Ascanian struggle for Saxony The
Eastphalian count
Otto of Ballenstedt (d. 1123), ancestor of the House of Ascania, had married
Eilika, a daughter of Duke
Magnus of Saxony from the
House of Billung. As the Billung male line became extinct upon Magnus's death in 1106, Otto hoped to succeed him, however King
Henry V of Germany enfeoffed Count
Lothair of Supplinburg. During the following long-term dispute between Henry and Lothair, Otto was able to gain the title of a Saxon (anti-)duke, though only for a short time in 1122. Lothair was elected
King of the Romans in 1125 and in 1134 he vested Otto's son
Albert the Bear with the Saxon
Northern March. Upon his death in 1137, Albert once again strived for the Saxon duchy, which however fell to Lothair's son-in-law
Henry the Proud from the Bavarian
House of Welf. Albert concluded a deal with the rising
House of Hohenstaufen: He backed the succession of
Conrad of Hohenstaufen as German king, who in turn deprived his Welf rival Henry the Proud of the Saxonian Duchy in 1138 and gave it to Albert. However, his rule was strongly contested by the local nobility and in 1142 Albert finally had to resign as duke in favour of Henry the Proud's son
Henry the Lion. Albert later took part in the
Wendish Crusade of 1147 and in 1157 established the
Margraviate of Brandenburg. He died in 1170. The third chance for the Ascanians came, when in 1180 ambitious Henry the Lion was deposed as Saxon Duke by Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick partitioned Saxony among his allies into more than a dozen
immediate territories. Among the supporters, Archbishop
Philip of Cologne received the largest share as the newly created
Duchy of Westphalia. The Saxon ducal title at least passed to late Albert's youngest son, Count
Bernhard of Ballenstedt, who nevertheless only ruled over small, mostly Eastphalian fringes of the old duchy.
Anhalt, Wittenberg and Lauenburg Duke Bernard died in 1212 and his two surviving sons divided the Saxon heritage: the elder
Henry took the old Ascanian
allodial possessions around
Ballenstedt where he established the Ascanian
County of Anhalt, while his younger brother
Albert I inherited the title of a Duke of Saxony and retained three territorially unconnected Eastphalian estates on the
Elbe river around the towns of
Wittenberg and
Belzig as well as the northern lordship of
Lauenburg with
Amt Neuhaus and
Land Hadeln at the Elbe
estuary. After Albert I's death in 1260, his two heirs,
John I and his younger brother
Albert II ruled jointly. In 1269, 1272, and 1282, they gradually divided their governing competences within the then three territorially unconnected Saxon areas (Hadeln, Lauenburg, and Wittenberg), thus preparing a partition, whereby Albert II,
Burgrave of
Magdeburg since 1269, concentrated on the Wittenberg territory. He consolidated his position by marrying
Agnes, daughter of
Rudolph of Habsburg, whom he elected King of the Romans in 1273. After Duke John I had resigned in 1282 in favour of his three minor sons
Eric I,
John II and
Albert III, followed by his death three years later, the three brothers and their uncle Albert II continued the joint rule as Saxon dukes. Upon the death of Margrave
Henry III of Meissen in 1288, Duke Albert II applied at his father-in-law
King Rudolph I for the enfeoffment of his son and heir
Rudolph with the Saxon
County palatine on the
Unstrut river, which ensued a long lasting dispute with the eager clan of the
House of Wettin. Albert's attempts to secure the succession in the lands of the extinct Counts of
Brehna were more successful: when their fiefs were reverted to the Empire in 1290, the king enfeoffed his son Rudolph. After King Rudolph had died, Albert II with his nephews still minor, wielded the Saxon
electoral vote, electing
Adolph of Nassau, the brother-in-law of Archbishop
Siegfried II of Cologne on 27 April 1292. The bishop, together with King
Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, had succeeded in bringing Albert II in favour of electing Adolph (Albert II had signed an elector pact on 29 November 1291 that he would vote the same as Wenceslaus). In 1295, Albert II would again enlarge his Saxon territory when he acquired the County of
Gommern.
Duchy of Wittenberg The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295. The definite partitioning of the Duchy of Saxony into
Saxe-Lauenburg (), jointly ruled by the brothers Albert III, Eric I and John II and Saxe-Wittenberg (), ruled by Albert II took place before 20 September 1296. The
Vierlande, Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg), the Land of
Ratzeburg, the Land of Darzing (today's
Amt Neuhaus), and the Land of Hadeln are mentioned as the separate territory of the brothers. Duke Albert II received the Wittenberg lands around the eponymous city, Brehna and Gommern. He thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg. When Rudolph succeeded his father Albert II as Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1298, he and the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg rivallingly claimed the Saxon
electoral privilege. Upon the assassination of his brother-in-law King
Albert I in 1308, he voted for Count
Henry of Luxembourg. In 1314 both duchies participated in the double election of the German kings,
Frederick III, the Fair from the
House of Habsburg and his
Wittelsbach cousin
Louis IV, the Bavarian. Louis received five of the seven votes, to wit Archbishop-Elector
Baldwin of
Trier, the legitimate King
John of Bohemia, Duke
John II of Saxe-Lauenburg, claiming the Saxon prince-electoral power, Archbishop
Peter of Mainz, and Albert's Ascanian cousin Margrave
Waldemar of Brandenburg. Frederick the Fair received in the same election four of the seven votes, with the deposed King
Henry of Bohemia, illegitimately assuming electoral power, Archbishop
Henry II of Cologne, Louis' brother Count
Rudolph I of the Palatinate, and Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, equally exercising the Saxon electoral dignity. However, only Louis the Bavarian, co-elected with Saxe-Lauenburg's vote, finally asserted himself as emperor after the 1322
Battle of Mühldorf by the
Treaty of Trausnitz on March 13, 1325. As an obvious opponent, Duke Rudolph I failed with his claims to Brandenburg after the line of his Ascanian cousins became extinct in 1319: King Louis IV seized the margraviate and enfeoffed his son
Louis V instead. Rudolph I in turn allied with the rivaling
House of Luxembourg. He supported Count
Charles IV of Luxembourg as
anti-king to Louis IV and on that account exclusively received the Saxon electoral dignity with the
Golden Bull of 1356, thus slighting Saxe-Lauenburg. Saxe-Wittenberg thereupon came to be known as the
Electorate of Saxony (
Kursachsen). '', after 1554 When the Ascanian line in the
Electorate of Saxony died out in 1422, the Ascanian Duke
Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg failed to assert his succession in Wittenberg. King
Sigismund granted the Electorate to Margrave
Frederick IV of Meissen from the
House of Wettin, who united the
Meissen and the Saxon lands of Wittenberg under his rule. He assumed the electoral title and thereby transferred the state of
Saxony up the Elbe river to his
Meissen residence. His lands were also called "Upper Saxony" (see:
Upper Saxon Circle) to distinguish them from the territory of the medieval stem duchy, the later
Lower Saxony. The territory of former Saxe-Wittenberg became known as the
Kurkreis ("Electoral District"). By the division of the Saxon Electorate according to the 1485
Treaty of Leipzig, the Wittenberg lands including the electoral dignity fell to
Ernest of Wettin. ==Notes==