Duke Frederick of Saxe-Weimar (1 March 1596 in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

– 29 August 1622 in Fleurus, Belgium) was a prince from the Ernestine branch of the

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 ori ...

and a Colonel in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

Life

Duke Frederick was the son of John II of Saxe-Weimar and his wife Dorothea Maria of Anhalt, sister of Prince Louis I of Anhalt-Köthen. His brothers were the Dukes John Ernest the Younger of Saxe-Weimar, William IV of Saxe-Weimar, Albert of Saxe-Eisenach, John Frederick of Saxe-Weimar, Ernest I of Saxe-Gotha, and

Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar Bernard of Saxe-Weimar (german: Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar; 16 August 160418 July 1639) was a German prince and general in the Thirty Years' War. Biography Born in Weimar within the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, Bernard was the eleventh son of Joha ...

. With his older brother, Duke John Ernest the Younger, he received his first lessons from the tutor and Hofmeister Friedrich von Kospoth. He also studied in Jena, like his brothers John Ernest the Younger and Frederick. The Fruitbearing Society was founded on 24 August 1617 at Hornstein Castle (now Williamsburg Castle). Frederick was a founding member. Prince Louis I of Anhalt-Köthen gave him the nickname ''der Hoffende'' ('"the Hopeful'") and the motto ''it will be so''. His emblem was ''a half-ripe cherry, hanging on the three''. In the register of the Society at Köthen, he is registered as number 4. A few weeks later, Duke Frederick began his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

. This led him via France to Britain and back through the Netherlands. He returned home in 1619. He fought on the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

side in the

, together with his brothers John Ernest the Younger, John Frederick and William IV. He served as a colonel under Ernst von Mansfeld. In the regiment of Christian the Younger of Brunswick, he tried to break through the blockade of the Spanish troops during the Battle of Fleurus and was fatally wounded. He died the next day, aged 26. Dukes of Saxe-Weimar House of Wettin 1596 births 1622 deaths 17th-century German people Sons of monarchs {{Germany-hist-stub