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- BIOGRAPHY
Reinhard was a German military leader, military engineer and military theorist of the Renaissance. He was born at the castle of Lich on 12 October 1491, the son of Philipp, Graf zu Solms-Lich, and Adriana, Gräfin von Hanau-Münzenberg. He was baptised in the collegiate church of the city of Lich. He shared an interest in military theory with his father, who had studied in Mainz, Heidelberg and Erfurt, and was held in high regard as an imperial councillor under emperors Maximilian I and Charles V, and as a privy councillor to Friedrich III 'der Weise', Kurfürst von Sachsen.
On 13 January 1524 Reinhard married Maria, Gräfin zu Sayn-Hachenburg, daughter of Gerhard III, Graf zu Sayn-Hachenburg, and Gräfin Johannetta zu Wied-Runkel. They had fourteen children of whom Ernst I, Ursula, Amalia and Hermann Adolf would have progeny.
Between 1516 and 1522, Reinhard was a follower of the Swabian knight Franz von Sickingen, a supporter of Martin Luther, but he then pulled back for a time from the political and religious tensions of his time. He returned to a military role in the 1534 campaign against the Anabaptists in Münster, where he gained insights into the latest military developments.
In 1507 his father had started to modernise the fortifications of Lich, a task Reinhard continued. In 1528 or 1531 he began the fortification of Hanau against artillery; around the medieval city wall he built an earthen wall on top of a brick foundation, together with five earthen rondels.
From 1538 to 1542 and again in 1560, Reinhard worked on the expansion of the Bavarian fortress of Ingolstadt to cope with modern artillery warfare, and here he further developed the system of earthworks he had added to Hanau. He also worked on similar projects in Augsburg, Landshut, Friedberg, Königshofen, Forchheim and possibly the castle of Mansfeld.
From the early 1540s Reinhard was increasingly drawn to the side of Emperor Charles V and against the princes opposed to him. In the imperial campaign against France in 1544 he commanded the bombardment and mining of St. Dizier on the Marne. He also won over the knights of Franconia, Thuringia and on the Rhine to the imperial cause. In 1546 he was appointed an imperial field marshal and in 1547 imperial commander-in-chief of Frankfurt. In 1557 he became commander of the lands of the Upper Rhine, and in 1558 he became an imperial councillor.
From the 1530s Reinhard had been engaged in literary projects, mainly relating to military theory and the construction of fortifications.
Reinhard died on 23 September 1562, and was buried in the collegiate church of Lich.
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