Ernest, Elector of Saxony

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Ernest
Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger
Elector of Saxony
Reign	7 September 1464 – 26 August 1486
Predecessor	Frederick II
Successor	Frederick III
Landgrave of Thuringia
Reign	17 September 1482 – 26 August 1486
Predecessor	William II
Successor	Frederick VI
Born	24 March 1441 Meissen, Margravate of Meissen, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
Died	26 August 1486(1486-08-26) (aged 45) Colditz Castle, Margravate of Meissen, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	Meissen Cathedral
Spouse	Elisabeth of Bavaria-Munich ​ ​ (m. 1460; died 1484)​
Issue among others...	Christina, Queen of Denmark Frederick III, Elector of Saxony Johann, Elector of Saxony Margarete, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg
House	House of Wettin
Father	Frederick II, Elector of Saxony
Mother	Margaret of Austria-Styria

Ernest (24 March 1441 – 26 August 1486), known as Ernst in German, was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.

Ernst was the founder and progenitor of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes.^[1]

Ernst was born in Meissen, the second son (but fourth in order of birth) 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 (1451) 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^[2] (i.e. The Stealing of the Princes).

In 1464, he succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony, and annexed Thuringia in 1482, and three years later (Treaty of Leipzig, 1485) 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.

In Leipzig on 19 November 1460 Ernst married Elisabeth of Bavaria. They had seven children:

1. Christina (25 December 1461, Torgau – 8 December 1521, Odense), married on 6 September 1478 to King John I of Denmark
2. Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (17 January 1463, Torgau – 5 May 1525, Lockau)
3. Ernest (26 June 1464, Meissen – 3 August 1513, Halle), Archbishop of Magdeburg (1476–1480), Bishop of Halberstadt (1480–1513)
4. Adalbert (8 May 1467, Meissen – 1 May 1484, Aschaffenburg), Administrator of Mainz
5. Johann, Elector of Saxony (30 June 1468, Meissen – 16 August 1532, Schweinitz)
6. Margarete (4 August 1469, Meissen – 7 December 1528, Weimar), married on 27 February 1487 to Henry I of Lüneburg
7. Wolfgang (c. 1473, Meissen – c. 1478, Torgau).

• Trim, David J. B. (2003). The Chivalric Ethos and the Development of Military Professionalism. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004120952.

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