Maurice Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg (5 February 1688 – 21 April 1731) was a duke of

Saxe-Merseburg The Duchy of Saxe-Merseburg was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, with Merseburg as its capital. It existed from 1656 or 1657 to 1738 and was owned by an Albertine secundogeniture of the Saxon House of Wettin. History The Wettin Elector J ...

and member of the

House of Wettin The House of Wettin () was a dynasty which included Saxon monarch, kings, Prince Elector, prince-electors, dukes, and counts, who once ruled territories in the present-day German federated states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynas ...

. He was born in

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 ...

, the fifth (but second surviving) son of

Christian II, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg Christian II of Saxe-Merseburg (19 November 1653 – 20 October 1694), was a duke of Saxe-Merseburg and member of the House of Wettin. He was the second (but eldest surviving) son of Christian I, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg, and Christiana of Sch ...

, and

Erdmuthe Dorothea of Saxe-Zeitz Erdmuthe Dorothea of Saxe-Zeitz (13 November 1661Johann Hübner's three hundred and thirty three genealogical tables, table 171 Archived 2012-04-20 at the Wayback Machine/ref> – 29 April 1720) was the wife of Duke Christian II, Duke of Saxe-Me ...

Life

Maurice Wilhelm succeeded his older brother Christian III Maurice, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg, when he died on 14 November 1694 after only twenty-five days of rule. As he was only six years of age at the time, his mother, the dowager duchess Erdmuthe Dorothea, acted as regent until he reached his majority in 1712. Until then, the administration of the duchy was supervised by the Elector

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony Frederick Augustus I (; ; ; 23 December 1750 – 5 May 1827) was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 (as Frederick Augustus III) and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was al ...

. The custody of the young duke, whoever, was actually in the hands of the dowager duchess Erdmuthe Dorothea, who took an interest in the government of the duchy until 1709, and his uncle August, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig. An enthusiastic

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, he was known as the "Geigenherzog" (the violinist duke).

Marriage and issue

Idstein Idstein () is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt (region), Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt (Old Town) it is part of the ''Deutsch ...

on 4 November 1711, Maurice Wilhelm married Henriette Charlotte of Nassau-Idstein. They only had one daughter: #Fredericka Ulrike (b. and d. Merseburg, 23 June 1720).Officially recognized as his daughter, but in all probability she was fathered by Friedrich Carl von Pöllnitz, Henriette's lover. After his death at

, without male issue, he was succeeded by his uncle Heinrich.

Notes

References

* Christoph Henzel: ''Zur Merseburger Hofmusik unter Herzog Moritz Wilhelm.'' In: ''Mitteldeutschland im musikalischen Glanz seiner Residenzen – Sachsen, Böhmen und Schlesien als Musiklandschaften im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert'',

Peter Wollny Peter Wollny (born 29 June 1961) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who has served the Bach Archive Leipzig beginning in 1993, and as its director from 2014. Wollny has contributed to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and has been an editor of '' Ca ...

(ed.), Beeskow, 2005, pp. 95–105 {{DEFAULTSORT:Maurice Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg 1688 births 1731 deaths Dukes of the Holy Roman Empire House of Saxe-Merseburg Dukes of Saxe-Merseburg People from Merseburg Albertine branch Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)