Ernest, Elector of Saxony


Ernest, known in German as Ernst, was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486. He established the Ernestine line of Saxon princes.

Biography

Ernst was born in Meissen, the second son of the eight children of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony and Margaret of Austria, sister of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The death of his older brother Frederick made him the new heir apparent to the position of Elector of Saxony.
In 1455 Ernst was briefly kidnapped, along with his brother Albert, by the knight Kunz von Kaufungen an episode famous in German history as the Prinzenraub.
In 1464, he succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony, and annexed Thuringia in 1482, and three years later shared his territory with his brother Albert, until he arranged the division of the common possession.
According to the Treaty of Leipzig he received an area around Wittenberg, the southern Thuringian part, the Vogtland and parts of the Pleissnerland. As a residence he selected Wittenberg. He provided for the welfare of the country and introduced the constitution.
One year after the division, Ernest died in Colditz, at the age of 46 years, the consequence of a fall from a horse.

Children

In Leipzig on 19 November 1460 Ernst married Elisabeth of Bavaria. They had seven children:
  1. Christina, married on 6 September 1478 to King John I of Denmark
  2. Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
  3. Ernest, Archbishop of Magdeburg, Bishop of Halberstadt
  4. Adalbert, Administrator of Mainz
  5. Johann, Elector of Saxony
  6. Margarete, married on 27 February 1487 to Henry I of Lüneburg
  7. Wolfgang.