Maurice, Elector of Saxony

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Maurice, Elector of Saxony bigraphy, stories - Duke of Saxony (1541–47) and later Elector (1547–53) of Saxony

Maurice, Elector of Saxony : biography

21 March 1521 – 9 July 1553

Maurice (21 March 1521 – 9 July 1553) was Duke (1541–47) 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.

Literature

  • 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.

Category:1521 births Category:1553 deaths Category:People from Freiberg Category:Regents of Saxony Category:Electors of Saxony Category:House of Wettin Category:German military personnel killed in action Category:Burials at Freiberg Cathedral Category:Saxon princes

1548–1553: The Diet of Augsburg and the Peace of Passau

Maurice, insulted after these incidents by his compatriots and called a "Judas", was also disappointed by the emperor’s attitude (because now Charles V tried to reintroduce Catholicism into the Empire’s Protestant territories and the continued imprisonment of his father-in-law, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, whose freedom Charles V had guaranteed), he hid his feelings from him up to the Diet of Augsburg on 25 February 1548, where the ceremony of the formal inauguration of Maurice as Elector of Saxony took place. Charles V hoped that, with Maurice’s appointment as the Elector of Saxony, with the signing of the agreement known as the Augsburg Interim, and with his own assistance, they could put an end to the religious strife that was splitting his empire.

When commissioned to capture the rebellious Lutheran city of Magdeburg (1550), Maurice seized the opportunity to raise an army and signed anti-Habsburg compacts with France and Germany’s Protestant princes.

In the Treaty of Chambord signed with the French King Henry II in January 1552 Maurice promised the King money and weapons to assist him in his campaign against Charles V. In return, Henry was able to take four Imperial cities (Metz, Toul, Verdun and Cambrai) as well as their bishoprics, although Maurice had no right to them.

In March 1552 the rebels overran the southern German states, including parts of Austria, forcing the Emperor to flee and release Philip of Hesse. While Henry advanced up to the Rhine and occupied the promised Imperial lands, the emperor surprised by the attack fled over the Alps to Villach in the Austrian Duchy of Carinthia. In view of this success, Maurice abandoned his alliance with Henry II and negotiated a treaty with Charles’s brother King Ferdinand I, to which Charles willingly agreed. When the Peace of Passau, was signed in August 1552, the Lutheran position was provisionally guaranteed. As part of the Peace, his former opponents from the Schmalkaldic War, John Frederick I of Saxony and the Landgrave Philipp of Hesse were released. The war was terminated in 1556 by Ferdinand I; the Imperial cities remained in possession of the French.

When Maurice returned to Saxony after the Peace of Passau, he was no longer seen as a traitor; both Protestants and Catholics rendered him equal respect. In addition the emperor in correspondence to both parties exhorted them to maintain peace in his empire; shortly after, he campaigned against the Ottomans in Hungary. The Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (who had rejected the Passau armistice) soon afterwards conquered the bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg — which had been under his control for eleven years previously, after their former owner, John Frederick had ceded them to him — as well as the Imperial city of Nuremberg. This was the beginning of the Second Margrave War, which only ended with the Peace of Augsburg of 1555.