Saxony-Jena

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Saxony-Jena (around 1680)

Saxony-Jena was a Wettin territory in Thuringia , which was ruled for a short time in the last third of the 17th century by own dukes of the Ernestine line of the Wettins . (see Ernestine Duchies ).

Saxony-Jena was created in 1672 from a division of the state within the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar . The royal seat was Jena . In 1690 part of the area fell back to Saxe-Weimar, another part came to Saxe-Eisenach.

history

The Wettins succeeded in acquiring rights to the city of Jena around 1300; In 1331 they were able to buy the rights of the lords of Lobdeburg and so came into full possession of the city. After the division of Leipzig in 1485, the city fell to the Ernestine branch of the Wettins, after the division of Erfurt in 1572 to the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar. Like all Ernestine possessions, the city quickly committed itself to the Reformation . Martin Luther stayed in Jena for the first time in 1521 and then came to the city eleven times.

Since 1548 Jena was the seat of a "high school", which in 1558 became a university . This remained in all divisions in the common possession of all Ernestine lines as a substitute for the Capitulation of Wittenberg lost University of Wittenberg .

In Saxe-Weimar, Duke Wilhelm IV ruled until his death in 1662. He had six children, five of them sons. After his death, the four children who were still alive took control of Weimar together. The right of primogeniture had not yet been introduced for the House of Saxony-Weimar , which is why the eldest son did not inherit the regency alone, but all sons had to participate in the reign. As a rule, attempts were made to give each heir their own domain by dividing states, but in 1662 the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar was so small that further divisions were not considered practical.

This changed when in 1672 the only 15 year old Duke Friedrich Wilhelm III. von Sachsen-Altenburg died childless, with him the older line of the dukes of Sachsen-Altenburg died out. Although his father Friedrich Wilhelm II of Saxe-Altenburg's testamentary regulation meant that the oldest agnate , and thus Ernst I of Saxe Gotha, was to become the sole heir of the Principality of Altenburg, he and his nephews from the Weimar line agreed on the assignment of certain Offices, income and rights from the inheritance and his own property against waiver of any further claims. As a result, about a quarter of the inheritance came to Saxony-Weimar, making it a size that made it possible to divide the country.

With this division of 1672, the eldest brother, Johann-Ernst II. Saxe-Weimar, kept the principality of Saxe-Eisenach from Weimar for his younger brother, Johann Georg I , and the principality of Saxe-Jena for the other brother Bernhard .

The newly created principality had an area of ​​515 km². Since the "Prince of Jena" as Ernestine was also "Duke of Saxony", and this title preceded the title of prince, the term "Duchy of Saxony-Jena" is often used.

Bernhard ruled for only six years and died in 1678. At his death his only son and heir, Johann Wilhelm, was only three years old. A regency was therefore established, which was initially held by Duke Johann Ernst II of Saxe-Weimar, after his death in 1683 by Duke Johann Georg I of Saxe-Eisenach, when he finally died in 1686, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.

Duke Johann Wilhelm von Sachsen-Jena died in 1690 before reaching the age of majority and without children. With this the line of the dukes of Saxony-Jena expired again. The land was divided between Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach in 1692. The city and the office of Jena itself fell back to Sachsen-Eisenach and in 1741 to Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. The city of Apolda and the offices of Dornburg , Heusdorf and Bürgel came to Saxe-Weimar in 1692, the Allstedt to Saxe-Eisenach.

Rulers table

literature

  • Johann August Christian von Hellfeld: History of the extinct ducal Jena line of Duke Bernhard II to Saxony Jena etc and his son Johann Wilhelm, together with a short biography of Duke Bernhard's only princess, Charlotte Maria . Self-published, Jena 1828 ( digitized version [accessed September 30, 2017]).
  • P. Eckold: The Duchy of Saxony-Jena 1672–1690. Dr. Diss. Jena 1940
  • Lutz Lincke: The church of Löberschütz in the Gleisetal . Local history association "Alter Gleisberg eV", 2006 ( alter-gleisberg.de [PDF; 59.7 MB ; accessed on September 30, 2017]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Jenaische Landesportion in Johann Ernst Fabri : Geography for all stands . Part I, Volume 4. Schwickert, Leipzig 1793, p. 5–7 , urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb11247849-3 .