List of bailiffs in Lower Lusatia

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The bailiffs of Niederlausitz were the leading representatives of the Bohemian kings and Saxon electors in Niederlausitz from the 14th to the 17th century.

history

The first bailiff was mentioned in Lower Lusatia in 1359 under Saxon pledges. Significant competencies for this office are initially not recognizable from the few reports received, even for the time after the Bohemian takeover in 1364.

Due to the great distance to the kings in Prague, the powers of the governors developed increasingly. In the 15th century they acted largely independently with sovereign powers, they issued deeds on fiefs and other things, waged wars and tried to administer Niederlausitz in agreement with the estates.

After Niederlausitz passed to the Electorate of Saxony in 1635, its influence decreased again. At the end of the 17th century, the office was only a mere title of the Saxon electoral prince (heir to the throne).

Governors of Lower Lusatia

Fantasy portrait “Hans von Polenz” by Günther Wendt (1908–1971) at the gallery at the castle in Senftenberg

After the death of Heinrich Joachim von der Schulenburg, the office of governor was no longer occupied. The new sovereign of Lower Lusatia, Duke Christian I of Saxony-Merseburg, replaced the bailiwick in 1666 with an upper office government consisting of a president and four councilors.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Lehmann : History of Niederlausitz (publications of the Berlin Historical Commission at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of the Free University of Berlin 5), Berlin 1963, p. 262f.