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Ernestine Duchies
The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose number varied and which were largely located in the present-day German state of Thuringia and governed by dukes of the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin. Overview The Saxon duchy began fragmenting in the 15th century, as a result of the old German succession law that divided inheritances among all sons. In addition, every son of a Saxon duke inherited the title of duke. Brothers sometimes ruled the territory inherited from their father jointly, but sometimes they split it up. Some of the Ernestine duchies retained their separate existence until 1918. Similar events in the houses of Reuss and Schwarzburg led to all of Thuringia becoming a tangle of small states from the late 15th century until the early 20th century. Before the Ernestine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coat Of Arms Of Saxony
The coat of arms of the present-day German free state of Saxony shows a tenfold horizontally-partitioned (''Barry of ten'') field of black (''sable'') and gold/yellow ('' or'') stripes,Freistaat Sachsen official website Accessed 2009-05-19. charged with a green ('''') crancelin (a stylized common rue) running from the viewer's top-left to bottom-right (''in bend''). Although the crancelin is sometimes show ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchy Of Saxony
The Duchy of Saxony ( nds, Hartogdom Sassen, german: Herzogtum Sachsen) was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Saxony was one of the five German stem duchies of East Francia; Duke Henry the Fowler was elected German king in 919. Upon the deposition of the Welf duke Henry the Lion in 1180, the ducal title fell to the House of Ascania, while numerous territories split from Saxony, such as the Principality of Anhalt in 1218 and the Welf Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1235. In 1296 the remaining lands were divided between the Ascanian dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg, the latter obtaining the title of Electors of Saxony by the Golden Bull of 1356. Geography The Saxon stem duchy covered the greater part of present-day Northern Germany, including the modern Ger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick II, Elector Of Saxony
Frederick II, The Gentle (''Friedrich, der Sanftmütige''; Frederick the Gentle) (22 August 1412 – 7 September 1464) was Elector of Saxony (1428–1464) and was Landgrave of Thuringia (1440–1445). Biography Frederick was born in Leipzig, the eldest of the seven children of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, and Catherine of Brunswick and Lunenburg. After the death of his father in 1428 he took over the government together with his younger brothers William III, Henry and Sigismund. In 1433 the Wettins finally concluded peace with the Hussites and in 1438 Frederick led Saxon forces to victory in the Battle of Sellnitz. That same year it was considered the first federal state parliament of Saxony. The parliament received the right to find together in case of innovations in fiscal matters also without summoning by the ruler. Also in 1438 it was decided that Frederick, and not his rival Bernard IV, duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, was entitled to exercise the Saxon electoral vote a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick I, Elector Of Saxony
Frederick I, the Belligerent or the Warlike (german: Friedrich der Streitbare; 11 April 1370 – 4 January 1428), a member of the House of Wettin, ruled as Margrave of Meissen from 1407 and Elector of Saxony (as Frederick I) from 1423 until his death. He is not to be confused with his cousin Landgrave Frederick IV of Thuringia, the son of Landgrave Balthasar. Biography He was the eldest son of Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia, and Catherine of Henneberg. After the death of his uncle William I, Margrave of Meissen in 1407, he was made governor of the Margraviate of Meissen together with his brother William II as well as with his cousin Frederick IV (son of Balthasar), until their possessions were divided in 1410 and 1415. In the German town war of 1388 he assisted Frederick V of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, and in 1391 did the same for the Teutonic Order against Wladislaus II of Poland. He supported Rupert III, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, in his stru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landgrave
Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' (" margrave"), and ' ("count palatine") are in the same class of ranks as ' ("duke") and above the rank of a ' ("count"). Etymology The English word landgrave is the equivalent of the German ''Landgraf'', a compound of the words ''Land'' and ''Graf'' (German: Count). Description The title referred originally to a count who had imperial immediacy, or feudal duty owed directly to the Holy Roman Emperor. His jurisdiction stretched over a sometimes quite considerable territory, which was not subservient to an intermediate power, such as a duke, a bishop or count palatine. The title survived from the times of the Holy Roman Empire (first recorded in Lower Lotharingia from 1086: Henry III, Count of Louvain, as landgrave of Brabant). By definition, a la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margraviate Of Meissen
The Margravate of Meissen (german: Markgrafschaft Meißen) was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast '' Marca Geronis'' ( Saxon Eastern March) in 965. Under the rule of the Wettin dynasty, the margravate finally merged with the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg into the Saxon Electorate by 1423. Predecessors In the mid 9th century, the area of the later margravate was part of an eastern frontier zone of the Carolingian Empire called Sorbian March (''Limes Sorabicus''), after Sorbian tribes of Polabian Slavs settling beyond the Saale river. In 849, a margrave named Thachulf was documented in the '' Annales Fuldenses''. His title is rendered as ''dux Sorabici limitis'', "duke of the Sorbian frontier", but he and his East Frankish successors were commonly known as ''duces Thuringorum'', "dukes of the Thuringians", as they set about establishing their power over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margrave
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Empire and the title came to be borne by rulers of some Imperial principalities until the abolition of the Empire in 1806 (e.g., Margrave of Brandenburg, Margrave of Baden). Thereafter, those domains (originally known as ''marks'' or ''marches'', later as ''margraviates'' or ''margravates'') were absorbed in larger realms or the titleholders adopted titles indicative of full sovereignty. History Etymologically, the word "margrave" ( la, marchio, links=no, ) is the English and French form of the German noble title (, meaning "march" or "mark", that is, border land, added to , meaning "Count"); it is related semantically to the English title "Marcher Lord". As a noun and hereditary title, "margrave" was common among the languages of Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Wettin
The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt. The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire. Members of the family became the rulers of several medieval states, starting with the Saxon Eastern March in 1030. Other states they gained were Meissen in 1089, Thuringia in 1263, and Saxony in 1423. These areas cover large parts of Central Germany as a cultural area of Germany. The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 by the Treaty of Leipzig: the Ernestine and Albertine branches. The older Ernestine branch played a key role during the Protestant Reformation. Many ruling monarchs outside Germany were later tied to its cadet branch, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Albertine branch, while l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was a monarch as King of Hungary and Croatia ('' jure uxoris'') from 1387, King of Germany from 1410, King of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1437, as well as prince-elector of Brandenburg (1378–1388 and 1411–1415). He was the last male member of the House of Luxembourg. Sigismund was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and his fourth wife Elizabeth of Pomerania. He married Queen Mary of Hungary in 1385 and was crowned King of Hungary soon after. He fought to restore and maintain authority to the throne. Mary died in 1395, leaving Sigismund the sole ruler of Hungary. In 1396, Sigismund led the Crusade of Nicopolis, but was decisively defeated by the Ottoman Empire. Afterwards, he founded the Order of the Dragon to fight the Turks and secured the thrones of Croatia, Germany and Bohemia. Sigismund was one of the driving forces behind the Council of Constance ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Bull Of 1356
The Golden Bull of 1356 (, , , , ) was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz ( Diet of Metz, 1356/57) headed by the Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the '' Golden Bull'' for the golden seal it carried. In June 2013 the Golden Bull was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Background According to the written text of the Golden Bull of 1356: Though the election of the King of the Romans by the chief ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Holy Roman Empire was well established, disagreements about the process and papal involvement had repeatedly resulted in controversies, most recently in 1314 when Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria had been elected by opposing sets of electors. Louis, who had eventually subdued his rival's claim on the battlefield, made a first attempt to clarify the process in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince-elector
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince-electors had the privilege of electing the monarch who would be crowned by the pope. After 1508, there were no imperial coronations and the election was sufficient. Charles V (elected in 1519) was the last emperor to be crowned (1530); his successors were elected emperors by the electoral college, each being titled "Elected Emperor of the Romans" (german: erwählter Römischer Kaiser; la, electus Romanorum imperator). The dignity of elector carried great prestige and was considered to be second only to that of king or emperor. The electors held exclusive privileges that were not shared with other princes of the Empire, and they continued to hold their original titles alongside that of elector. The heir apparent to a secular prince ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saxe-Wittenberg
The Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg () was a medieval duchy of the Holy Roman Empire centered at Wittenberg, which emerged after the dissolution of the stem duchy of Saxony. The Ascanian dukes prevailed in obtaining the Saxon electoral dignity until their duchy was finally elevated to the Electorate of Saxony by the Golden Bull of 1356. History Ascanian struggle for Saxony The Eastphalian count Otto of Ballenstedt (d. 1123), ancestor of the House of Ascania, had married Eilika, a daughter of Duke Magnus of Saxony from the House of Billung. As the Billung male line became extinct upon Magnus's death in 1106, Otto hoped to succeed him, however King Henry V of Germany enfeoffed Count Lothair of Supplinburg. During the following long-term dispute between Henry and Lothair, Otto was able to gain the title of a Saxon (anti-)duke, though only for a short time in 1122. Lothair was elected King of the Romans in 1125 and in 1134 he vested Otto's son Albert the Bear with the Saxon N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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