This is a list of the burgraves of Meissen. The Burgraviate of Meissen was first mentioned in 1068, when King Henry IV installed a burgrave in the imperial castle (''Reichsburg'') of

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 ...

. The burgraves of Meissen were royal officials appointed to document the king's claims to power. They acted as a counterbalance to the

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 ...

and bishop of Meissen and were based at a castle on the site of the

Albrechtsburg The Albrechtsburg is a Late Gothic and early Renaissance castle erected from 1471 till about 1495. It is located in the town centre of Meissen in the German state of Saxony. It is situated on a hill above the river Elbe, adjacent to the Meissen ...

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 Albrechts ...

. The lordship of the burgrave included quite a few of the villages in the surrounding area. The

Vogtland Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...

was not part of the burgraviate, but the two territories had the same lord. The burgraves came from the House of Meinheringer and, from 1426, the

House of Plauen A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

. The Burgraviate of Meissen should not be confused with the

Bishopric of Meissen In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and the

Margraviate of Meissen The Margravate of Meissen (german: Markgrafschaft Meißen) was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of bor ...

List (incomplete)

With the extinction of the Older Line of the advocates (''Vögte'') of Plauen in 1572 the family line of the burgraves of Meißen ended. After the Plauens had never reigned as burgraves, the title now went to the prince-electors of Saxony.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of the burgraves had a black saltire on a gold field. On the helmet is a gold rectangular shield board (''Schirmbrett''), on which is a cross, which is adorned at the corners with 5 peacock feathers. The mantle is gold and black. This coat of arms was also carried by the burgraves of

Merseburg Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...

Naumburg (Saale) Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...

, Neuenburg near Freyburg (Unstrut) and

Osterfeld Osterfeld is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated southeast of Naumburg. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Wethautal. On 1 January 2010 it absorbed the former municipal ...

Literature

* J.C.Hasche: ''Versuch einer Geschichte derer Burggrafen zu Meissen, oder Diplomatische Annalen derselben'', in: Magazin der sächsischen Geschichte, 1784–1791, 6th part, 1789, pages 4 – 23 * Traugott Märcker: ''Das Burggrafthum Meissen'', in: Diplomatisch kritische Beiträge zur Geschichte und dem Staatsrechte von Sachsen, 1 vol., Leipzig, 1842 * Otto Posse: ''Die Markgrafen von Meissen und das Haus Wettin: bis zu Konrad dem Grossen'', Leipzig, 1881 * ''"Elisabeth von Meißen"'', in: Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler Sachsens, 1919, S. 273 und Fig. 361 * Helmut Gröger: ''Tausend Jahre Meißen'', Meißen, 1929 * Günter Naumann: ''Meißner Geschichte in Daten 929-1993'', Meißen, 1993 * Hans-Jürgen Pohl: ''Geschichten und Sagen des Meißner Landes'', Parts I to IV, Meißen, 1996 ff * Hans-Jürgen Pohl: ''Das Burggrafschloss zu Meissen - Bauwerke des Burggrafenhofes einst und heute'', Meissen, 2000, * Helga Wäß: ''"Burggrafschaft Meißen"'' in: "Form und Wahrnehmung mitteldeutscher Gedächtnisskulptur im 14. Jahrhundert. Ein Beitrag zu mittelalterlichen Grabmonumenten, Epitaphen und Kuriosa in Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, Nord-Hessen, Ost-Westfalen und Südniedersachsen" (Bd. 1), "Katalog ausgewählter Objekte vom Hohen Mittelalter bis zum Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts" (Bd 2), Bristol u.a. 2006, see Vol. 2: pp. 403–428. - {{ISBN, 3-86504-159-0

Burgraves of Meissen This is a list of the burgraves of Meissen. The Burgraviate of Meissen was first mentioned in 1068, when Henry IV (HRR), King Henry IV installed a burgrave in the imperial castle (''Reichsburg'') of Meissen. The burgraves of Meissen were royal o ...

!Burgraves of Meissen