Maurice, Elector of Saxony

Maurice of Saxony

Maurice I, Elector of Saxony (b. Freiberg, March 21, 1521 – d. of wounds received in action at Sievershausen, 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 Heinrich and the Protestant Katharina of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

In December 1532, Maurice -aged 11- came to live at the castle of his godfather Albrecht of Brandenburg, cardinal and archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz. During two years, he live in the reflect-glad life of the cardinal until his uncle, the Duke Georg, demanded his return to his homeland and began the training of the later Saxonian Duke and educate him as a catholic. After 1536 Maurice's father was converted to the Protestant faith and the entire Duchy follow him; Heinrich and Katharina took the education of their son again into their hands and, when Maurice had 18 years, left his parents and moved with his older cousin Johann Frederick I, which resided in Torgau and was despised by Maurice; this originated a strong hate between both. With a further cousin, the Landgrave Philip I of Hesse, whom he met in Dresden, connected, however, in a lifetime friendship.

After Maurice had become of age, in 1539, his parents began to look for a wife for him. The favorite was Philip's eldest daughter, Agnes. The marriage plans threatened to fail, however, because the illegal double marriage of the Landgrave. Without the knowledge of his parents,Maurice remained his engaged with Agnes. The wedding, particularly disapproved by his mother, took place in Marburg on 9 January 1541. Letters from that time witness from a strong mutual confidence of the couple. Together they had two children:

1. Anna (b. Dresden, 23 December 1544 - d. Dresden, 18 December 1577), married on 24 August 1561 to Prince Wilhelm I of Orange-Nassau. They divorced in 1574.
2. Albrecht (b. Dresden, 28 November 1545 - d. Dresden, 12 April 1546).

1541-1548: The Wurzener Feud and The Schmalkaldic War

On 18 August 1541 the Duke Heinrich died, and Maurice, as the eldest son, succeded him as the Duke of Saxony and Head of the Albertine Line. He replaced most of his advisors, because they had been against his marriage with Agnes since the beginning. George von Carlowitz, one of the new confidants of the Duke, advised Moritz (in order to prevent a war with the Emperor Karl V and his brother Ferdinand, at the same time Roman King and his neighbour -as a King of Bohemia-) not to endanger the continuation of the Protestant Movement.

Thus, he participated on the Emperor's Army in the war against 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). However, on the other hand, the Duke confiscated the properties of the Catholic Church in his lands, and was suitable so enormous possession on. From the fortune of dissolved monasteries Maurice in his country donated the Prince Schools (Fürstenschulen) in Schulpforta (100 places), Meissen (60 places) and Grimma (70 places). Legal basis for this was the "New National Order" (Neue Landesordnung) from 1543.

Later, Maurice, refused to join in the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, although the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, his friend and father-in-law, was the Leader of the League. As principal reason for this refusal the membership is generally regarded on his hate to his ernestine cousin Johann Frederick I and the Imperial promise of the Saxon electorship, then held by Johann Frederick. Into the Holy Week of 1542, came between them in the process of the Wurzener Feud (Wurzener Fehde) nearly to a brother war, because Johann Frederick I occupied the together administered "Wurzener Country". A controversy between Maurice and Johann Frederick had preceded over the use of the tax fundses of this area. The intervention of the Landgrabe Philip of Hesse and Martin Luther prevented the war.

Due to the stronger persistence of Elector Johann Frederick I during the introduction of the Evangelist Faith imposed for the Emperor Charles V, on 20 July 1546, with agreement of the catholic imperial conditions the Imperial Ban (''Reichsacht'') over him, whose enforcement Maurice was laid on after the Wurzener Feud. The emperor tried in this way to drive the wedge still more deeply into the protestant camp in order to prevent a further propagation of the Protestant Faith. In the case of successful enforcement Maurice of the emperor, hoped to get lent. Maurice hesitated for a long time, since by this punitive actions, also his father-in-law Philip of Hesse would have been affected. But when the brother of the emperor, wanted to begin Ferdinand I, even a campaign against course axles, it had to forestall it, in order not to lose opposite the Habsburgs the initiative in his own countries.

Maurice returned to Charles's camp. After initial successes -he occupied nearly combatless course axles- the Duke, with his army turned out in distress by the Schmalkaldic League and evaded to Böhmen. In the crucial Battle of Mühlberg at the Elba, the Emperor and his brother Ferdinand, as well as Maurice could defeat the Schmalkaldic League with the capture of Landgrave Philip and Johann Frederick I. According to contemporary chroniclers, all of this happened on one day, 24 April 1547. In order to escape his beheading, done without Johann Frederick in the surrender of Wittemberg in favor of Maurice; with this, he received the electoral dignity and sizable lands. Duke Maurice of Saxony was raised already briefly after the battle on 4 June 1547 in the field camp to the Electo of Saxony. The official appointment took place later, but at a high price: He had betrayed the Evangelist Faith and had brought his father-in-law, Philip of Hesse, into a situation offering no prospects. Maurice assured to he that he would not be a traitor, if he would surrender the emperor. Actually however Philipp was taken prissioner and brought abroad, after he had thrown himself before Charles V on the knees.

16-1553: Augsburger realm day and Passauer contract

the Moritz insulted after these incidents of its compatriots as "Judas" was disappointed of the emperor deeply, hid however its attitude to it in relation to up to the "geharnischten realm day to Augsburg" on 25 February 1548, where the ceremony took place for collection Moritz ' to the cure prince of Saxonia. Karl V. hoped, with his appointment as the Saxonian cure prince the agreement as the Augsburger Interim too gotten, with whose assistance of the emperors the faith splitting in the realm wanted to terminate. The free realm city Magdeburg refused its agreement to the Interim. Against it the emperor set blindly for Moritz, although this had reservations as an only cure prince against the Interim. Moritz set up an army vorgeblich intended for a course against Magdeburg, which he turned however in the long run against the emperor at expense of Karl, after he through municipal authorities of Magdeburg made secret promises the combatless surrender besieged city had reached. Moritz changed the sides because of Karl's radical catholic opinions and the word break by the gefangenhaltung Philipps of Hessen and allied themselves with the enemies of the emperor. In the contract of Chambord with the French king Heinrich II. from January 1552 promised Heinrich it money and weapon assistance for a campaign against Karl V. As return Heinrich of four grenzstaedte of the holy Roman realm (Metz, Toul, Verdun and Cambrai) should as well as their dioceses gotten, although Moritz was no right to have it. In the March of the same yearly Heinrich, cure prince Moritz, which placed themselves thereby against the point of the Protestant prince opposition against the emperor, and further Protestant princes the "prince rebellion" began king. They conquered fast the emperor-faithful cities in the south of the realm, while Heinrich up to the Rhine advanced and occupied it promised cities. The emperor surprised by the attack fled over the alps in the Kaerntener Villach. In view of this success Moritz quit its alliance with Heinrich II. and negotiated with Karl's brother king Ferdinand I. a contract, which Karl agreed against-willingly. The present Treaty to Passau of 1552 was a forerunner of the Augsburger of confessional peace of 1555, in which the protestanten were recognized first formally, later legally. Besides its opponents from the Schmalkaldi war and used Johann Friedrich I. of Saxonia and land count Philipp of Hessen released. The war was terminated 1556 by Ferdinand I.; the grenzstaedte remained in French possession. When Moritz returned to the negotiations around the Passauer contract to Saxonia, it was no longer the "Judas", but protestanten and catholics rendered it equally respect. Also the emperor admonished it in letters to provide at his place in the realm for peace. Mark count Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg Kulmbach conquered soon thereafter the dioceses peppering castle and Bamberg, as it had done eleven years before him Johann Friedrich I., as well as the free realm city Nuernberg. This was the beginning of the second Mark count war, which ended only with the Augsburger confessional peace of 1555.

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)