Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia (21 December 1336 in

Weißenfels Weißenfels (; often written in English as Weissenfels) is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle. His ...

– 18 May 1406 at the

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the p ...

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

) was

Margrave Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the Emp ...

Meissen Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...

and Landgrave of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

from the

House of Wettin The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its ori ...

Life

Balthasar was the second son of Frederick the Serious. After his father's death in 1349, his elder brother Frederick the Austere acted as regent and guardian for Balthasar and his brothers

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

and

Louis Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...

. After they came of age, William and Balthasar ruled jointly with Frederick. After Frederick's death, a conflict arose between the brothers Balthasar and William on the one hand, and their nephews,

Frederick the Warlike Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederi ...

, William the rich and George on the other hand. This was resolved on November 1382, with the so-called

Division of Chemnitz The Division of Chemnitz settled the succession in the Landgraviate of Thuringia. After the death of Frederick the Severe, Margrave of Meissen and Landgrave of Thuringia, the five heirs of the House of Wettin decided to divide the country. On 13 ...

in which Balthasar received the Landgraviate of

Marriage and issue

Balthasar first married, in the spring of 1374, with Margaret, the daughter of Burgrave Albert of Nuremberg (d. 1390). With her, he had a son and a daughter: * Frederick the Peaceable, who succeeded him as Landgrave of Thuringia * Anna of Meissen (d. 4 July 1395), who married

Rudolf III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg Rudolf III ( – 11 June 1419), a member of the House of Ascania, was Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg and Elector of Saxony from 1388 until his death. Life He was probably born at the Saxon Wittenberg residence, the eldest son of Duke Wenceslaus I ...

After Margaret's death, Balthasar married

Anna of Saxe-Wittenberg Anna of Saxe-Wittenberg (died: 18 April 1426) was a member of the House of Ascania and the wife of Duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a German anti-king. Anna of Saxe-Wittenberg was the daughter of Duke Wenceslas I of Saxe-Wittenberg, Duke ...

(d. 1426), the widow of Duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This marriage remained childless.

Ancestry

References

* Landgraves of Thuringia Margraves of Meissen House of Wettin People from Weißenfels 1336 births 1406 deaths 14th-century German nobility {{Germany-margrave-stub