tried to win over Emperor Ferdinand II, whose life Christian had saved during a hunt. Christian was also chamberlain to the Emperor. The policy of Landgrave Maurice did not go unnoticed in the Holy Roman Empire, despite the fact that the Bohemian-Palatinate War was of greater importance. Under pressure from the Emperor and others and threats of disadvantages, the landgrave ended the occupation of Waldeck in the summer of 1621.
After the acute threat to the county had been averted, Christian and Wolrad did not give up and tried, through the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat, to get legally closer to their goal. Moreover, they demanded compensation for the damage that the soldiers of the Hessian landgrave had caused in Waldeck during the occupation. After lengthy negotiations, Emperor Ferdinand II obliged Landgrave Maurice in 1630 to pay. The negotiations ended in a settlement in Kassel in 1632. The subjugation of Korbach in February 1624, where a commissioner of the counts was appointed by treaty, thus eliminating the economic power that was still the strongest competitor in the county, contributed to a certain relaxation of the situation in the county.