Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg

Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg
*Herzogtum Sachsen-Wittenberg* (German)
Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg Herzogtum Sachsen-Wittenberg (German)
1296–1356
	Banner of arms Coat of arms
	Roman Catholic
Government	Feudal Duchy
Dukes
• 1296–1298	Albert II of Ascania[a]
• 1298–1356	Rudolf I of Ascania
Historical era	Meissen
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Duchy of Saxony
Electorate of Saxony
	a: Albert II was co-ruler of undivided Saxony, with John I, from 1260

The Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-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

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

House of Hohenstaufen: He backed the succession of Conrad of Hohenstaufen as German king, who in turn deprived his Welf rival Henry the Proud of the Saxonian Duchy in 1138 and gave it to Albert. However, his rule was strongly contested by the local nobility and in 1142 Albert finally had to resign as duke in favour of Henry the Proud's son Henry the Lion. Albert later took part in the Wendish Crusade of 1147 and in 1157 established the Margraviate of Brandenburg

. He died in 1170.

The third chance for the Ascanians came, when in 1180 ambitious Henry the Lion was deposed as Saxon Duke by Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick partitioned Saxony among his allies into more than a dozen immediate territories. Among the supporters, Archbishop Philip of Cologne received the largest share as the newly created Duchy of Westphalia. The Saxon ducal title at least passed to late Albert's youngest son, Count Bernhard of Ballenstedt

, who nevertheless only ruled over small, mostly Eastphalian fringes of the old duchy.

Anhalt, Wittenberg and Lauenburg

Duke Bernard died in 1212 and his two surviving sons divided the Saxon heritage: the elder

Belzig as well as the northern lordship of Lauenburg with Amt Neuhaus and Land Hadeln at the Elbe estuary

.

After Albert I's death in 1260, his two heirs,

Albert III

, followed by his death three years later, the three brothers and their uncle Albert II continued the joint rule as Saxon dukes.

Upon the death of Margrave

Adolph of Nassau, the brother-in-law of Archbishop Siegfried II of Cologne on 27 April 1292. The bishop, together with King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, had succeeded in bringing Albert II in favour of electing Adolph (Albert II had signed an elector pact on 29 November 1291 that he would vote the same as Wenceslaus). In 1295, Albert II would again enlarge his Saxon territory when he acquired the County of Gommern

.

Duchy of Wittenberg

The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295.[1] The definite partitioning of the Duchy of Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-Lauenburg), jointly ruled by the brothers Albert III, Eric I and John II and Saxe-Wittenberg (German: Herzogtum Sachsen-Wittenberg), ruled by Albert II took place before 20 September 1296. The Vierlande, Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg), the Land of Ratzeburg, the Land of Darzing (today's Amt Neuhaus), and the Land of Hadeln are mentioned as the separate territory of the brothers.^[1] Duke Albert II received the Wittenberg lands around the eponymous city, Brehna and Gommern. He thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg.

When Rudolph succeeded his father Albert II as Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1298, he and the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg rivallingly claimed the Saxon

John II of Saxe-Lauenburg, claiming the Saxon prince-electoral power, Archbishop Peter of Mainz, and Albert's Ascanian cousin Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg. Frederick the Fair received in the same election four of the seven votes, with the deposed King Henry of Bohemia, illegitimately assuming electoral power, Archbishop Henry II of Cologne, Louis' brother Count Rudolph I of the Palatinate

, and Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, equally exercising the Saxon electoral dignity.

However, only Louis the Bavarian, co-elected with Saxe-Lauenburg's vote, finally asserted himself as emperor after the 1322 Battle of Mühldorf by the Treaty of Trausnitz on March 13, 1325. As an obvious opponent, Duke Rudolph I failed with his claims to Brandenburg after the line of his Ascanian cousins became extinct in 1319: King Louis IV seized the margraviate and enfeoffed his son Louis V instead. Rudolph I in turn allied with the rivaling House of Luxembourg. He supported Count Charles IV of Luxembourg as anti-king to Louis IV and on that account exclusively received the Saxon electoral dignity with the Golden Bull of 1356, thus slighting Saxe-Lauenburg. Saxe-Wittenberg thereupon came to be known as the Electorate of Saxony (Kursachsen).

Kurkreis

, after 1554

When the Ascanian line in the

Meissen and the Saxon lands of Wittenberg under his rule. He assumed the electoral title and thereby transferred the state of Saxony up the Elbe river to his Meissen residence. His lands were also called "Upper Saxony" (see: Upper Saxon Circle) to distinguish them from the territory of the medieval stem duchy, the later Lower Saxony. The territory of former Saxe-Wittenberg became known as the Kurkreis ("Electoral District"). By the division of the Saxon Electorate according to the 1485 Treaty of Leipzig, the Wittenberg lands including the electoral dignity fell to Ernest of Wettin

.

Notes

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ISBN 978-3-529-02606-5

[Cordula_Bornefeld_2008,_pp._373-389-1] 
ISBN 978-3-529-02606-5

[1]