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Rudolf I ( – 12 March 1356), a member of the House of Ascania, was Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg from 1298 until his death. By the Golden Bull of 1356 he was acknowledged as Elector of Saxony and Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire.


Life

Rudolf was the eldest son of the
Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
duke Albert II (c. 1250 – 1298), who initially ruled jointly with his brother
John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John I o ...
but gradually concentrated on the Ascanian Saxe-Wittenberg territory. Rudolf's father consolidated his position by marrying the
Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
princess Agnes (1257–1322), a daughter of King Rudolf I of Germany, whom he had elected
King of the Romans King of the Romans ( la, Rex Romanorum; german: König der Römer) was the title used by the king of Germany following his election by the princes from the reign of Henry II (1002–1024) onward. The title originally referred to any German k ...
in 1273. Upon the death of Margrave Henry III of Meissen in 1288, Duke Albert II applied at his father-in-law King Rudolf for the enfeoffment of his son and heir with the Saxon County palatine on the Unstrut river, which ensued a long lasting dispute with the eager clan of the Wettin dynasty. Albert's attempts to secure the succession in the lands of the extinct Saxon counts of Brehna were more successful: when their fiefs were reverted to the Empire in 1290, the king enfeoffed Albert's son Rudolf . After Rudolf of Habsburg had died, Duke Albert II on 27 April 1292 wielded the Saxon electoral vote, electing Adolf of Nassau. In 1295 he could again enlarge his Saxon territories, when he acquired the County of
Gommern Gommern () is a town in the Jerichower Land district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately southeast of Magdeburg. On January 1, 2005, the municipalities Dannigkow, Dornburg, Karith, Ladeburg, Leitzkau, Menz, Nedlitz, Vehli ...
. In 1296 the Ascanian lands were finally divided into the duchies of Saxe-Wittenberg and Saxe-Lauenburg. Upon King Adolf's deposition and death in 1298, Albert II again exercised the Saxon electoral dignity by voting for his brother-in-law
Albert I of Habsburg Albert I of Habsburg (german: Albrecht I.) (July 12551 May 1308) was a Duke of Austria and Styria from 1282 and King of Germany from 1298 until his assassination. He was the eldest son of King Rudolf I of Germany and his first wife Gertrude of ...
.


Accession

Still a minor when his father died on 25 August 1298, Rudolf I succeeded as Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg under the tutelage of his mother Agnes of Habsburg acting as guardian and regent. She gradually introduced him to the business of government at the court of her brother, King
Albert I Albert I may refer to: People Born before 1300 * Albert I, Count of Vermandois (917–987) *Albert I, Count of Namur () *Albert I of Moha *Albert I of Brandenburg (), first margrave of Brandenburg *Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (1158–1195) *Alber ...
, in preparation for his role as ruling duke. Rudolf's first official act as holder of the electoral dignity of the Imperial Archmarshal (''Archimarescallus'') was the consent to King Albert's request to enfeoff the duchies of Austria and
Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
to Albert's sons
Rudolf III Rudolph III or Rudolf III may refer to: * Rudolf III of Burgundy (971–1032), last king of the independent Kingdom of Arles *Rudolph III, Count of Neuchâtel (died 1272), son of Count Berthold *Rudolph III of Austria (c. 1281 – 1307), or Rudo ...
, Frederick the Fair and Leopold. When in February 1300, King Albert I tried to grant his eldest son Rudolf sole possession of Austria, the ecclesiastical prince-electors refused and a military conflict erupted. Young Rudolf of Saxe-Wittenberg, however, was not involved in this conflict; he remained under the care of his mother until 1302. In 1302, Rudolf finally assumed the rule over Saxe-Wittenberg himself. Initially, he was anxious to further strengthen the country's sovereignty. To achieve this, he first of all had to make his Saxe-Lauenburg relatives, John II, Eric I, and Albert III agree that he, and not his eldest cousin John II, had inherited his father's rank as Saxon elector. Of great importance was Rudolf's vote in the
Imperial election The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby, from at least the 13th century, the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the Empire, the prince-electors. This was then followed ...
of 1308, upon the assassination of his uncle Albert I of Habsburg. After some time of back and forth negotiations, Count Henry of Luxembourg was elected on 27 November 1308. Duke Rudolf I voted for Henry and also assisted him by providing money and troops, earning him the goodwill of the newly elected emperor.


Double election of 1314

Nevertheless, Henry of Luxembourg died on 23 August 1313 and the next election of the King of the Romans was held on 19 October 1314 in Sachsenhausen near Frankfurt. For the first time, two candidates in the election claimed to have won it, the Wittelsbach duke Louis the Bavarian and Rudolf's Habsburg cousin Frederick the Fair. Louis had received five of the seven votes, to wit that of Duke John II of Saxe-Lauenburg, rivallingly claiming the Saxon electoral dignity, Archbishop
Baldwin of Trier Baldwin of Luxembourg (c. 1285 – 21 January 1354) was the Archbishop- Elector of Trier and Archchancellor of Burgundy from 1307 to his death. From 1328 to 1336, he was the diocesan administrator of the archdiocese of Mainz and from 1331 to 13 ...
, the legitimate King
John of Bohemia John the Blind or John of Luxembourg ( lb, Jang de Blannen; german: link=no, Johann der Blinde; cz, Jan Lucemburský; 10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346), was the Count of Luxembourg from 1313 and King of Bohemia from 1310 and titular King of ...
, Archbishop Peter of Mainz, and the Ascanian margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg. Rudolf's preferred candidate, the anti-king Frederick the Fair, received in the same election four of the seven votes, one each from the deposed King Henry of Bohemia, thereby illegitimately assuming electoral power, Archbishop Henry II of Cologne, Louis's brother Count Palatine Rudolf of Bavaria, and Rudolf I himself, also claiming the Saxon electoral power. The two kings met in the Battle of Mühldorf on 28 September 1322; Louis of Bavaria emerged victoriously as the German king, he was eventually crowned
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
in 1328. As a supporter of the Habsburg side, Rudolf I had to face the consequences: when in 1320, the Ascanian rulers of Brandenburg became extinct with the death of Margrave Henry the Younger, Rudolf I, who had administered Brandenburg as regent since 1319, claimed the margraviate as an Ascanian fief. King Louis, however, held that he could not grant the fief to an elector who had voted against him, and gave it to his own son, Louis V, to strengthen his dynasty's position. With the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Louis V also received the electoral vote and the post of an Imperial arch-chamberlain.


Imperial politics

After these and other sanctions by the Wittelsbach emperor, Duke Rudolf I decided to subordinate himself and his brother Wenceslas to Louis for tactical reasons and attempted to prove himself as a true support. From then on, he acted as mediator in the ongoing disputes between various princes, which allowed him to build up useful connections. For example, he organised a meeting between six of the prince-electors promulgating the constitutional Declaration of Rhense in 1338. Rudolf, on the other hand, had a friendly relationship with
Pope Benedict XII Pope Benedict XII ( la, Benedictus XII, french: Benoît XII; 1285 – 25 April 1342), born Jacques Fournier, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 December 1334 to his death in April 1342. He was the third Avignon pope. Benedict was a careful p ...
, who had declared the emperor excommunicated. Thereafter, Louis finally changed his opinion of Rudolf and leased parts of the March of Lusatia, including the cities of Brietz, Fürstenwalde and Beeskow to him for a 12-year period. Under his mother's influence, he began the expulsion of Jews from Wittenberg, which continued until the middle of the 14th century. Rudolf also outlawed the Slavic languages originally spoken in his territory. He founded the All Saints' Monastery in Wittenberg, from which the later All Saints' Church evolved. Around 1340, he built Wittenberg Castle as a suitable residence for himself and his descendants. In the 16th century, his Wettin successor Frederick III constructed a Renaissance castle on the foundations of Rudolf's castle. To cover the increasing cost of his Imperial policies, he began to sell rights, such as
market right A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small ru ...
s, coinage rights, low justice, customs and escort rights. These rights were the roots of the first communal structures in the Wittenberg area. In 1306, he organised defensive and offensive alliances with several cities; the cities expanded these alliances in subsequent years.


Charles IV

During his mediations, Rudolf also built up a close relationship with the Bohemian court in Prague, which became apparent with the election of King John's son and heir, the Luxembourg prince Charles IV (1316-1378) as King of the Romans on 11 July 1346. Charles was crowned in Bonn on 26 November 1346, and Duke Rudolf I was the only elector who was present at this solemn ceremony. His close ties to Charles IV were rewarded when he received the Altmark territory in 1347, whereby the Elbe river became the boundary between Saxony and Brandenburg. In addition, he received the Imperial Forestry at Frankfurt an der Oder in 1348, as compensation for his expenses as elector. Under his direction, the Mecklenburg lords
John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John I o ...
and Albert II became Dukes and Imperial Princes. However, his relation with Charles deteriorated when in 1350 Charles confirmed the Wittelsbach margrave Louis V as Elector of Brandenburg and Margrave of Lusatia. This confirmation aroused Rudolf's indignation and he temporarily withdrew from the Prague court. Both reconciled after Charles IV gave Rudolf the Walchenhof Court in the
Malá Strana Malá Strana (Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", ) or more formally Menší Město pražské () is a district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods. In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center o ...
district of Prague. Rudolf's greatest success came on 4 October 1355 when the emperor drafted the Golden Bull, the ''bulla aurea Saxonica'', defining the future law of the Empire. This bull stipulated
primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
for all electorates: they were declared indivisible; the eldest son inherits the entire principality, or, if an elector has no sons, an elector's younger brother inherits. A prince-elector could cast his vote from the age of 18 and rule the electorate from the age of 21. The Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg was confirmed as the Elector of Saxony. In return, the Saxe-Lauenburg branch of the House of Ascania finally lost all claims to the electoral vote and to the associated dignity of Imperial Archmarshal as well as the right to carry a sword in the imperial diet. Rudolf I died on 12 March 1356 in Wittenberg and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Duke Rudolf II (c. 1307 – 1370). He was initially buried in the Wittenberg Franciscan Church; in 1883, his mortal remains were transferred to the All Saints' Church. The Saxe-Wittenberg branch of the Ascanian dynasty became extinct with the death of Rudolf's grandson Duke Albert III in 1412, whereafter the Wittenberg estates and the Saxon electoral dignity passed to the Wettin margraves 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 ...
.


Marriage and issue

Rudolf I married three times: In 1298 he married Margravine Jutta (Brigitte) of Brandenburg (died: 9 May 1328 in Wittenberg), a daughter of Margrave Otto V of Brandenburg. They had the following children: # Albert (died young, on 4 July 1329) # John (died young, in Wittenberg) # Anna (mentioned in 1309 – died in Wittenberg in 1328 or 1329), married Bernard of Poland (died ) # Rudolf II ( – 6 December 1370), married Countess Elizabeth of Lindow and Ruppin # Elisabeth (died 1353), married before 22 June 1344 with Prince Waldemar I of Anhalt-Zerbst (died 3 September 1367) # Agnes (died 4 January 1338), married Prince Bernhard III of Anhalt-Bernburg ( – 20 August 1348) # Otto (died 30 March 1350), married Elizabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1384), a daughter of Duke
William II of Brunswick-Lüneburg William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...
and Hedwig of Ravensberg; their son was Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg, Duke of Lüneburg # Beatrix (died in the Coswig Convent, after 26 February 1345), married on 27 January 1337 to Prince Albert II of Anhalt-Zerbst (1306 – 1362) Rudolf married
Kunigunde of Poland Kunigunde of Poland (Kunegunda) (c. 1298 – 9 April 1331) was a daughter of Władysław I the Elbow-high and his wife Jadwiga of Greater Poland.. Her siblings included, Casimir III of Poland and Elisabeth, Queen of Hungary. She was a member of t ...
on 28 August 1328 ( – 9 April 1333 in Wittenberg), the daughter of King Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland and Hedwig of Kalisz. They had one son: # Miesko ( – 1350), married Eudoxia He married Agnes of Lindow-Ruppin in 1333 (18 December 1314 – 9 May 1343 in Wittenberg), the daughter of Count Ulrich of Lindow-Ruppin and the widow of Lord Henry II of Mecklenburg (d. 1329). They had the following children: # William (died young) # Wenceslaus I ( – 1388 in
Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...
), married on 23 January 1367 with Cecilia of Carrara ( – between 1430 and 1434), the daughter of Francesco I da Carrara of Padua # Helena (died 2 April 1367), married in 1353 with John I of Hardeck, Burgrave of Magdeburg


References

* Jirí Louda and Michael Mac Lagan: ''Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe'', Little, Brown and Company, London, 1999 * Johann Franzl: ''Rudolf I., der erste Habsburger auf dem deutschen Thron'' * Helmut Assing: ''Die frühen Brandenburger und ihre Frauen'' * Meyner, ''Geschichte der Stadt Wittenberg'', Hermann Neubürger, Dessau, 1845 * Ernst Zitzlaff: ''Die Begräbnisstätten Wittenbergs und ihre Denkmäler'', P.Wunschmann Verlag, Wittenberg, 1896 * Samuel Schalscheleth: ''Historisch-geographische Beschreibung Wittenbergs und seiner Universität'', Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1795 * Richard Erfurth: ''Geschichte der Stadt Wittenberg'', Fr. Wattrodt Verlag, Wittenberg, 1910 * Heinrich Kühne: ''Die Askanier'', Drei Kastanien Verlag, Wittenberg, 1999, * Georg Hirschfeld: ''Geschichte der Sächsisch-Askanischen Kurfürsten'', Julius Sittenfeld, Berlin, 1884 * Gottfried Wenz: ''Das Franziskanermönchskloster in Wittenberg'', in: Fritz Bünger and Gottfried Wentz: ''Die Bistümer der Kirchenprovinz Magdeburg'', vol. 3: ''Das Bistum Brandenburg'', part 2, Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin, 1963, reprinted: 1941, p. 372 ff * Lorenz Friedrich Beck: ''Herrschaft u. Territorium der Herzöge von Sachsen-Wittenberg (1212–1422)'', Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2000, *


External links

*
genealogie-mittelalter.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudolf 01 Saxe Wittenberg Prince-electors of Saxony Dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg 1280s births Year of birth uncertain 1356 deaths 13th-century German nobility 14th-century German nobility