John Frederick the Magnanimous was defeated by Emperor
Charles V in the
Schmalkaldic War at the
Battle of Mühlberg and was captured there on 24 April 1547. The emperor removed his electoral dignity and part of his electoral estates and enfeoffed them to his cousin
Maurice of Saxony. As a result,
Saxe-Wittenberg was transferred from the
Ernestines to the
Albertine line of the family.
Maurice of Saxony embarked on a reorganisation of his Electorate. Alongside six other circles, the Electoral Circle was formed, with its capital at
Wittenberg. The Circle originated in the former
Askanian estates, which comprised the (districts) of , , , , , and ; the old
County of Brehna with its districts of (1738), and ; the with the
Gommern districts of , ,
Ranies,
Glinde,
Plötzky; the ; and the and . After Elector
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony joined the
Confederation of the Rhine and his realm became the
Kingdom of Saxony in the
Treaty of Posen, the Electoral Circle was renamed on 30 January 1807 to the
Wittenberg Circle. That year the districts in the Burgraviate of Magdeburg and County of Barby were reassigned to the
King of Westphalia, who annexed them to the . In order to contribute to the "restoration of order and peace in Europe", on 18 May 1815
Prussia and Saxony entered a peace and friendship treaty in which Saxony ceded three-fifths of its territory to Prussia including the Wittenberg Circle. On 22 May 1815 the majority of the Wittenberg Circle became part of the of the new
Province of Saxony, constituted from most of the Saxon territories it had acquired, along with territory returned to Prussia from Westphalia – the
Altmark,
Magdeburg,
Halberstadt,
Eichsfeld, etc. – and various other territories acquired as a result of the Napoleonic wars; the remainder, including Belzig, Sonnewalde and Baruth (as well as the
Weissenfels/Querfurt of and which were attached to the Electoral Circle), became part of the
Province of Brandenburg. The Circle then comprised an area of 66 square
German miles with 140,000 inhabitants. == References ==