Moritz Wilhelm (Saxony-Zeitz)

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Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz, copper engraving by Johann Andreas Pfeffel , around 1717/18

Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz (* March 12, 1664 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz ; † November 15, 1718 at Osterburg in Weida ) was the second and last Duke of the Saxon secondary school in Sachsen-Zeitz . He came from a sideline of the Albertine Wettins .

family

Moritz Wilhelm was the first son of Duke Moritz von Sachsen-Zeitz and his wife Dorothea Maria , a daughter of Duke Wilhelm IV of Sachsen-Weimar from his marriage to Eleonore Dorothea von Anhalt-Dessau .

Childhood and youth

Moritz Wilhelm enjoyed a proper education and upbringing under the supervision of Hofmeister Ernst Ludwig von Pöllnitz , later Provost of Naumburg as well as Elector's Privy Councilor and Chancellor. His great interest in ancient languages ​​such as Greek and Hebrew as well as in religious-historical and theological questions emerged, which was also evident in his meeting with the pietistic innovator of Orthodox Lutheran Philipp Jacob Spener in Frankfurt am Main during his cavalier tour to France in 1681. He also corresponded with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from 1711 , who had a considerable influence on his opinion on religious issues and who he also had a guest at Moritzburg Castle . At the same time he also conducted intensive genealogical studies and drafted family trees to prove “my origin from Attila , from generation to generation” as well as 1709 reports for the Saxon Elector Friedrich August I , which prove the old Wettin hereditary claims to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily should.

Government in Saxony-Zeitz

After his father's death on December 4, 1681, Moritz Wilhelm, who was only 16 years old, had to break off his trip early and return to his homeland. Since the Duchy of Saxony-Zeitz was legally fragmented, he was initially only able to rule in the Protestant monastery area of ​​Naumburg-Zeitz due to the election by the cathedral chapter in 1682. The hereditary property of the Sachsen-Zeitz secondary school remained under the guardianship of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg III until 1685 . Since his possibilities were limited because of his minority in the duchy and because he wished to continue his interrupted cavalier tour, he soon afterwards embarked on an extended trip to Italy, from which he did not return until 1684.

Difficult relationship with course Saxons

His assumption of government and the homage were overshadowed from the beginning by a difficult relationship with the Kurhaus in Dresden. The elector, who was also the head of the Albertine line , viewed Saxony-Zeitz - as did the other two friendly fraternal duchies of Saxony-Weißenfels and Saxony-Merseburg - as agnatic fiefs and secundogenitures of the electorate and always demanded that they claim that of the electoral line Subordinate sovereignty and refrain from any striving for sovereignty.

Together with Dukes Christian and Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Merseburg , who also suffered from the restrictions of the Dresden main line , Moritz Wilhelm von Sachsen-Zeitz repeatedly sought the support of the Emperor in Vienna and also the Kurbrandenburg , which competed with Electoral Saxony , which ultimately turned into a for Moritz Wilhelm's politically important marriage with the Brandenburg Princess Maria Amalia resulted. His wife, who demanded the free exercise of her Calvinist Reformed religion and the baptism of the ducal children in this confession, was able to prevail against the Lutheran cathedral chapter with the help of the duke.

Since an upgrading of the heterogeneous area of ​​rule and other emancipation efforts of the Zeitzer were blocked by the Kurlinie, Moritz Wilhelm tried by detours to gain the imperial estate, which had been denied until then . By readmission of the old collegiate vote (i.e. taking over the voting rights of the Naumburg bishops in the Imperial Council of Princes), which had been permanently suspended in the course of the Reformation and secularization, Moritz Wilhelm tried to regain the voting rights that the Naumburg bishops were entitled to in the Imperial Council of Princes . Although the Duke made considerable payments to the Elector in 1698 and the Emperor also supported these plans, Electoral Saxony ultimately broke the contract and refused to give up his sovereignty over the monastery. Even Moritz Wilhelm's hopes of winning over Sweden , which was present in Central Germany during the Great Northern War, as a protective power, remained illusory - Electoral Saxony even began to increase political pressure from 1709 and had troops march into Saxony-Zeitz several times. These military demonstrations of force and the unexpected death of the Hereditary Prince in 1710 ultimately allowed Moritz Wilhelm to give in and, through the mediation of his brother Christian August von Sachsen-Zeitz, in 1711, reached a settlement with Electoral Saxony in which he waived his efforts to obtain a seat and vote in the Reichstag in return for monetary payments and approved the introduction of the general consumption excise in the whole of the duchy, including the monastery. At the same time, Moritz Wilhelm was promised the right to the duchies of Courland and Zemgale in a second contract , but upon entry into which he would have had to cede all his possessions to the Kurlinie - this case never occurred, however, as the Dowager Duchess Anna Ivanovna continued to be regent there could claim.

Apanage for his brother

In 1699, Duke Moritz Wilhelm assigned his younger brother Friedrich Heinrich , with whom he shared his interest in alchemy, mysticism, treasure hunts and magic, to Pegau Castle and Neustadt an der Orla as a residence and paragium after his marriage . After the death of the last Hereditary Prince, Friedrich Heinrich was also a candidate for the successor, but died in 1713 and left only one son who had already entered the clergy, which meant that the rest of the hereditary territory fell back to Electoral Saxony.

Change of religion

Encouraged by his spiritual brother Christian August, who was very close to him, Moritz Wilhelm had been inclined to the Catholic faith since 1697. However, worries about the administration of Naumburg Abbey, the distrust of his wife and his closest surroundings meant that he only secretly changed his faith in front of his brother in 1715 in the Doxan monastery near Prague . Christian August urged his reluctant brother to explain himself publicly and sent u. a. therefore Father Franz Heinrich Schmelzer SJ as legation secretary at the Zeitzer court. Since Schmelzer was initially unable to identify himself as a Jesuit , the “disguised Jesuit” was later seen in Protestant journalism as an example of Jesuit hypocrisy. When Moritz Wilhelm made his conversion public at the Pleißenburg in Leipzig at the beginning of 1717, the Naumburg cathedral chapter turned to the Saxon elector as hereditary patron and declared the evangelical monastery to be vacant. Moritz Wilhelm's hope for the help of Friedrich August I, who was also a Catholic, and the emperor turned out to be an illusion. Shortly thereafter, Moritz Wilhelm ceded the over-indebted monastery with the residences in Naumburg and Zeitz to Kursachsen in exchange for a lifelong pension of 35,000 guilders a year. He moved his courtship to the Saxon-Erbländische Weida and built a Catholic chapel there. Plagued by doubts and harassed on all sides, Moritz Wilhelm revised his confessional decision on October 16, 1718 in Pegau under the pressure of his wife and the influence of the great Halle Pietist August Hermann Francke . This spectacular step caused a sensation across the empire and fierce journalistic disputes between the denominational parties. With the surprising death of the two-time convert just a few weeks later, the inheritance of the youngest Albertine secondary school fell back to the Kurlinie.

Moritz Wilhelm as a patron

Moritz Wilhelm was a great supporter of the composer Johann Friedrich Fasch , for whom he obtained commissions for the masses in Naumburg Cathedral and the court in Zeitz as well as a recommendation for the court in Gotha between 1711 and 1712 .

The Duke also had a coin cabinet built, which was acquired by the Saxon elector for his art collections after his death in 1718 .

He also had the opera house in front of the Salztor built in Naumburg in 1701 .

Death and burial

Duke Moritz Wilhelm died at the age of 54 on November 15, 1718 at the Osterburg in Weida and was not buried in the family funeral in the crypt of the Zeitz Castle Church, but in the town church of St. Mary in Weida.

Marriage and offspring

His only marriage was on June 25, 1689 in Potsdam with Maria Amalia von Brandenburg , widowed Hereditary Princess of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, the daughter of the "Great Elector" Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg from his second marriage to Dorothea Sophie von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. Glücksburg . His wife survived him by 21 years.

The following children emerged from the connection:

  • Friederich Wilhelm (born March 26, 1690 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz; † May 15, 1690 ibid), Hereditary Prince of Saxony-Zeitz
  • Dorothea Wilhelmine (born March 20, 1691 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz; † March 17, 1743 in Kassel), Princess of Saxony-Zeitz ∞ (September 27, 1717 in Zeitz) Wilhelm VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel
  • Caroline Amalie (born May 24, 1693 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz; † September 5, 1694 ibid), Princess of Saxony-Zeitz
  • Sophie Charlotte (born April 25, 1695 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz; † June 18, 1696 there), Princess of Saxony-Zeitz
  • Friedrich August (born August 12, 1700 at Moritzburg Castle in Zeitz; † February 17, 1710 in Halle), Hereditary Prince of Saxony-Zeitz

swell

  • Christian Gottlieb Buder : Merck-worthy life of the Most Serene Prince and Lord, Mr. Moritz Wilhelms, Hertzogs zu Sachsen, Jülich, Cleve and Berg, also Engern and Westphalen etc. Described from special news, explained with various Actis publicis and Documentis, and provided with copperplate . Frankfurt am Main 1719.
  • Johann Wilhelm Petersen : Mr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen I. Kurtze's narration Whose What with Sr. of the Most Blessed Mr. Hertzogs Moritz Wilhelms ... Selbiger Talked about the Papal Mass. II. Joy in heaven over a Hertzog who returns to the Evangelical Congregation According to the instructions of Christ's speech with Luca on the XV. presented. For several explanations of the history of life and changes in religion, Mr. Hertzog, who was most highly intended, was given as an appendix . Frankfurt am Main 1719.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Jochen Vötsch: Maurice William, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz: Saxon biography. Published by the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore. http://saebi.isgv.de/biografie/Moritz_Wilhelm,_Herzog_von_Sachsen-Zeitz_(1664-1718)
  2. ↑ Christian Ernst Weisse : The latest history of the Kingdom of Saxony since the Peace of Prague up to our times . Vol. 2. Johann Conrad Hinrichs , Leipzig 1810. p. 69.
  3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Philipp von Ammon : Gallery of the most memorable people, which in the XVI., XVII. and XVIII. Centuries converted from the Protestant to the Catholic Church . Palm & Enke, Erlangen 1833. p. 203.
  4. ^ Karl Georg Heinrich Lentz: History of the Protestant Church since the Reformation. A family book to stimulate the evangelical spirit , vol. 1. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1845. p. 49.
  5. ^ Johann Wilhelm Petersen : Mr Johann Wilhelm Petersen I. Kurtze's narration Whose What with Sr. of the Most Blessed Mr Hertzogs Moritz Wilhelms ... Selbiger talked about the papal mass. II. Joy in heaven over a Hertzog who returns to the Evangelical Congregation According to the instructions of Christ's speech with Luca on the XV. presented. For several explanations of the history of life and changes in religion, Mr. Hertzog, who was most highly intended, was given as an appendix . Frankfurt am Main 1719

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predecessor Office successor
Moritz Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
until 1685 under the reign of Electoral Saxony
from 1717 as Duke of Saxony-Weida
1681–1718 		incorporated into the Electorate of Saxony
( Friedrich August I , Elector of Saxony )
Moritz Postulated administrator
of Naumburg and Zeitz
1681–1717 		incorporated into the Electorate of Saxony
( Friedrich August I , Elector of Saxony )
personal data
SURNAME Moritz Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sachsen-Zeitz, Moritz Wilhelm von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Saxony-Zeitz
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1664
PLACE OF BIRTH Time
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1718
Place of death Weida