Medieval margravate (965?1423)
The
Margravate
or
Margraviate of Meissen
(
German
:
Markgrafschaft Meißen
) was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of
Saxony
. It originally was a
frontier march
of the
Holy Roman Empire
, created out of the vast
Marca Geronis
(
Saxon Eastern March
) in 965. Under the rule of the
Wettin dynasty
, the margravate finally merged with the former
Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg
into the
Saxon Electorate
by 1423.
Predecessors
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In the mid 9th century, the area of the later margravate was part of an eastern frontier zone of the
Carolingian Empire
called
Sorbian March
(
Limes Sorabicus
), after
Sorbian
tribes of
Polabian Slavs
settling beyond the
Saale
river. In 849, a margrave named
Thachulf
was documented in the
Annales Fuldenses
. His title is rendered as
dux Sorabici limitis
, "duke of the Sorbian frontier", but he and his
East Frankish
successors were commonly known as
duces Thuringorum
, "dukes of the Thuringians", as they set about establishing their power over the older
Duchy of Thuringia
in the west.
[2]
The Sorbian march had already lost its importance around 900 AD; the last known margrave
Poppo
was deposed by King
Arnulf
in 892 and replaced with
Conrad
who continued to appear as a "Duke of Thuringia". Conrad himself was replaced by
Burchard
, whose title in 903 was
marchio Thuringionum
, "margrave of the Thuringians".
Due to scarce sources, the geographical extent of the Frankish march east of the Saale is a matter of ongoing debate among historians; it may have reached up to the settlement area of the Slavic
Glomacze
(
Talaminzi
) tribes beyond the
Mulde
river, identified as eastern neighbours of the Sorbs by the
Bavarian Geographer
about 850. These territories were under constant attacks by the East Frankish rulers; in 908 they were first campaigned by the
Saxon
prince
Henry the Fowler
, son of Duke
Otto the Illustrious
. By 928/29, the main Glomacze fortress on the
Jahna
river was destroyed and their lands up to the
Dresden Basin
incorporated into the
Marca Geronis
.
Founding
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In 928 and 929, during the final campaign against the Glomacze tribes, Henry the Fowler,
East Frankish king
since 919, chose a rock above the confluence of the
Elbe
and
Triebisch
rivers to erect a new fortress, called Misni (
Meissen
) Castle after the nearby Meisa stream. The fortifications were renamed
Albrechtsburg
in the 15th century.
A town soon developed around the castle. King Henry, however, made no attempts to
Germanise
the Slavs or to create a chain of
burgwards
around his fortress. Sat alone, like
Brandenburg
, with few defenses or towns around it;
[3]
Meissen probably was temporarily occupied by
Bohemian
forces from 936 onwards. The town beneath the fortress grew, however, eventually becoming one of the most important cities in the vast
Marca Geronis
, covering the Slavic lands east of the Saxon
stem duchy
. King Henry, and later on his son and successor
Otto I
, continued the Slavic campaigns into the lands of the Polabian
Milceni
tribes around
Bautzen
(
Budissin
), with their gained territory being gradually incorporated into the Saxon Eastern March.
When the
Marca Geronis
was divided in 965 upon the death of Margrave
Gero
, Meissen became the center of a new march with the goal of controlling the local Slavic population. The first Meissen margrave,
Wigbert
, is mentioned in a 968 charter of the
Archdiocese of Magdeburg
. That same year, the Meissen fortress also became the
see
of the newly created
Bishopric of Meissen
. In 978, the Saxon count
Rikdag
became the
Margrave of Meissen
, and incorporated the marches of
Merseburg
and
Zeitz
into Meissen. By 982, the territory of the march had extended as far as the
Kwisa
(
Queis
) river to the east and as far as the slopes of the
Ore Mountains
to the south, where it shared a border with the
P?emyslid
duchy of Bohemia.
In 983, following the defeat of Emperor
Otto II
at the
Battle of Stilo
, the Slavic
Lutici
tribes bordering eastern Saxony rebelled in the
Great Slav Rising
. The newly established bishoprics of
Havelberg
and
Brandenburg
as well as the
March of Zeitz
were overrun by Lutici tribes. Margrave Rikdag joined forces with the Margraves of
Lusatia
and the
Northern March
, the
Bishop of Halberstadt
, and the Archbishop of Magdeburg and defeated the Slavs in the
gau
of
Balsamgau
near
Stendal
.
[4]
Nevertheless, large territories of the Northern March were lost, and the German forces were pushed back west of the Elbe.
Margrave
Eckard I
from Thuringia succeeded Rikdag as Margrave of Meissen in 985. His descendants of the Ekkeharding noble family would keep the margravial title until 1046. Upon his appointment, Eckard allied with Duke
Mieszko I of Poland
in order to reconquer Meissen Castle from Duke
Boleslaus II of Bohemia
whose forces occupied it the year before. When Eckard was assassinated in 1002, however, Mieszko's son, the
Polish
king
Bolesław I Chrobry
, took the occasion to conquer the margravial lands east of the Elbe and demanded the surrender of Meissen.
[5]
The following
German?Polish War
ended with the 1018
Peace of Bautzen
, whereby Meissen had to cede the Milceni region (later
Upper Lusatia
) to Poland. In 1031 however, King
Conrad II of Germany
was able to reconquer the Milceni lands, which were returned to Meissen.
In 1046, Count
Otto of Weimar-Orlamunde
became margrave, followed by
Egbert II
of the
Brunonids
upon his death in 1067. Egbert II entered into a longstanding conflict with Emperor
Henry IV
, because of which he had to renounce the Milceni lands to Duke
Vratislaus II of Bohemia
in 1076, and was finally deposed during the
Investiture Controversy
in 1089.
Wettin rule
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Emperor Henry IV then granted Meissen to Count
Henry of Eilenburg
of the
Wettin
dynasty. The margravate would remain under Wettin rule for the rest of its existence. Under
Wiprecht von Groitzsch
in the 1120s, Meissen underwent a process of Germanisation.
[6]
He was succeeded by
Conrad the Great
(1123?56),
Otto the Rich
(1156?91), and
Dietrich the Hard-Pressed
(1191?1221), under whom the march would expand and develop. By then, Meissen had become a stronghold of the Wettin dynasty, suspiciously eyed by the
Hohenstaufen
emperors who nevertheless were not able to deprive the margraves of their power.
In 1264, during the
War of the Thuringian Succession
, Margrave
Henry III
asserted himself in the
Landgraviate
of Thuringia, where his uncle
Henry Raspe
had died childless. Between 1243 and 1255, Henry III had also acquired the intermediate
Pleisseland
around
Altenburg
in pawn. In 1307, the attempt by the
Luxembourg
king
Henry VII
to once again subdue the Margraves of Meissen failed with his defeat at the
Battle of Lucka
. By that time the margravate was
de facto
independent of any sovereign authority. In the following years, there would be joint rule of Meissen by multiple members of the Wettin dynasty at any given time. In 1382 and 1445, this even led to the division of the march, however it would reunite soon after each time. Meissen was often enlarged by marriage, purchase, or conquest, which is how it gained the rights to the
burgraviate
in 1426.
In 1423, Margrave
Frederick IV
was assigned the heirless
Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg
, formerly held by the
House of Ascania
, by Emperor
Sigismund
in turn for his support against the
Hussites
. The Wettin rulers thereby entered into the Saxon
electorate
, in which they ultimately merged their margravial lands abandoning Meissen's status as an independent principality; though they retained the margravial title. In the late 15th century, the dynasty held a large contiguous territory between the
Werra
and
Oder
rivers. By the 1485
Treaty of Leipzig
, however, the
Upper Saxon
lands were again divided between Frederick's grandsons
Ernest
ruling in
Wittenberg
and
Albert
, who took the former Meissen territory. The treaty marked the beginning of the permanent separation of the two states of Saxony and
Ernestine
Thuringia.
Burgravate
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Around 1068, Meissen Castle received its own
burgrave
. In time the
Meinheringer
family would come to control the burgravate.
See also
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Notes
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References
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