Maurice, Elector of Saxony

Maurice of Saxony

Maurice I, Elector of Saxony (March 21, 1521 – July 9, 1553) was a Duke of Saxony (1541–53) and later Elector (1547–53) of Saxony. His clever manipulation of alliances and disputes gained the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty extensive lands and the electoral dignity.

1521-1541: Infancy and Youth

Maurice was born in Freiberg as the fourth child but first son of the of the still Catholic Duke Henry IV and the Protestant Katharina of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

InDecember 1532 at the yard of its godfather Albrecht, cardinal and archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz. Long Moritz became acquainted with two years there the reflect-glad life of the cardinal, which brought Moritz ' uncle George the Baertigen to take over the training of the later Saxonian duke and educate it catholic. After 1536 Moritz ' father was converted to the protest anti-mash and the entire duchy had had to follow it, took these and its wife the education of their son again into the hand and its 18 years left it older cousin Johann Friedrich I., which resided in gate gau and was despised by Moritz. With a further cousin, to the land count Philipp of Hessen, whom it in Dresden know had learned, connected it however time life a friendship. After Moritz had become of age 1539, its parents began to look for a woman for him. Favoritin became of Philipps daughter Agnes. The marriage plans threatened to fail however, to be familiar became that Philipp led a double marriage. Moritz remained itself of it unbeeindruckt and for engaged without knowledge its parents with Agnes. The wedding particularly disapproved by its nut/mother took place on 11 January 1541. Letters from that time witness from a strong mutual confidence of the pair. Together they had two children: Anna of Saxonia, born on 23 December 1544, and Albrecht, born on 28 November 1545, which died one year later.

Biography

Maurice was born in Freiberg and succeeded his father, Duke Henry IV, in 1541. Although a Protestant, he aided the Catholic Emperor Charles V against the forces of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire (1542), Duke Wilhelm of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1543), and King Francis I of France (1544).

In 1545, he was dissuaded from supporting the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League by an Imperial promise of the Saxon electorship, then held by John Frederick the Magnanimous (1503-1554) of the rival Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty; Maurice returned to Charles's camp and conquered Electoral Saxony. Ousted in 1547, he returned after John Frederick's defeat in the Battle of Mühlberg (April 24 1547) and received the electoral dignity and sizable lands.

Soon, however, Maurice began to resent Charles's plans to reintroduce Catholicism in the Empire's Protestant territories and the continued imprisonment of his father-in-law, Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse, whose freedom Charles had guaranteed. Commissioned to capture the rebellious Lutheran city of Magdeburg (1550), Maurice seized the occasion to raise an army and signed anti-Habsburg compacts with France and Germany's Protestant princes. In March 1552 the rebels overran southern German states, including parts of Austria, forcing the Emperor to flee and release Philip.

In August 1552 the Lutheran position was provisionally guaranteed by the Peace of Passau. Again returning to the Emperor's camp, Maurice campaigned against the Ottomans in Hungary. Finally, in northwestern Germany, he confronted his former ally Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who had rejected the Passau armistice. He defeated Albrecht in the Battle of Sievershausen (1553) but was himself killed in this battle.

His only daughter Anna of Saxony married William the Silent and was mother to Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange.

References

• Georg Voigt, Moritz von Sachsen, Leipzig 1876.
• Erich Brandenburg, Moritz von Sachsen, Bd. I, Leipzig 1899.
• Günther, Wartenberg, Landesherrschaft und Reformation. Moritz von Sachsen und die albertinische Kirchenpolitik bis 1546. Weimar 1988.
• Karlheinz Blaschke, Moritz von Sachsen. Ein Reformationsfürst der zweiten Generation. Göttingen 1983.
• Johannes Herrmann, Moritz von Sachsen. Beucha 2003.
• Hans Baumgarten, Moritz von Sachsen, Berlin 1941.
• Hof und Hofkultur unter Moritz von Sachsen (1521-1553), hrsg. von André Thieme und Jochen Vötsch, unter Mitarbeit von Ingolf Gräßler im Auftrag des Vereins für sächsische Landesgeschichte, Beucha 2004.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)