Welser family

Common card · No. 372307

The Welser family was a noble German family of bankers and merchants active between the 14th and 19th centuries. Originally patricians based in Augsburg and Nuremberg, its members rose to great prominence in international high finance in the 16th century as bankers to the Habsburgs and financiers of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled large sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas, including the slave trade. The family received colonial rights of the Province of Venezuela from Charles V, who was also King of Spain, in 1528, becoming owners and rulers of the South American colony of Klein-Venedig (within modern Venezuela), but were deprived of their rule in 1546. Philippine Welser (1527–1580), "renowned for her learning and beauty", was married to Archduke Ferdinand, Emperor Ferdinand I's son. Claiming descent from the Byzantine general Belisarius, the...

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