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Louis IV the Saint (german: Ludwig IV. der Heilige; 28 October 1200 – 11 September 1227), a member of the
Ludovingian The Ludovingians or Ludowingians (german: Ludowinger) were the ruling dynasty of Thuringia and Hesse during the 11th to 13th centuries. Their progenitor was Louis the Bearded who was descended from a noble family whose genealogy cannot be pre ...
dynasty, was Landgrave of Thuringia and Saxon Count palatine from 1217 until his death. He was the husband of Elizabeth of Hungary.


Biography

Louis was born at Creuzburg Castle, the second son of Landgrave
Hermann I of Thuringia Hermann I (died 25 April 1217), Landgrave of Thuringia and (as Hermann III) Count Palatine of Saxony, was the second son of Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia (''the Iron''), and Judith of Hohenstaufen, the sister of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ...
, from his marriage with
Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...
, a daughter of the Wittelsbach duke Otto I of Bavaria.Remy, Arthur F.J. "Hermann I." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 13 Dec. 2012
/ref> During the German throne quarrel between the Hohenstaufen ruler
Philip of Swabia Philip of Swabia (February/March 1177 – 21 June 1208) was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 until his assassination. The death of his older brother Emperor Henry VI in 1197 meant that the Hohenstaufen rule (whi ...
and his Welf rival Otto IV, his father switched sides several times and tried to expand his own influence by betrothing his eldest son Hermann to the Hungarian princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew II. The young girl arrived in Thuringia in 1211 to be raised at the Ludovingian court, then a venue for poets and minnesingers like Walther von der Vogelweide or Wolfram von Eschenbach. Louis elder brother died in 1216, therefore he himself, upon his father's death on 25 April 1217, ascended the Thuringian throne at the age of sixteen."Louis IV of Thuringia, called the Saint", I Libri Dei Patriarchi
/ref> In 1218, on the Feast of St. Kilian, at age eighteen, he was armed as a knight in the Church of St. George in Eisenach. At Wartburg Castle in 1220 at age twenty, Louis married 14-year-old Elizabeth of Hungary, with whom he had three children: Hermann II,
Sophie Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...
, and Gertrude, later abbess at Altenberg. He set up his court at Wartburg Castle near Eisenach. When in 1221 Louis' Wettin brother-in-law, Margrave Theodoric I of Meissen died, he acted as a guardian for Theodoric's minor son Henry III. However, his attempts to occupy the
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 Lusatian lands were rejected by his sister
Jutta The feminine name Jutta (pronounced "yutta") is the German form of Judith. There is also an alternative theory that it could be derived from the Germanic name ''Eutha'', meaning "mankind, child, descendant", or from a short form of ''Henrietta'' ...
. Like his father, Louis was in close contact with the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, who appointed him a
Marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...
of the Holy Roman Empire and confirmed his rights in the Margraviate of Meissen. In 1226, Louis was called to the Diet in
Cremona Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...
, where he promised Emperor Frederick II to take up the cross and accompany him to the
Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
. He embarked for the
Sixth Crusade The Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), also known as the Crusade of Frederick II, was a military expedition to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actua ...
in 1227, partly inspired also by the tales of his uncle, who had been to the Levant with the Holy Roman Emperor. Fellow-travellers were five counts, Louis von Wartburg, Gunther von Kefernberg, Meinrad von Mühlberg, Heinrich von Stolberg, and Burkhard von Brandenberg; Louis left his pregnant wife behind, who had a premonition that they would never meet again. In August 1227 Louis traversed the mountains between Thuringia and Upper Franconia, through the duchies of
Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
and Bavaria, crossing the Tyrolian Alps. He fell ill of plague after reaching
Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...
and Otranto in the
Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...
.''The Crusade of Frederick II'', Thomas C. Van Cleve, A History of the Crusades, Vol. II, ed. Robert Lee Wolff and Harry W. Hazard, (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 446. He received extreme unction from the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Bishop of Santa Croce. He died before reaching Otranto in 1227. A few days after his death, his daughter Gertrude was born. Louis's remains were buried in Reinhardsbrunn Abbey in 1228. He was succeeded by his five-year-old son Hermann II, under the tutelage of his uncle Henry Raspe. After his death, Elizabeth left the court, made arrangements for the care of her children, and in 1228, renounced the world, becoming a tertiary of St. Francis of Assisi. She built the Franciscan hospital at Marburg and devoted herself to the care of the sick until her death at the age of 24 in 1231. She was officially proclaimed a saint only four years after her death. While Louis was never formally canonized, he became known among the German people as Louis the saint (). He is known elsewhere as Blessed Louis of Thuringia.


Family and children

He and Elizabeth of Hungary had the following children: # Hermann II, Landgrave of Thuringia (1222–1241), married Helen, daughter of Duke Otto I of Brunswick-Lüneburg # Sophie of Thuringia (1224–1275), married Duke Henry II of Brabant; their son Henry became the progenitor of the House of Hesse # Gertrude (1227–1297), abbess of the
Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...
monastery of Altenberg near Wetzlar; she was beatified by Pope Clement VI in 1348.


Explanatory notes


References


Literature

* Walter Heinemeyer: Ludwig IV the Saint, Landgrave of Thuringia and Count Palatine of Saxony. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1987, , S. 422 f. (digitized). * Helga aq: Ludwig IV, the Holy, in: shape perception and memory medium German sculpture in the 14th century. A contribution to medieval grave monuments, epitaphs and curiosities in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, North Hesse, North-Rhine Westphalia and southern Lower Saxony. Volume 2. Catalog of selected objects from the High Middle Ages to the early 15th century. Tenea Verlag, Berlin 2006, S. 538 f. with Fig. 799 f. . * Karl Robert Wenck: Louis IV, Holy, Landgrave of Thuringia. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, S. 594–597.


Sources

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External links

* http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz54810.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Louis 04, Landgrave of Thuringia 1200 births 1227 deaths People from Wartburgkreis German Roman Catholic saints Rulers of Thuringia 13th-century Christian saints Regents of Germany 13th-century viceregal rulers 13th-century monarchs in Europe Landgraves of Thuringia Roman Catholic royal saints Ludovingians Christians of the Sixth Crusade Royal reburials