Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar

Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (b. Torgau, 11 March 1530 - d. Weimar, 2 March 1573), was a duke of Saxe-Weimar.

He was the second son of Johann Frederick, Elector of Saxony and Sybille of Cleves.

His father, on that time, had still carried the title of Elector of Saxony; but he lost this title in 1547 after his defeat and capture by the Emperor, because he supported the Reformation. Johann Frederick was released and forced to retained only the title of a duke of Saxony in an area substantially smaller compared to this former lands in Thuringia. In 1554, after the death of his father, Johann Wilhelm inherited the duchy of Saxony with his older brother, Johann Frederick II.

The two brothers governed the duchy together; however, in 1565 they make a divisionary treaty on his lands. The older brother received Saxe-Coburg and Eisenach and took his residence in Gotha, and Johann William received Saxe-Weimar. The partition plan also planned that the two brothers should exchange every three years their regions among themselves. To such an exchange it did not come however any longer.

The politics of Johann Frederick II, which were directed to a recuperation of the lands and the title of Elector lost for his father in 1547, as well as by his involving in several intrigues, make the anger of the Emperor Maximilian II. The Emperor finally imposed the ''Reichsacht'' (Imperial Ban) over him, that became Elector of Saxony assigned the Reichsexekution, in which also Johann William took part. After a siege of his castle in Gotha Johann Friedrich was finally defeated in 1565 and came up to the rest of his life as imperial prissioner. His possessions were confiscated by the emperor and handed over to Johann Wilhelm, who became thus in the only ruler of the whole duchy of Saxony.

But Johann Wilhelm fell soon into imperial disgrace, when he entered to the service of the King Charles IX of France as General, in his campaign against the Huguenots. Thus he did not only cause the hate of his Protestant subjects (a member of the family of Wettin, which applied since Frederick the Wise as protecting power of the Protestantism in Germany, allied himself with the catholic King of France against the Protestants Huguenots!) also the anger of the Emperor, since the French Kings were hereditary enemies of the Habsburgs.

The Emperor used the two surviving sons of Johann Frederick II against Johann Wilhelm; in 1572 the Division of Erfurt was made. The duchy of Saxony was divided into three parts. The older of the two sons of Johann Frederick II, Johann Casimir, received Saxe-Coburg, and the younger, Johann Ernst, received Saxe-Eisenah. Johann Wilhelm retained only the smaller part, the limited region of Saxe-Weimar. Since has it several ernestine dynasties in Thuringia given this division, the total possession of the Wettinas (the duchy of Saxony) became next to each other always thus no more not combined. From Johann William descends the house of Saxe-Weimar and the first house of Saxe-Altenburg, which separated later from Saxonia Weimar (see also Ernestine duchies).

In Heidelberg on 15 June 1560 Johann Wilhelm married with Dorothea Susanne of Simmern. They had four children:

1. Frederick Wilhelm I, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (b. Weimar, 25 April 1562 - d. Weimar, 7 July 1602).
2. Sibylle Marie (b. Weimar, 7 November 1563 - d. Altenburg, 20 February 1569).
3. Johann, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (b. Weimar, 22 May 1570 - d. Weimar, 18 July 1605).
4. Marie (b. Weimar, 7 October 1571 - d. Quedlinburg, 7 March 1610), Abbess of Quedlinburg (1601-1610).