Saxon fratricidal war
The armed conflicts that took place between the brothers Duke Wilhelm III from 1446 to 1451 over the Wettin territories are referred to as the Saxon Fratricidal War . ( the brave ) and Elector Friedrich II ( the meek ) were led by Saxony. The cause of the conflict was the dissatisfaction of Wilhelm III. with the division of Altenburg in 1445, the disputes with the Naumburg Peace of 1451 ended.
Details
On July 16, 1445 in was Altenburg between two brothers, the Division of Altenburg been decided. When Frederick II chose the western part and not the Margraviate of Meissen on September 26, 1445 in Leipzig , Wilhelm III refused. rigorously abolish the division. He reached on December 11th of the same year in the monastery Neuwerk near Halle (Saale) the so-called Hallesche Kraftspruch , on which as arbitrator Friedrich III. von Beichlingen (Archbishop of Magdeburg), Margrave Friedrich II. of Brandenburg and Landgrave Ludwig II. of Hesse actively participated. This power of attorney brought the final decision in dividing Electoral Saxony into two parts. Elector Friedrich II now received the eastern and Duke Wilhelm III. the western part of the country with the old Landgraviate of Thuringia and areas of the Osterland . But the young impetuous Duke Wilhelm III also felt through this arbitral division of the country. still disadvantaged. Instead of the peace that had been hoped for through the division, there were a series of several serious feuds that lasted over five years .
Wilhelm separated from his brother and took over the independent regency in the state of Thuringia. The coinage previously carried out in fraternal communion was ended. Elector Friedrich II. Resumed the Sangerhausen Mint , which had been closed since Balthasar's death , from around 1445 to 1449 because his brother was solely minted in Jena .
Before the fighting broke out, Wilhelm III. On January 9, 1446, a general state parliament convened in Weissensee , Thuringia , where he received homage as the new sovereign and renewed the feuds of the counts and lords in Thuringia, thereby securing the necessary support of the estates . Due to the feared military invasion of his brother Friedrich II, a state order was hastily passed in the Weißensee state parliament, which was the first in the history of Thuringia and one of the earliest in the German-speaking area.
In the early autumn of 1446 tensions between Friedrich II and Wilhelm III escalated. Although Count Botho zu Stolberg tried to find a peaceful solution as Wilhelm's Privy Councilor, the latter was incited against his older brother by his vassal Apel Vitzthum on Niederroßla . Out of a purely personal greed for power, Apel Vitzhum and some of his aristocratic comrades-in-arms, including Busse Vitzthum, Friedrich von Witzleben and Bernhard von Kochberg, were the driving forces for a murderous war that affected large parts of Thuringia, mainly between Weimar , Wiehe , Merseburg and Dornburg / Saale , devastated.
Peace only returned to Thuringia when, on January 27, 1451, the peace between Friedrich II and Wilhelm III in Naumburg (Saale) . restored and the division of 1445 was confirmed. Only now could the two Wettin parts of the country devote themselves to internal expansion. The aftermath of the Saxon fratricidal war was the Saxon prince robbery in July 1455.
literature
- Ludwig Friedrich Hesse (Ed.): Konrad Stolles Thuringian-Erfurt Chronicle (= library of the Litterarian Association in Stuttgart. 32, ISSN 0340-7888 ). Edited from the original. Literary Association, Stuttgart 1854, ( digitized ).
- Julius Löbe: From the fratricidal wars 1446 to 1451. In: Mittheilungen der Geschichts- und Alterthumsforschenden Gesellschaft des Osterlandes. Vol. 10, 1888/1895, ISSN 0863-694X , pp. 155-177.
- Otto Posse : The house laws of the Wettins up to the year 1486. Declaration by the editors of the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae for the 800th anniversary of the reign of the House of Wettin. Publishing house of the Literary Society, Leipzig 1889, ( digitized version ).
- Robert Reiche: The Chronicle of Hartung Cammermeister (= historical sources of the province of Saxony and adjacent areas. Bd. 35, ZDB -ID 985357-1 ). Otto Hendel, Halle (Saale) 1896, ( digitized version ).
- Herbert Koch: The Saxon Fratricidal War (1445–1451). Kaemmerer, Halle (Saale) 1909, (Jena, University, dissertation, 1909).
- Rudolf Kötzschke , Helmut Kretschmar: Saxon history. Development and transformation of a German tribe and its homeland in the context of German history. Volume 1: Prehistory and Early History, Middle Ages and Reformation Era. Heinrich, Dresden 1935, p. 138 ff, (new edition. Weltbild, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-893-50705-1 ).
- Karlheinz Blaschke : The prince procession to Dresden. Monument and history of the House of Wettin. Urania, Leipzig et al. 1991, ISBN 3-332-00377-1 , p. 106 ff.
- Reiner Groß : History of Saxony. Edition Leipzig, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-361-00505-1 , p. 27.