Erfurt division

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The division of Erfurt - after the Erfurt partition treaty of November 6, 1572 - denotes the division of Thuringia into the new Duchy of Saxony-Weimar and the new Principality of Saxony-Coburg-Eisenach .

The division of Erfurt was the first of a whole series of country divisions within the ruling family of the Ernestine Wettins in Thuringia , through which the later proverbial patchwork carpet of the Thuringian small states (see Ernestine Duchies ) was to arise.

prehistory

The House of Wettin ruled the Margraviate of Meissen since 1088. After the Ludowingian Landgraves of Thuringia died out, they succeeded in acquiring the Landgraviate of Thuringia in 1263 ( Henry the Great ) . In 1423 they finally obtained the title of Duke of Saxony associated with the electoral dignity as a successor to the extinct Ascanian dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg .

In 1485, Elector Ernst of Saxony and his brother Duke Albrecht III. of Saxony their possessions ( Leipzig division ). Two lines of Wettin emerged that still exist today: the Ernestines, the descendants of Elector Ernst, and the Albertines , the descendants of Albrecht III. The electoral dignity initially remained with the older line, i.e. the Ernestines, who took their main residence in Wittenberg .

With the work of Martin Luther , the Reformation began in Germany , which was supported by the Ernestines from the beginning (cf. Friedrich III., The sage of Saxony). Under his nephew Johann Friedrich I the Magnanimous , the tensions between the Catholic Emperor Charles V and the Protestants erupted militarily for the first time. In the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547), the Protestants under the leadership of Johann Friedrich I were defeated by the Kaiser ( Battle of Mühlberg ). Johann Friedrich I lost his electoral dignity to his Albertine cousin Moritz von Sachsen (who, although a Protestant, supported the emperor) and all of the Ernestine possessions outside Thuringia ( Wittenberg surrender ). After his return from imperial captivity, Johann Friedrich I made Weimar his main residence instead of Wittenberg, which had been lost to the Albertines. Since then, people have spoken of the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar.

After the death of Johann Friedrich I, the magnanimous, his sons Johann Friedrich the Middle and Johann Wilhelm I initially temporarily shared their father's property. Johann Friedrich got Eisenach , Coburg and Gotha , while Johann Wilhelm kept Weimar.

Johann Friedrich took up his residence at Grimmenstein Castle in Gotha. He dreamed of reversing the outcome of the Battle of Mühlberg and regaining the Electorate of Saxony for the Ernestine line. For this purpose he took in the knight Wilhelm von Grumbach , who had been ostracized in 1563 for breach of the peace . Grumbach and a farm boy who claimed to be in contact with angels predicted Johann Friedrich that he would regain the electoral dignity without war.

Since he refused to extradite Grumbach, Johann Friedrich himself succumbed to imperial ban after a corresponding ultimatum. Elector August of Saxony was commissioned with the execution of the Reich , in which Johann Friedrich's own brother, Johann Wilhelm von Sachsen-Weimar, also took part. After he was besieged at the Grimmenstein Fortress, Johann Friedrich fell into imperial captivity, which he was not to leave until the end of his life. (1567, cf.Grumbachsche Handel )

The division of Erfurt

Johann Friedrich the Middle had three children who were still underage when he was imprisoned by the emperor. The guardianship of the three children was taken over by his brother, Johann Wilhelm von Sachsen-Weimar, to whom the territories of Johann Friedrich initially also fell.

However, Johann Wilhelm quickly made himself unpopular with the emperor, as he was in the service of the French king Charles IX. kicked. At the instigation of the emperor, the Reichstag of Speyer decreed the reinstatement of the sons Johann Friedrich the Middle in the rights of their father in 1570.

This decision was finally implemented with the Erfurt partition contract in 1572. Johann Wilhelm had to hand over the areas that he had received from his brother, i.e. Sachsen-Coburg-Eisenach, to his two sons Johann Casimir and Johann Ernst (the eldest son had died a short time before). For the two underage princes a guardianship of the electors, i.e. Friedrich III. set up by the Palatinate , Johann Georg of Brandenburg and August of Saxony. The latter also took over the reign of the new country.

meaning

The division of Erfurt did not last. Both Johann Casimir and Johann Ernst died without their surviving sons, so that their areas fell back to Saxony-Weimar and the other remaining Ernestine line, Saxony-Altenburg .

Before the battle of Mühlberg, the Ernestine Wettins were the most important aristocratic family in Central Germany. With the Wittenberg surrender, however, they lost their supremacy to their Albertine relatives. Before his death, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous determined the indivisibility of the remaining Ernestine possessions in Thuringia, thus making it clear that he wanted the Ernestines to continue to play an important role in Central Germany. His two sons disregarded their father's wishes; the Ernestines were further weakened by the Grumbachian Handel . Although enforced by the Kaiser, the Reichstag and August von Sachsen, the division of Erfurt marks a milestone in the further decline in power of the Ernestines. After the division of Erfurt, they often shared their property. The small Thuringian states emerged, none of which would have been powerful enough to play an important role in imperial politics.

literature

  • Reinhard Jonscher, Willy Schilling: Small Thuringian History . Jenzig-Verlag, Jena 2005, ISBN 3-910141-74-9 , pp. 118-125