1.
Albert I, Duke of Saxony
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Albert I was a Duke of Saxony, Angria, and Westphalia, Lord of Nordalbingia, Count of Anhalt, and Prince-elector and Archmarshal of the Holy Roman Empire. Even though his grandfather Albert the Bear had held the Saxon dukedom between 1138 and 1142, this Albert is counted as the first. A member of the House of Ascania, Albert was a son of Bernard III, Duke of Saxony. Albert supported Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, in his wars against the Hohenstaufen, in 1218 Alberts maternal uncle Prince-Archbishop Valdemar of Denmark, who had been deposed from his Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, found refuge in Saxony, before he joined the Loccum Abbey as monk. After Bornhöved Albert reinforced and extended his fortress and castle in Lauenburg upon Elbe, Albert came into conflict with Ludolph I, Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg, and duly imprisoned Ludolph, where he was badly beaten, and later sent into exile. 1241 Count John I of Schauenburg and Holstein-Kiel In 1238 Albert married Agnes of Thuringia, daughter of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia Agnes, ∞ Duke Henry of Silesia-Breslau Jutta, ∞ m
2.
Duke of Saxony
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This article lists Dukes, Electors, and Kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 9th century to the end of the Saxon Kingdom in 1918. See Counts Palatine of Saxony In the 10th century the Emperor Otto I created the County Palatine of Saxony in the Saale-Unstrut area of southern Saxony. Hadugato Berthoald Theoderic Widukind Abo Banzleibs With the final removal of the Welfs in 1180, westphalia fell to the Archbishop of Cologne, while the Duchies of Brunswick and Lüneburg remained with the Welfs. The Ascanian Dukes had their base further east, near the Elbe, the post carve-up Saxony is therefore sometimes called the younger Duchy of Saxony. Also the counting of its dukes is discontinued, the second post carve-up duke Albert I is already usually counted as the first, although before 1180 he had one predecessor of the same name, being even his grandfather Albert the Bear. The new dukes replaced the Saxon horse emblem and introduced their Ascanian family colours and emblem added by a bendwise crancelin, symbolising the Saxon ducal crown, the later rulers of the House of Wettin adopted the Ascanian coat-of-arms. In 1314 both lines found themselves on different sides in a double election, eventually, the Dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg succeeded in 1356 after the promulgation of the Golden Bull. To distinguish him from other rulers bearing the title Duke of Saxony, for the predecessor see the section Ascanian or younger Duchy of Saxony above in this article. Of these, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe-Altenburg lasted until 1918 and this article does not list the subsequent Ernestine dukes. The Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the right to participate in the election of a Holy Roman Emperor to the Duke of Saxony in the Saxe-Wittenberg line, for the predecessor see the section Ascanian Dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg above in this article. The Holy Roman Empire came to an end in 1806, the Elector of Saxony, allied to Napoleon I, anticipated its dissolution by becoming the ruler of an independent Kingdom of Saxony in 1806. The legal line of succession of the house of Wettin has continued to the present, for later rulers, see List of Ministers-President of Saxony. House of Wettin Line of succession to the former Saxon thrones History of Saxony Coat of arms of Saxony House Laws of the Kingdom of Saxony
3.
Frederick II, Elector of Saxony
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Frederick II, The Gentle was Elector of Saxony and was Landgrave of Thuringia. Frederick was the eldest of the seven children of Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, 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 and 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, after Henrys death in 1435, and Sigismund was forced to renounce and became a bishop in, Frederick and William divided their possessions. In the Division of Altenburg in 1445, William III received the Thuringian and Frankish part, disputes over the distribution led however in 1446 to the Saxon Brother War, which found an end only on 27 January 1451 with the peace of Naumburg. It belongs therefore to the oldest still existing borders of Europe, after the death of Frederick, both of his sons, Ernest and Albert, first took over the government together. After Duke William III died in 1482, Thuringia returned to Fredericks line, in Leipzig on 3 June 1431 Frederick married Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Ernest of Austria and Cymburgis of Masovia. They had eight children, Amalia, married on 21 March 1452 to Louis IX, anna, married on 12 November 1458 to Albert III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg. Article in the ADB Die Wettiner
4.
George, Duke of Saxony
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George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, was duke of Saxony from 1500 to 1539. Duke George was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece and his father was Albert the Brave of Saxony, founder of the Albertine line of the Wettin family, his mother was Sidonie, daughter of George Podiebrad, King of Bohemia. Elector Frederick the Wise, a member of the Ernestine branch of the same family, George, as the eldest son, received an excellent training in theology and other branches of learning, and was thus much better educated than most of the princes of his day. George was married at Dresden, on 21 November 1496, to Barbara Jagiellon, daughter of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Elisabeth and they had ten children, but all, with the exception of a daughter, died before their father, Christof. Johann, Hereditary Duke of Saxony, married on 20 May 1516 to Elizabeth of Hesse, Frederick, Hereditary Duke of Saxony, married on 27 January 1539 to Elisabeth of Mansfeld. Christine, married on 11 December 1523 to Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, magdalena, married on 6 November 1524 to Joachim Hector, then Hereditary Elector of Brandenburg. In 1498, the emperor granted Albert the Brave the hereditary governorship of Friesland, at Maastricht,14 February 1499, Albert settled the succession to his possessions, and endeavoured by this arrangement to prevent further partition of his domain. He died 12 September 1500, and was succeeded in his German territories by George as the head of the Albertine line, the Saxon occupation of Friesland, however, was by no means secure and was the source of constant revolts in that province. But this arrangement did not restore peace in Friesland, which remained a source of trouble to Saxony, in 1515 George sold Friesland to the future Emperor Charles V for the very moderate price of 100,000 florins. He tried tot keep the lands of het Bildt which werent granted him by Charles V. These troubles outside of his Saxon possessions did not prevent George from bestowing much care on the government of the ducal territory proper. When regent, during the lifetime of his father, the difficulties arising from conflicting interests, in his desire to achieve good order, severity, and the amelioration of the condition of the people, he sometimes ventured to infringe even on the rights of the cities. From the beginning of the Reformation in 1517, Duke George directed his energies chiefly to ecclesiastical affairs, the duke was not blind to the undeniable abuses existing at that time in the Church. Some years later, he wrote a preface to a translation of the New Testament issued at his command by his private secretary, Hieronymus Emser. Lutheran books were confiscated by his order, wherever found, though he refunded the cost of the books, for those, however, who merely held anti-catholic opinions, the punishment was only expulsion from the duchy. The duke deeply regretted the constant postponement of the ardently desired council and he vainly sought to obtain from the Curia the right, which was sometimes granted by Rome, to make official visitations to the conventual institutions of his realm. His reforms were confined mainly to uniting the almost vacant monasteries and to matters of economic management, in 1525, Duke George formed, with some other German rulers, the League of Dessau, for the protection of Catholic interests. In the same way he was the spirit of the League of Halle, formed in 1533
5.
Grimma
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Grimma is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde,25 kilometres southeast of Leipzig. 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district, the town is in northern Saxony,25 kilometres southeast of Leipzig and 16 kilometres south of Wurzen. The river Mulde flows through the town, a significant section of which is situated in a floodplain, massive floods in 2002 washed away the old Pöppelmannbrücke bridge and caused significant damage to buildings in the town. In the summer of 2013 there was further flood damage, the Margraves of Meissen and the Electors of Saxony often resided at the castle in the town. Grimma was the scene of witch trials between 1494–1701, at least two women were executed as witches. By 1890 the population had reached 8,957, the city was affected by heavy flooding in 2013
6.
Emden
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Emden is a town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the town of the region of East Frisia and. The exact founding date of Emden is unknown, but it has existed at least since the 8th century, older names for Emden are Amuthon, Embda, Emda, and Embden. Town privilege and the coat of arms, the Engelke up de Muer was granted by Emperor Maximilian I in 1495. In 1542 she invited the Polish noble John Laski to become pastor of a Protestant church at Emden, however, in 1549 following pressure from the Emperor Charles V, the Countess was forced to ask Laski to leave for England and the experiment came to an end. Nevertheless, the legacy was important for the reformation in the Netherlands, Emden was a very rich town during the 17th century, due to large numbers of Dutch immigrants such as Diederik Jansz. It was a centre of reformed Protestantism at that time, producing the first Bible translation in Dutch, the Emden Revolution in 1595 resulted in Emden becoming a distinct city-state. The political theorist Johannes Althusius served as Syndic from 1604 to 1638, in 1744 Emden was annexed by Prussia. In 1752 Frederick the Great chartered the Emden Company to trade with Canton, the town was recaptured by Anglo-German forces in 1758 and for the rest of the conflict was used as a major supply base by the British to support the ongoing war in Westphalia. During the Napoleonic French era, Emden and the lands of East Frisia were part of the short-lived Kingdom of Holland. Industrialization started at around 1870, with a mill and a somewhat bigger shipyard. At the end of the 19th century, a big canal, the Dortmund-Ems Canal was constructed and this made Emden the seaport of the Ruhr area, which lasted until the 1970s. Coal from the south was transported to the North Sea port, and imported iron ore was shipped via the canal towards Rhine, the last iron ore freighter was moored in the port of Emden in 1986. In 1903, a shipyard was founded which still exists today. The town centre was almost completely wiped out as a result of Allied bombing raids during the Second World War, the RAF first bombed Emden on 31 March 1940. The most severe bombing took place on 6 September 1944, when roughly 80 percent of all houses in the centre were destroyed. In the collective memory of the town, this date still plays an important role, the shipyard area was largely untouched – the British targeted the civilian areas, apparently in revenge for the bombing of Coventry by the Luftwaffe. The reconstructed town was opened on 6 September 1962, exactly 18 years after the bombing, the main industries in Emden are automobile production and shipbuilding
7.
Meissen
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Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral, the Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district. German, Meißen, Meissen French, Misnie Latin, Misnia, Misena, Misnensium Polish, Miśnia Czech, Míšeň Upper Sorbian, Mišno Lower Sorbian, in 968, the Diocese of Meissen was founded, and Meissen became the episcopal see of a bishop. The Margraviate of Meissen was founded in 968 as well, with the city as the capital of the Margraves of Meissen. A market town by 1000, Meissen passed to the Duchy of Poland in 1002 under Boleslaw I the Brave, afterwards into hands of Henry II a few months later, in 1015 Meissen was besieged by the Poles led by future King Mieszko II. The city was at the forefront of the Ostsiedlung, or intensive German settlement of the rural Slavic lands east of the Elbe, the construction of Meissen Cathedral was begun in 1260 on the same hill as the Albrechtsburg castle. The resulting lack of space led to the cathedral being one of the smallest cathedrals in Europe, the church is also known as being one of the purest examples of Gothic architecture. In 1423 Meissen became capital of the Electorate of Saxony, in 1464 the capital was moved to Dresden. In 1759 the Austrians defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Meissen, during World War II, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located in Meissen. Meissen is famous for the manufacture of porcelain, based on local deposits of china clay. Meissen porcelain was the first high-quality porcelain to be produced outside of the Orient, the first European porcelain was manufactured in Meissen in 1710, when by decree of King Augustus II the Strong the Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Porcelain Factory was opened in the Albrechtsburg. In 1861, it was moved to the Triebisch river valley of Meissen, along with porcelain, other ceramics are also manufactured. The Albrechtsburg, the residence of the House of Wettin, is regarded as being the first castle to be used as a royal residence in the German-speaking world. Built between 1472 and 1525, it is an example of late Gothic style. It was redecorated in the 19th century with a range of murals depicting Saxon history, today the castle is a museum. Nearby is the 13th-century Gothic Meissen Cathedral, whose chapel is one of the most famous places of the Wettin family. The hill on which the castle and the cathedral are built offers a view over the roofs of the old town, meissens historical district is located mostly around the market at the foot of the castle hill. It contains many buildings of Renaissance architecture, also imposing is the view from the 57 metre high tower of the Frauenkirche, situated in the old market-place
8.
Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria
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Catherine of Saxony was the second wife of Sigismund, Archduke of Austria and Regent of Tyrol. Catherine was the eldest child of Albert III, Duke of Saxony and her paternal grandparents were Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Margaret of Austria, daughter of Ernest, Duke of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were George of Poděbrady and his first wife Kunigunde of Šternberk, Catherine had three surviving brothers George, Henry and Frederick. At the age of 16, in 1484 in Innsbruck, Catherine became the wife of the Archduke Sigismund. The Archduke had previously married to Eleanor of Scotland, who had left him no surviving children. Catherine and Sigismund had no children, Catherine played little part in the politics of Tyrol. A former lover Sigismund who was against the young bride falsely claimed in 1487 that Catherine was trying to poison her husband, the political style of the Archduke was no longer tenable, he was losing control of his Tyrolean Estate to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Therefore, constant quarrels with the Emperor followed because of the newly introduced limitations that the Archduke made, by 1490, Catherine had significantly less budget than before the limitations. Catherine married soon after the Archdukes death in 1496/97 to Eric I, the marriage produced one short-lived daughter, Anna Maria. Catherine died in 1524 and was buried in Minden, Eric remarried and had surviving children
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Albert III.". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 497–498. Endnote: See
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 