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The March or Margraviate of Meissen (German: Mark(grafschaft) Meißen) was a mediæval principality, a march, of the Holy Roman Empire in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Mark from the Old English mearc and march (or various plural forms of these words derived from the Frankish word marka ("boundary" The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany.
The March of Meissen was sometimes called the Thuringian March or March of Thuringia. Usually, however, this was a term for the eastern part of the Meissen march, that is, the land east of the Elbe as far as the Saale, a land inhabited by Slavs. The Elbe ( die Elbe Low German: de Ilv) is one of the major Rivers of Central Europe. The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale (Sächsische Saale and Thuringian Saale (Thüringische Saale is a River in Germany and a left-bank Formerly, the "Thuringian march" was called the "Sorbian march". The Sorb ( ian) March ( Limes Sorabicus; Sorbenmark was a frontier district on the eastern border of East Francia in the
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Founding
In 928 or 929, during a campaign against the Slavs, Henry the Fowler built a castle on a hill on the Elbe. This castle he named Meissen after the nearby stream of Meisa. Meissen (in German orthography: Meißen; Sorbian: Mišno; Misena Misnia Misnensium is a Town of approximately 30000 near A town soon developed at the foot of the fortress. Henry, however, made no attempts to Germanise the Slavs or to create a chain of supporting burgwards for his new fortress, rather Meissen sat alone, like Brandenburg, with little organisation around it. Germanisation (also spelled Germanization) is either the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or Assimilation A burgward was a form of settlement used for the organisation of the northeastern marches of the Kingdom of Germany in the mid-10th century Brandenburg ( Lower Sorbian: Bramborska; Upper Sorbian: Braniborska) is one of the sixteen states of Germany. [1] That did not last, however. The town grew, eventually becoming one of the most important city's in the large marca Geronis which covered the eastern part of the Duchy of Saxony. The Marca Geronis ("march of Gero" was a vast super-march in the middle of the tenth century The mediæval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian Stem duchy " covering the greater part of Northern Germany. When the marca was divided in 965 on the death of the margrave Gero the Great, Meissen formed the centre of a new march primarily against the Sorabians. Gero I (c 900 &ndash 20 May 965) called the Great (Latin magnus) ruled an initially modest march centred on Merseburg Sorbs (Serbja Serby also known as Wends, Lusatian Sorbs or Lusatian Serbs, are a Slavic people settled in Lusatia The first mention of a margrave in Meissen comes in 968. That same year, the castle became the seat of the Diocese of Meissen.
By 982, the territory of the march had extended as far as the Neisse to the east and in southern direction the Erzgebirge. Neisse redirects here for other meanings see Neisse (disambiguation The Lusatian Neisse (Lužická Nisa Lausitzer Neiße Nysa Łużycka In 983, following word of the defeat of the Emperor Otto II at the Battle of Stilo, the Slavic tribes bordering eastern Saxony rebelled. For the battle called "Punta Stilo" see Battle of Calabria. Havelberg and Brandenburg were destroyed and the March of Zeitz devastated. Havelberg is a town in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The March of Zeitz (Mark Zeitz was a frontier county of the Holy Roman Empire, created through the division of the Marca Geronis in 965 when The margraves of Meissen, Lusatia, and the Nordmark joined with the troops of the Bishops of Halberstadt and Magdeburg and defeated the Slavs at Belkesheim, near Stendhal. The March of Lusatia (Mark Lausitz was a conquered territory of the Ljutizi and Milzini between Germany and Poland in the 10th and 11th centuries The Northern March or North March (Nordmark was created out of the division of the vast Marca Geronis in 965 The Bishopric of Halberstadt (Bistum Halberstadt was a Roman Catholic Diocese from 804 until 1648 and a state of the Holy Roman Empire from the late The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Roman Catholic Archdiocese within the Holy Roman Empire. Henri-Marie Beyle ( January 23, 1783 &ndash March 23, 1842) better known by his Pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century [2] Nevertheless, the Germans were once again limited to the land west of the Elbe.
Wettin rule
In 983, a certain Rikdag became the margrave, and, from 985 on, the title was held by the Ekkehardinger family. Rikdag, Ricdag, Riddag, or Rihdag (died 985 was the Margrave of Meissen (or Thuringia from 979 until his death In 1002, Boleslaus I of Poland conquered the Thuringian March. [3] In 1046, the margraviate went to the Weimar-Orlamünder family and, in 1067, to the Brunonen, whose representative, Egbert II, was deposed during the Investiture Controversy in 1089. The Brunonen (Latin Brunones) were a Saxon noble family in the 10th and 11th centuries who owned property in Eastphalia (around Egbert II (Ekbert c 1060 &ndash 3 July 1090) was Count of Brunswick and Margrave of Meissen. The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was an 11th century dispute between Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Gregory VII over Henry of Eilenburg, of the Wettin dynasty, under whose rule the margraviate would remain for the rest of its existence, succeeded him to the title later that year. Henry I (1070 – 1103 called the Elder, count of Eilenburg and son of Count Dedo II of Wettin and his second wife Adela of Brabant inherited in 1075 The House of Wettin was a dynasty of German Counts Dukes prince-electors (Kurfürsten and kings that ruled the area of today's Under Wiprecht von Groitzsch in the 1120s, the Germanisation of the Meissen finally began. Wiprecht (or Wigbert) of Groitzsch (died 22 May 1124) was the Margrave of Meissen and the Saxon Ostmark from 1123 until [4] Following him were Conrad the Great (1123–56), Otto the Rich (1156–91), and Dietrich the Hard-Pressed (1191–1221), under whom the march was expanded and developed. Conrad the Great (c 1097 &ndash 5 February 1157) was the Margrave of Meissen from 1123 until his retirement in 1156 Otto II ( 1125 - 18 February 1190) was the Margrave of Meissen from 1157 until his death in 1190 Dietrich I ( 11 March 1162 &ndash 18 January 1221) called the Oppressed, was the Margrave of Meissen from 1198 until his
In 1264, Henry III asserted himself in the war of the succession of the Landgraviate of Thuringia, where his uncle, Henry Raspe, had died childless. Henry III der Erlauchte or Henry the Illustrious (c 1215 probably in Meissen &ndash 15 February 1288, Dresden) Margrave This is a list of the rulers of Thuringia, an historical and political region of Central Germany. Henry Raspe (Heinrich Raspe 1204 &ndash February 16, 1247) succeeded Hermann II as Landgrave of Thuringia in central Germany Between 1243 and 1255, Henry III acquired Pleisseland around Altenburg as a security measure. Pleissnerland, Pleissenland, or the Imperial Territory of Pleissenland (Reichsterritorium Pleißenland Terra Plisensis was part of the Holy Roman Empire This article is about the city in Thuringia, Germany. For other uses see Altenburg (disambiguation. The Emperor Henry VII's attempt to force the Margraves of Meissen back into submission, failed in 1307 with his defeat in the Battle of Lucka. Henry VII ( Heinrich; c 1275 (or 1279 &ndash 24 August 1313) was the King of Germany (or Rex Romanorum) from 1308 and The Battle of Lucka occurred on 31 May 1307 near the village of Lucka. By that time the margraviate was de facto independent of any sovereign authority.
In the years following Lucka, there would be joint rule of the principality by multiple members of the Wettin dynasty at any given time. In the years 1382 and 1445, this even led to the division of the march. However, the cadet branches of the family frequently became extinct and the lands consequently reunited. At the same time, the territory could be extended by marriage, purchase, or conquest, which is how the margraviate gained the rights to the burgraviate of in 1426. At the end of 15th century, the ruling area of the Wettin dynasty was spread between the Werra and the Oder. The Werra (ˈvɛʁa is a river in central Germany, the right source river of the Weser. The Oder (known in Czech and Polish as Odra) is a River in Central Europe.
In 1423, Frederick the Militant became Margrave and was assigned the Duchy of Saxony-Wittenberg. Frederick IV Margrave of Meissen Landgrave of Thuringia and Elector of Saxony (Frederick the Belligerent (the Warlike ( 11 April 1370 &ndash 4 January Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a Town in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the Elbe With it the Margraviate of Meissen entered into the electorate of Saxony and lost its status as an independent principality. The Prince-Electors (or simply Electors) of the Holy Roman Empire ( German: Kurfürst ( pl In 1485, the Leipzig Partition divided Saxony and Thuringia between the brothers Ernest and Albert, which marked the beginning of the permanate separation of the two states. Ernst Elector of Saxony (b Meissen, 24 March 1441 - d Colditz, 26 August 1486) was Elector of Saxony from Albert (Albrecht 27 January, 1443 &ndash 12 September, 1500) was a Duke of Saxony.
Burggraviate
Around 1068, Meissen received its own burgrave. A burgrave is a Count of a castle or fortified town The English form is derived through the French from the German Burg Graf In time the Meinheringer family would come to control the burggraviate.
See also
References
- Thompson, James Westfall. The Margraviate of Meissen was a territorial state on the border of the Holy Roman Empire. James Westfall Thompson (1869&ndash1941 was an American historian specializing in the history of medieval and early modern Europe particularly of the Holy Roman Empire and Feudal Germany, Volume II. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. , 1928.