Division of Leipzig In the late 15th century much of what is now Thuringia, including the area around Weimar, was held by the Wettin
Electors of Saxony. According to the 1485
Treaty of Leipzig, the Wettin lands had been divided between Elector
Ernest of Saxony and his younger brother
Albert III, with the western lands in Thuringia together with the
electoral dignity going to the Ernestine branch of the family. , the ducal residence Ernest's grandson Elector
John Frederick I of Saxony forfeited the electoral dignity in the 1547
Capitulation of Wittenberg, after he had joined the revolt of the Lutheran
Schmalkaldic League against the
Habsburg emperor
Charles V, was defeated, captured and
banned. Nevertheless, according to the 1552
Peace of Passau he was pardoned and allowed to retain his lands in Thuringia. Upon his death in 1554, his son
John Frederick II succeeded him as "Duke of Saxony", residing at
Gotha. His attempts to regain the electoral dignity failed: in the course of the 1566 revolt instigated by the robber baron
Wilhelm von Grumbach, the duke was banned and imprisoned for life by Emperor
Maximilian II.
Division of Erfurt John Frederick II was succeeded by his younger brother
John William at
Weimar, who in a short time also fell out of favour with the emperor by his alliance with King
Charles IX of France. In 1572 Maximilian II enforced the Division of
Erfurt, whereby the Ernestine lands were divided among Duke John William and the two surviving sons of imprisoned John Frederick II. John William retained the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, while his minor nephews received the southern and western territories around
Coburg and
Eisenach. This division was the first of numerous partitions; over the next three centuries the lands were divided when dukes had more than one son to provide for and re-combined when dukes died without direct heirs, but all of the lands stayed in the Ernestine branch of the Wettin family. As a result, the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar shrank and grew more than once. The Thuringian states throughout this period typically consisted of several non-contiguous parcels of territory of various sizes. Facing their lack of political power, the rulers of these petty states built up splendid monarchical households at their residences and pursued greater cultural achievements. Duke John William, chafing under the loss, died in 1573, succeeded by his son
Frederick William I. Upon his death in 1602 Saxe-Weimar was again divided among his younger brother
John II and Frederick William's minor son
John Philipp, who received the territory of
Saxe-Altenburg. John's son Duke
Johann Ernst I of Saxe-Weimar on occasion of the burial of his mother
Dorothea Maria of Anhalt in 1617 established the literary
Fruitbearing Society.
Thirty Years' War At the outbreak of the
Thirty Years' War, Duke Johann Ernst I supported the Protestant
Bohemian estates under the "Winter King"
Frederick V of the Palatinate, who were defeated at the 1620
Battle of White Mountain. Stripped of his title by Emperor
Ferdinand II, he remained a fierce opponent of the Catholic Habsburg dynasty and died on
Ernst von Mansfeld's Hungarian campaign in 1626. His younger brother
Wilhelm, regent since 1620, assumed the dignities upon his death. At first also an advocate of Protestant concerns, after the death of King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden he chose to accord with the 1635
Peace of Prague that his Albertine cousins had negotiated with the emperor – against the opposition of his younger brother General
Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who entered into the
French service under
Cardinal Richelieu. Nevertheless, like many German estates, the Weimar lands were devastated by combat actions as well as by
plague epidemics. When in 1638 the Ernestine
Saxe-Eisenach and
Saxe-Coburg branch became extinct upon the death of Duke
John Ernest, Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar inherited large parts of his estates. In 1640 however he had to involve his younger brothers
Ernest I and
Albert IV, thereby (re-)establishing the Duchies of
Saxe-Gotha and the short-lived
Saxe-Eisenach, which was again dissolved upon Duke Albert's death in 1644. Another rearrangement of the Ernestine lands took place in 1672 after Duke
Frederick William III of Saxe-Altenburg, descendant of Duke John Phillip, had died without heirs and his cousin Duke
Johann Ernst II of Saxe-Weimar inherited parts of his duchy, which originally had been split off the Saxe-Weimar territory in 1602. Johann Ernst II immediately divided the enlarged Saxe-Weimar lands between himself and his younger brothers
John George I and
Bernhard II, who received the Duchies of
Saxe-Eisenach and
Saxe-Jena, which reverted to Saxe-Weimar upon the death of Bernhard's son Duke
Johann Wilhelm in 1690.
Weimar Classicism :
The Weimar Court of the Muses (1860); Schiller reads at
Schloss Tiefurt, Wieland, Herder and Goethe among the listeners Upon the death of John George's descendant
Wilhelm Heinrich in 1741, Duke
Ernest Augustus I of Saxe-Weimar also inherited the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach. He then ruled both duchies in
personal union and decisively forwarded the development of his estates by the implementation of the
primogeniture principle. His son Ernest Augustus II, who succeeded him in 1748, died in 1758, whereafter Empress
Maria Theresa appointed his young widow, Duchess
Anna Amalia, regent of the country and guardian of her infant son,
Charles Augustus. The regency of the energetic Anna Amalia and the reign of Charles Augustus, who was raised by the writer
Christoph Martin Wieland, formed a high point in the history of Saxe-Weimar. Both dedicated patrons of literature and art, Anna Amalia and Charles Augustus attracted to their court the leading
German scholars, including
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Friedrich Schiller and
Johann Gottfried Herder, and made their residence in Weimar an important cultural center in an era referred to as
Weimar Classicism. In 1804, Duke Charles Augustus entered into European politics by marrying his son and heir
Charles Frederick to Grand Duchess
Maria Pavlovna, sister of Emperor
Alexander I of Russia. However, at the same time he joined
Prussia in the
War of the Fourth Coalition against the
French Empire, and after the defeat at the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, was forced to accede to the Napoleonic
Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. In 1809, Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been united only in the person of the duke, were formally merged into the Duchy of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. ==Dukes of Saxe-Weimar==