51 Facts About Jakob Fugger

Jakob Fugger of the Lily, known as Jakob Fugger the Rich or sometimes Jakob II, was a major German merchant, mining entrepreneur, and banker.

Jakob Fugger was a descendant of the Fugger merchant family located in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg.

Jakob Fugger was born and later elevated through marriage to Grand Burgher of Augsburg.

Jakob Fugger began his education at the age of 14 in Venice, which remained his main residence until 1487.

Jakob Fugger grew rapidly after the brothers Ulrich, Georg and Jakob began banking transactions with the House of Habsburg as well as the Roman Curia, and at the same time began mining operations in Tyrol, and from 1493 on the extraction of silver, and copper in the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

Jakob Fugger contributed to the first and only trade expedition to India that German merchants cooperated in, a Portuguese fleet to the Indian west coast, as well as a failed 1525 Spanish trade expedition to the Maluku Islands.

Jakob Fugger financed the rise of Maximilian I and made considerable contributions to secure the election of the Spanish king Charles I to become Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Jakob Fugger funded the marriages which later resulted in the House of Habsburg gaining the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

Jakob Fugger secured his legacy and lasting fame through his foundations in Augsburg.

Jakob Fugger is among the most well-known Germans and arguably the most famous citizen of Augsburg, with his wealth earning him the moniker "Fugger the Rich".

Jakob Fugger was born the tenth of eleven children to Jakob Fugger the Elder and his wife Barbara Basinger, daughter of Munzmeister Franz Basinger.

The Jakob Fugger family had already established themselves as successful merchants in the city.

Hans Fugger, grandfather of Jakob Fugger, had taken up residence in Augsburg in 1367, became a burgher through marriage and acquired considerable wealth by trading textiles with Italy.

Jakob Fugger's brother Markus was a cleric and from 1470 on a writer in a papal chancery in Rome where he died in 1478.

Loans given to Emperor Frederick III and supplies given to his entourage by Ulrich Jakob Fugger were the reason for the family being granted the lily coat of arms in 1473.

Until 2009 historians assumed that Jakob Fugger, who was a minor order at the age of 12, had lived as a canon in a church located in Herrieden.

Jakob Fugger laid the foundation of his mining business in Salzburg.

Jakob Fugger provided loans to the independent silver mine owners in the Salzburg Slate Alps which had constant need for new capital.

Jakob Fugger was responsible for his family's business in Augsburg, Tyrol, Venice and Rome.

Notable was the form of payment: Instead of paying the Furst directly the Jakob Fugger family paid the money to his creditors as well as providing the wages for the royal court and craftsmen.

In 1517 the Jakob Fugger family financed more than half of Tyrol's public budget.

Jakob Fugger met the young Roman-German king for the first time in 1489 at a Frankfurt fair.

Criticism from reformer Martin Luther on the Fugger business methods and novelistic portrayal from early research have led to the notion that Jakob Fugger exercised considerable power over Maximilian I the king and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, while more recent research shows that this was only partially true.

When Maximilian's grandson Charles V stood for election to become the next Emperor, Jakob Fugger raised a sum of more than 500,000 guilders, a significant portion of his wealth and of the total amount raised in his support, to ensure the seven prince-electors would choose him.

Much later the Jakob Fugger family lost a large portion of their wealth following three Spanish state bankruptcies under the reign of Philip II of Spain.

Mines funded by Jakob Fugger were constructed in Neusohl, at the time part of the Hungarian Kingdom.

For transportation to the ports of Gdansk, Stettin and Lubeck on the Baltic Sea Jakob Fugger funded the construction of a new road across the Jablunkov Pass.

The Jakob Fugger family were the first German trading house in a direct business relationship with the Roman Curia.

In 1477 the Jakob Fugger business was responsible for transferring church revenues from Sweden to Rome.

Jakob Fugger received permission to trade pepper, other spices, and luxury goods such as pearls and gemstones through Lisbon.

However, the Portuguese were still largely dependent on the copper delivered by Jakob Fugger which was an essential export good for the trade with India.

Unlike the Welser family, Jakob Fugger's participation in the overseas trade was very cautious and conservative, and the only other operation of this kind he invested in was a failed 1525 trade expedition to the Maluku Islands led by the Spaniard Garcia de Loaisa.

Especially for mining projects in upper Hungary the Jakob Fugger company required enormous capital, which at the time it could not raise.

Jakob Fugger had to deliver jewels as compensation to the Pope.

Since the death of his brothers Georg in 1506 and Ulrich in 1510, Jakob Fugger was now running the Fugger business as the sole policy and decision maker.

Jakob Fugger was renamed into "Jakob Fugger und Gebruder Sohne".

Out of this 850,000 guilders Jakob Fugger himself funded around 550,000 while another merchant house of Augsburg, the Welser family, contributed about 150,000 and three Italian bankers providing the rest.

Jakob Fugger was the last Emperor to receive a papal coronation.

The Jakob Fugger company was involved in the Spanish mining business up to the year 1645.

In 1498 the 40-year-old Jakob Fugger married Sybille Arzt Grand Burgheress of Augsburg, the 18-year-old daughter of an eminent Augsburg Grand Burgher.

Four years after the wedding, Jakob Fugger bought for his young wife 40,000 guilders' worth of jewels from the treasure of Burgundy, among them the jewel known as the Three Brothers, which the Fuggers later sold to Edward VI to become part of the Crown Jewels of England.

Jakob Fugger wanted to demonstrate that he was after all equal to the Habsburgs, at least financially.

Seven weeks after her husband died, Sybille Arzt married a business partner of Jakob Fugger and converted to the Protestant faith.

The citizens of Augsburg now demanded the unhindered spread of the Evangelical faith, which brought Jakob Fugger, who preferred to remain Catholic and thus remain loyal to the Emperor, especially since he operated his mines in Habsburg lands and had very high outstanding debts with the Emperor, into contrast to the majority of his fellow citizens.

The descendants of Jakob Fugger have remained Catholic to this day.

Together with his brother Ulrich and on behalf of his deceased brother Georg, Jakob Fugger founded the Fugger chapel in the Carmelite monastery's St Anna church located in Augsburg.

When St Anne's Church became Protestant in 1548, the Jakob Fugger Chapel remained Catholic because the Jakob Fugger Foundation continued to look after it and contributed to the upkeep of the church.

The Fugger family already owned two houses in Augsburg in prominent locations when Jakob Fugger built the Fuggerhauser near the wine-market from 1512 to 1515.

Later members of the Jakob Fugger family enlarged the complex several times.

In 1515 Jakob Fugger advocated for an improved sermon in the church of his parish St Moritz.

Jakob Fugger made several contributions to churches and monasteries in Augsburg some of which still show the Fugger family's coat of arms.

Jakob Fugger funded the church San Blas in Almagro, Spain and the reconstruction of the Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome.