William I, the One-Eyed (19 December 1343,
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
– 9 February 1407, Schloss
Grimma) was
Margrave of Meissen
This article lists the margraves of Margraviate of Meissen, Meissen, a March (territorial entity), march and territorial state on the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire.
History
King Henry the Fowler, on his 928–29 campaign against the S ...
. His nickname is related to the legend that
Saint Benno appeared to him because of his disputes with the Church in a dream and he had an eye gouged out.
Life
William was the son of
Frederick II, Margrave of Meissen and
Mathilde of Bavaria. He had his father and the country until 1382 reigned together with his older brothers and alternately. After his brother
Frederick III died 1381, he performed in 1382 with the remaining heirs so-called
Division of Chemnitz {{unreferenced, date=August 2024
The Division of Chemnitz settled the succession in the Landgraviate of Thuringia.
After the death of Frederick the Severe, Margrave of Meissen and Landgrave of Thuringia, the five heirs of the House of Wettin
...
, in which he was awarded the
Margraviate of Meissen for an inheritance. Since 1395 he managed as
governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
(
vicarius)
Jobst of Moravia (his brother in law) and the
March of Brandenburg. William was one of the most active
Wettin princes, worked cleverly to the removal of powers of small noble-free estates in the interior of Meissen and the defence of the Bohemian
House of Luxembourg. He also acquired the rule of
Colditz, brought the rich possessions of the , which he sold (
Dohna Feud), in itself, and was a great patron of the
Meissen Cathedral whose
exemption he successfully helped to enforce. In 1404 William founded the
Augustinian Monastery in Dresden, and fitted it out with possessions.
William's first wife was
Elisabeth of Moravia (d. 1400), after whose death he married his second wife Anna of Brunswick, daughter of
Otto I of Brunswick. Both marriages were childless, so his inheritance fell to his nephews
Frederick the Peaceful,
Frederick the Belligerent and
William the Rich.
Ancestry
References
* Matthias Donath: ''Die Grabmonumente im Dom zu Meißen.'' Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2005, , S. 285-287.
*
* Carl Wenck: ''Die Wettiner im XIV. Jahrhundert insbesondere Markgraf Wilhelm und König Wenzel nebst einem Exkurs: Der vogtländische Krieg'', Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877
{{Authority control
Margraves of Meissen
House of Wettin
1343 births
1407 deaths
14th-century German nobility
Nobility from Dresden