Severin of Saxony

Prince Severin of Saxony, painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder , 1526

Severin von Sachsen (born August 28, 1522 in Freiberg , † October 10, 1533 in Innsbruck ) was a Saxon prince from the Albertine line of the Wettins .

Life

Severin was the second son of the Saxon Duke Heinrich (1473–1541) from his marriage to Katharina (1487–1561), daughter of Duke Magnus II of Mecklenburg . In the education of Severin and his older brother Moritz , their mother, Balthasar Rysche, had considerable influence.

Despite his poor health, he always had the upper hand in duels with his brother Moritz, which his uncle Georg the Bearded had instigated between the two boys during visits to Freiberg, which at times made the boys' father think that Moritz might be better off a church career to be provided.

At the behest of the Catholic Duke Georg Severin was separated from his Lutheran parents and sent to Innsbruck. There he was raised Catholic together with the children of the future Emperor Ferdinand and his wife Anna . The prince had his own court master here in Bernhard von Rathschitz.

Severin, who was always described as pale and hoarsely speaking, died at the age of 11, "taking the best hopes into the grave" . An autopsy was performed to determine the causes of illness and death. The body was buried in the Cistercian abbey in Stams . His tomb was plundered and destroyed in 1552 by the Narrow Kaldic troops of his own brother Moritz.

reception

In 1526 Lucas Cranach the Elder made two boy portraits of the two princes Moritz and Severin. Severin's painting was created in tempera on linden wood and is 57 × 38.5 cm in size. It counts as an excellent and safe work of Cranach and was included in the general directory of nationally valuable cultural assets. It is owned by the Hessian House Foundation and is exhibited in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt . From 2005 to 2006 it was on loan from the Portland Art Museum .

Another contemporary depiction of Severin can be found as book illumination in the Saxon Family Register , which has been continued by the elder Cranach since 1532 and which is kept in the Saxon State Library in Dresden .

ancestors

Pedigree of Severin of Saxony
Great-great-grandparents	Elector Friedrich I of Saxony (1370–1428) ⚭ 1402 Katharina von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1395–1442)	Duke Ernst the Iron (1377–1424) ⚭ 1412 Cimburgis of Masovia (1394 / 97–1429)	Viktorin von Podiebrad (1403–1427) Anna von Wartenberg (1403–1427)	Smil von Sternberg (–1431) Barbara von Pardubitz (–1433)	Duke Johann IV of Mecklenburg (1370–1422) ⚭ 1416 Catherine of Saxony-Lauenburg (1400–1450)	Elector Friedrich I of Brandenburg (1371–1440) ⚭ 1401 Elisabeth of Bavaria (1383–1442)	Wartislaw IX. (1400–1457) ⚭ 1420 Sophia von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (–1462)	Duke Bogislaw IX (around 1407 / 1410–1446) ⚭ 1432 Mary of Mazovia (around 1410–1454)
Great grandparents	Elector Friedrich II. (1412–1464) ⚭ 1431 Margaretha of Austria (1416–1486)		King George of Podebrady (1420–1471) ⚭ 1441 Kunigunde von Sternberg (1425–1449)		Duke Heinrich IV of Mecklenburg (1417–1477) ⚭ 1432 Dorothea of Brandenburg (1420–1491)		Erich II von Pommern-Wolgast (1425–1474) ⚭ 1451 Sophia von Pommern-Stolp (around 1435–1497)
Grandparents	Duke Albrecht the Courageous (1443–1500) ⚭ 1464 Sidonia of Bohemia (1449–1510)				Duke Magnus II (1441–1503) ⚭ 1478 Sophie of Pomerania (1460–1504)
parents	Duke Heinrich the Pious (1473–1541) ⚭ 1512 Catherine of Mecklenburg (1487–1561)
Severin of Saxony

literature

Friedrich Albert von Langenn: Moritz, Duke and Elector of Saxony: a representation from ..., Part 1, p. 51 ff.
Eduard Machatschek : History of the Kingdom of Saxony: According to credible sources: files ..., p. 301
Joseph Hormayr zu Hortenburg: The golden chronicle of Hohenschwangau, the castle of the Guelphs, the ..., p. 77
Theodor Distel : A submerged Saxon prince monument in Tyrol from the first half of the sixteenth century. With the picture of the dead of Duke Severin of Saxony , in: Communications of the Association for the History of the City of Meissen II (Meissen 1891), pp. 405–409.
Julius Erbstein : Two unknown boy portraits by Lukas Cranach the elder, determined by a medal , in: Münz- und Medalsfreund No. 5–7, first year (1899), pp. 33–36, 41–44, 49–53.
Max J. Friedländer, J. Rosenberg: The paintings by Lucas Cranach , Basel 1979.
Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Elena Taddei: The Death of Duke Severin of Saxony in Tyrol - An autopsy report by the Habsburg court doctor Georg Tannstätter from 1533 , in: Virus 5 (2005), pp. 9-21.
Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Robert Rebitsch : Duke Severin of Saxony. Residence and death of a young Saxon Duke in Tyrol , in: Tiroler Heimat 69 (2005), pp. 121–142.
Ed. Heyck: Cranach studies. KW Hiersemann, Leipzig 1900. Digitized

Web links

Protection of cultural property - Complete directory of nationally valuable cultural property according to Section 6 (2) of the Act on the Protection of German Cultural Property against Emigration ( Memento of October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 484 kB)

Individual evidence

^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: New general German nobility lexicon, in clubs with several ... , p. 354 ( digitized in the Google book search).
^ Carl Wilhelm Hingst : Duke Heinrich's Hofhaltung in Freiberg, In: Mitteilungen des Freiberger Altertumsverein , 1873, p. 890 ( digitized in the Google book search).
↑ Cornell Babendererde: Dying, death, burial and liturgical memory among secular imperial princes of the late Middle Ages. Verlag Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7995-4520-4 , p. 109 and Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Elena Taddei: The death of Duke Severin of Saxony in Tyrol - an autopsy report by the Habsburg court doctor Georg Tannstätter from 1533 , in : Virus 5 (2005) pp. 9-21.
↑ Romedio Schmitz-Esser: Desecration of corpses as a new Gospel: The plundering of the Stams monastery of 1552 and its expression in the historiography of the Cisterce , in: M. Fuchs and R. Rebitsch (eds.), Kaiser and Elector. Aspects of the prince uprising in 1552 (history in the epoch of Charles V 11) Münster 2010, 139–157.

personal data
SURNAME	Severin of Saxony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Prince of Saxony from the Albertine line of the Wettins
DATE OF BIRTH	August 28, 1522
PLACE OF BIRTH	Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH	October 10, 1533
Place of death	innsbruck

[1] Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: New general German nobility lexicon, in clubs with several ... , p. 354 ( digitized in the Google book search).

[2] Carl Wilhelm Hingst : Duke Heinrich's Hofhaltung in Freiberg, In: Mitteilungen des Freiberger Altertumsverein , 1873, p. 890 ( digitized in the Google book search).

[3] Cornell Babendererde: Dying, death, burial and liturgical memory among secular imperial princes of the late Middle Ages. Verlag Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7995-4520-4 , p. 109 and Romedio Schmitz-Esser and Elena Taddei: The death of Duke Severin of Saxony in Tyrol - an autopsy report by the Habsburg court doctor Georg Tannstätter from 1533 , in : Virus 5 (2005) pp. 9-21.

[4] Romedio Schmitz-Esser: Desecration of corpses as a new Gospel: The plundering of the Stams monastery of 1552 and its expression in the historiography of the Cisterce , in: M. Fuchs and R. Rebitsch (eds.), Kaiser and Elector. Aspects of the prince uprising in 1552 (history in the epoch of Charles V 11) Münster 2010, 139–157.