Moritz Wilhelm (English: Maurice William; 12 March 1664 – 15 November 1718), a member of the Saxon

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 ...

, was the second and last Duke of

Saxe-Zeitz The Duchy of Saxe-Zeitz (german: Herzogtum Sachsen-Zeitz) was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1656–57 as a secundogeniture of the Electoral Saxon house of House of Wettin. Its capital was Zeitz. The territory fell back to ...

from 1681 until his death.

Life

He was born at Moritzburg Castle in the Wettin residence of

Zeitz Zeitz ( hsb, Žič) is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river White Elster, in the triangle of the federal states Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony. History Zeitz was first recorded u ...

, the eldest son of Duke Maurice of Saxe-Zeitz (1619–1681) and his second wife,

Dorothea Maria Dorothea (also spelled Dorothée, Dorotea or other variants) is a female given name from Greek (Dōrothéa) meaning "God's Gift". It may refer to: People * Dorothea Binz (1920–1947), German concentration camp officer executed for war cri ...

(1641–1675), a younger daughter of the Wettin duke

Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (Altenburg, 11 April 1598 – Weimar, 17 May 1662), was a duke of Saxe-Weimar. Wilhelm was the fifth (but third surviving) son of Johann, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Dorothea Maria of Anhalt. He was brother to Bernar ...

. Duke Maurice had received the

secundogeniture A secundogeniture (from la, secundus "following, second," and "born") was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house and his descendants, creating a cadet branch. This was a special form of inheritance in which the second a ...

of Saxe-Zeitz from the hands of his father, Elector

John George I of Saxony John George I (5 March 1585 – 8 October 1656) was Elector of Saxony from 1611 to 1656. He led Saxony through the Thirty Years' War, which dominated his 45 year reign. Biography Born in Dresden, John George was the second son of the Elector Chr ...

in 1652 and had Moritzburg Castle erected as his residence. He had two sons from his first marriage, but both died in infancy long before Moritz Wilhelm's birth. Moritz Wilhelm received a comprehensive education, mainly in ancient languages and theology; in 1681 he met with

Philipp Spener Philipp Jakob Spener (23 January 1635 – 5 February 1705), was a German Lutheran theologian who essentially founded what would become to be known as Pietism. He was later dubbed the "Father of Pietism". A prolific writer, his two main works, '' ...

during his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

in Frankfurt and in his later years kept up a fruitful correspondence with the philosopher

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...

. The sixteen-year-old succeeded as duke of Saxe-Zeitz upon the death of his father on 4 December 1681. However, he had to accept the guardianship of his Wettin cousin Elector John George III until 1684. The relationship with the Saxon electors remained tense, similar to the other Wettin secundogenitures of

Saxe-Weissenfels Saxe-Weissenfels (german: Sachsen-Weißenfels) was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire from 1656/7 until 1746 with its residence at Weißenfels. Ruled by a cadet branch of the Albertine House of Wettin, the duchy passed to the Electorate of Saxony u ...

and

Saxe-Merseburg The Duchy of Saxe-Merseburg was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and con ...

. Suspiciously eyed by his cousins, Moritz Wilhelm sought support at the

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

court in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

as well as by the

Electors of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the period of time that Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Hol ...

, leading to his marriage with Princess Marie Amalie, a daughter of the "Great Elector" Frederick William and devout promoter of the

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

faith. It was due to his published defense of this marriage that philosopher Christian Thomasius was forced to leave the strongly Lutheran Leipzig to settle in Halle, where he was involved in the creation of the university there, under the patronage of Frederick William. Moritz Wilhelm tried to reach the acknowledgement of his Saxe-Zeitz lands as a sovereign

Imperial State An Imperial State or Imperial Estate ( la, Status Imperii; german: Reichsstand, plural: ') was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise si ...

, referring to the princely ''

Hochstift In the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church, the German language, German term (plural: ) referred to the territory ruled by a bishop as a prince (i.e. prince-bishop), as opposed to his diocese, generally much larger and over which he exer ...

'' rights of the former Bishops of Naumburg-Zeitz; however, his attempts failed due to the veto of the Saxon electors. When he even tried to gain

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

support during the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

, Saxon troops temporarily occupied his country in 1709. After Moritz Wilhelm's only son and heir, Frederick August, died in 1710 at the age of nine, the duke finally reconciled with the Saxon electors and waived all claims to

Imperial immediacy Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...

. Already in 1699, he had given the towns of

Pegau Pegau () is a town in the Leipzig district in Saxony, Germany, situated in a fertile plain, on the White Elster, 18 m. S.W. from Leipzig by the railway to Zeitz. It has two Evangelical churches, that of St. Lawrence being a fine Gothic structure ...

and Neustadt as

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...

s to his youngest brother Frederick Henry. Chosen as being the heir of Saxe-Zeitz, Frederick Henry, nevertheless, died in 1713. As Moritz Wilhelm's brother Christian August had chosen an ecclesiastical career, the secundogeniture would fell back to the main line of Wettin electors. Shortly before his death in 1717, the duke converted from Calvinism to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in order to please his brother Christian August, who was a Prince of that Church as Archbishop of Esztergom and

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. Forced out of his Zeitz residence, he shifted the seat of his government to Weida and retired to Osterburg Castle. Urged by his consort and the Halle pietist

August Hermann Francke August Hermann Francke (; 22 March 1663 – 8 June 1727) was a German Lutheran clergyman, theologian, philanthropist, and Biblical scholar. Biography Born in Lübeck, Francke was educated at the Illustrious Gymnasium in Gotha before he studie ...

, he revoked his conversion a few weeks before his death.

Marriage and issue

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

on 25 June 1689, Moritz Wilhelm married

Marie Amalie of Brandenburg Maria Amalia of Brandenburg-Schwedt (26 November 1670 in Cölln – 17 November 1739 at Bertholdsburg Castle in Schleusingen) was a princess from the Brandenburg-Schwedt line of the House of Hohenzollern and by marriage a Duchess of Saxe-Ze ...

(1670–1739). They had six children: #Frederick William (b. Moritzburg, 26 March 1690 – d. Moritzburg, 15 May 1690). # Dorothea Wilhelmine (b. Moritzburg, 20 March 1691 – d.

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

, 17 March 1743), married on 27 September 1717 to Landgrave William VIII of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). #Karoline Amalie (b. Moritzburg, 24 May 1693 – d. Moritzburg, 5 September 1694). #Sophie Charlotte (b. Moritzburg, 25 April 1695 – d. Moritzburg, 18 June 1696). #Maria Josephina (b.Moritzburg, 3 January 1699 - d. London, 19 November 1774), married to James Wilhelm Hesse-Pye. #Frederick Augustus (b. Moritzburg, 12 August 1700 – d. Halle, 17 February 1710). Royal Monogram of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz

Royal Monogram of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz

He died at Weida without surviving male issue. Because his two remaining heirs, his brother Christian August and his nephew Maurice Adolf, were ordained priests, Zeitz was merged back to the Electorate of Saxony. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moritz Wilhelm of Saxe-Zeitz, Duke 1664 births 1718 deaths House of Wettin People from Moritzburg Dukes of Saxe-Zeitz Albertine branch